What Is The Test For Hypovolemia/low Blood Volume?

[UnicornIsis]

Doc A. said at some point I should have testing to see if I have low blood volume.

Now that I've moved and no longer see Doc A. on a regular basis, I'm slowly bringing my new doc up to speed on things and at the same time, only telling him what he needs to help me and not going to him with every little thing like I did Doc A. And if little things are bothering me, I either call Doc A., or save up several for when I go back to the new doc. He's just an internal med doc at the base hospital, not anything relating to Dysautonomia and hadn't heard of it before. But he's great and really willing to learn and try to help me with it. He's also great about saying when he's in over his head and sending me to a specialist or someone else he thinks might be able to help. So I'm pretty lucky.

The last appoinment was more of a check-up and to get official permission to get off the new med for something else I was taking that was lowering my blood pressure too much. Once that was taken care of I asked about getting tested for low blood volume. I already have hypokalemia--low potassium, which I'm on potassium suppliments for.

So he said since my electrolytes are already out of wack, extra low most of the time, it probably wouldn't be able to tell us much and would come back negative because my suppliments would put the level back up in normal range. And it had to be low for a positive test. All it was was a short blood test. They only drew one vial and I got the results a few days later saying that it was negative. When I called my doc back he said that I probably had it but he wouldn't take me off the suppliments just to get a positive result. Which I agree with unless its absolutely necessary. He was on vacation for a month and the doc handling his patients while he was gone got my refil prescription messed up and only had me on 8 MEQ's twice a day instead of 10 MEQ's twice a day. Believe it or not, but not getting those 4 MEQ's a day has really made me tired and have no energy.

There's bound to be some other test and from what some of y'all are posting it sounds like there IS another test. Can someone tell me what its called so I can tell my doc or describe it so I can tell my doc. If you describe it, I'll probably just print what y'all write and let him read it. Or send me to a link that I can either print or send him too. I'm not having much luck searching with google.

Thanks,

UnicornIsis

[futurehope]

I just had my blood volume checked (using a DAXOR BVA-100 machine) at Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C.

The website for this test:

http://www.daxor.com/bva100_howitcompares.html

I do not know how you can find where it's done near you, but maybe the website will help with that.

Good luck!

[goldicedance]

Nancy, Did you learn anything from this test that can help with treatment for you? Lois

[futurehope]

Lois,

I'll be calling into my neuro for results this coming week.

As for what I intend to do about it if I have a low blood volume problem......

Well, from reading this forum, I remember three options:

taking licorice extract

having IV saline available to me

getting Procrit injections

I tend to lean towards doing the easiest thing, so I'll let you know what the results are and what I decide to do if I have a problem.

[mrach]

Did you have your adrenal glands check you may have an adrenal insufficiancy that is causing you low electrolytes

Doc A. said at some point I should have testing to see if I have low blood volume.

Now that I've moved and no longer see Doc A. on a regular basis, I'm slowly bringing my new doc up to speed on things and at the same time, only telling him what he needs to help me and not going to him with every little thing like I did Doc A. And if little things are bothering me, I either call Doc A., or save up several for when I go back to the new doc. He's just an internal med doc at the base hospital, not anything relating to Dysautonomia and hadn't heard of it before. But he's great and really willing to learn and try to help me with it. He's also great about saying when he's in over his head and sending me to a specialist or someone else he thinks might be able to help. So I'm pretty lucky.

The last appoinment was more of a check-up and to get official permission to get off the new med for something else I was taking that was lowering my blood pressure too much. Once that was taken care of I asked about getting tested for low blood volume. I already have hypokalemia--low potassium, which I'm on potassium suppliments for.

So he said since my electrolytes are already out of wack, extra low most of the time, it probably wouldn't be able to tell us much and would come back negative because my suppliments would put the level back up in normal range. And it had to be low for a positive test. All it was was a short blood test. They only drew one vial and I got the results a few days later saying that it was negative. When I called my doc back he said that I probably had it but he wouldn't take me off the suppliments just to get a positive result. Which I agree with unless its absolutely necessary. He was on vacation for a month and the doc handling his patients while he was gone got my refil prescription messed up and only had me on 8 MEQ's twice a day instead of 10 MEQ's twice a day. Believe it or not, but not getting those 4 MEQ's a day has really made me tired and have no energy.

There's bound to be some other test and from what some of y'all are posting it sounds like there IS another test. Can someone tell me what its called so I can tell my doc or describe it so I can tell my doc. If you describe it, I'll probably just print what y'all write and let him read it. Or send me to a link that I can either print or send him too. I'm not having much luck searching with google.

Thanks,

UnicornIsis