Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1007     Reading:  68

Blood Pressure:     No longer taken at this     time unless necessary

Breakfast:  1130  & Meds What she ate:  1 hard over egg, heavily peppered 3 slices thick cut sugar cured lean bacon 1 slice toasted oat bran bread with 1.5 tbl Fleischmann's margarine 1/4 tsp cinnamon on bread 6 oz orange juice diluted w/8 oz water
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
Niferex-150 [150 mg elemental iron]	1 hour before breakfast	to pull her out of what I hope is her temporarily severely anemic state
vitamin C/500 mg	1/2 1000 mg tab with Niferex-150	helps the body metabolize iron
100% Aloe Vera gel/1 oz	just before meal	helps increase the cells' sensitivity to insulin when used with glipizide
Protonix/40 mg	1 pill at least 1/2 hour pre-meal	standard pre-breakfast med
glipizide ER/10 mg	1 pill with meal	standard breakfast and dinner med to increase cells' sensitivity to insulin
aspirin/81 mg	1 tab with breakfast	standard breakfast med - given for anti-coagulant properties
lisinopril/2.5 mg	1/2 of 5 mg tab with meal	given for kidney protection when her blood pressure can handle it
Daily Senior Multivitamin	with breakfast	standard breakfast supplement
folic acid/400 mcg	with breakfast	standard breakfast supplement
garlic/1250 mg	with meal	standard breakfast supplement; a natural antibiotic and anti-coagulant
1/2 cup pure cranberry juice w/12 oz water	with or after meal	standard twice a day supplement for kidney protection and enhancement of waste management

    Fairly decently timed morning ritual, this morning. I even exclaimed to my mother as I set her breakfast in front of her, "My god, Mom, I believe you're going to be done with breakfast before noon!" She laughed.
    I was surprised at how low her blood sugar is. I don't like it getting this low. It surprised me, considering the Just Desserts dinner we had last night. I need to be careful, I guess, to make sure that she doesn't eat Just Desserts dinners too early or that I add something in order to make sure she stays above 70 throughout the night. I'm glad I didn't let her sleep in until noon, this morning.

BM Lunch

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1436     Reading:  189

Blood Pressure:     No longer taken at this     time unless necessary

Lunch:  1450  & Meds What she ate:  1/2 3 oz bag "lite" microwave popcorn 8 unpitted variety olives in a vinegar, olive oil, dill brine 11.5 oz V-8 juice with 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
36 mg Iron Protein Succinylate	2 18 mg tabs with meal	to pull her out of what I hope is her temporarily severely anemic state
vitamin C/500 mg	1/2 1000 mg tab with iron supplement	helps the body metabolize iron

    I know, her blood sugar was surprisingly high at lunch. I expected it to be a bit higher than "normal" because there was barely a three hour interval between breakfast and lunch, but she was hungry and I saw no reason to wait. The reading, though, shocked me. Then, I had a complicated deja vu experience and wondered if, maybe, when she took her medication this morning, she dropped her glipizide. I remember wondering that the last time this happened and I couldn't explain the high reading, then, I realized the reason I wondered this is because, normally, I supervise her med taking: I hand her the pills in ones or twos, caution her to make sure she doesn't drop them, especially the tiny ones (of which glipizide is one), watch her, direct her to drink after taking each set...and I didn't do that this morning. I remember thinking the same thing the last time I was surprised with an unusually high reading...I think it was above 200, and it wasn't too long ago. I know she didn't eat anything between breakfast and lunch. And, I know that, at 3 hours from lunch, her blood sugar could be as high as 150 or so, but 189 is really pushing it, without some help. So, I need to be more careful, I think, make sure I always eyeball her when she's taking her meds, and see if we have any recurrences of this.
    BM between breakfast and lunch - normal; gave her an antacid dose (2 tsp) of Phillip's Milk of Magnesia this morning at breakfast for hiccoughing.
    Also, sometime after lunch and before she laid down for a nap (which was fairly long, today) I gave her 500 mg acetaminophen; she admitted to aching and stiffness when I noticed she was walking like a robot and asked her if how her body felt, today.     In case you're a casual reader, I've decided to record her Bowel Movements, as I remember to, from now on, so that I have a history in case any more problems recur like the the one some days ago about which I wrote.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1920     Reading:  128

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1924     BP:  138/68     Pulse:  54

Dinner:  1930  & Meds What she ate:  approx 2 cups bean soup 1/3 of a 9" "pie plate" of buttermilk cornbread (no sugar), baked with green chilis, MPBIL's Southwestern Fire spice and about a cup of shredded sharp yellow cheddar
Med/Dose	Administration	Explanation
100% Aloe Vera gel/1 oz	just before meal	helps increase the cells' sensitivity to insulin when used with glipizide
36 mg Iron Protein Succinylate	2 18 mg tabs with meal	to pull her out of what I hope is her temporarily severely anemic state
vitamin C/500 mg	1/2 1000 mg tab with iron supplement	helps the body metabolize iron
glipizide ER/10 mg	1 pill with meal	standard breakfast and dinner med to increase cells' sensitivity to insulin
lisinopril/2.5 mg	1/2 of 5 mg tab with meal	given for kidney protection when her blood pressure can handle it
vitamin E/400 IU	with meal	given for anti-coagulant properties
garlic/1250 mg	with meal	given for anti-coagulant properties
calcium-vitamin D/500-200 mg	with meal	believed to be an osteoporosis preventative
1/2 cup pure cranberry juice w/12 oz water	with or after meal	standard twice a day supplement for kidney protection and enhancement of waste management

    With this dinner reading, I am almost positive that the problem with her blood sugar, today, was that she dropped her glipizide at breakfast. I even searched the floor for it, both at lunch and dinner; but it could have rolled under the hutch. The lunch she had, and the interval between lunch and dinner, is practically guaranteed to bring her back into normal range, but her reading wasn't quite normal tonight. I have no idea what I was doing that seemed more important than monitoring her pill taking, but, well, no more. In fact, I almost left her pills unattended in front of her this evening, then grabbed them back, realizing that if I left them unattended for even a minute, she might decide to pop them and, once again, lose one to the floor.
    Decent dinner hour, decent interval between lunch and dinner...other than the pill fiasco, I'm pleased with today.