Lung cancer & sodium

[Ajs1111]

My mum got taken into hospital a week today with confusion and symptoms of a stroke turns out she had very low sodium around 80 they also found cancer in her left lung and bronchial. A week later my mums sodium is still low at 122 meant to be 130 but I am so worried the confusion will be like this forever.. she doesn’t start a conversation stares into space and is just completely the opposite of who she was before she was unwell and went into hospital.. has any one else suffered or seen loved ones with low sodium will it fix itself once levels are normal ? Doctors aren’t giving me any answers and I’m going out of my mind.

Low sodium can be caused by a few things. Depending on your mams past medical history it's hard to say as it can be caused by medication etc.
Unfortunately low sodium is also very common in people with advanced lung cancer.
I would try and speak to your mother's medical team about it. If in the Uk there should be a lung cancer specialist nurse in the hospital.

I find they explain things better.

I'm sorry she is so poorly. I'm afraid the medical team won't be able to reassure you as it will be uncertain if she will or won't recover at the this point. Honestly it would be worth asking if they think that she is well enough for a biopsy if she has not yet had one, and I'm afraid if she needs palliative care

Has she been referred to Oncology or Palliative Care - they would be the teams with the most experience of managing this.

There are many causes of low sodium but certains types of lung cancer cause it themselves. If this is the case then unfortunately she is very unwell. It will also need treatment with medication rather than the usual 'wait and see' you get with other causes, however this is difficult and not always successful.

She is having a biopsy on Tuesday to find out what type of cancer it is.
her levels went up to 127 and she was so alert on Wednesday but since then have gone back down again.
they haven’t spoken about palliative care or help at home but said if she doesn’t change when she’s allowed home we would get help with that

They have also scanned to see if it has spread to any other organs and it hasn’t and brain scan came back fine thank you for replies

You need to ask/insist on a referral to community palliative care.

If she was presented in my MDT with the low sodium issue, I'd have booked her into my next clinic but I appreciate not all areas have the same access to pall med doctors.