Sunday Weigh in May 14, 2023

[Barb135]

Good morning.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and Fathers who take the place of mother).

It's looking like another bright sunny day, here.  We've definitely gone into summer now - daily temps are in the 90's.  

It's been a pretty quiet week.  I did (finally) get a call back from my doctor's office about the out of range blood tests, but there was nothing enlightening.  They said my RBC is low, but not low enough to be alarmed - "monitor" that.  They think the high PTH might be caused by vitamin D deficiency, so they've ordered a Vitamin D blood test (should have done that to start with), which I'll get done tomorrow.  

My wrist seems to be healing pretty well, but the arthritis in my thumbs seems to be getting considerably worse.  I do see the hand specialist again on Thursday, so hopefully, will come up some kind of resolution.  

Since my walking partner has gone back to OR for the summer, I'm not going for my daily walk anymore, though I need to push myself to do that.  Anyway, I'm up by 2 pounds over last week (didn't walk then either), so I'm assuming there's a lot of fluid build up at times that makes my weight fluctuate so wildly.  

Anyway, that's my week.  We're going to go out for Mother's Day lunch, then daughter and her family are coming over this afternoon.   I haven't seen her for a while, so it will be nice to see her.

I hope everyone had a good week and was able to reach/exceed your goals.  

~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~

[Athena_M]

Hi Barb and Annie
I am up one pound this week. My son has an online baking bread class. This week was pumpkin bread and I ate a lot of it.
Barb I saw on your other post that your granddaughter was being bullied. That happened to my son in 2nd grade so I became a homeschool mom. We've been homeschooling with iLead Home Exploration program. They give funds for piano, art and other classes. He will be graduating highschool next month, he even started college 2 years early. He has High Functioning Autism. We did a lot of social skills classes.
My Vitamin D  was low so I am on 3,000 IUs a day which is 3 gummies. My husband, daughter and son were tested low as well. We are all on supplements and get routine blood checks every 6 months to a year.
Vitamin D Deficiency  is the cause of almost all illnesses and cancers.
I finally went to my TOPS meeting. I thought I gained 5 pounds but I only gained .6 !
Have you guys tried TOPS?
Annie I did the no coffee experiment too. I gained weight because I was eating more food for energy. Coffee suppresses my appetite too.

[Barb135]

Hi Athena.  It's good to see you again this week.   I'm sorry to hear that you're up a pound over last week - could that be from fluid retention?   Pumpkin bread is supposed to be good for you - of course, the sugar, flour and oil might not be so great... lol  

Yes, unfortunately, my granddaughter has been being bullied.  Because of that, she will not be going back to school again this year.  She'll simply get her assignments from the school and work on them at home.  With the end of the year so close and being a straight A student, it will be easy for her to stay caught up.   From what we know right now, the person who was doing the bullying will be going to a different school next year, so my granddaughter will be sent back to school.  If she's bullied again, that will be dealt with at the time.

Vitamin D deficiency is quite common - especially for thyroid patients, but also for anyone who doesn't spend enough time outdoors.  Those that are in school all day, work inside, etc are often deficient.

I have not tried TOPS - as far as I know, we have no chapters in my area.   I'm glad you went and found out that you really didn't gain a whole 5 pounds... that's pretty devastating.  

I've done the coffee experiment, as well, but I wasn't overweight when I did it, so not sure if it would have helped or not.  Now, it do the "half-caff", which only has 1/2 as much caffeine.  It keeps other symptoms at bay, so I've stuck with it for years.

Have a good week.

[AnnieBrooke]

Good morning, it's been hot here and this morning it's already 85 degrees on the way to 95. I'm up .7 of a pound from last week, not good but I know why: we had a favorite dessert in the house, and I ate lots of it. (The surprise is that I didn't gain more.) I should be able to drop the dessert weight -- we went to the deli last night and bought a nice range of salads, the kind you can make a meal of like chopped broccoli salad with lemon, "Coastal kale," and a pickled beet salad. We're all fine to call that kind of thing dinner.

Glad you finally heard from the doc, Barb, but it doesn't sound like they jumped on anything and made changes. It does sound good that they will (finally) test your vitamin D level. What happens if it's low?

We had a Mother's Day brunch for my mom on Friday, since some family members couldn't be there on Sunday. I'm also going to drop by with flowers and a card for her today. It was the day after Mother's Day last year that she had a stroke. So much has happened since, including moving her and her husband into assisted care and then moving them again, selling their house after a lot of effort to get it salable, and getting her health into a stable state. The first place where they lived, she just got frailer and more ailing.  By the time we got her to a different place and into hospice-level care, we thought we were looking at her having only weeks to live. But the new place, with its good food and better level of care due to her being hospice status, has helped her get a LOT better. Almost certainly rather than keeling over, she'll no longer qualify for hospice care in the next month or two, she's that much improved.

I did begin drinking coffee again, that experiment didn't do what I wanted it to do. Not that I missed it particularly, but being without caffeine didn't fix my other medical issue, and apparently there really is an appetite-suppressant action from coffee, at least for me. I was going slightly up in weight every day, and the only thing I could figure out is that I might possibly be eating more at each meal than usual. I'm not working out more or being more active than usual, so my appetite shouldn't have gone up, but by the evidence of the scale, it has.  So, back on the caffeine, just limited to only one cup a day. I should be able to tell by the next weigh-in if eating the way I used to it is having an effect.

Hope everyone has a great week!

[Barb135]

Good morning, Annie.  I'm sorry to hear about your 0.7 lb gain... I'd have been happy with that!!  lol   AND, at least you know what caused it and can be pretty certain that not eating the dessert will probably help get rid of it.  

Coastal kale - is that the salad you mentioned a while back?  I haven't been able to find anything like that around here, but I did find a recipe for one.  Now, all I need to do is buy the ingredients and make it.  :-(

Yes, I'm glad I finally heard from the doctor's office too, but you're right - they sure didn't jump right on anything and I feel pretty sure that if I hadn't kept calling, these blood tests would be have gone by the wayside.   That was the P.A. - my doctor has never taken that long to respond to labs, phone calls, etc in the whole 12 yrs I've been seeing him.  I'll have to ask not to see the P.A. again if it takes that long to respond.   As to the Vitamin D - I'm thinking it's not going to be low, but if it is, I'm sure the P.A. will simply tell me to start supplementing and we'll "monitor".   The problem I have with that is that Vitamin D can be contra-indicated if one has hyperparathhyroidism (caused by a tumor on a parathyroid gland).  Considering that my PTH is more than twice as high as it should be is a bit concerning to me, but if they're not willing to do anything else, there's not much I can do, right now.

I'm sorry some of your family wasn't able to celebrate Mother's Day with you today, but it's good that you were able to do a brunch on Friday.  I'm sure your mom will enjoy having you go by today and bring her flowers and a card.   I recall all the time you spend getting your mom's house ready for sale, getting her and her husband moved into an ALF, then having to move them again.  It's great that she's doing well enough to, possibly, not qualify for Hospice anymore.   When my Auntie was in ALF and had to go on Hospice, she improved considerably (I think the improvement was from getting her off the meds, with severe side effects), but they kept her on Hospice because she had breast cancer and at 92 yrs old, it was definitely terminal.  Depending on how old your mom is, etc, maybe they'll agree to keep her on Hospice?   I'm not sure if Hospice works the same in all areas, but here, it was to be for 6 months, but they "re-upped" her twice. because of the cancer and "failure to thrive".

So I have to wonder if the better level of care was due to Hospice or a better facility, overall?  If she no longer qualifies for Hospice, at some point, I hope you're (or family) able to visit often.  

I'm not sure what kind of health issue that prompted you to go off coffee, but I'd have to agree that there's appetite suppressing properties  in coffee/caffeine - as long as the caffeine isn't soda related... lol   My doctor once recommended that I go to decaff, but that didn't work.  I ended up with "half-caff" (either Folgers or Maxwell House, though there might be others).  I seem to do relatively well with the haff-caff, but keep thinking I might want to back to full caffeine.  lol   One cup/day - not nearly enough!!  :-)

Enjoy your week.

[AnnieBrooke]

It will seem odd, but the biggest reason Mom is doing better is that we talked her and her husband into moving into separate apartments. As he has gotten older, my stepdad has gotten more crotchety, and when they were in a one-bedroom unit together, he didn't like constant people coming in to tend to Mom, they "invaded his privacy." He didn't exactly chase them away, but it had that effect. And his attitude drove away family that might have visited more or monitored Mom's getting help she needed. (I stopped dropping in when he told me that I shouldn't come without calling.) His memory for things like her medications was not good, he didn't understand what they were for and forgot if they were explained to him.

Obviously, his life had changed; they had lived in their own little house, and he didn't need to do much for Mom. But once Mom had the stroke, he found himself squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment with an ailing wife and no idea of her care or managing it, but he didn't like anyone else butting in. Getting him off to his own tidy little unit was good because then all her daughters came back. My sisters have spent a lot of time just sitting and visiting her. (I've been too swamped to be helpful there, but they still give me credit for all the work I did to get the house ready to sell, so they have given me a bye so far on pulling a shift.) Anyway, with someone from the family there to make sure Mom ate, and to feed her if she couldn't manage the spoon (something her husband never dreamed of doing), she got her nutrition back up. And, we got her off one of the meds for a sore back that knocked her out, and another for osteoporosis that she shouldn't be taking any longer because it doesn't do any good after a certain point. My stepdad was useless at asking the doctor about things like her meds. Once he wasn't sitting right there, we could ask. It sounds kind of ruthless to say it but he was more hindrance to her health care than a help.

The only reason we might not want Mom to stay on hospice is that they will tell my sister they will be there on a certain day to do something, like give Mom a bath, but won't commit to a time of day. Then she (sister) who might want to take Mom for a drive in the car or do something else with her, has to just sit and wait. This happens three days a week, and eats up her time with waiting,  waiting, waiting. But otherwise, the hospice regime is doing really well for Mom.

Well, off to my salad dinner. Hope your week is good.

[Barb135]

Actually, your explanation sounds more reasonable than you might think.  It sounds like your mother was suffering from failure to thrive, due to lack of care, as well as interaction with her family.  

The hospice issue, of course, will have to be a family decision.  It's unfortunate that your sister might have to sit and wait for hours.  When we had hospice for my Auntie, they sort of established a routine, so we had a fair idea of when they'd be visiting Auntie for bathing, etc.  My Auntie was wheel-chair bound so we weren't able to take her for drives, out to dinner, etc since we had no way to transport the wheel chair and could not move her from the chair to the car seat, etc.

Does your sister visit every day?  Once we knew what kind of care Auntie was receiving, we didn't go every day since I was still working.  
If Hospice comes on the same days every week, perhaps your sister could plan to visit "in house" on those days and take your mom for a drive on the days they don't come?

Yesterday was the last meeting of the season for my calligraphy guild, so we had our installation of officers and spring luncheon.  The luncheon is potluck, so of course, there was a lot of food to sample.  

Enjoy the rest of your week.