I'm a 76-year-old woman with a very complex medical history whose body just doesn't follow the textbooks. Although I was trying to be very proactive around my SIADH and sometimes dangerously low sodium levels after hospitalization, spine surgery, pain meds, and IV fluids.

I had expressed my concerns to numerous medical professionals that my sodium which normally stays stable between 133 and 135 had jumped up to 138 after 3 days of about 3 liters a day of normal saline, but had dropped to 133 in less than 24 hrs after the saline drip was stopped and when my sodium level changes that fast, my system thinks it's overshot my stable sodium and overcorrects. It had dropped by 5 in 24 hours and I knew it would drop at least another 5 by the next morning. I had asked for an outpatient order for a BMP, but all the doctors had refused and discharge orders had already been written.

I talked to Shanee about it and she agreed I had a valid concern and kept calling doctors until she got an order, which isn't easy. I knew my sodium would be low so instructed a friend to take me for the blood draw the next day. It was down to 126 and by that time I was so out of it I wouldn't have been able to recognize something was urgently wrong and take steps to get the care I needed. If this had progressed untreated, I likely would have started having seizures and the whole 9 yards of fatal hyponatremia. Shanee's decision to press the doctors actually saved my life as I was able to get to the ER, be admitted, and receive proper treatment.