Today the PA from the cardiologist office said "You had CHF symptoms." That made me think it might not be CHF. They are doing a heart cath tomorrow. I hate that but the doctor who is doing it is my favorite cardiologist. I guess I need it, so do it.

I found out I'm supposed to be limiting my fluids. They didn't tell me that. I drank a lot yesterday so cut back today. I also didn't eat all my meals, just the meat and vegetables.

I think DH is ok, but he had some bruises and some skin scraped off his arm.

I'm ready to go home.

Carol Sue Thanks for letting me know what is going on. I will continue to pray for you as well as your DH. They limited me on liquids when I was in the hospital but never mentioned any heart problems. I think that is because I am cancer patient.T Boy do I understand you wanting to go home. At our age, we just don't want to go to the hospital unless we have no choice. Strange thing is I remember my Grandmother not wanting to go. I pray they will find the answers you need and be home by the weekend.

I finished reading the 2023 DASH diet book I bought while DH was shopping. He got upset with me because I didn't ride a cart and go in with him, but I want to do that when he goes to Walmart. I think I could do low carb even on DASH diet. I found several DASH groups on FB to learn more and one is a low carb group. So I look forward to see what they say.

My walking was better today. I actually got out of the car by myself when we got home and made it into the house holding on to the car on one side and the work bench DH made that is nailed to the wall. I was so proud of myself. My feet are still swollen but I actually think some of the swelling is down. I think sleeping with legs on pillow is helping.

Have a good nights sleep Dear Friend and we pray things go well tomorrow so you can get back home in a few days.

Trish, they gave me paperwork for a low sodium diet but I put it in my purse to read when I get home. Their goal is to get my valve replaced over the next couple months. More info later.

Carol Sue I pray your cath has gone well. I don't much about it but figure you will be resting afterwards. I just pray it goes well. One of the reasones I like the DASH diet plan is that it is also a low sodium diet. I am back on MFP as of today and it limits sodium to no more than 2300 mg but I'm not sure how much a doctor would limit it to. It will be interesting to see what your paperwork says when you can read it.

I made myself a 1/3 c dry old fashioned oats and added a banana and lowfat yogurt and a T of p eanut butter to it. I was so proud of myself. I told my babysister that I am taking baby steps doing something new each day but I am so excited that I can do it. I remember Daddy talking about a friend he had who had a heart attack and couldn't walk very far. He started out walking a few steps he could walk until one day he was able to walk out to the mail box and eventually got to where he could walk again. I feel like that is what I am doing.

Prayers continue for you and your DH. Hope everybody has a nice day.

Hi Friends: back from my trip. I was worried about my weight gain, but this afternoon I am at 172. so nothing bad. The food was very good, but so much, great breakfasts, lunches, tea time, and supper. and a few special treats of beverages as well. They did great with my GF diet, but had too many desserts for my low carb diet. I was exercising a lot on landings, with big hikes etc. so that surely helped.
Back to the real world. I will catch up a bit on posts, and Carol, blessings and best wishes.

Fatmad Welcome back. Glad you had a great time and weight was not messed up either.

Mad, its good to see you back. I'm glad to hear you had an enjoyable trip.

I am hoping to go home today but its up to the doctors. I am working toward changing my breathing. I have a tendency to be a shallow,
breather I'm learning to take deeper breaths. I also note that oxygen goes lower when I talk or eat. I will start eating slower taking a deeper breath between bites. DH will be happy to have me talking less. LOL.

It seems that I may need to drink less fluid. I get much hungrier since they are limiting my fluids. I dont know if they will prescribe Lasix for home. It will be hard for me to limit fluids. I' m getting 3 small meals per day. I am hungry for each one and hungry at bedtime. I get a snack at bedtime but I will not do that at home. Blood sugar was 300+ all day yesterday from the prednisone but down to 250 this am. It will continue to go down as the prednisone leaves my body. I will do low sodium as well as i can. I'm getting used to not salting my food. But I don't know how I will do with canned and packaged foods. In restaurants I order my meat with no seasoning. Trish I will share my information with you. You are very lucky to have no heart problems. I know this cancer has set you back but overall I think you are very healthy.

Hopefully the next post will be from home.

HI everyone:
I can't believe that I stepped on the scale this morning and had broken through to 169, so finally out of the 170s. I am not sure how that happened with all the eating on the ship. It makes no sense, but I thought I was doing ok because my clothes did not feel tight or anything. Because I was layering a lot, I took some extra large pieces of clothing, and they were a bit big at the end of the trip still, just like before the trip, so I figured my weight gain was minimal, but did not expect to lose weight. I left the extra large things for the thrift store. So all good news there. I can only surmise that the activity on board and on excursions was helping a LOT.
Carol: I can understand your concern about fluids, because that is a great way to mitigate hunger. Another good way is to walk and be sure of getting some exercise. I hope your breathing improves to the point that you can do that. Coming back to the heat and humidity reminds me why it can be difficult to walk a lot out of doors in the summer. I took Buddy to the dog park this morning before the worst of the heat hits.
Trish: I am really happy that your health continues to improve, and the focus on healthy eating is number one. Exercise next. then weight loss if needed.
I see we have a couple of other members hanging out again, and I hope we all continue.
I am going to go back to checking sugars for a while to see where I am at, and get that regulated again.
Blessings and best wishes everyone!

Carol Sue I hope you can go home today. I know I do better at home. You will too. I'm using MFP mostly to keep an eye on keeping my sodium low. DH wants to eat franks so we can use the saurkraut we have in fridge. High sodium meal but by the time I got it low for the sodium I have less than 1100 calories and my carbs are only 21% of my calories. I think the plan I need to follow for anti-inflammatory woe and CHF woe are the same so we can help each other.

I brought home that plastic thing they have us use in the hospital to see how well we breathe so I can use it so I can work at breathiing deeper. I've used it a few times. I have to work at eating slower too. I am getting better at it but still have to remind myself to slow down if I'm really hungry.

Fatmad Congratulations on getting below 170. You probably were more relaxed on your trip and didn't eat as much as you thought you were. You may have been more active than you realized you were too.

I am doing pretty good. I don't know how hard oncologist is going to hit me with my last chemotherapy so don't know how it is will affect me during my first 14 days. I will continue to be as active as I can during those days, but I have plans to start back to using my recumbent bike on day 15 when my immune system starts building strength again. I will have to have DH help me get my feet on the peddles but I do believe I can use it hoping to get my legs strong again. I do as much as I can now using my walker because I notice that walking a little more each day seems to make it easier for me to do more the next day.

I was getting so tired of the same protein shake flavor all the time. When DH went to our local store Monday, they had a display of their on brand of protein shake in different flavors. They had 30 g of protein just like Premier. I had one this morning and it is really tasty.

Hope everybody has a good day.



Fatmad

Mad, I am not steady enough to walk outside. I use my treadmill so I can hold onto the handrails and I'm in air condition. Good job on the weight loss.

Trish,I have had that breathing apparatus in the past but got anew one now. I almost ordered one on Amazon. I plan on using it regularly. They explained to me how it works.

I didn't go home and maybe not tomorrow either. Now my kidneys are screwed up from the contrast dye. I will go for an exray today that will show,whats wrong and bloodwork tomorrow to see if there's improvement.

They took me off all BP meds and will reevaluate and start over. I am glad because I know I was taking meds that were not working for me. In fact, I have been taking a med that I should never have been taking for 10 years! I cried half the day today but I'm calmed down. Nothing can be done but move forward. So I might come home tomorrow or Friday depending on my kidneys. All in all, i'm glad I didn't have to go to the casino this week.

Trish,I hope the future is bright for both of us.

Carol Sue I'm sorry you didn't get to go home. I pray all will go well and you can go home tomorrow or Friday. I pray we have a bright future too.

I had 2 final tests and I guess if the results are good I will go home. Yay!

Carol Sue I pray the 2 tests go good so you can go home.

I just cooked and ate 2 sl bacon, 2 eggs with a sprinkle of cheese on top, a slice of toast and a cup of decaf instant coffee and ended the meal with a banana. I have my calories figured out for the day and if I don't add or change anything I will end up with less than 1200 calories. DH found some ocean perch fillets in the freezer so that is what we are having today. I will have my salad and probably some broccoli with it.

I never heard from the DASH diet groups on FB once I answered their questions and went to pending. So I googled to see what I could find on line and on YouTube and it lead me to Eating Well.com. I took their magazine years ago when I lived in SC. They have some great recipes and health info so I think I will use their guidelines which are similar to DASH and continue using MFP to keep up with calories etc.

Today is day 14 of this round of chemo. My legs felt so heavy the longer I stood and moved around cooking breakfast so I think I will have DH help me start using the recumbent bike maybe today, but tomorrow for sure and do a little everyday. I almost forgot to share that I checked my FBG this morning and it was 112. I got my lab report this morning and my glucose was 102. Looks like it has come back down from those higher #s in the hospital. Thank God.

Carol Sue I hope your next post will be from home.

Have a nice day everyone.

I'm going home later today! Yay! I will post when I can.

I'm home now. We stopped at Wal-Mart. They had left a message that my refill was ready for my diabetes meds. I also had a prescription from the hospital for a water pill. They had me on Lasix in the hospital but the one for home is a milder one. I have to read over my discharge papers and find out everything I have to do.

My dog was happy to see me and I was happy to see him.