I blame a great deal of things on my cancer treatment which is really unfair because pre-cancer I never had my CBC (complete blood count) run so often. I'm on potassium supplements since my low February labs but it's still not as high as we'll like it to be. Below is the rundown of my potassium stats since last year.
My potassium stat: (Range for women should be 3.5 to 5.1)
March 2009 3.3
July 2009 3.6
November 2009 3.2
February 2010 3.0
March 2010 3.9 (On supplements)
June 2010 3.4 (On supplements)
I went to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist.) I am having two different test run. He thinks I might be expelling too much potassium when I urinate or have a bowel movement. He thinks extra supplements or medication might do the trick. I guess I don't mind taking extra supplements but I rather not take any more medication. I go in for my second lab this week and then see my nephrologist the following week.
I have 13 months (cheers!) of Tamoxifen left. Might this be the culprit or might it be from chemo? Hopefully it's an easy fix but it would be interesting to find out. I would love to be able to put this as a side effect of Tamoxifen and to be able to share with others. I'm off of Tamoxifen in 13 months and it would be wonderful if I didn't have to worry about my potassium level afterward.
I found the above drawing of the Tamoxifen bottle off of the internet and could not resist posting it. Even though I complain often about getting off to Tamoxifen I won't. A study came out a month ago that many women, mainly women younger than 40, were not diligent about taking their Tamoxifen or did not finish their 5 years. Tamoxifen is still the gold standard so why come this far to quit?
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