PACS, low magnesium and potassium

I wasnt given a follow up appointment and i cant get into my doc for 3.5 weeks. How do i know if my electrolytes are better

Low magnesium levels in the cells (not just what can be found by a blood assay, but what the body has inside its cells) is called hypomagnesemia. It is seen more commonly these days in people who eat little shellfish, nuts, and green leafy vegetables grown in magnesium-poor soils. If it's too low in any one person, the chances of developing an arrhythmia rise. Apparently you checked out for potassium (hypo or hyperkalemia), but they found your magnesium levels out of range. It happened the other way around for me....I was given two potassium pills in the ICU for a wonky heart rhythm.

With some monitoring, and you taking maybe 400 mg of magnesium citrate or magnesium bis-glycinate, or magnesium malate....whatever is on sale and that you can tolerate safely on that daily dose, you should be fine. As always, run this past your family doctor, maybe with a view to having a blood assay for magnesemia every two months or so for a year. A year would make it a habit, one month not so much.....I mean the change in eating habits.

I am not an expert in this, and have no medical training. However, if your kidneys are healthy, no doctor has ever mentioned you have iffy kidney function, then they will excrete overages of both elements, potassium and magnesium. So, for a while at least, you are probably going to be safe taking 400 mg of magnesium daily....whichever form is on sale....and that doesn't cause you gastric upset or diarrhea. I know people who have to consume 1000 mg daily because their kidneys dump every bit of magnesium they encounter doing their blood filtration.

@gloaming it was my wonkey heart that made me call the ambulance. My anxiety made my heartrate and bp go through the roof! Had to give me Ativan at the hospital to calm me down. They gave me potassium in a drink and magnesium iv. Doc said no heart attack and he didnt see afib on the ecg and monitor even though my bp at one point was over 200. Before i was discharged with rx for 6 pills of potassium, my bp was back to 124/82.
Where do i go from here? What do i do? I could use an Ativan right now but im at work. Then im scared that taking 1500mg of potassium twice a day will be too much. Ugh

@muppet7777 I can't in good conscience advise you because I'm not trained and don't know anything about your history and how it relates to.....1500 mg BID?!?!? That seems excessive to me, but I didn't do any workups, have no training, and am not in a position to second-guess your handlers. Are you sure each dose is intended to be that much? But even if it's so, your kidney health must be pretty good and you shouldn't worry overmuch about it, not for a while. But really, you need to ask your doctor to give you a bit of a handle on that high dose and how he/she intends to monitor you for hyperkalemia. What does he/she know about you that makes this protocol therapeutic, and for how long is it going to go on?

It was given by the emergency room doctor on saturday. He doesn't know me or my history at all. That rx was 3000mg a day for 3 days. The high dose freaked me out too so i only took 1500mg yesterday and 1500mg today. I called my family doctor today to get an appointment but he cant see me until May 13th. I will take another 1500mg tomorrow, maybe again on Wednesday but try to eat more high potassium foods.

@muppet7777 Okay, now we have some context. So I 'think' the ER doc wants to 'blast' you with a lot of K for three days and let your body and kidneys deal with any overage....any excess should be excreted, and meanwhile you get your K back into range.

Potatoes, figs, pistachios, avocado/guac, beets....there are many good foods that will provide K in your diet. Also, at the grocers, K salt is found in the same place as table salt.

Im kinda scared to take the second pill...i know what too much potassium in the body does to a person. My mother suffered a lot with hypercalemia

@muppet7777
Do you have access to a cardiologist? You should be seeing a heart specialist. ER said you did not have AFIB but what did the say about ventricle tachycardia. An ecg will only show what is happening now.

What you were feeling could be temporarily AFIB or VFIB. I know when I have AFIB or VTAC tremendous feeling of heart fluttering, sometime flushed face, and very weird feeling.

But I have heart failure specialist and electrophysiologist (EP) I see on ongoing basis. I would try to find a cardiologist. If you went to ER and was given medications there should be a follow up.

Every time I have gone to ER with ICD shock or tachycardia they immediately check my electrolytes as a prime cause of both AFIB and VFIB. I have been on 400 mg of magnesium for years now. I asked about potassium but my EP said I was already at high normal on my blood test.

You can still call the ER and express your concern with the medications they prescribed. Asked them about seeing a cardiologist and if they can refer you to one.

@muppet7777 'My mother suffered a lot with hypercalemia.' But you don't....and that's the point. Not based on the evidence which you are using to take that first pill.

Ok...i will take the second pill tonight 😀