Uninformed Nurses

my Dr Rx 20 mEq tablets with my Lasix 40mg everyday. The mfg companies need to rethink their making of such a ' large and hard to swallow tablet'! I have choked numerous times and have had to be given medical help! Recently my RN crushed my tablet While I was in the hospital and I was found unresponsive. I have chronic abdominal pain 24/7, gastroparesis, gerds, and IBS. Remember the majority of K+ users are the elderly who have a difficulty swallowing!!!
Nurse Jackie

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I don't know why you think the crushing of the medication had anything to do with you being found unresponsive. Potassium is not supposed to be crushed because of its corrosive properties. It can cause esophageal and stomach lining corrosion, the same way it burns if infused too quickly through an IV. Literally, nothing to do with why you were found "unresponsive". We don't give it IV push because that can be too fast directly into the circulatory system. Anything that needs to go through the digestive tract first, is going to take quite some time....just like the syrup. And if you really are a nurse, Jackie, as I am, then you would know that when a patient is no longer able to swallow the pill (of which the size cannot be changed) the doctor starts them on liquid Klor Con. So much of your comment makes me think, you're not a real nurse. These are very easy fixes to K+ problems. Also, I have been on 30 mEq of Klor Con for years so I know both sides of the great potassium problem. You know what I did in the ER when the nurse set my infusion rate too high and my vein felt like it was on fire....I hit the call light and told her to slow it down. So if you knew K+ isn't supposed to be crushed and you're a nurse too, why didn't you just tell the nurse that you refused to take it crushed? Something doesn't add up here.

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