Good Heavens - How Much Water Does the Man Need?

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kimmygarland
kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Hubby went and saw his Medical Oncologist (chemo doc) today for first time since surgery 5 weeks ago. Doc thoroughly reviewed surgical report with him, says there are no signs of cancer, none of lymph nodes removed showed cancer so he is recommending no chemo. Kind of scary, but ok, we'll go with that since he already had radiation & chemo last year prior to surgery.

Question 'o the day.. his blood pressure was low and pulse rate high. Doc determined he was dehydrated. WHAT? We are pouring 5 X 16 oz bottles of water, plus what he is getting from the free fluid in his peg feedings down him daily. So that's 80 oz plus some extra... and he's dehydrated?? They gave him a bag of fluids and he's going back tomorrow for another.

I am just amazed that he needs this much water. He is diabetic and maybe this makes a difference I don't know. Of course, we will be increasing his water intake now - I guess we'll add a couple more bottles per day.

Anybody else out there require copious amounts of water????

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  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    #2
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    H2O
    I agree with you that that sounds like a more than sufficient amount of water. I always had one 'beaker' of water with every beaker of Jevity, and that seemed to do the trick for the most part (along with some oral drinking of ice water) but I still ended up getting bags of saline on occasion.

    FYI: When I told OncoMan that I was drinking a popular sports drink to help with vitamins and minerals and such, he suggested that this drink actually sucked up sodium (potassium too?) and that I should switch to seltzer water. He said seltzer water was even better than regular water for me, in terms of hydration.

    Best wishes to hub and his family.

    Take care,

    Joe
  • debbij
    debbij Member Posts: 22
    #3
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    water
    he cannot just drink water..he needs to increase his electrolytes///try pedialite...no sodium like gatorade and much better for him
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #4
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    Hi Kimmy

    Same problem here, I can drink 4 to 5 16oz bottle of water and still be dehydrated, one of the reason I have so much problems with kidney stones
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #5
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    Hondo said:

    Hi Kimmy

    Same problem here, I can drink 4 to 5 16oz bottle of water and still be dehydrated, one of the reason I have so much problems with kidney stones

    This is very common. I was
    This is very common. I was putting in tons of water and Gatorade and I was still dehydrated and low on potassium. I had to have iv fluids once a week. Check out coconut water. I think it's better than Gatorade by far. I have a post on my blog on this site about it.

    Good luck.
  • kimmygarland
    kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
    #6
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    sweetblood22 said:

    This is very common. I was
    This is very common. I was putting in tons of water and Gatorade and I was still dehydrated and low on potassium. I had to have iv fluids once a week. Check out coconut water. I think it's better than Gatorade by far. I have a post on my blog on this site about it.

    Good luck.

    Glad to Hear He's Not Alone...
    in sucking up the water! Unfortunately, he has problems with HIGH potassium, so he can't drink gatorade or sports drinks (plus he's diabetic) - they say water only. So more water it will be!

    Thanks - feels better to know others have had same issue.
  • Army_Guy
    Army_Guy Member Posts: 53
    #7
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    Water...
    I had a period during treatment where my blood pressure got dangerously low. I was receiving radiation therapy twice daily and chemo (Cisplatin) once a week. One of the nurses suggested that I mix a little Gator Aid in with my water to help raise my electrolyte levels. It worked and my blood pressure returned to tolerable levels! Of course if your husband is diabetic you may want to clear this with his doctor. By the way, I still drink 70-80 onces of water daily (in part because of dry mouth).

    Dave
  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    #8
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    Lots
    Amazing that we drink lots of water and we do. I am betting your husband will feel the difference already and even more after the second bags. This is very common, everyone who goes thru all this reacts differently and your body is recovering and using up so much in the recovery time. I have yet to hear anyone say after IV fluids say they do not feel the difference.

    By rule I remember the normal person needs to drink 10 12oz glasses of water each day.

    Good luck and hope the pre packaged bagged water helps. Let us know how it works.

    John
  • kimmygarland
    kimmygarland Member Posts: 312
    #9
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    fisrpotpe said:

    Lots
    Amazing that we drink lots of water and we do. I am betting your husband will feel the difference already and even more after the second bags. This is very common, everyone who goes thru all this reacts differently and your body is recovering and using up so much in the recovery time. I have yet to hear anyone say after IV fluids say they do not feel the difference.

    By rule I remember the normal person needs to drink 10 12oz glasses of water each day.

    Good luck and hope the pre packaged bagged water helps. Let us know how it works.

    John

    Got 2nd bag
    He got the second bag of hydration yesterday. I did some research and found that Propel water doesn't have sugar or potassium, so we are going to add a bottle of that as one of his two extra per day. I forgot about Soccerfreaks advice on the seltzer water or I would have picked up some of that also - will remember for next grocery store trip.

    It's hard getting all this water in, especially when he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 7 or 8 am. Doesn't leave many hours for all the water and formula through the tube. Oh well, I keep telling him he MUST do it... dehydration can be so bad, especially for someone like him who already has reduced kidney function due to diabetes. But y'all know all about that.

    Thanks again for all the info.

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