Last Night I Went to the ER for Water Intoxication (Though I Was Dehydrated).

I was severely dehydrated, sooooo thirsty, trying to drink more water.

I had had a headache all day (the only time I get headaches is when I am dehydrated), and had been unsuccessful in making it go away.

Earlier in the day...I exercised in the hot sun for an hour (there was a breeze so I didn't feel hot), but when I stopped, realized it was a good thing since I was beginning to feel the nausea from heat exhaustion.

Then, was disappointed because I love resting in the sun after my workouts, so just laid in the sun with a wet towel covering my face since it was the only part of me that I thought might burn. Stood in the freezing cold outdoor pool shower every few minutes (felt AWESOME).

I tried eating tomatoes after exercising so as to help with electrolyte stuff while trying to re-hydrate.

Tried bouncing on the mini-trampoline a bit (most of the time this helps somehow--moving the water around in the body?--and makes the headaches go away within a few minutes)...still had the headache.

Decided to try to get some studying done, but really wanted to be outside. Sat in the shade with a breeze, but it was still hot and humid out and I was still sweating.

Decided I had better move indoors, and found a cool indoor place to study. The headache was so bad, though, I tried to drink a LOT more water...not sure how much, maybe a half gallon to a gallon in an hour?

Got quite lightheaded and started to feel nauseous. Went home.

Took a hot-cold contrast shower, which has worked in the past. I could see my face was swollen, and thought maybe the cold could help me squeeze out the bloating in the cells. Thought maybe my body could absorb some water to hydrate myself from the hot part. Decided to take a hot bath, hoping to hydrate my body without drinking anything else.

Finally felt so lightheaded, nauseous, intense headache, and very weak, asked my hubby to take me to the ER. I knew both dehydration and water intoxication are fatal, and I didn't know how to fix either one.

Had to wait a little bit at the ER, but my entrance in was probably speeded up by the fact that I started vomiting in the waiting area...loads and loads and loads. That barf bag was FILLED to the brim. I felt much better after vomiting...the headache and abdominal pain were much less.

The lab tech tried to draw blood but busted my veins because there was nothing to draw...finally, after 4 attempts, he got something. FINALLY, the part I was waiting for, they put me on an IV and started hydrating me. They also gave me potassium after getting my blood results back. They gave me pain and anti-nausea medicines for my tummy and head, and though I tried to resist, I was too weak to argue so just let them.

My lab results were normal aside from the low potassium and they were ready to discharge me. I was frustrated because I knew I was still dehydrated--my lips were not as dry as they had been, but I was still SOOO thirsty! I persuaded them to give me another IV bag before sending me home.

Overnight, even though I wanted to drink LOADS of water at a time, I have been trying to moderate, and just drink a smaller amount each time I am thirsty.

SO, just wanted to share that. I was really glad that I have done some reading on both dehydration and water intoxication, so that I was not totally unaware what was going on (just unable to do anything about it once it happened!) I felt kind of silly because there were car accident victims in the ER and there I was, begging them to let me stay to get more hydrated, and they did not seem to take me seriously.

My discharge paperwork included information about migraines and abdominal pain. They gave me prescriptions for pain and anti-nausea medication. I don't think they really knew what to do with me. I am glad I was not an uninformed patient.

Today I did a search for water intoxication and dehydration and found this article. Thought it was pretty helpful. http://suite101.com/article/water-intoxication-a22501

Hope this can be helpful to someone else.

Tash

Tags: dehydration, food, intoxication, raw, water

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by HealthySkinnyBeautiful-TashaLee on September 21, 2012 at 1:04pm

had some today- yum! :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HealthySkinnyBeautiful-TashaLee on September 20, 2012 at 9:32am

all the pre-sickness stuff was spaced out over 7-8 hours, not one right after another. i guess i was just trying to think of solutions and implemented them as they came to mind. i am not perfect...but i do try to learn from my mistakes.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HealthySkinnyBeautiful-TashaLee on September 20, 2012 at 9:36am

thanks for sharing this. i definitely notice greens help me stay hydrated, and of course watery fruit, and have been leaning a lot more on the high-water fruits since moving to a hotter climate, and definitely prefer that to drinking more water, because it feels better. i noticed up where i used to live (drier climate) that if i didn't eat greens, i could not get hydrated.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by miarose on September 20, 2012 at 1:44pm

This is not true. "Pure" water has a pH of close to 7.

Water contains both H⁺ and OH^– ions. If the quantity of H⁺ exceeds that of the OH^–, the water is said to be acidic. If there are more OH^– ions than H⁺, the water is alkaline. Pure water, which contains equal numbers of both ions, is said to be neutral. Since alkaline water contains an excess of OH^– ions, it must also contain some other kind of positive ion in addition to H⁺ in order to equalize the opposite charges. This extra positive ion is almost always a metal ion such as sodium, calcium or magnesium. Similarly, an acidic water must always contain negative ions in addition to OH^–; the most common of these is bicarbonate HCO₃^–.

The pH of ordinary drinking water will have little effect on the pH of the stomach contents because gastric fluid has a low pH around 2.5-3.5.

It's not the oxygen in fruits that hydrates you, it is the simple carbohydrates(sugar) that allow for the absorption of oxygen into the blood stream.

I can go into futher details, but this is all basic chemistry readily available on the internet.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by miarose on September 20, 2012 at 3:49pm

""Plain water has ph of 4-6 (depends on the source) or 7 if it is tap water (but then it is filled with chlorine and fluoride) which means that there is MORE carbon dioxide in that water than oxygen!"

This is the disagreeance in my post and yours. If we were talking about carbonated water, or the ocean, this discussion would be much different.

Do you have any reasoning for why there is more carbon dioxide in acidic water?

"negative ions support oxygen (which in turns binds vitamins and minerals onto itself) and positive ions support carbon dioxide."

I'd love some more scientific reasoning behind that. As pH decreases, hemoglobin has a decreased affinity to bind oxygen.

I also believe there is a large difference in being slightly alkaline in ouu bodies pH, and having heaps and tons of oxygen and being alakaline to an extreme(see, dehydration, prologned vomiting, and hyperventilating. Having more oxygen is not always better.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by miarose on September 20, 2012 at 4:28pm

While I strongly believe that fruit and water help maintain my hydration levels, outside of simple sugars being more easily and quickly absorbed, do I have any scientific evidence of this. ( as compared to straight water) which is why I have some confusions with your oxygen hydrates in fluids (of fruits) statement. Osmosis, pH balance, temperature, circulation, blood pressure, ect play a role in oxygen absorption.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by miarose on September 21, 2012 at 11:13am

I'd love to talk science with you again sometime, when you aren't so busy :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Spunky Brewster on September 20, 2012 at 10:34am

if this ever happens again you might be better suited to also drink lukewarm water since it absorbs quicker

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HealthySkinnyBeautiful-TashaLee on September 20, 2012 at 11:11am

thanks--i do try to drink room temperature water but can't remember why. haha :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by kate on September 20, 2012 at 12:08pm

Well, this post makes a lot of sense to me in the light of my own experience.

It sounds like a digestive disturbance primarily, which drinking a lot simply did not help. The positive thing was that it made you vomit and feel better, so I see the unquenchable thirst as much like a cat self-medicating by eating grass to make themselves vomit when they eat something indigestible.

I drink 10-12l water daily, have done for years and have never had water intoxication. Rather, I get headaches and tremendous thirst if I don't drink that much. Since raw, I have tried to cut down, but unsuccessfully.

So it seems to me you had water intoxication because you could not absorb the water - it could not get past your stomach, but you desired it to induce a speedy flush of your stomach contents. Likely you would have been ok without ER after vomiting and a sleep.

Anyhow, glad all is well now, and I would not worry too much about your general water intake if you normally drink the recommended 2-3l daily.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dylan Meditates on September 20, 2012 at 4:26pm

i have had this experience almost to the t (except never got to the hospital)- start getting headaches... blame it on dehydration... drink massive quantities of water but it does nothing... headaches get worse... maybe i'm undercarbed? so i reach for food but pretty soon i'm feeling extremely nauseous. only thing that fixes it is a good nights rest, after which i feel entirely refreshed and ready to go after some more water and sugar, haha.

this has happened to me twice and i attributed to the kind of detoxification dan mcdonald talks about. headaches, nausea, etc, pain leaving the body.