gogo, I think you hit the trifecta with the combo of circumstances you had. Low potassium combined with dehydration from flying combined with extreme pain from a double leg cramp....yikes!! Deb is right, all the symptoms you describe can be caused by low potassium, and then the extreme pain combined with getting up too fast if you are dehydrated can make you faint.

Our bodies tolerance to changes in potassium levels is very poor. If you are taking that much per day in order to feel normal, then abruptly stop or miss 5 doses as you indicated....your body's level made a drastic drop quickly. Our bodies don't like that....and yours decided to let you know....:)) in a rather dramatic way!!!

The funny breathing sound was probably airway obstruction because of your position on the floor. Propping you up didn't help you to come out of your faint, but it probably helped your airway open which is the more important of the two at the time. You need to teach your boyfriend how to open your airway, since you said it is not the first time in your life that you have fainted. Usually tilting your head back will open your airway.

I don't know how long of a flight it was, but you always have to be concerned about a deep vein thrombosis (dvt) in your legs. Pain in your legs after a flight, especially accompanied with swelling of one leg and not the other, would be the symptoms of that. You need to get to an ER if you see that. Your symptoms sound bilateral, and sound like cramps instead of pain and swelling.

I hope you are feeling better. At your next doctor appt, you should ask to get your potassium checked. That will give you an idea of where you are with the dosage you are taking, and possibly if you need more than what you are currently taking.

Hope this helps :))

Barb

wilsong and erreca, this protocol really messes with our TOM....mine went away for 3 months, then came back again on its regular schedule. Others seem to have a period every 2 weeks (I prefer my body's reaction, thank you very much :) ), so as long as you are not bleeding for weeks on end, I would just do the old wait and see....and hopefully it will return to normal when you get to p3.

Barb

I'm pretty sure breakthrough bleeding like that can be from a progesterone deficiency. If you're on the pill you're getting high levels of estrogen. Unfortunately the pill and estrogen creams throw the hormones out of whack and can cause a progesterone deficiency.

Ideallly a menstruating woman would never use progesterone creams bc it's almost a never of not being able to make progesterone, but imbalances and pathway breakdowns. However i can't help but wonder if some sublingual progesterone might help in these cases. Sublingual is better than cream bc it breaks down quickly and doesn't accumulate in the fat.

Also, abnormal fat is basically an estrogen warehouse and as you lose the fat you release estrogen into your bloodstream, further compounding the problem.

Female hormones are complex and I'm by no means an expert, but this is the little bit i've picked up in my education.

Beestly, thanks so much for your comments. Do you know where I can buy progesterone? Can you get sublingual progesterone in any stores?

ILuvKats, it's in between the two you asked. It's not extremely heavy. But I need a tampon or a pad every day. And it's about the same every day.