hello everybody. on Friday night my time I had a seizure. it was my first one since last August and it lasted more than 10 minutes, so my husband called an ambulance. testing showed that my blood sodium was very low, so they've been keeping me. I spoke to a very nice Dr this morning who said they want to keep me for one more day but that I will be on a fluid restriction of 1 liter of water a day. you said that juice and tea and so on aren't part of that restriction which is good, because I think I might go a little crazy I'm just a liter of water when I'm accustomed to consuming more than that, and seriously giving up tea or coffee (or both!?) is just not going to happen. weirder still for me. I'm encouraged to add salt to things or to eat salty stuff. contrary to the advice most people get, yes?I have not had another seizure, although I did have a very low blood sugar last night and I've been getting dilaudid for the pain which is honestly blissful, and I am expected to go home tomorrow which might be your today. time zones are weird. I have figured out how to see you all on my iPhone, so as long as I can stand to hold it still in among my friends.I'm in good spirits but not looking forward to being home with out any pain management. I have a appointment with my gp on Tuesday , and once I get home I will be switching my antidepressant to one thathas analgesic properties as well. please forgive any spelling and grammar problems here, I'm blaming it on the speech recognition software my phone. xxx - bats
PS the doctors are saying that the low sodium level is probably due to the methotrexate sulfa and HQ. I will have to talk to my Rheumatologist about how to cope with this mess and still giving the fluids to survive the RA meds.
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Sorry to hear you're in hospital Bat but definitely the right place for you just now. I hope they give you a goodie bag full of the necessary when you do go home so your pain continues to be controlled. Big hugs. x
So sorry to hear that yet another storm has visited you... I am totally amazed at your resilience and ability to pick yourself up once again!
Re the sodium thing.... I think, but please check this out with your Drs, that reducing your potassium intake (I.e avoiding foods like bananas) will help to up your sodium levels because sodium and potassium levels counter balance each other some how - I'm not sure where I got that notion from so please treat the info as possible suspect unless Drs verify it!!!
Thinking of you Bats, hope everything stabilises and you get home today,
Best wishes,
Katymary x
Oh Bat you really are so relatable to for me!
Not that I've ever had anything as scary as a seizure or have your sight issues or diabetes to cope with but the hospital stay and the dread of being away from strong analgesics administered by IV without me having to think about it was very real for me too. There were aspects of being in hospital that were very comforting I felt.
I had also meant to write to say how beautiful your last poetry post was - but never got round to it. I stopped posting images of my artwork a while ago too because I felt it demanded too much of others. But your words flow so exquisitely that they are exceptional I feel.
And I relate to your body rejecting Sulfasalazine and Hydroxy too. In my case it was anaphylactic shock to both of these but hey rejection is rejection. Might you be ready to try some of the Biologic drugs now perhaps or does it not work like this in Canada?
Whatever - take care and safe home coming - I hope you can stay seizure free for the foreseeable future. Twitchy X
I snuck in here by the back door! I don't have RA but have really a Sjogrens/Lupus cross thing but in this forum folk are taking the same drugs and are suffering so similarily that it feels we autoimmunees are all the same!!!
Anyway I just wanted to wish you well and tell you , as Twitchy says too, how special your poems are. You say in a few lines what would take pages for me and in that reaching out you send us such comfort.
Hope you will be sent home with better drugs and a plan in hand to improve your quality of life.
You battle on so bravely but time now for those medics to give you more help!
Hello Bats, I am so sorry you are going through such a bad time again my Canadian friend. I really do hope you feel better soon and I would make sure they send you home with a bag of pain relief to tied you over until you see your go or rheumy Dr.
I too loved your poems so please continue to post them when you are feeling up to it.
Let us know how you get on, we are all here for you no matter what the time difference is.
I always have to check out the time with my son and his family living over there in Ontario and hopefully I will be with them later this year.
Take care, wishing you well, keep in touch. My thoughts are with you. XX
PS you are amazing how you cope with everything. X
Thank you all so much! I'm home now, petting my poor love-starved cat. My official diagnosis is hyponatraemia which means.....low salt. The good news is that my kidney function is fine, but that I have a tendency to excrete the salts and hold onto fluid. The bad news is simply that I need to limit the plain water I take on to a litre a day indefinitely. The better news is that teas are not off-limits and that this should resolve the muscle cramps I've been having as well. I'll look into the potassium suggestion, and I'll be seeing my gp on Tuesday (this being a long weekend). The doctor also tweaked my insulin while I was in which should help normalize my thirst response somewhat.
I cannot tell you all how much your support meant to me, and continues to mean. I feel very lucky to have met you all, regardless of the reason why.
Bat I can tell you having a seizure is not fun as,you well know. It's not something I'd wish on anyone. I was born with hydrocephalus at birth and at a four weeks a shunt was placed in me to help the extra fluid flow properly. Hydrocephalus is water on the brain. So yes I have had seizures all my life. I hope you don't have to experience another one for a good while for your sake. Hope all goes well for you and good luck
I sympathize. MTX made some problems for me too. I was pretty much in the same boat. Do you feel okay after the seizure? Anything more to worry about there? I am going to have to worry about liver and kidneys for a year or more. Bats, please take it easy and keep in touch. Some of us will worry.. xx
Just catching up with your post and my word girl you don't do things by half! I'm glad they sorted you out at the hospital to some extent . Get well soon xx
Low sodium *did* cause seizure, my first in nearly a year. I'm doing better and home now, but I'm still very tired. It's a little strange to be encouraged to eat salt, and told to drink less water. We're coming into full summer here, which can be scorchingly hot, but I've been looking into electrolyte formulas for when I'm out exercising. I still feel like I could sleep for a week, but at least it's my own bed
You can rest better in your own surroundings so pleased you're home Bat. Give in if you're feeling so tired, sleep is a great healer my mum always used to say. x
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Escaped Hospital 
4days after knee replacement.
Left hospital in tears & got nowhere :(
