The hospital

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. Here's the lastest development. I had to be

hospitalized again yesterday. The Gleevec after having the gastric

bypass 3 months ago has been causing errosions in my new pouch. I

can't take it with food and an 8 ozs of water. My pouch is the size

of a man's thumb. It wasn't an ulcer just my stomach lining being

eaten by the Gleevec. But it continues to cause problems with my

potassium level. I was discharged this afternoon and my potassium

level was and still is in the critical zone. Now I have been told

that I will no longer be allowed to be hooked up at home to a pump

pumping Potassium/Saline into my system to bring it up. If I take a

water pill to get the fluids off my heart (I have congestive heart

disease)and out of my legs, my kidneys work great, but it also causes

my potassium to drop.. Never had a problem in two years of being on 2

water pills and 20 Meq of potassium until just after having the

bypass. Now if I don't take the water pill, it causes the fluid to

retain around my heart, lungs, legs, and my kidneys will only put out

50cc of urine a day. My PCP has given me a choice. I can arrange my

schedule to have 4-6 hours of Potassium pumped into me at the Cancer

center here in town, or move into a nursing home community so that I

can be monitured. I am 52 and do not feel like living in a nursing

home is the solution. Everytime they take the IV out of my port, I

break out in a rash on both hands, arms, up past my elbows. They

break open and staph infection sets in. If I go off the Gleevec, I

will have to go on regular chemo therapy. How will that affect my

potassium problems, and will it cause the leukemia to go into the

next stage? I am so confussed that I don't know what to do. I don't

understand all this, I just know, that I can't keep anything down not

even the potassium pills or powder that is desolved in 4 ozs of

water. If you know anything about the chemo therapy instead of the

pills, besides throwing up more and losing my hair, I would sure like

the answers. Thanks Kathy