free water

[angelcake024]

Hello! I am a nursing student, in my second semester. I have a question. Its actually about my dad. He has some health problems: HTN, liver problems...Today he had gotten a message on the answering machine from one of this doctors saying they received a copy of his bloodwork from another doctor and said that his sodium was critically low. The message told him if he was getting any cramps or confusion its due to his low sodium. They told him to hold his free water and then to call his PCP on monday for an appt asap. It was after 6pm so we couldn't call the office back. He isn't having any problems, says he feels fine. I haven't heard the term "free water" so we aren't really sure what exactly is ment by holding free water. He is on a diuretic, not sure which one, but I'm guessing that this may have something to do with his low sodium. So my question is what is free water?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Call the doctor's answering service and tell them you need to have the doctor call you back to talk with you about this "hold his free water" order left on your answering machine today because (1) dad never had such an order (2) you have no idea what "free water" means and it needs to be explained.

[pinkiepie_RN]

Here's a wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_water

It sounds like maybe he's on too strong of a diuretic, possibly one that isn't sparing K or Na. H2O follows Na so he's not holding onto water like he would normally be.

Does that help? I feel like I know what I'm trying to say but I'm not sure I'm phrasing it properly.

[angelcake024]

It does help....I was kind of thinking the same thing along that line. He was put on the diuretic for this CV problems but I believe that a couple of months ago they doubled his dose of the diuretic because of the swelling in his legs and it wasn't helping at all. I'm not sure what all went on to get him back on the right tract but I know the swelling isn't like it was at that time. thank you!!!