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low potassium

lori12946
lori12946 CSN Member Posts: 10
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I have been on chemo for 5 mos. and was just hospitalized for low potassium levels . I have never had this problem before. Just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this and if this problem goes away after treatment is finished.
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Comments

  • Mosis50
    Mosis50 CSN Member Posts: 59
    #2
    Hello, I had low potassium one time during chemo and it did improve after chemo. My blood levels were all over the place. Good luck to you and God Bless.
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  • mc2001
    mc2001 CSN Member Posts: 343
    #3
    Just like Mosis50's blood report, mine too looked more like a secret numerical spy code!! My numbers were all over the map!.. Potassium was very low. So, the docs prescribed Potassium tablets for me. Now in the hospital.. they were small and coated. I needed to take a bunch at a time, but there was no flavor, and since they were small and coated... there was no problem. When I had to fill an Rx at the pharmacy... these things were big. So... mention to your doctor that you WANT the small ones. Just a bit if info I thought you'd like! But no worries... the minerals in your body will fluctuate periodically... and they are very simple to treat.
    Your Carcinogenic Comrade,
    Michael (leukemia survivor)
    www.geocities.com/leukemia_lymphoma
    PS: You can find information about nutrition while in therapy at my leukemia site I designed. THe address is under my name!
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  • lori12946
    lori12946 CSN Member Posts: 10
    #4
    mc2001 said:

    Just like Mosis50's blood report, mine too looked more like a secret numerical spy code!! My numbers were all over the map!.. Potassium was very low. So, the docs prescribed Potassium tablets for me. Now in the hospital.. they were small and coated. I needed to take a bunch at a time, but there was no flavor, and since they were small and coated... there was no problem. When I had to fill an Rx at the pharmacy... these things were big. So... mention to your doctor that you WANT the small ones. Just a bit if info I thought you'd like! But no worries... the minerals in your body will fluctuate periodically... and they are very simple to treat.
    Your Carcinogenic Comrade,
    Michael (leukemia survivor)
    www.geocities.com/leukemia_lymphoma
    PS: You can find information about nutrition while in therapy at my leukemia site I designed. THe address is under my name!

    Thanks for the info and yes the pills from the pharmacy are huge. If i have to continue them I will ask for smaller ones for sure. Take care,
    Lori
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  • DeeNY711
    DeeNY711 CSN Member Posts: 476 Member
    #5
    My potassium level was dangerously low and I needed potassium supplements in the fourth month of chemo in order to get medical clearance for a replacement port. My liver function tests were kerflewey, too, but everything returned to normal 7 months after the end of chemotherapy. Hope this helps. It used to disturb me that many of the physicians... oncologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, internists, radiologists... seemed surprised about the lab values going beserk. To my mind, if you pump chemo into someone's body, it is a certainty that lab values will change. One internist really gave me a bad moment when she responded with a gasp when she saw that my hair was growing in while I was still on chemo. I realized that she must be sure it had stopped working. However, the sane part of my mind pointed out that the first combination I was on caused hair loss. The third drug I was on did not cause the same intensity or type of hair loss. Turned out the sane part of my mind was correct on that one, and the doctor was ignorant on the topic.
    Hugs,
    Denise
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