High potassium… stressed and need answers.

[kirstblxo]

(trigger- eating disorder)
Hi,

so back in January I went to my doctor about An eating disorder I’ve been dealing with for 15 years. I’m currently getting help for that… but when doing blood work in January at this doctors appointment my blood work came up with high potassium. Since then I’ve had a blood test every 2 weeks to monitor my potassium and it’s not come down whatsoever. They referred me to endocrinology and my bloods have come back normal with them but just still the high potassium. They said in my blood work that kidney function looks normal too. But they are now going to look back into my kidney ( they ruled it out before referring me to endocrinology) because they said there has to be a reason it’s high. They have asked me what my binging foods are (eating disorder related) and none of my binge foods are related to the high potassium. I just need help in what else this could bloody be cause I’m so worried about it and just want to know what’s going on. Has anyone else been in my position? Did you get answers?

thank you x

High potassium is a sign of kidney failure can be to kidney stress.

Hi there!
thanks for replying quick! Wouldn’t it show up in blood work if that was the case? Or would this need to be checked by scans etc?

The commonest cause by far is haemolysed blood- either difficult to get blood out of you or long delay in it getting to the lab (or both) - in either case the red cells become damaged and leak potassium. Assuming they’ve excluded kidney and adrenal causes (which I would assume your endocrine referral was for) and you’re not on any meds that affect potassium, it might be worth asking your GP if you can have bloods repeated right before the lab collection time to minimise delay.

@itsalwayscycling hi there,

yeah we have done that. Had them done right before collection. I’ve had around 9 blood tests now and all coming back high! It’s just weird and confusing!

If kidney function is normal is it worth exploring Addison's?

Type 1 diabetes can also cause high potassium but that's because of kidney damage.

@JetPlanesMeetingInTheAir2BRefuelled

yeah I think that’s what endocrine would have looked at, I’m positive it would have been Addisons they looked at. This is the thing my doctor is stumped. They are revisiting my kidneys because there’s no other reason. I get tested for diabetes yearly due to having gestational diabetes in my pregnancy last year so they are happy with my sugars and stuff. I genuinely don’t even know what’s going on. And all the obvious that’s been stated has been explored. I just don’t understand what’s going on and it’s worrying. I just hope someone can come along and say they were in the same position as me and it ended up being x, y and z.
thank you all for your replies I really appreciate it. Fingers crossed I get answers soon xx

Everything crossed for you for swift answers as I can tell this is worrying for you.

I am basing this on research that I did when my grandma had high potassium and seemingly no other symptoms. However she did then end up in acute kidney failure (in her mid 80s though!) - it sounds like it has been thoroughly checked out for you.

There was a random v rare blood clotty thing called ET that we read a case study about, something to do with bone marrow and the excess red blood cells breaking down and releasing potassium.

Well done for being belligerent, it can be so emotially exhausting and frustrating to push for answers 💐

@JetPlanesMeetingInTheAir2BRefuelled

oh… thank you so much for this! I may question my doctor on this if the further investigations end up nowhere ❤️❤️

you seem so kind, I really appreciate your advice and kind words xx

Hi
just reading your posts. I’m going through this at the moment. High potassium but rest of kidney function test was good. Have you had any luck with finding out why?