Today's Stats:

BM Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1258     Reading:  133

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1304     BP:  117/61     Pulse:  58

    I continue to take note of her high "fasting blood sugar" in the morning. My curiosity continues, but she doesn't seem to be exhibiting any other symptoms that might cause me to worry and wonder. I really thought she'd work off that hot chocolate through her long sleep last night. Yesterday I even checked the calibration on her monitor and performed all the other checks to make sure nothing was wrong. It appears as though it's recording correctly. She seems to be traveling away from the predicted blood glucose "vacation time" at the moment.
    I took an early trip to Costco this morning and returned home a little before 1100. Before I unloaded the car I attempted to rouse Mom. She wasn't having any. Frankly, I wasn't surprised. We've got a low going through. No rain but the temperature has dropped a good 15 degrees since yesterday, clouds passed through all day long except for about an hour in the afternoon and it's been windy. I told her I'd let her sleep until 1300, if she wasn't up before then. At 1245 she emerged from her bedroom and headed into the bathroom.
    She looked good; a little wrinkled from dehydration but it wasn't severe. She felt good, too. I suspect, though, that we'll only be getting two meals in today...she laid down for a nap at 1715 and bid me "Good night", which I corrected. But, I'll let her sleep as long as she wants. Today is an "under the weather" day for her, I can tell.
    Breakfast was normal in all respects, including her garlic tablet and a full tablespoon of Benefiber. So far, she's had only a bit under a quart of fluid. She's no longer exhibiting loose skin, though, so I think we're all right. She probably continue to shed water for six more hours.
    Her Bowel Movement occurred at 1545: Very good volume; excellent consistency; easy elimination; easy clean-up.
    Although I had planned Cobb salad for dinner to see if that made a difference in her morning blood glucose. She's been "cold" all day, though, and before she went in for her nap she requested "something warm for dinner, like macaroni & cheese", so that's what I'll make for her; with added meat and vegetables, of course.
    As well, she might be getting a thin slice of pecan pie. I bought one at Costco this morning on a hunch. Although I followed the directions to the letter when I made the pecan pies for Thanksgiving, paid attention to the advice for high altitudes, thought the process was easy and the pies looked fine when they emerged from the oven and after they cooled, neither pie was done when they were cut into at the Thanksgiving gathering (although no one ate dessert, everyone wanted to take dessert home with them). Our hostess slipped the pies in her oven to bake longer but we left before they were done. This morning when I was at Costco I noticed they still had pecan pies left over from Thanksgiving. Since I've never tasted one and obviously had problems making some, I decided to buy one to try, to see what the flavor and consistency is supposed to be like. Their pecan pie is the cheapest of anyone's pecan pies (which I noted before Thanksgiving when I was considering buying one instead of making two). I expect we'll probably throw most of the pie away but I need to see what it is I was supposed to have made before I try making anything like that again. If I give her pecan pie I suppose I should expect her blood glucose to be even higher, tomorrow morning, than it has been lately. We'll see what happens.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1948     Reading:  95

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1946     BP:  131/67     Pulse:  67

    I was right about a couple of things in the immediately earlier post: Only two meals; mac & cheese for dinner with a very thin piece of pecan pie; throwing away the rest of the pecan pie; it's been an under the weather day.
    Her blood pressure is reflecting a bit of irritation, as I insisted on taking it while she was caught up in a Hallmark movie.
    No extra meds. She hasn't gone to bed yet.

Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1029     Reading:  130

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1029     BP:  120/64     Pulse:  63

    Hmmm...well, the BG "glitch" is back. She slept exactly 12 hours last night, from 2200 - 1000 (she was already up and in the bathroom when I returned from turning the rental car in at 1015). It hasn't seemed as though her diet has changed any, although we have had fast food in the last few weeks more frequently than usual; at least three times in two weeks that I can remember.
    Something we haven't been having much of lately is Cobb salads. Maybe we'll reinstitute frequent Cobb Salads in the evening, for awhile, and see if that has any effect on her morning blood sugar. One thing that has changed lately about her diet is the timing, because of her sleep habits: Lunch has been very light, not infrequently non-existent, so I've tried to make up the difference at dinner, not so much in amount but by allowing richer foods more often. This could be the problem. Maybe, is we can, we need to more on lunch and less on dinner. It may take a few days to get her into this habit. Cutting back on her sleep would help, too, I'm sure, but I can't swear that I'll be able to accomplish this. Keep your fingers crossed. Could be the landmark theory in operation, too.
    Since we're out of bacon, breakfast meat was, again, kielbasa with her egg. A friend of mine up here to whom I gave a loaf of date nut breakfast bread a while back, not realizing that we'd be out of town for Thanksgiving, left a load of her Crystalized Ginger Bread Loaf on our doorstep sometime yesterday. When we noticed it after disembarking from our trip yesterday, Mom put in a bid for a slice of it for our breakfast bread, which we did this morning. It was pretty sweet, although the addition of chopped crystalized ginger in a ginger flavored quick bread was remarkable. My guess is that Mom's blood sugar will probably be whistling a very loud happy tune tonight.
    Still out of garlic. Also, I realized well after she finished her OJ that I'd inadvertently backtracked to two teaspoons of Benefiber instead of one tablespoon.
    As she would say, "I'm sure [she'll] recover."

Non-stat Everything Else
    I forgot to take her stats for dinner, but dinner was a light, modified affair.
    I decided to do the "hearty lunch/light dinner" idea today: For lunch she had a ham sandwich on sourdough bread with a light spread of mayonnaise, a medium spread of mustard and a slice of yellow sharp cheddar; fresh cut vegetables including brocolli, cauliflower, slices of green, yellow and red pepper, baby carrots, radishes and spring onions, sprinkled with a Greek/Italian herb dressing. This occurred at around 1600.
    Around 1930 she was watching a Christmas movie on TV, I can't remember which one, but one of the family scenes involved people drinking hot chocolate. "Hot chocolate," she said, "that sounds good! How about Hot Chocolate for dinner?"
    "Do you want anything else?"
    "No, that was a big lunch we had."
    So, I made her a 12 oz cup of instant Chocolate Caramel hot chocolate mixed with some of her decaf instant coffee. She nursed it throughout the evening, asking that I "reheat" it (which usually involved mixing in a few more coffee crystals, three different times. Throughout the evening until she went to bed at 2330 I continued to ask her if she wanted anything else to eat. She was satisfied with the increasingly diluted, continually reheated hot chocolate.
    Before she went to bed I noticed that she was retaining enough fluid to be noticeable in both her feet and her torso. I decided to give her 20 mg furosemide to pull it off. It's not that I've been over-hydrating her. I've been very careful about "not too little, not too much." I think her body may be readjusting to lesser movement and hasn't kicked into hibernation mode yet.
    At her request (which means she was experiencing a fair amount of pain and stiffness...she almost never asks for pain medication) I gave her a 200 mg ibuprofen pill before she retired, too.
    Otherwise, she looked good, felt good, was well animated and registered in at about an hour under her usual 14 hours(often +) of sleep.

Breakfast Stats and Thanksgiving Food Report:

Blood Glucose:     Time:  0719     Reading:  84

Blood Pressure:     Time:  0732     BP:  121/64     Pulse:  63

    Everything looks good to go...traveling, that is, for Thanksgiving. Since we're out of bacon, breakfast meat was kielbasa with her egg. I'd forgotten to thaw any bread and we had gone through our usual home made bread, so she went without bread of any kind this morning.
    No other stats were taken today. She received her "evening" medication around 1630 or so, when dinner was served. She probably needed it, as she'd been snacking all afternoon. The snacks were great for her, though: Corn chips and salsa; buffalo salami (mmmm...delicious), cheddar and hot pepper jack cheese; vegetables and ranch dip from a fresh vegetable tray; celery filled with sour cream and chives; pickles and olives. Her snacking was unintentionally monitored and kept to a decorous level mainly because she so enjoyed sitting in the backyard in two separate places throughout the afternoon that when she settled into each place she didn't want to get up for awhile. Thus, I was in charge of getting her appetizers and was so involved with conversations with people, etc., that she had to remind me when to get food for her. She was good about that, though. She didn't go hungry!     For dinner, when I stood to get her a plate she asked for "a little of everything unless you know I don't like it." There was nothing she didn't like. She had turkey (her favorite dark meat), ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole (made with french string onions, fresh green beans and mushroom soup), a deviled egg, and green olives; a little of everything. She cleaned her plate except for the mashed potatoes. It's always iffy whether or not she's going to "like" those on any particular day. Yesterday was a "Mashed Potatoes? No thank you" day, I guess.
    Everyone, I mean everyone, was so full that no one, including my mother, ever wanted dessert. We took some home but nothing has yet been mentioned about her pieces of pie.
    Considering her high morning readings recently, I was surprised that she came in at normal, since she got substantially less than 12 hours sleep the night previous to Thanksgiving. Counting down from what I remember, I think she got about nine hours. Maybe those high readings were a temporary body glitch.
    We're still out of garlic. I'll be picking some more up Saturday.

Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1314     Reading:  131

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1321     BP:  129/65     Pulse:  59

    I know it seems late, but she was still up when I made my last post, last night. I finished the post, in fact, because she decided it was time for her to retire. Her light went off a at 0030. So she only put an extra half hour of sleep last night.
    I'm still mystified by her high BG readings in the morning. I'm beginning to think that it could be the lack of movement, but this has never been a problem before. I even asked her this morning if she awoke in the middle of the night and ate. Truth is, she probably wouldn't remember if she did. As well, I'd be able to tell if she'd eaten anything. She doesn't clean up after herself like she used to. Maybe lack of activity is beginning to take its inevitable toll, although at some point her blood sugar is supposed to "go on vacation". All the same, I'll see if I can't gently, gently, Gail, gently, without the two of us becoming frustrated, nudge her to sleep a bit less and move a bit more.
    She was obviously congested this morning, cold type of congestion. Although she's been suffering from this low grade cold for a few more than a few days, this is the first she'd been congested. I gave her a Mucinex tablet for it and have been pushing liquids a little harder than usual. Tonight she seems to be fine. I've felt her forehead several times throughout the day and she's been cool as a cucumber. She's felt good, too. She took a late, long nap, but has been fairly active this evening, supervising the baking of the last pie and the pumpkin cheesecake. She's watching TV, now, and it looks like she'll be up until 2300.
    Since we're out of bacon, I served bulk sage sausage with her egg, this morning.

BM Non-stat Lunch
    Late awakening, late breakfast, late nap, late lunch. She wasn't really hungry when she awoke, around 1730; only wanted her usual 11.5 oz V-8 juice, nothing else. Then, a cup of coffee. I figured, that's fine, she'll probably end up having and "early" dinner.
    Her Bowel Movement occurred at 1530: Excellent volume; excellent consistency; she reported that it was taking her "longer than usual" to eliminate but in truth her elimination seemed no longer nor harder than usual; very easy clean-up.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1922     Reading:  128

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1921     BP:  114/53     Pulse:  63

    Well, her BG may be a little crazy, but her BP has settled down. Since my fingers were knuckle deep in pie and cheesecake making this evening, I made her a quick, meal of buffalo wings and cottage cheese. She was thrilled. This is junk food, to her.
    No extra meds besides the Mucinex this morning. We're still out of garlic, though.
    Just as a heads up, only breakfast stats tomorrow. I'll take her evening meds with me, of course, but I'm not going to bother worrying about anything. Her BP certainly won't be any higher in Phoenix, I'm sure. I have a feeling, as well, that I'm not going to want to know what her blood sugar is.

Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1047     Reading:  129

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1042     BP:  146/65     Pulse:  69

    Breakfast was normal. I gave her an extra 5 mg of lisinopril at breakfast, though.
    I checked her temperature, too, since she was running a low fever yesterday. It came in at 100.2°F temple arterial, which is the upper limit of normal. Before she laid down for her nap it came in at 100.3°F. I didn't give her an adult buffered aspirin, as she was feeling good. I'll check later, though, especially at bedtime, to see how she's doing.

Lunch
    Only 11.5 oz V-8 juice. That's all she wanted. At 1635.
    Nothing else to report.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1856     Reading:  107

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1852     BP:  129/64     Pulse:  61

    No additional medication, although I'm wondering if she could use a little extra lisinopril, but I'm not going to give it to her at 129/64.
    On deletion for at least the next few days: 1,250 mg garlic at breakfast and dinner. We ran out yesterday. I continually forgot to put them on any of my shopping lists last week. I'll pick some more up at Costco on Saturday.
    For dinner I served home made cheeseburgers on onion buns with thick slabs of Bermuda onion and dill pickle relish; and, peas with bacon bits, celery, chopped olives and a combo Greek/Italian dressing. Mom ate heartily.

Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1231     Reading:  135

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1231     BP:  126/64     Pulse:  64

    The only reason I can think of that her morning blood glucose readings have been running high, lately, is that she's been sleeping a lot, lot, lot. This morning I started in on her at 1000, since she went to bed so early last night. As you can see, she ignored me until noon. I'm past worrying about her sleeping, anymore, as it seems to go in periods, but I'd like to see her getting back to her normal 14 hours between night and naps. Although she continues to look good, it's been obvious that she hasn't had a lot of energy and I can see, from her most recent blood draw, that, her fluctuating hemoglobin may be having something to do with it.
    Breakfast was normal. Today I upped her regular dose of Benefiber® to 1 tbl. It will remain this way. I'll only mention it again if I give her more or less.

Non-stat Lunch
    For the first time in a long time she had a regular lunch at about 1715: 11.5 oz V-8 juice; about 3/4 cup small curd 4% milkfat cottage cheese; about 1/2 cup of MCS's Bread & Butter pickles.

Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  2004     Reading:  121

Blood Pressure:     Time:  2002     BP:  127/59     Pulse:  64

    Dinner consisted of breakfast, actually, at Mom's request: Kielbasa with two eggs and a pumpkin cranberry muffin with lots of coffee.
    The news, so to speak, though, happened later. Once again, at 0930 she wanted to retire, and although her color was good and she didn't appear to be retaining water, she looked visibly tired. As we were preparing her for bed I noticed that she seemed awfully warm, so I took her arterial forehead temperature: 100.9°, .7 of a degree above the normal cut-off for arterial forehead readings. Finally it hit me, she's probably been fighting a cold for the last few (at least) days, which explains practically everything that's been going on lately: Her unusually early retirement and unusually long night sleeps plus her naps; the chest congestion that wasn't echoed in her legs and feet and came on almost imperceptibly; her mouth breathing over the last few days despite the fact that the humidity has been very low; the coughing I've noticed but forgotten, until tonight. I gave her an adult buffered aspirin and helped her into bed. Despite my lack of notice, her body seems to have been dealing with the cold admirably. My guess is that in a few days she'll be up to snuff. I'll keep my eye trained a little more meticulously on her, of course. She remains excited about our Thanksgiving plans. I hope she can handle them.

Today's Stats:

Breakfast

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1254     Reading:  126

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1304     BP:  119/64     Pulse:  62

    She was up two times that I know of in the night to pee and when I peaked in on her this morning, by 1030 her bed was soaked, but she was sleeping peacefully, breathing deep and slow, so I let her be. I didn't get nervous until 1300. She did not awake on her own, but once up she was alert, pink and feeling very good. She also looked like a wrung out rag, so I begun pushing fluids, not atrociously, but with an eye to filling her out.
    Breakfast was normal. No additional medication.

BM Non-stat Non-Lunch
    She had her first Bowel Movement today at 1430, long before her nap, which began at 1615: Poor volume, fair consistency, lots of shit rocks; easy elimination, though; fair clean-up, lots of tiny shit rocks stuck to her.
    When she awoke from her nap she was not hungry, but was registering thirst, so I started her in with a cup of coffee and followed that, at her request, with a 12 oz glass of water.

BM Dinner

Blood Glucose:     Time:  1905     Reading:  86

Blood Pressure:     Time:  1900     BP:  114/48     Pulse:  63

    Yup, the furosemide was definitely what she needed. It continued working throughout the day, as you can see. Her BP clearly shows continued minor dehydration.
    Since she refused lunch and I wanted to make sure that her electrolytes were replenished, we raided the freezer and had a Left Over dinner consisting of all our left-overs that contained high amounts of sodium and potassium: The potato au gratin concoction with added vegetables and ham; the sauerkraut with kielbasa; some left over mac & cheese with added meat, vegetables and sun dried tomatoes. I also gave her 8 oz orange juice mixed with 8 oz water and two tsp Benefiber® to see if I couldn't get some of that shit building up inside her to move along.
    Little did I realize it would work so quickly. At 2100 she had her second Bowel Movement of the day: Good volume; excellent consistency; very easy elimination; very easy clean-up.
    I'll keep my eye on her for more frequent episodes of fluid retention and colonic back-up. This could be a freak episode but observation with be the key in determining this.
    On the bowel movement front, it may also be possible that her body has assimilated the two tsp Benefiber® in the morning and is ready to edge itself up to the normal dose. Tomorrow morning I'll start administering 1 Tbl with breakfast. I'll give her a day or so before I decide whether she needs Benefiber at night on a regular basis, as well.
    Although she went to bed early, light out at 2130, even though, when she headed into the bathroom she was sure she was going to come back out afterwards and watch Inside the Actors Studio, she looked good, felt good, said that she just was "awfully tired tonight". By tomorrow she should be feeling refreshed (from the flushing) and renewed (from the replenishment). I hope so, anyway.