My brother ran a fever that his nurse practitioner was concerned about. She instructed him to go to the emergency room if it did not reduce with aspirin. He took some Tylenol and it went down.
The next day his blood work showed that his potassium and magnesium were very low and he was dehydrated again. So back in for more fluids. This time he was there for over 4 hours. I stayed with him till 4:00. He was back home by 6:00 and feeling good.
Today he goes in for his daily radiation treatment and will drive himself.
I encouraged him to eat some bananas to help with the potassium. Not sure how much that will help but it couldn't hurt. He admitted that he is not drinking the amount of water that he was told to drink which is 4 bottles a day. He could use his PEG tube but does not want to at this time. He does not seem to understand what his role in his treatment consists of. This could easily be his undoing.
Potassium and magnesium have been big factors with Gary, too. He had lots of potassium infusions in the beginning, but has been taking a twice-a-day Rx supplement for these last 12 years.
ReplyDeleteMagnesium is now starting to be a problem, too, and he has had a couple of infusions of that. I'm going to get an OTC magnesium supplement to see if we can head off additional problems.
Virtual hugs,
Judie
As long as he is in treatment he can get these infusions but I'm concerned about months after. His levels could still drop low and would need to supplement this in some way. Hope Gary is doing well.
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