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My 87 year old mother has just been admitted to hospital with low sodium levels (this was only found out after blood tests at the hospital). Last week she kept falling and wouldn't settle at all. After 3 days the Nursing Home called a Doctor out and he thought she had a urine infection. I went to see her at the Care Home on Tuesday and she seemed delirious to me and very agitated, so insisted they called an ambulance. I'm glad I did because the Doctor at the Hospital said it can be very dangerous if left untreated. Has anyone else heard of this condition in the elderly. I was also wondering if this could happen again.

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The sodium/potassium balance in the blood is vital. My father-in-law was hospitalized because of low potassium balance due to a diuretic he took for blood pressure. That is not uncommon. Low sodium is less common, but this could be caused my medications. It is very dangerous so you did the right thing. I'm not saying this was caused by medications, but it's a valid question to ask the doctor. There may need to be an adjustment. UTI infections can cause similar symptoms, so it's good they checked for that as well. She's being taken care of, but finding out the cause is important, so you can watch her.
Keep us posted - this could be more common than we think.
Carol
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Thank you for your advice - I had never heard before of low sodium levels causing someone to be so ill. I spoke with the Doctor at the hospital this afternoon and they said if my mother responds within the next 48 hours she may be OK. It is so distressing to see her suffering like this, I can only hope and pray that things turn out for the better. Thank you once again.
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My father is 89 years old and does have congestive heart failure - he was feeling very unwell last weekend and I took him to the emergency room of the local hospital - they ran a series of tests including blood work and the results showed low sodium. The oncall doctor did not offer much in the way of solutions or suggestions to raise his sodium level once he returned home - I tried to find info on the internet and what I could find indicated we should decrease level of fluids he consumes, eat foods with high salt content, drink salt water, drink Gatorade - we have an appointment next week with his cardiologist but I realize this is a serious condition and I wanted to know what I should be doing between now and his doctor appointment. Any information would be much appreciated.
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My Mother has been hospitalized twice (years apart) for low sodium. In both cases she was having fainting spells, her speech was slurred, and she had trouble thinking clearly. She drinks a lot of water and they put her on a water diet at the time. Now, she drinks a small glass of gateraid every day and she eats a pickle every day. So far, no more problems
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My mom is 75 and she was diagnosed with Low Sodium a few years ago, and put in ICU. They said 5 more hours she would have passed. She was monitored for 6 months Her medication, food and fluid intake and slowly came back around. This week she ended up in the hospital again and now has the same thing. I forgot to add the first time she had a problem with Urinating and caused UTI infections that would not go away for good. It kept coming back. They put a catheter in her temporarily until she was able to get more control over her muscle contractions that were not releasing all of the urine out of the bladder. This time their is not sign of UTI, but I have a feeling it has to do with the amount of water she drinks allot of water plus I think she take too many medications some are for blood pressure and I think she used to take a diuretic also. She has been hospitalized for 4 days now and I am very frustrated with the progress. Nobody seems to really talk about this condition and how to prevent this from happening. Everyone really needs to take care of their parents. Leaving it up to the doctors and nursing homes is not going to work. I have found the nurses and doctor are all too busy to give proper care to anyone especially in the hospital. Its ridiculous. While in the hospital, you need to stay on top of the staff there, because half the time they are not doing their job. Human nature of a tired nurse or tech person is to do a half a** job! They only do what they have time to do or what is needed by the one who stays on top of them ! Make sure they are giving the right meds. No 1 Mistake my mom was victim of that the first and second night this time in the hospital. I have had to do the research and practically tell them what is going on with her everyday. They would not be doing anything for her. if I wasn't there watching their every move. !! Very "Frustrated" with the whole Medical Field. Answer: Keep your parents active and stimulated with good food and exercise and activities that is what will keep them alive not the medicine.!!!!
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My mother also was admitted to the hospital last year for this problem caused by a urinary tract infection. They had a hard time getting her back up to an acceptable level. Sodium as low as her was not only causes confusion, but can also cause seizures and stroke. Something to keep an eye on.
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Yes, she had a couple mini strokes, during the same time period ( we found out later). The low sodium make her very confused, agitated and she complains about being light headed and feeling allot of pressure on the top of her head. Yesterday, she did not know where she was and did not remember being in the hospital for 3 days. Very concerning for all of us. I finally got them to do a MRI they also already did a Cat Scan they said nothing new was showing up. How do they know if it is New or Old !! Is is scar tissue that they see ??? They do not explain enough details and I always think of questions after the Dr. leaves.
Thank you for your input!!
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Salt can definately be an issue. My mom fell almost two years ago and I think it was primarily due to low salt. Her meds didn't help either, and they were changed.
She takes salt tablets now, feels free to put a little more salt on things she formerly would not have (the mantra of 'less salt'.) Loss of salt and/or electrolytes can definately play with ones sanity.
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My mother is now on hospice. She's almost 94 and has been battling low sodium for the last couple of years. She is at the point where nothing more can be done to regulate her sodium. Her last visit to the hospital her sodium level went 129. She was admitted with 121 level. After being home for 2 days it dropped to 124. She made it very clear she is done with the hospital so, her Dr. recommended Hospice care. It was a very hard decision but, she just wants to be comfortable. Bringing your elderly parent back and forth to the hospital can often times do harm than good. It is too much for their fragile bodies. We all have the peace of mind that she will be made comfortable until her times comes. I want to add we have tried all of above suggestions on bringing up sodium levels. There is a time it just stops working.
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My husband had similar issues with low sodium levels Physically he feels fine but seems to have some memory loss. The dr. says this will return in due time but he's so frustrated now knowing that his mind is not what it used to be. He was also taking prednisone for COPD. Could this have had some effect on his condition or even triggered the low sodium?
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Halia, you might post this as a new question.
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A frustration of mine is the huge push to lower salt in the US diet without the caveat that many seniors have low sodium which can cause major health issues and even lead to death.

Even nursing homes are (in most states) using low salt diets because of the few people who have salt sensitive blood pressure and the one size fits all idea that people need less salt.

I'd love to know how many seniors ( a percentage) who are otherwise healthy but have low sodium so they are being treated with drugs for their health issues which could be simply caused by low sodium. Good doctors take note of this in physical exams.

I believe that there are salt tablets doctors can prescribe when necessary, but unless there are many complicating factors, food (with actual salt) can take care of much of this.

The push to hydrate can cause over hydration, too. Hydration is vital - but there is a limit, which again is different for different people.

My point is that our seniors need their sodium monitored. One size does not fit all when it comes to sodium or fluids.

It's wonderful to see the input on this site by all of you who've witnessed various situations. I'm so proud of all of you!
Carol
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A couple of years ago, my mom was admitted to a hospital with a possible stroke; she had called 911 and when the EMTs got there her bp was 220/120. I know! Very scary indeed! But imaging said "no stroke". When her labs came back, her sodium was quite low, and she was dehydrated. Since she was on the neuro unit (and they really didn't know much about sodium, kidneys and the like), one resident would come in and say "don't drink too much water; put salt on your food". 10 minutes later, another resident would come in with several bottles of water and say "you need to drink lots of water; NO salt on your food" 30 minutes later, first resident was back "WHO GAVE YOU THIS WATER?????" It would have been funny if it hadn't been MY mother.

I finally started a turf war; I went to the hospitalist from Internal Medicine who was called in to consult and said "Are you going to let them kill my mom because YOU'RE afraid to ask to have her transferred to YOUR service?". He grew some gonads and she was wheeled out of neuro an hour later.
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After a few falls, it was discovered my 90 year old mother had low sodium also. Further tests revealed that there was a mass in her bladder. Due to her age she didn't want any surgery so she is given sodium pills as part of her daily medication. Now she is 95 and still doing well considering.
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My husband is in the hospital with low soduim. It was 114 when admitted.
I called 911 because I could not wake him up for 45 min. The soduim level
was dangerous. They are slowly trying to get the level up. It is now at 126.
so he is out of critical care. He has pulmonary fibrosis and was also getting over an infection. The care has been excellent but they seem
to be saying the low soduim was caused by the infection and the lungs.
I am very concerned when I am able to take him home how can I check
on his soduim. This did not seem like one of the reasons for low soduim.
Barbara
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Its really serious and a tedious one. I am in hospital roghtnow just moved from icu to general. Sodium for my husband went as low as 103. He fell was delirious and confused. Its been 5 days now they first gave a NaCl IV then fluid restriction. Has improved to 125 but cant go home till 130.
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My dad is in the ICU now for low sodium. This is the first time in his 82 year life. Despite being given oral NaCl tablets, his levels as an outpatient continued to decline, prompting a trip to the ER and admit. He's been Rx'ed a diuretic (Maxide generic from Sandoz Labs). The only thing in his life and drug regimen that changed at the same time as his sudden illness was the manufacturer of his generic Maxide. His ER MD became concerned when he reported recently switching to a different color and shape tablet for his Maxide RX. The drugs were examined, and the MD found no reference to the imprint code on his smartphone app for identifying drugs. An internet search positively identified the new imprint as being the correct dosage strength from a the new Mfg, Sandoz.

I searched online for any complaints about Sandoz brand Maxide to see if others had this problem and found a FDA 10 page complaint in 2010 about Sandoz Maxide and other meds citing improper lab procedure in their mfg. plant that led to tablet problems in several drugs and bacterial contamination from water used in their plant. Again in 2015 they were given a cautionary notice which was finally resolved by the FDA in 2017 in regards to their mfg plants in India.

While it is comforting to know the US FDA inspects off shore drug labs to the same standards as a US based firm, I am curious to know if anyone else has had any issues with a Sandoz product that made it into the distribution network US wide.
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