[Shannon in ATL]

Rough night at the hospital last night, so I'm here giving my mother a break. My dad had the dog put to sleep this morning, and my mom is pretty broken. We are a hot mess in here.

[JayZeeJay]

Oh Shannon, I'm so sorry. It sounds like a snowstorm of emotional and physical struggles for your family right now. My heart goes out to your parents for the loss of their dog. Continued best wishes and thoughts for your grandpa.

I've tried to embrace the weather; went running and hiking in the rain and wind this weekend, and have yet to miss a day of walking or bicycling to work. Today it was a monsoon and I had to hold my umbrella sideways to protect my laptop the whole way here. After 5 months of this, I've come to essentially live in Goretex and rainboots. On the plus side, I finally weighed myself and it was better than I expected after months of non-monitoring. Apparently I hit that tipping point where I'm at work long enough each day that there's not enough time to overeat once at home. A mixed blessing.

[traveling michele]

Originally Posted by Shannon in ATL

Rough night at the hospital last night, so I'm here giving my mother a break. My dad had the dog put to sleep this morning, and my mom is pretty broken. We are a hot mess in here.

More hugs and prayers to you and your family.

[alinnell]

So sorry, Shannon.

[saef]

Tuesday morning, and I was relieved to be at a neutral, same-weight-as-yesterday 156.6.

Shannon, so much loss and pain and fear. I am so sorry.

[ICUwishing]

Shannon, great big virtual hugs to all of you. That is a lot to swallow in one small timeframe. And thank you for starting the new thread! Baby steps it is.

I've taken enough baby steps to maintain the post-sickness loss. Over the last few weeks I have taken up semi-regular visits to the track at lunchtime for about 45 minutes of walking at a good clip. Often I have a coworker with me, but I am enjoying the time with music just as much. Yesterday I also got back in the pool for a baby-steps first "real" workout of 2300 yards.

Work sucks. It doesn't, actually - it's my disconnect with it and constant desire to be somewhere else, doing something else.

[saef]

Wednesday morning, and I'm at 156.5, and reminding myself about chemistry, that ingesting more potassium than sodium is what makes the water drain away. Ankles still swollen up, but I am now avoiding the roasted pepper-and-salt chickpeas that were not a good salad topping for me.

I think I've hit the peak of that work project that I was pulled on to salvage, though I did work on it through my three-day weekend.

[traveling michele]

Hmmm... never heard or thought about trying to have more potassium than sodium....

Dh had a bad day at work yesterday and cooked last night. Very yummy but tasted salty to me. He swore he didn't use salt but it was on the counter with everything else he used. So.... I didn't fuss but I'm not surprised my weight is up some today.

Younger dd comes home tonight for a long weekend. Looking forward to seeing her but I know it will throw off my regular schedules. I'm glad she'll get to see Charlotte (our kitty with kidney disease) again as she is her baby and it may be the last time.

[Shannon in ATL]

So potassium? I need to check that out.

I got my mom out of the hospital for a few hours last night - my dad came up and sat with grandaddy, so I took her to my house. She slept for about 4 hours, took a shower, ate some dinner. We couldn't get her to stay and sleep overnight, took her back about 10:30. He then kept her up all night. He is grouchy at night. They picked him up for dialysis at 8 this morning, so he'll be gone until at least noon. I had them put a do not disturb on the door and we put her phone on airplane so it won't be binging with text messages all morning and she's trying to sleep. I came to work for a few hours, as all I was doing was keeping her up and focused on me. The TTP is responding well to treatment, platelet count is back up to 144,000. His kidney numbers were a little better yesterday and a little more better today. Continuing dialysis. He popped up with a heart arrythmia after the dialysis on Monday, so they will start treating that today. Apparently the arrythymia can cause blood clots if left untreated. When we told him that he said "aren't blood clots what I have already?" Well. Yeah. We still don't know where this all came from, but there is a theory floating that he was exposed to the flu - as my mom had it last week, it makes sense. One of the hematologists told us the flu can cause spontaneous TTP in the elderly in his experience. We haven't heard that anywhere else, so who knows. We'll likely never know what caused it.

I'm tired. And congested with allergy season starting. And fat and bloated and grouchy. On the fat and bloated, my mother says I look noticeably different this week than I did when she saw me Superbowl Sunday, and looked different then from two weeks before. Once this settles, she wants me to see a doctor. She thinks something is off kilter - she theorized thyroid, blood pressure, or hormones. She says I look noticeably bloated with visible changes daily, a little off color, and even with the diet I've described (she looked at my food log, and I'm honest on it even when it sucks) that I shouldn't have gained as much as it looks like I have in just a couple of weeks. She also said it could be stress and tension, or depression. I'm going to go get a blood workup next week and start the process. I don't know if she is right, or if she is trying to make me feel better. We've had a complicated relationship with weight my mom and I over the years, and she often has made me feel bad. This time her tone sounds concerned.

[Shannon in ATL]

Michele - I just absorbed the bit about Charlotte. Not doing well?

[HowlinAtTheMoon]

I'm a potassium tracker, and I can tell you it is hard to get the recommended daily amount of 4700 mg. I eat lots of veggies and I also put a packet of "nu salt" in my smoothie. That provides an extra 500 mg and I can't really taste it. It definitely helps with water retention and blood pressure. Before I started being aware of potassium a couple of years ago, my bp was getting up there, like 140 over 80. Now it is more like 114 over 68.

My weight fluctuates a couple of pounds regardless of salt, fluid intake and anything else I can pinpoint. I just have to live with it and trust that what goes up must come down if my behavior remains good. This week my weight has gone between 122.5 and 125 and I can't really tell you why. What is maddening is when you go to bed hungry and the scale is higher in the morning anyway!

Sending gentle white light to all ailing animal friends and human friends!

[traveling michele]

Just ordered some Magnesium to add to my daily supplements. I'll see if I see any results.

Shannon-- Charlotte is hanging in there for now. Her days are obviously numbered though. Just not sure how many numbers there are left! We are giving her Sub-Q fluids 2 out of 3 nights and it has made her perkier-- no vomiting and she is urinating less so I think her kidneys are functioning more efficiently. She is just getting tiny. She was always 9.5-10 pounds. Her brother, Wilbur, is a chunky 14 pounds and she is 6 on a fat day.

[Mudpie]

Originally Posted by traveling michele

Just ordered some Magnesium to add to my daily supplements. I'll see if I see any results.

Shannon-- Charlotte is hanging in there for now. Her days are obviously numbered though. Just not sure how many numbers there are left! We are giving her Sub-Q fluids 2 out of 3 nights and it has made her perkier-- no vomiting and she is urinating less so I think her kidneys are functioning more efficiently. She is just getting tiny. She was always 9.5-10 pounds. Her brother, Wilbur, is a chunky 14 pounds and she is 6 on a fat day.

You probably do feed Wilbur and Charlotte separately - right Michele? And monitor to make sure he doesn't get to her food?

Dagmar

[traveling michele]

Originally Posted by Mudpie

You probably do feed Wilbur and Charlotte separately - right Michele? And monitor to make sure he doesn't get to her food?

Dagmar

No, they share food but she is a little piggie. She's always the first to the bowl! She's definitely not hungry. Just not utilizing the calories as well with her disease.

[saef]

Thursday, up to 157.5. No, I'm not pleased about that.

I worked till late and then watched a little bit of "My 600-lb Life" on TV and related so much to the bedridden woman who still couldn't stop eating. I felt like her. I had to look down at my body to remind myself that I am not her.

It helps me when I achieve a balance between working from home and driving to CT. Too much working from home means burrowing in and I eat more and move less.