My husband has taken potassium supplements for more than 20 years. He took 20 mil equivalents every day, 10 in the morning and 10 at night. Last July, his doctor stopped the potassium and put him on Dyazide. After 2 days, he stopped the dyazide, as he was getting dehydrated. 2 days later he went into atrial fibrillation, with his heart rate jumping as high as 220. He didn't stay in a-fib, but rather was popping in and out. His first thought iwas "I have to be low on potassium." He took a fair amount, (2 pills, and he drank orange juice-4 cups of it) and I called the ambulance. In the hospital, they drew his blood to check the potassium levels, because he insisted on it. After what he had taken, waiting about half an hour by the time the ambulance arrived and another half hour to the hospital (we live in a very rural area) when his levels came back, it was at 2.4. He was put on IV potassium and transported to a bigger hospital, an hour away. This all took several hours. By the time he got to the bigger hospital, his blood levels were almost normal. They gave him some more and sent him home, after increasing him to 4-10 mil equivalents a day. From that time, he has had to gradually increase the amount of potassium he is taking. He has been to the ER 3 more times, and spent 3 days in the bigger hospital, at one point. At that time, it was found that his magnesium levels were low. So, they also increased the magnesium he was taking. His blood is being drawn monthly, and his levels are normal, at this time. This is becoming completely unmanageable, and extremely scary. We have had multiple scares where his heart rate only increased some, and he immediately took extra potassium and magnesium, and came back out of it. He saw a nephrologist through IHS (Indian Health Service) and they did a lot of blood work. One thing to note, all of his blood work has also shown his sodium and chloride levels to be low, too, but not as significantly. He also tested anemic, and was put on iron. The last check was nnormal on that. The next trip to get the results of that blood work by the nephrologist, he saw a different nephrologist (oh the joys of government health care!) who literally blew him off. Told him there was nothing they could do for him, and he would just have to keep going to the ER. I know there is a lot more than can be checked, but I don't even know where to start. I am really scared for my husband!