Today's Stats:
Breakfast
I decided to give her a full 12 hours since, each time I checked on her from 1100 on she was snugged in and snoring. As well, her water glass had obviously been accessed several times throughout the night: Of the 32 ounces with which I fill it, two thirds was gone, which is amazing. Normally she does not drink water at night even though she always has a full quart of it by her bedside. This told me she'd awakened at least a few times in the night, although there was no pee in the toilet so she probably hadn't arisen. I'd most likely have heard her if she'd arisen, anyway.
Although she was asleep when I entered her room to awaken her, she was no longer snoring and awoke at the touch of my finger on her arm, so she was ready. When I administered her pills with water she gulped several swallows with each pill, almost finishing the glass.
"What did we have for dinner last night?" she asked. "Whatever it was it sure made me thirsty."
"I noticed," I said. "You drank a lot of water last night, too. You never do that. And, yeah, last night's dinner must have been unusually salty because I drank two bottles of water before I went to bed."
"I thought so. I kept dreaming about drinking water and waking up."
"Well, that's optimistic. That means you haven't completely lost your sense of thirst. Beside, Mom, yesterday I had a hell of a time getting fluids down you. It's nice to know that, finally, your body reminds you of what you need."
She sneered at me comically."
Probably because she was dehydrated when she retired last night, there was just a minor urine spot on her bottom sheet this morning, so we went into Modified Bath Mode: Lower torso, face, more lotion on arms and legs. I mentioned the extraordinarily light leakage to her and suggested that maybe if I send her to bed "dry" on purpose (rather than accidentally, as happened last night) she'd leak less and we wouldn't have to perform the Full Bath Ritual every morning. I thought she'd jump at this.
"I don't know," she said. "I was awfully busy last night, waking up to drink water. It wasn't much fun."
"So you're saying you'd rather sleep through and leak and take a full bath in the morning."
"I'd rather sleep through and not leak."
"Well, I'd love it if you did that but somehow I think we're past that."
She looked pensive. "I suppose so."
As usual, we'll see. Something I took care to notice, just in case, she was not retaining any excess fluid this morning, which is excellent, considering that I inadvertently sodiumized her yesterday, I guess. This means her body is still correcting itself. Nice to know.
Normal breakfast. No additional meds. I've corrected the Meds chart so it now reflects four teaspoons (1 tbl + 1 tsp) of Benefiber® every morning. Despite what she would consider a dreary sky she looks good, seems to feel good and remained awake for four hours until she went down for a nap a few minutes ago.
Non-Stat Lunch/Dinner
Today all mealtimes after breakfast became flexible. Mom didn't nap until 1645. I offered her a light lunch previous to her nap but she refused. I guessed that she was refusing because I was working on a crust for an apple pie and she was planning on having some when she awoke. I explained to her that, for ultimate perfection, the crust needed to refrigerate for at least a couple of hours afterwhich the pie preparation would probably take a "good" half hour, the baking of the pie another hour and I wanted to let the pie cool for at least two hours before cutting into it. She was only mildly disappointed and made me promise that she would be able to have a slice of home made apple pie before she retired at night. I promised.
When she awoke at 1845 I was in the middle of preparing the pie for baking. I did some quick figuring and decided that it would be appropriate to offer her a beefed up lunch with her medication; a little early, true, but, I decided, I was sure she'd be having a piece of apple pie sometime around 2200 so I figured early administration of her glipizide would be in order. She agreed to this lopsided meal schedule.
For lunch I fed her 11.5 oz V-8 juice; a little over 1/2 cup of MCS's bread and butter pickles; approximately 2 sliced ounces of yellow sharp cheddar cheese; a thawed chicken thigh from the time before last that we ate from KFC. After she finished I asked her if she was still hungry. "For apple pie, yes," she said.
While I was doing all these preparations, the pie, the meal, all the small details involved with getting her going from a nap, I completely forgot to take her blood glucose and blood pressure. Oh well, I decided, not important.
At 2200 straight up the pie was baked, cooled enough for cutting and ready to be enjoyed. I sliced her 1/8 of the pie. She savored every bite and pronounced it, "the best apple pie I think I've ever had".
As a side-note, during a commercial in the program we were watching, Inside the Actors Studio, the guest being Barbara Walters, I reminded her that blood draw day would be tomorrow.
"Do you suppose we could put it off for a day?"
"Any particular reason?" I asked.
"I don't feel like being poked tomorrow."
Good reason. "No problem. That'll give your blood a day to recover from apple pie."
"You mean we won't be eating apple pie tomorrow?!? Why not?!?"
Good point, and good reminder, since I'll be baking a second apple pie tomorrow. "You're right. We'll probably be having apple pie tomorrow. What the hell. If your blood glucose is a little high on Tuesday we'll consider that your blood is celebrating Christmas."
"Sounds good to me."
"If the doctor asks, we'll call it 'seasonal blood sugar'."
"I won't tell if you won't."
"You've got a deal."
I'm actually not worried about her blood sugar. It's been doing just fine and, anyway, there is much of the baking "we've" done that Mom hasn't been in the mood to sample so it's all either been frozen or given away. Apple pie, though, is one of her favorites. Although we'll probably freeze most of it in ready-to-thaw slices, there's no reason she shouldn't enjoy the fresh fruits of my labor over the next few days, blood draw or no blood draw.
|
Blood Glucose: Time: 1236 Reading: 92 |
Blood Pressure: Not taken |
I decided to give her a full 12 hours since, each time I checked on her from 1100 on she was snugged in and snoring. As well, her water glass had obviously been accessed several times throughout the night: Of the 32 ounces with which I fill it, two thirds was gone, which is amazing. Normally she does not drink water at night even though she always has a full quart of it by her bedside. This told me she'd awakened at least a few times in the night, although there was no pee in the toilet so she probably hadn't arisen. I'd most likely have heard her if she'd arisen, anyway.
Although she was asleep when I entered her room to awaken her, she was no longer snoring and awoke at the touch of my finger on her arm, so she was ready. When I administered her pills with water she gulped several swallows with each pill, almost finishing the glass.
"What did we have for dinner last night?" she asked. "Whatever it was it sure made me thirsty."
"I noticed," I said. "You drank a lot of water last night, too. You never do that. And, yeah, last night's dinner must have been unusually salty because I drank two bottles of water before I went to bed."
"I thought so. I kept dreaming about drinking water and waking up."
"Well, that's optimistic. That means you haven't completely lost your sense of thirst. Beside, Mom, yesterday I had a hell of a time getting fluids down you. It's nice to know that, finally, your body reminds you of what you need."
She sneered at me comically."
Probably because she was dehydrated when she retired last night, there was just a minor urine spot on her bottom sheet this morning, so we went into Modified Bath Mode: Lower torso, face, more lotion on arms and legs. I mentioned the extraordinarily light leakage to her and suggested that maybe if I send her to bed "dry" on purpose (rather than accidentally, as happened last night) she'd leak less and we wouldn't have to perform the Full Bath Ritual every morning. I thought she'd jump at this.
"I don't know," she said. "I was awfully busy last night, waking up to drink water. It wasn't much fun."
"So you're saying you'd rather sleep through and leak and take a full bath in the morning."
"I'd rather sleep through and not leak."
"Well, I'd love it if you did that but somehow I think we're past that."
She looked pensive. "I suppose so."
As usual, we'll see. Something I took care to notice, just in case, she was not retaining any excess fluid this morning, which is excellent, considering that I inadvertently sodiumized her yesterday, I guess. This means her body is still correcting itself. Nice to know.
Normal breakfast. No additional meds. I've corrected the Meds chart so it now reflects four teaspoons (1 tbl + 1 tsp) of Benefiber® every morning. Despite what she would consider a dreary sky she looks good, seems to feel good and remained awake for four hours until she went down for a nap a few minutes ago.
Non-Stat Lunch/Dinner
Today all mealtimes after breakfast became flexible. Mom didn't nap until 1645. I offered her a light lunch previous to her nap but she refused. I guessed that she was refusing because I was working on a crust for an apple pie and she was planning on having some when she awoke. I explained to her that, for ultimate perfection, the crust needed to refrigerate for at least a couple of hours afterwhich the pie preparation would probably take a "good" half hour, the baking of the pie another hour and I wanted to let the pie cool for at least two hours before cutting into it. She was only mildly disappointed and made me promise that she would be able to have a slice of home made apple pie before she retired at night. I promised.
When she awoke at 1845 I was in the middle of preparing the pie for baking. I did some quick figuring and decided that it would be appropriate to offer her a beefed up lunch with her medication; a little early, true, but, I decided, I was sure she'd be having a piece of apple pie sometime around 2200 so I figured early administration of her glipizide would be in order. She agreed to this lopsided meal schedule.
For lunch I fed her 11.5 oz V-8 juice; a little over 1/2 cup of MCS's bread and butter pickles; approximately 2 sliced ounces of yellow sharp cheddar cheese; a thawed chicken thigh from the time before last that we ate from KFC. After she finished I asked her if she was still hungry. "For apple pie, yes," she said.
While I was doing all these preparations, the pie, the meal, all the small details involved with getting her going from a nap, I completely forgot to take her blood glucose and blood pressure. Oh well, I decided, not important.
At 2200 straight up the pie was baked, cooled enough for cutting and ready to be enjoyed. I sliced her 1/8 of the pie. She savored every bite and pronounced it, "the best apple pie I think I've ever had".
As a side-note, during a commercial in the program we were watching, Inside the Actors Studio, the guest being Barbara Walters, I reminded her that blood draw day would be tomorrow.
"Do you suppose we could put it off for a day?"
"Any particular reason?" I asked.
"I don't feel like being poked tomorrow."
Good reason. "No problem. That'll give your blood a day to recover from apple pie."
"You mean we won't be eating apple pie tomorrow?!? Why not?!?"
Good point, and good reminder, since I'll be baking a second apple pie tomorrow. "You're right. We'll probably be having apple pie tomorrow. What the hell. If your blood glucose is a little high on Tuesday we'll consider that your blood is celebrating Christmas."
"Sounds good to me."
"If the doctor asks, we'll call it 'seasonal blood sugar'."
"I won't tell if you won't."
"You've got a deal."
I'm actually not worried about her blood sugar. It's been doing just fine and, anyway, there is much of the baking "we've" done that Mom hasn't been in the mood to sample so it's all either been frozen or given away. Apple pie, though, is one of her favorites. Although we'll probably freeze most of it in ready-to-thaw slices, there's no reason she shouldn't enjoy the fresh fruits of my labor over the next few days, blood draw or no blood draw.
posted by Gail Rae @ 23:59
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home