Now what?

I’m sitting here at my desk trying to work, but there are too many thoughts swirling around in my mind to concentrate, so I needed to get them out.

Everything was going pretty well until two days before I was supposed to go in for my last surgery (July 13). The ENT’s office called to tell me my sodium had been low (127) when I had my blood drawn on July 7 and I couldn’t have the surgery until it was up to 130. They sent me for labs on July 14 and my sodium came back at 127 again. So my surgery was cancelled. I called my oncologist and she told me to increase the dosage on my sodium pills and follow up with my PCP.

The PCP ordered new labs for July 19 since the oncologist had already upped my sodium dosage and there wasn’t much else he could do. I got the results today, and this time, my sodium was down to 123. The nurse said she would call me back, so I hung up the phone and almost immediately burst into tears. There are only so many things that cause low sodium and I know I’m not drinking too much water. I’m also pretty sure I’m not dehydrated and my PCP already looked over my medication list to see if any of those could be causing it. So what’s left? I’ve also had a cough for the last few weeks, which I didn’t really think about too much until now. I just assumed it had something to do with my throat being irritated from all the surgeries.

When the nurse called back, she told me I need to have labs drawn again tomorrow and the PCP wants me to go back to the kidney doctor. I already know from past experience he’s going to tell me to drink Gatorade, which isn’t great on a sore throat, but I’ve already started that anyway. And he’ll tell me to restrict fluids (the PCP told me that, too), but I know I’m not drinking an excessive amount of fluids. I’ll go anyway since I don’t really know what else to do even though I doubt he will be much help.

John also asked my nurse if she could get me in to see the ENT here so he could scope me in his office and see if he sees anything in my throat. I had already decided after my last surgery was cancelled to ditch the ENT in Orlando because I’m tired of waiting 2-3 hours for a 5-minute appointment. That’s not an exaggeration, either. But the one here didn’t have an opening until August 10, so I had already made an appointment for then. My doctor got me in on Monday at 3:00 instead.

While all this was happening, I put in a call to my oncologist because I though she should know what was going on. I’m scheduled to see another doctor in Orlando tomorrow (the pain specialist), so she told me go by the lab at 8:00 and to come to her office at 9:00. My other appointment’s at 10:00, so that works out okay except for the part where I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready and get there on time. If my sodium is any lower, she’ll probably send me to the hospital. I cancelled the labs with the PCP and told his nurse I’d bring him a copy.

When I got finished with all of this, I went to the computer and Googled “low sodium causes.” They were pretty much what I’d already thought except for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) was also on the list. Hmmm. I do have that, so I’m trying to stay positive until I know more.