PURE FUCKING LUCK:
While Blog hopping today Molly came upon an incident of what can best be described as "Pure Fucking Luck" on the Wolfe's Blog in our Blogs list of our Links section. The writer describes the case of a friend of his whom he found "down" with a rapid weak pulse and cold clammy skin after a day of coffee, a pasta meal and four hours of vigorous ski-ing. By pure ignorant luck the writer treated the "downer" with a pediatric fluid replacer(the downer HAD diarrhea), and he was led to swear by the efficacy of the remedy which he believed was due to a correction of "dehydration". In actual fact he supplied at best !!!! 1/10th of the necessary fluid to correct clinical dehydration. What the downer was obviously suffering from was hypokalemia, a potassium deficiency of which Molly is very much aware, not just in animals, but also as something she has to guard herself against while working in the heat of summer outside. The problem revolves around the fact that "skiers", unless they have a medical background, are generally totally ignorant about this problem. It goes against the grain of their views to actually learn about it. Pretty well anybody over 40 who works construction during the summer knows it very well, hence the great sales of drinks such as Gator-Aid. These people don't end up down on the floor, or if they do they talk to others and learn very rapidly what has happened. The remedy proposed by the writer will work, but it leads to all sorts of illusion about how to avoid becoming a "downer". "Salt" is not important. Potassium content is.