Low Potassium

teaka123

My Potassium is at 2.9. Three weeks ago it was at 3.1. What causes potassium levels to drop and not be absorbed as it should?

My brief background -

• Mastectomy in June 2019 for DCIS. Pathology report found a small ( . 7) spot of HERS2+. Following the standard protocol I completed 12 weekly Taxols w/ Herceptin. I am on path to complete my now every third week Herceptin treatments in July.
• I did get a blood clot at my port site and was prescribed Xarelto. I now take 1 - 20 mg tablet a day. Blood clot cleared (man did that hurt!). I felt better and more energized within 12 hours of the clot clearing.
• 24 hours after the clot clearing i had muscle/bone and hip pain. My potassium level was checked (as it is at all my appointments) and found to be at 3.1. I started a prescription for Potassium Chloride 1 - 20 mg tablet a day (those are some BIG pills). muscle/bone pain went away within 12 hours of first tablet.
• Wednesday's oncology appointment w/ regular blood work check found my Potassium lowered to 2.9. They gave me a Potassium pill to take right away and had me complete a Potassium IV following my Herceptin. Oncologist increased my Potassium RX to three - 20 mg tablets a day.
• I eat healthy and take a multivitamin daily. Of course, now I have doubled down on foods/beverages containing Potassium (coconut milk, advocados, o.j. spinach, bananas, etc.).
• Only other RX I have HydroChlorOthiazide (for blood pressure) it is a low dose 12.5 mg - 1 tablet a day.
• I have the occasional glass of red wine. One or two glasses a week tops. No hard alcohol.
• No diarrhea or nausea (not now or during chemo)

Looking forward to having this figured out. I felt so much better when the blood clot cleared I think I will feel pretty darn good when the Potassium is where it should be!

Appreciate any insight on why this happens.

It's always something with this journey.

DebAL

hey teaka, have you touched base with your PCP about this? I'm assuming you have no kidney issues or diabetes.

There are potassium sparing diuretics you could ask about.

There can be many reasons but you are doing all the right things. Hopefully the 3 tabs a day does the trick.

Great news that you are feeling good. I hope this resolves for you!

Moomala

teaka123 I am going through the exact same thing this last weekend. My potassium is falling and it went to 2.8 so I had to be hospitalized for observation for the weekend. What fun. (I'm stage 4)

The doctor at the hospital immediately took me off the 12.5 HCTZ. I have also had treatment related IBS and frequent pooping (sorry) for weeks. He thought those two things were the culprit and they got me up to 3.6 in the hospital. I'm taking immodium more regularly the last few days and Im taking the horse pills twice a day, but I have been having leg and hip pain at night since yesterday. These are also treatment side effects for me. One of my drugs causes leg and hip pain/aching. I can't imagine it would have fallen this fast but I had a blood draw today that should be back tomorrow morning.

You sound just like me with healthy diet and a few glasses of red wine per week. I had three bags of potassium IV in the hospital. OMG that burns your veins. They don't automatically pair it with fluids to dilute it - I had to ask every time. And yes the horse pills are huge. You can cut them in half if you want to.

AliceBastable

I remember having to take potassium pills after my hysterectomy years ago, so maybe it's tied in with hormonal disturbance.

teaka123

DebAL Thank you for the suggestion on speaking with my PCP. I have not, but will make an appointment with him if this Thursdays lab work shows my Potassium still so low. And, no I've never had any kidney or diabetes issues.

Moomala Oh my, you have a lot going on. I'm sorry you are having to deal Potassium issues and everything else. Thank you for the tip on diluting the Potassium IV. I've made a note of it, hopefully I won't have to go that route again. I'm really puzzled by this and usually able to come up with some lead on things, but I'm coming up empty handed on this.

AliceBastable I'm 60 so most likely not hormonal, but I will ask my oncologist just in case. Thank you.

MinusTwo

I has low potassium AND magnesium when I was on chemo. They caught it early enough that I just had to take supplement/pills every day.

Edited to add - I was ER/PR negative so not hormonal.

AliceBastable

Teaka163, I was almost 60 when I had my hysterectomy. And 68 when I had breast cancer, 100% ER, 98% PR. Some people keep cranking out hormones forever, and it's why we are prescribed hormone blockers.

gb2115

Hey, where I work we treat people with potassium issues. It could easily be the HCTZ. You might want to discuss with whoever follows you for blood pressure and prescribes that to you. They should be following your potassium and treating it.

Also wanted to add, you can get the potassium chloride in a powder form. I think it comes as a liquid too, but when we have patients complain about pill size, we switch them to powder and they are much happier.

sunnyjay

Just wondering if you ever figured this out. Prior to diagnosis, my potassium was borderline low. My blood pressure meds included HCTZ for as long as I can remember. Not sure why my potassium levels were suddnely low after years of being on it.

My PCP suggested eating high potassium foods which helped a little. So when I wasn't religious about my daily banana my potassium levels were low. My mastectomy surgery 3 years ago was delayed by an hour or so because my potassium levels were too low for surgery. So they put something in my IV to elevate it so I can get the surgery done. I went through chemo with no major improvement in my potassium levels so I had to take the potassium pills for a few weeks. This improved my levels but then slightly decreased when I was off the potassium pills. My PCP finally decided to change my blood pressure meds, and removed the HCTZ. My potassium levels are now normal, and the HCTZ is on the list of meds I am allergic to.