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Granddaughter fighting eating disorder

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jayceevee40
jayceevee40

Granddaughter lives with me and has been fighting extremely low potassium this past week or however long.  Daughter had to call ambulance for her as she was on the side of the road about passed out.  Very heavy chest, doctor in emergency room told her that if his potassium had been that low, he would have been dead.  She is now 27, and has fought binging/purging for many years.  Stress always exacerbates the issue, the latest was breakup with boyfriend, before that going through a divorce, no children thank God.  Her Mom had these issues but overcame them but my granddaughter just seems to not be able to get past this horrible illness.  She came to live with me so I see the results of the food at night and cleaning up the commode the next day, I also see where the food goes.  She has abused laxatives, pretty much keeps a bottle of milk of magnesia handy at all times.  I just would like to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  After the divorce and moving back home, she lost her medical insurance so that is tough also.  She has an appointment next week with a county facility so she can pay on a sliding scale and the labwork is free.  I guess I'm very concerned as her potassium chloride 20MEQ are out as of yesterday and her appointment isn't until next week and I worry about her potassium dropping any lower.   I have bought coconut water, V8, dried apricots, salmon, tuna, clams, clam chowder, kale, spinach, avocados and she is eating these and for the most part they seem to be staying down but she eats so little and works out at the gym every day which I think she should curtail.  She is a hair stylist and the sweetest girl ever, breaks this grandmothers heart.  Oh yes, I also have blackstrap molasses that she uses in green tea as this is another good source for potassium.  Her Mom also had this going on for quite a few years and finally overcame it just to have a brain abscess in 2013, yet another story.  This is one tired grandmother worried to pieces that we will lose this girl.  Any encouraging words are appreciated.  So tough with no insurance, she is not eligible as yet at work and she has to wait until open enroll with the ACA insurance.

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • jayceevee40
    jayceevee40

    Posted

    An addendum...granddaughter has been in a treatment facility for her ED twice for several weeks each time.  She absolutely knows how to eat and when given the tools always did very well but an abusive marriage took its tool and we are back to square one. 
  • maria73763
    maria73763 jayceevee40

    Posted

    Hi hope you are well .My daughter has been bulimic on and of for 7 years she has also been anorexic during this time .She lives away at the moment studying at uni she also says she is better now which I want to believe . only time will tell .She is moving back home soon so I will know if she has beat this or not .In the past I use to dread her coming home from uni even though I missed her and wanted to hug her ,I have 3 younger children and her illness had and still has an effect on them .Food disappearing from the cupboards, cereal finished in a day ,my other children had to hide there sweets and snacks ! If my daughter was alone at home she would search there rooms and find there sweets ,I would find hundreds of sweet wrappers under her bed after she went back to uni ,then comes the bags full of sick and cleaning sick of the toilet ,.On top of all that comes the worry ,there were so many times when I thought I would lose her ,watching someone you love going through an eating disorder is heart wrenching .All we can do is be there for them and try and educate them more on healthy eating .Hang on in there you will get through this 😊
    • jayceevee40
      jayceevee40 maria73763

      Posted

      Thank you for the reply.  It seems like all goes well for a while, then there is an episode, usually after some stress, first was divorce over a year ago, now a broken relationship with a fellow she had known 17 years as a friend which she took hard.  He wasn't who she thought he was, oh well.  I went by our local health grocery today and bought her some potassium glutomate 75 mg and Whole Earth and Sea multivitams, plant based.  She took potassium chloride 20 meq (3000 mg) for a week but has no refill. Trying to tide her over until she gets to county NP for exam and labwork.  She is so into being fit and being slim that it is such an obsession.  Her Mom keeps trying to convince her to cease the gym for a while so she can get built back up with little success.  Sadly, she knows what to do, her two stints in a wonderful facility for several weeks gave her all the tools she needed.  Most of them were much worse than she was.  Hoping so that your daughter has found the tools within to get past this.  Thanks again.
    • melissa89834
      melissa89834 jayceevee40

      Posted

      I Know how u feel. I am so deficient in potassium n constantly have to stay on Top of it. I drink a litre of coco water daily + 1800mgs in supplements which isnt near enough but Seen as iv tummy prob i can only take a few. Its extremely hard to build potassium back up you need alot to get stores back up. My k dropped pretty quick due to Bad gastritis n tummy infection which was missed. If they had of got infection on time i might have been saved the whole ordeal with potassium as i felt like id swine flu with infection i literally had no energy. I begged doctors to help me but they put me down as psychological which i was Not. My whole insides we're in turmoil n i couldnt control it. It saddens me i wasnt believed n how stupid These docs we're. I went from 9stone to 7 in short time...a day is too long with tummy infection never mind months...after One month i went 4 second opinion who knew id infection in instant n ordered camera Test something none of other young Idiot docs did. Anyway i near had heart attack at 3.4 anything under 4 is Bad 4 Most ppl...I got some k supps in Hospital but as soon as they stopped symptoms returned but bloods we're showing normal!!!(incorrectly elevated) my legs were cramping so much i had bruises deep dark bruisrs in them my back muscles were locked i couldnt move with weakness n dizziness...n no1 believed me...the nurses we're horrible to me treating me like a mental case n docs just kept staring at me when i told them something is wrong with me....I had severe hypokalemia...I actually near had heart attach Episode in hosp the list goes on...I suffered profusely These symptoms für over a months with excessive thirst n severe dehydration...but bloods still showing in the 4s....So 5 x k supps cannot put your k up into the 4s frankly it takes months of supplementstation..So k can be falsly elevated as only 2% in Blood the Rest is in cells....eventually the bloods came back down to 3.4 i immediately started consuming coco water n symptoms subsided so i knew it was like that...n after months of Not being able to eat properly my tummy got better only to be ripped up again by an antibiotic to treat stomach infection so im back to bland foods its torture im also Löw in Iron n cant take that due to sensitive intestines!! Im basically screwed n i was taking liquid Iron no prob b4 the last relapse when i took cabbage juice which Made my intestines bleeding...So im living like anorexic due to physical probs...n its Not fun i feel like an old woman n i honestly dont Know how they Do it ...It maddens me i cant get the nutrients i need into my Body...its so unfair....So i Know im Bit different but potassium is no Joke...hopefully supplements will build it back up4 your Grand daughter its the worst feeling in the world like you ve no oil in your Body..im praying my tummy n intestines heal so i can eat properly again n put nutrients n minerals in i need....I want my health n life back....I could have so easily died i was Rolling rd bed in horrific symptoms...I think this happened with englisch cambridge Student who died from Löw potassium...after being in Hospital 4 that so im wondering did Same thing happen to her they thought they gave her enough potassium but didnt....its scary!
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