As a caregiver, I’m amazed at how much medical information about the person I care for is thrown at me. The first thing I do is a Google search to learn about the condition, treatment, or medication.
Sometimes, I’m inspired to write about the subject. The inspiration for this mini-post came from my mom having so many occurrences of fluid buildup in her body.
Like the average layperson, I initially thought too much fluid came from drinking an overabundance of liquid. However, it’s much more than that.
Although more than half of the human body is fluid (blood, etc.), there is a point where it can’t hold anymore without causing an issue.
I learned through my research that there is a medical term for fluid overload, hypervolemia.
Causes for this condition could include (but are not limited to) experiencing a hormone imbalance, heart problems, or kidney disease.
Let’s remember sodium’s role in maintaining the body’s electrolytes and what happens when there’s too little inside during a fluid overload event.
The most obvious sign of a body filled with too much fluid is swelling in arms or legs, also known as edema.
What I find so interesting is how body parts swell from fluid overload. For instance, the swelling could start slowly, and you may notice the arm getting bigger over a few weeks. Or, you could go to bed one night and wake up with huge legs.
Treatment for hypervolemia depends on what the root cause of the problem is.
In Mom’s case, she doesn’t drink a lot of liquids nor does she add extra salt to her food.
In fact, in December 2020 Mom’s legs looked almost like tree trunks and she was experiencing severe shortness of breath so we knew there was a serious problem.
So, what caused her to retain water?
As noted in my post on health issues leading to caregiving we finally learned that Mom had an underlying condition, congestive heart failure, that led to her body retaining too much fluid.
Mild cases of hypervolemia are not usually a major concern. However, when symptoms like excessive water retention, difficulty breathing, or heart palpitations occur, it may be best to seek immediate medical help.
