January 19, 2011

Dehydration is not a single event.  It is a combination of particular events over a period of time that result in your body removing more liquid than it takes in.  The serum part of the blood, the water, becomes less (obviously) and then the affects begin to pile on.  Dry mouth, light headed feeling, dry skin, dry lips, sometimes a bluish tint to the lips.  The list can get worse. What a complete bummer.  Seriously.

What's worse is that when your body's immune system has been compromised and while it heals, you can drink all the water you want and its not going to cure dehydration.  Today we are braving the cold weather and snow to travel back to the doctor to get mom some IV fluids.

I think I'll increase her intake of vegetable juices. Seems that there are reports supporting that veggie and fruit juices may be a little better at helping you over the dehydration bump.  It can't hurt and its better than slugging 8 to 12 glasses of water a day. And let's not talk about Gatorade - after one bottle of the stuff the gag reflect kicks in and its all over.

Curious mouth sores have appeared as well which we will get checked out today.  Probably due to the dehydration but we'll hopefully find out for sure today.

We will hopefully have a few answers by the end of the day.  You would think that with the number of people who have cancer and the number of treatments, that there would be one manual out there to tell you everything.  No such thing.