sodium level again

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Elsie

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Had my fasting labs done Wed. and today drs. assistant called to tell me my sodium level is below normal again. I've been told to not drink any plain water only Gatorade and come back in for another sodium test. Sigh. Course, I went out to buy gatorade and find that tomato juice has 3 times the sodium and potassium as gatorade. Interesting. You'd never think of that if you just followed the hype about that stuff.

So, here I go to try to get sodium level up a bit. I haven't been drinking a ton of plain water, but I have a few cups of coffee a day so I guess I'll have to cut that out... and there goes my energy level.

I'm really concerned because the trileptal works for me, except for this sodium thing. Neurologist didn't sound concerned the 1st time my sodium went down, gave me 6 weeks to bring it back up with some salt on my food and retest; my regular doctor called right away like this is fatal right now. I'm only a couple points below normal.

I guess this is pretty common with this med, but it's sure inconvenient. I don't fancy changing to some other med.
 
Hi Elsie,

When I was taking trileptal I had the same problem as you with low sodium level which in turn lowered my blood pressure and low blood pressure is just as bad as high blood pressure according to my Dr. If I may ask do you feel more tired than usual? This is what happened to me. I found that eating popcorn helped me a lot do to all the salt in it.
I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue
 
I suffer low blood pressure aswel it make you feel quite rough.I never have salt in the house of put it on anything but got tip on here about Himalayan rose salt so got some it taste far better than ordinary salt not so salty.I had BP done yesterday it was low had headache still have and reading this reminded me use some so I post again few hours say if it working,In uk low BP not classed as illness and no treatment for it but if I went Germany and present with BP low as mine I would be treated.Lets face it ,it the low BP that get you in the end.
I just add my son mother and me all have low BP it mention could be genetic and my mum nearly 100
 
Porkette, I'm not more tired than usual, but who knows. I've only been 2 years my whole life since pre-teen without med of some sort. Some made me more tired than others. Maybe I don't know what normal feels like. Also, I'm hypothyroid and take medicine for that and that can make me feel little tired too. Dr. keeps me in low/normal range which I read some people still feel some symptoms.

Popcorn? :pop: No, had colonoscopy, diagnosed 100 diverticuli (thank you to ae meds that cause constant constipation):oops: and that's bad for me.

Seagull, I go to regular dr. next week. Will be interesting to see what my BP is with all this extra salt in my system. I used to be lower than I am now, but I'm still normal. I don't mind the taste of salt on things. I'd sure like to find something with sodium I could put in coffee that didn't make it taste weird.

It just occurred to me, kidneys have something to do with regulating BP. You might look into that. I don't remember if they lower or raise BP. Also, bad kidneys can make some anemic.

I don't think it's normal for someone to have a dry mouth and feel thirsty. Ak!
 
Elsie,
One of the main side effects from carbamazepine is SIADH (syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone), which causes one to retain water, therefore lowering one's sodium readings. The amount of sodium you consume/refrain from consuming has no effect on the results. It has been known for a while to be a common side effect of carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine, though it's often overlooked, or at least downplayed in terms of importance in addressing by physicians, especially epileptologists (in my opinion), whose main mission is to control seizures (understandably). The nice thing at least is that the condition reverses when the drug is decreased or stopped. If this problem persists for you, you might want to try another anti-seizure drug that does not have that side effect. After many years on carbamazepine after my surgery, a few years ago I discontinued it (actually am on an extremely small amount) and have been quite glad to not have to deal with that side effect anymore.
 
I had some rose Himalayan salt and with in hour the low blood pressure went up.
I do have Kidny problem third degree renal failour.
This rose salt really do taste nice
 
Hi Lisa,

Years ago I was also taking Tegretol and my electrolytes were off frequently while taking that medication. My sodium was low also when I was taking Trileptal, too. Of course, they are in the same family.
 
I never put salt on any of my foods because if I do, my hands kinda get stiff and bloated. My blood tests never come back with unusual sodium readings. But my father had a problem with salt. It actually gave him a heart attack and......
 
I see I'm not alone with all this. Lisa, I've never heard of SIADH, never had a dr. tell me that. I've had swelling in ankles practically all my adult life. I asked about it at gynecologist one time and all he asked about was how many babies I'd had. Well, I had 2 and he shook his head yeah, that's it. I understood him to mean it's the change in the blood vessels from carrying babies. Or something like that. Every night the fluid goes away by itself, no medicine needed.

Maybe all that wasn't right, maybe it's the SIADH thing. I will ask neurologist when I see her. Maybe that's got something to do with my sodium thing.

I was on tegretol for many many years and that neuo. never asked about anything like this. He was always concerned about my white blood count which would go low, really low to the point where he called a hematologist. He finally decided that my numbers would go down (WBC) and then they'd come back up, over and over. He never gave me any lab results and I didn't know to ask about sodium.

However, when he retired, the last time I saw him, he did say I would need to get off the trileptal at some point...so maybe I was heading low way back then. It's amazing the kind of medical treatment we get (or don't get). Thanks to the Internet and just basically getting smarter about stuff, I ask for lab results in writing and I look everything up.

At this point I have more questions than answers. I go to my regular GP tomorrow.
 
Back from GP. 2nd sodium test showed it back up within range, but only just barely. I'm to continue with the electrolytes. She says eating salty foods does nothing at all to the level. She said it's all in the liquid that it matters.

I mentioned that this happened once about 6 months ago and she looked:eek: because all the lab results go through her office before they go to neurologist. I told her the other dr. called me about it, so she knows she dropped the ball once before. Neurologist's office told me to salt my food. This dr. said that doesn't make any difference.

Then she said she didn't know why my sodium was going low like this. I educated her about the trileptal. Did she forget I was taking that? Hazards of having more than one doctor, I guess. She agrees that's why. Sigh. Sometimes we're our own doctor.

At least if I can continue like this I won't have to change medicine. That's a relief. I decided to wait until I see my neurologist to ask about the hormone thing.
 
Elsie I don't think gynaecologist was the best of doctors to talk about swollen ankles
 
Probably not. It was the dr. I was seeing at the time. I wasn't set up with anybody else, and just a yearly visit with neurologist every year. See, back when this started, I didn't know much about all these drugs, their side effects, etc. Until the Internet, I didn't know a lot of stuff. Drs. didn't explain things to me when I was young, parents wouldn't even talk about the issue, and I had to learn the hard way. I will ask the neurologist this summer. My ankles only swell a very little bit, but it is the same every day and every night they go back down. It's been like this for years and years.
 
Other ways to tell if you are retaining water when you do not have access to info on your sodium level are: 1) You do not need to urinate as often; 2) When you do it is of shorter duration; 3) Urine is less diluted (darker); 4) Drinking plain water makes you feel nauseous; and 5) You always feel like you have a ton of water in you (because you do). The lower the sodium, the more noticeable these symptoms become. As far as salt, your GP is correct; salt intake makes no difference.
 
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