As mentioned in my previous post, dehydration hit one of my grannie clients HARD - twice! It was a fight getting her to drink even half a glass of water at the meals we shared - on several occasions, we came close to arm wrestling. Twice, she ended up in the hospital for dehydration-induced pneumonia, which almost killed her both times & which left physical, emotional & financial scars.
Another grannie client had severe dehydration - by that time, I knew about the dangers & treatment. We were out on a drive & she suddenly stopped talking, seemed unresponsive. Concerned, I looked around & spotted an American flag snapping in the breeze - "Look!" I said, cheerful & upbeat. "A flag!" Now, this woman loves the Stars & Stripes. When she didn't say a word, I turned the car around & drove straight back to her senior residence, got one of the security personnel to grab a wheel chair, help get her out of the car, and made a beeline for the medical center.
She raised a mighty fuss as we were getting her out of the car (no easy task, having an elderly woman curse you out at the same time her body's making it almost impossible to move her to the wheel chair.)
The cursing & chewing me out lasted all the way through the lobby, as we took the elevator down to the medical center, as we sat in the waiting room.
Sure enough - low electrolytes. And here's an interesting thing - the medical center didn't have any bottles of electrolyte water. I had to leave my client, dash across to the food store (luckily right across the parking lot) & get a supply. One bottle of water & she was fine, with no memory of swearing a blue streak or being angry.
My very first experience with dehydration messing up sodium/electrolyte levels was a direct hit at home when my own mother, newly returned home from a prolonged hospital stay, had a medical crisis brought on by dehydration & low electrolytes.
After Mom returned home from rehab following a hospital stay, there were a lot of things I took great care to do, but it never hit me to make sure she was getting enough of the right sort of liquids. Hey, she was MOM, who'd always taken great care of herself. To me, she seemed well on the road to full recovery, up & doing her usual things. Including plenty of liquids - oj at breakfast, three cups of coffee throughout the day, an afternoon cup of tea.
Plenty of liquids - but ones that dehydrated rather than restored the liquid needed to keep a healthy sodium level.
What I know now that I didn't know then - sodium is an electrolyte essential to our body's fluid balance. Dehydration can create havoc with the body, leading to low sodium levels (hyponatremia) or high sodium levels (hypernatremia). The first can lead to headaches, nausea and vomiting, confusion & fatigue; the second can result in thirst, confusion, muscle twitching, even seizures & coma.
Notice the one common side effect to both - CONFUSION. Confusion is an understatement for what we experienced when Mom's sodium/electrolyte level spiked or lowered (no idea which).
Out of the blue, she announced that she had called a friend back in our hometown, asking if she could stay with her. When we wondered why she wanted to stay at Charis', she said, "Because you are throwing me out."
John & I were shocked. And nothing we said could convince her that she wasn't being shoved out of the house.
We didn't think to call Mom's doctor (we were as confused as she was). It never dawned on us that her mental state was tied to her physical. I called Charis, assured her that we were NOT giving Mom the heave ho (although I still wonder if she believed me), assured Mom that we loved having her with us. And that was the end of that. Or so we thought.
The next morning was trash day. John got up at 7:00 a.m.to take out the trash, came back to bed & informed me, "Mom is walking down the street with her big handbag. When I asked what she was doing, she told me, 'I'm going to Bryn Athyn - you told me I had to go.'"
He'd come in so I could go fetch her, but I knew she'd never come back for me - it needed a man, someone she could lean on. Off John went, just as she turned from Sandpiper onto Buck Road, headed to Bryn Athyn, several miles away.
This time, I called my sister, who called one of her BFFs, a doctor in Nebraska.
Somewhere in between those calls & hearing back from MJ, there was another incident, with John going outside to find Mom sitting on the front step, again with her large handbag. She'd been headed to Charis', but had fallen down the steps. Amazingly enough, she hadn't broken anything. Other than her own & our hearts.
We kept an eagle eye on Mom, waiting for Mim's call. I still remember my disbelief at hearing that MJ didn't recommend a trip to the ER, but a large glass of water. Seriously? My mother had lost her grip on reality & MJ was prescribing WATER?
Just as it had with Anne, drinking a large glass of water restored Mom to her senses. Other than Charis continuing to look at me with great suspicion for many years, there were no other side effects.
Having imbalanced electrolytes due to dehydration could have killed my mother, since Buck Road has a lot of traffic & no one would expect to find an 80+ year old grannie unsteadily walking on its edges. She could have been seriously injured in the tumble down the front concrete steps. She could have... She could have.. She could have...
To this day, long years after Mom was reunited with her O Best Beloved, I remember that shocking day & am amazed at the dangers of dehydration & the power of water to heal. Feel thirsty, my friends!
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