restless

Hi T and anyone else who read my post about weight gain and dizziness.

Here is the deal so far: Looks like my enzymes have doubled agian since the end of july. Bummer but not a major tragedy. Matter of fact this is all kind of a blessing. wbc was a little low not bad. More labs tommorrow and an abdominal cat scan & a chest x-ray.(doc appologized about the cost of all this.)

He may have a clue as to why am blowing up, getting dizzie, sleepey, and confused (he witnessed all this tonight).

He thinks I have turned into a salt sponge. That is my term. I THINK the name is hyponatremia or something like that. The potassium is suppossed to be on the inside of the cell and the salt on the out side to keep fluid levels balanced (we are all jugglers and don't even know it). Anyway, asick liver can make the salt soak into the cell instead of staying on the outside. That displaces the fluid. !st symptoms are appearently confusion and lethargy. Go figure. The blistering exzema I had all over my hands last month was some kind of fluid diplacement also but I don't know if it is related.

The doctor thinks that this is what I have, I am Salt Sponge. He's hoping that the tests he's running in the next 2 days will confirm. I am grateful, because now things make sense. I am going to try not to drive because I have been nodding out and running off the road.

On Monday my staff drove me home at 11:00 am because they thought I looked like I was dying. On tuesday Istayed home in bed. Today I went back and worked all day but after lunch was a struggle. I fell asleep driving to the doc after work. I fell asleep in the waiting room when I got there and I kept nodding off while I was trying to talk to the nurse.

It scares me when that happens but I am glad that the doc finally got to see it. When I tell people they think I'm nuts. Iwas starting to think so too. So they gave me a diuretic, very low dose to start, this is not a definitive diagnosis yet. He said I no longer own a salt shaker. No fluid restriction yet, but he said no salt absolutely none.

Salt is making me drunk. I'm Sponge drunk! (sorry. I collect a certain yellow sponge character..Ironic).
If this is what I have and I continue to eat salt I can have siezures, coma, then death. Yuck!

This will not be easy for me to give up salt, but it will be much easier than tx was and I tried that too.

It is late and I'm babbling. But this is a blessing because I feel like some one just turned the light on for me. It is also a blessing because someone got a clue before my diet killed me. And most of all it is a blessing because it is not too late and now I have some controll. I was so scared I would loose my job due to my confusion and dizziness.

Thanks to God, my doctor, my staff, and all of you for being there for me while I felt controll over everything slipping away. And if the doctor's right, it was only salt.

Peace
Restless
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[This message has been edited by restless (edited 10-16-2003).]

[This message has been edited by restless (edited 10-16-2003).]