Low potassium

The night before last I started feeling, odd. At 2 am I awoke to my heart feeling like it was beating funny & faster than usual. I wasn't doing anything to make it race so I had no idea why. My head felt light & I felt like I couldn't get enough air. Needless to say I didn't go back to sleep. I stayed up all that night & all that next day. Around 4 something that evening I started feeling worse. So bad I woke Mr. Estep up who had work a few hours later. I took a shot & laid down on the couch. Mr. Estep sat on the end of the couch & watched over me. As I started breathing heavier/looking worse he then got out my meter. I checked my sugar & it was to high for the meter to read. My breathing got faster, my heart started racing faster & my teeth began to chatter! Mr. Estep rushed me to the ER. On the way my whole body began to shake uncontrollable. My teeth was chattering but I was burning up. I even had the car window all the way down & it was quite chilly out. Once we got there & I was seen my heart rate was 140 something (to high) my sugar was 400 something (to high) & was even higher before we got there. My meter reads sugars up to 595. So it had to be in the 600-700 area before we got there. My potassium levels was to low. They did tests, blood work & a chest X-ray. They found out from the chest x-ray that I have a bit of bronchitis. They brought my heart rate back down to the 100-107 range. My heart wasn't racing anymore, the shaking stopped & no more chattering teeth. They told me I was hyperventilating. :/ The low potassium levels was causing my heart to beat irregular (reason I had been feeling funny.) & Also the reason I have had intense leg pain/cramps for the longest time now. I never knew low potassium could be so dangerous.

Here are the side effects from having low potassium:

Muscle Cramps

Muscle Fatigue and Weakness

Irregular Heartbeat

Fatigue

Mental Confusion

Irritability

Abnormally Dry Skin

Insatiable Thirst

Chills

Depression

Nausea and Vomiting

Nervousness

Insomnia

Diarrhea

Low Blood Pressure

Periodic Headaches

Salt Retention

Constipation

High Cholesterol Levels

Glucose Intolerance

Impaired Growth

Edema

Extreme cases, cardiac arrest 

Woah, what a list huh? Needless to say my legs are hurting like no other. I have a prescription for some potassium pills & also some antibiotics for my bronchitis. I am going to buy some over the counter daily potassium supplements for the future & eat more foods/drinks with potassium in them. Otherwise readers I am back to my normal self (other than the leg pain.)