Potassium, Schmotassium. . . . . or how to get stomach ulcers in 3 hours.

Olivia had a full blood work up performed Wednesday afternoon as part of her routine monitoring.  Poor baby had 7 or 8 separate vials drawn, looking at Liver, Kidney, Vitamin D&E, Clotting times, Red & white cells.  It took two separate draws to get all the needed blood.  I thought we'd get a little prune back by the time they were  done.  All the while, Miss Olivia regaled all in her close proximity  with her high pitched Operatic Solo meant to shatter glass.

At about 7:30 that evening we get a phone call from the GI doctor on call at U of M saying there was a problem with Olivia's blood and we need to get to the hospital ASAP to have the value rechecked/confirmed. He indicated that her Potassium level was extremely elevated (dangerously if it was true). Her Potassium was reading at greater than 7 was pushing into a range that could cause life threatening heart arrythmias. The Dr. was suspicious that the elevated value was due to lab error though and just wanted us to double check at the hospital.

We waited at the Emergency Room for well over an hour before they came to draw her blood and then had to wait for another hour or more to get her results. When the tech finally returned with her results, we were relieved to find out that Olivia's Potassium was 5.9 -- elevated, but not to any dangerous level. Most likely the way the blood was drawn earlier in the day caused some damage to the Red Blood cells. This damage can release significant amount of Potassium creating the falsely elevated value we  saw.   WHEW -- Dodged another bullet.

For those feline fans out there, here's a picture of some of our Cat Pride investigating a bottle that's been stolen off the table. They are really in love with the bottle nipples.