Magically woke up at 5am today (Sunday) on schedule. Gift from God. Day 5 past 2nd Moderna shot. Day 4 of Metformin detox. Threw half my bedroom onto my bed to keep myself out of it. Even if I'm having an adverse reaction, in bed all day is a depression trap. Able to sit up in a chair and do mending... probably the metformin detox. I also went for a walk... only 7k steps today though, just too tired. Wanted to do a core workout video but still too stiff and sore to bend my neck much. 9pm and I am now in bed. I will conquer tomorrow.
Per GP, started tracking triggers and blood oxygenation with my Garmin whenever I start feeling fatigued.
Packed supplements yesterday.
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
Hugs all. Back on my feet post UTI and 2nd Moderna shot. Mostly. Having the adverse reaction again with dehydration (even though I've been drinking a gallon of water a day this week and am continuing to do so). Fingers are all wrinkly. Blood sugar is a little high. Sleep is all messed up from insomnia from not moving around.
BUT... Incrementally getting back on my feet. Started with low carb breakfast and veggies at lunch. Then I tidied and vacuumed my bedroom. I am working my way through the rest of the house. Just standing up doing stuff, then sitting back down again.
Had a GP establish care visit on Wed. I like her and I think she is someone I can work with. My research paid off, even if it meant a 5 month wait for an appointment. Fingers crossed that insurance approves her MRI referral.
Neighbors are hanging onto cat till I can get her to a vet on Wed and make sure she is safe to bring inside because dad is immunosuppressed. If she has parasites or other issues she will probably be an outside cat.
Goals for today are to pack my supplements, drink water, take a walk, and get to bed by 11:30pm. Start walking my body back from insomnia. If I can, I will log stats and do a writeup of my gp notes.
----
So in order to pack my meds today instead of Monday or Tuesday when I will be able to drive.... and then not be able to pack them until next week... I figured I'd save myselordered supplements from Sprouts because they are having their quarterly sale, and it absorbed the Instacart costs... came out about the same as online or after the sale was over. I also ordered the keto coffee ice cream and almond flour cookies my dad likes to keep him chill... my life is hell if he doesn't have treats. They were all 1 or 2 dollars off on sale, then there was a $5 bonus discount if you ordered over a certain amount so I stocked up on the cookies... More expensive than regular cookies and ice cream from the dollar store... but those are bad for his blood sugar and preventing glucose spikes is key to protecting his eye surgery. I figure anything is cheaper than him needing full time care because he loses his vision. When he saw the Instacart order come in, he freaked out and demanded that I tell him what all the expenses are. I don't know what else to do for him other than to buy more expensive cookies and ice cream... I'm not exactly cooking and baking right now. I'm also trying to be in the kitchen as little as possible because he chews on me the whole time I am in there and it creates conflict. How do I figur le out a way to manage food and not cooking so I can get things done and get back to work?
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
I definitely think it's worth the extra $ to get the keto desserts and such, if it will keep dad on a healthier path.
It's funny how some people are very food-focused. My husband is the same way. Always thinking about his next meal.
i see you've written a "brief" paragraph on your thoughts of what to pack for your trip...where are you going? who is coming?
i find it hard to cook when i'm also trying to study...hard for me to do many things in the same day, so i get you completely!
now i dye my roots...
Today would be a good day to have a cat. Yesterday was too hard and I wore myself out completely. I don't want to get out of bed. A cat would jump on me, yowl in my face, and demand food. It would be cuddles and purring and hapy feelings before I face the horror of the day. I'm so overwhelmed at everything I have to do to get back to work, or just get my health together as a first step... I don't want to get out of bed and face the world. If a cat reduces the number of days I lay in bed and just can't face the world... and I make slightly more incremental progress than ground lost... Worth it.
Yesterday - Monday May 17 - FUBAR - Derailed by dad deciding to take a walk for the first time in 30 years because I had a UTI and didn't want to drive or go anywhere, having to go find him, pushing him (300lbs) in his rollator too far and pulling my neck back out, then all the work to get him back into the house, manage his sugar, do all the eye drops and make sure he took his meds.
14h fast, No
2500 cal 4:45, not sure
10K steps, no
9pm lights out, no up till 12am to make sure dad got his meds in and then we had a huge fight and I was up till 2am
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
oh my, i guess you will NOT take dad for a walk again? perhaps the caretaker should do that....the one who is paid...
good calories anyways! :)
I absolutely should not have told the cat yesterday when I fed it that we would see who responded to my note and that it shouldn't worry (it seemed concerned) we will see each other again. I definitely should not have left my number in the mailbox... To get a call back about the cat from a very nice teenager who had helped her mom trap all the cats that morning and was delighted to hear that I was interested in momma cat. I absolutely should not have been delighted to hear that they were taking them to be spayed and neutered and if I wanted her I could have her after her surgery on Wednesday. I definitely shouldn't have shelled out for a new litter box for in store pickup tomorrow. I definitely do not need a cat.
This feels distinctly like a Neil Gaiman novel.
i think you wanted the cat ;)
UTI's have got to be the worst! so sorry. i get them in the heat when i sweat more and from dehydration also when i drink too much coffee.
you know, you remind me that in the summer i will need to shower much more especially if i am commuting / sweating!
You have inspired me to set a "9pm bedtime" goal for myself this week. I'll write about it more in my own entry, but I woke up feeling so rested this morning.
---
Mostly sedentary rest day I kind of really needed. I ran ADHD book club this morning. We talked about planning and prioritizing. I agreed to be an accountability partner with a woman in the group who is a therapist. Topic is planning. Give it a try for a week. She is supposed to hold me accountable for spending 35-45 min a day on planning. I'm supposed to hold her accountable for submitting an application to get referrals for new clients. We will see how it goes. She's kind of disorganized.
I finally managed to get a hot meal on the table for dad, even if it was too far past my fasting cut off to eat it. Meatloaf and butternut squash.
Tonight on my walk to get 10,000 steps by end of day, I encountered a super friendly momma cat with some sizable kittens. I know nothing about cats, but I figure that if she was being friendly on the first lap... and came running over the second time I passed them, she must be really hungry. The house was dark, there were no cars... There used to be toys and plants out in front of that house but they are gone now... So in a fit of what must surely be insanity, I went home, got a leftover hamburger that was lost in the fridge, chopped it up and put it in a dish, then shoved it under the fence so the kittens could get to it too. She was a lot more interested in me than a dish of hamburger. I don't know enough about cats to know what that means either. I left a note with my phone number asking if she's a stray in the mailbox with a corner peeking out so I can see if anyone picks it up.
This is surely a sign of insanity. I do not need a cat, no matter how much I am creeping on the animal services website looking at the adult tom cats for adoption and the only thing keeping me from going down there is that I just am too tired to do one more thing right now. I definitely do not need 3 cats. I don't even know how to assess a cat for adoption.
Except she sure seemed to be volunteeering to be my cat and I wouldn't have to drive anywhere or make an appointment to get a cat. I dunno what I would do with the kittens.
I grew to like the cat I got my mom, even if he made me crazy. I miss him. I would really prefer a dog, but... not yet. Let me get back to work so a dog doesn't think I am home 24x7 first.
sweet what you did for the cat.
lately, i pet every dog in the neighborhood when i see them with their owners. i love them, cannot have one of my own yet, so i pet everyone else's!
Dad had eye surgery today which went OK... The smartest move I made in a long time was getting a caregiver to come pick him up at 4AM, pack him up, and take him there for his 5:00 AM checkin... and put some earplugs in and go to bed on time, then go pick him up when he was done at 9:30 AM. He came out super tired and would be a handful if I had tried to do the whole day from 4 AM to 11 PM myself. On the way home, we splurged on keto breakfast sandwiches today at the keto bakery. Bacon egg and cheese on everything bagels. He actually liked it. I will make him a hamburger tonight for dinner.
Started 1000 Berberine yesterday. Going for the 1500 dose today. Weirdly I am slightly less anxious even though I am way tired from having too high sugar overnight. Too early to tell if it is just getting the surgery out of the way and being less stressed, just plain exhausted, or the Berberine.
So... Thinking out loud... Next steps in getting back to work:
Focus on getting Garmin Body Battery number up above 90 by 6AM and keep it above 35 by 8PM.
The Body Battery is a pretty good summary of all the factors going on that influence how much cognitive and physical energy I have available to do things.
Last night my sugar was so high it didn't charge and I dragged all day.
May 10, I I had the right combination overnight to get it up high enough, but burned through it too fast to get anything done. It needs to look more like the red line here:
Learn about it here: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=VOFJAsiXut9K19k1qEn5W5
Part 1: Get Body Battery above 90 by 6AM everyday
Sugar
Control overnight blood sugar with...
Sleep
Part 2: Keep Body Battery above 35 until 8pm
This is a lot harder to do... Mostly because there are tons of variables... But the first thing is to control sugar during the daytime so I don't burn through it as fast.
Step 1, Collect underpants. Step 3, Profit.
---
So immediately after writing this I realized it was about to be 5 PM and I was 1500 calories short of 2500, so I scarfed down a frozen dinner, salad, and a pint of keto ice cream. Fingers crossed I can stick to my fast tonight.
So ready to go to bed but it's only 7 PM and Dad still needs 2 more sets of eye drops tonight. Augh.
Second, you have a local keto bakery?? YUM!!
Third, the data on your inner battery is quite interesting! I'm wondering, from looking at your graphs, if this has been my problem with evening eating. Especially since work has been so stressful... I've been expending energy differently, and my body is processing fatigue as sugar cravings. I'm so glad you shared this information!
I too need to be much more disciplined in getting to bed on time.
yeah, you have a keto bakery! how cool is that!?
i hope your dad recovers well.
nice job on your calories.
underpants collection?
Reli is a common glucose monitor at home system, prick finger, apply blood to strip and get reading. POGO is really cool. You put your finger on a concave surface and it pricks and displays a reading, sort of all in one. More expensive than standard at home systems. But I don’t use it often.
Day 5 off the Metformin... Oh it was glorious… yesterday I woke up in a good mood. Today I woke up with cognitive energy and clarity before coffee and stimulants… Food tasted better and was more satisfying. I’d walk a million steps to feel that way everyday.
Unfortunately I also had higher sugar values overnight... and so I burned through all my energy too fast. My Garmin Body Battery was all the way up to 93 at 6am and was down to 41 by 11 AM. Garmin said I should rest and try to recover because I was burning through my energy too fast. At that point, I realized I might as well take a Metformin at lunch, because if I am burning through energy too fast, what's the difference? I laid in my bed to ice my neck and almost exactly 45 min later I felt my heart start pounding and the room start spinning without any anxious thoughts, tv or other stimuli. 1.5 hours in and I was having problems with basic requests from dad. So, definitely the Metformin. BUT much easier to handle in the afternoon after the majority of stuff is done for the day and I am doing chores and stuff. It's much easier to push off the wrenching panic and think "it's just the med"... then clean something.
About 8500 steps today because I touched something gross looking for a geocache and the park bathrooms were closed and I had to go straight home because I hadn't brought hand sanitizer. I won't say what I touched. Ever.
Miracle from God today... I badgered Dad and made him get another A1C test done prior to surgery. Somehow despite all the junk food and binge eating his A1C did not go up from 7.9 to 8.6 like his Fructosamine indicated... but down to a jaw-dropping in range 7.7. I don't know how. It defies all science, logic and reason. The math absolutely 100% does not work. I praised the Lord... and emailed his endocrinologist for why that might have happened.
Started reading evryone's logs, but the food notes are making me hungry and I'm fasting... So I will comment more tomorrow!
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
Is it not possible to get off readings on A1C readings? I know it is with the various type of home meters. I’ve found POGO to be the most accurate,
That is amazing about the Metformin experiment! Wow, I wish there was something you could do to stay off of it for longer. How about a lower dosage?
That really is a miracle with your dad's A1C levels. Wow!...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2410097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2410097/
Is the home A1C expensive? I wanted the PCP to do a another, but he said the insurance wouldn’t cover it, so I passed.
It's cheaper than not adequately managing my health and not being able to work.
Or losing a foot or an eye, totally miserable and trapped in my body like my dad.
Mom got her A1C down and under control a month before she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. High A1C is a cancer risk.
An A1C through a lab is most accurate, $40.
I'm using these... $22
https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-at-home-a1c-test-kit-prodid-496010
Take the first one the same day as your lab A1C to get a feel for how different the two results are... Everyone is a little different. My lab one was .1 lower than the home kit. They need to be stored in a temperature controlled room and not in a drawer or a closet. I keep mine in a gym bag under my bed. If they get too cold or too hot they are ruined. You can get them down to $13 if you want to test more frequently and buy a bigger box, but I don't because I don't use A/C or heat in my bedroom and they'll go to waste.
It's cheaper than not adequately managing my health and not being able to work.
Or losing a foot or an eye, totally miserable and trapped in my body like my dad.
Mom got her A1C down and under control a month before she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. High A1C is a cancer risk.
An A1C through a lab is most accurate, $40.
I'm using these... $22
https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-at-home-a1c-test-kit-prodid-496010
Take the first one the same day as your lab A1C to get a feel for how different the two results are... Everyone is a little different. My lab one was .1 lower than the home kit. They need to be stored in a temperature controlled room and not in a drawer or a closet. I keep mine in a gym bag under my bed. If they get too cold or too hot they are ruined. You can get them down to $13 if you want to test more frequently and buy a bigger box, but I don't because I don't use A/C or heat in my bedroom and they'll go to waste.
I’m into the book The Switch, on lifestyle to reduce many diseases & promote longevity. Low glucose good. Basically advocates calorie restriction and IF.
Tomorrow I get to see what it feels like to not have metformin in my system... I can't wait.
Controlling sugar is super hard without meds... not a long term strategy, but it does make it easier to see what drives it up and down. Just shy of 15,000 steps today, which was a lot of work. Fasting since 5pm and hungry... But worth it.
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
What do you find works? Does the fasting help? The extra steps?
isn't it hard to control sugar while fasting??? can't it drop very low??
anyways, keep us updated on how you feel without the metformin. i've heard of it, but not familiar with it.
Day 3, no metformin, no anxiety attacks... but higher blood sugear overnight raised HRV and so I was exhausted today. I try again tomorrow. I fasted 14 hours, walked 10,000 steps, controlled my carbs, and drank 6 bottles of water. It eventually came down. Giving it 2 more days or so to see what I feel like with it out of my system. Science.
Progress as of today: 99.3 lbs lost so far, only 57.7 lbs to go!
Yes.
also, yeah, if you feel better with taking less drugs, will that ought to be a good thing!
nice job on your water.
Doing an experiment of not taking AM dose of metformin and seeing if it gets rid of fog and anxiety attacks. Already feel massively better. Takes 4 days to clear your system... so Tuesday should tell me if that was it. Already feel massively better. 2 days and a little anxious, but no attacks. I was so shocked at how much better I felt, I stayed up way too late last night watching Hulu. Just didn't want the day to end... I woke up in the morning, went for a walk, did paperwork, chores, errands, more chores, made dinner, did another walk, then worked on ADHD book club notes... it still wasn't time to go to bed... a whole hour and a half left... so I flipped on hulu and just spaced out... oops. Screwed myself up for today. in bed on time though and will hopefully drift off soon. I know I'm not supposed to be on my phone at bedtime... but logging here is just such a geat way to give it all up to God for the night and try again tomorrow.
Also, if you happen by a Target they have reusable silicone ziploc bags for your lunches in their dollar days bins for $3. I'm super happy. Finally a good way to pack insane amounts of broccoli in my electric cooler and still leave space for seltzer.
Augh now I am hungry again.
Happy mother's day tomorrow everyone! I miss my mom. I lit electric candles for all the moms tonight.
Progress as of today: 98.5 lbs lost so far, only 58.5 lbs to go!
It's been so long since I've been to Target. My daughter went the other day. They have a nice selection of stuff :-)
well, along with you, i still go on my phone before bed. i just like to. i know it's not best, but i've learned to be able to still go to sleep afterwards.
hmmm, the reusable bags sound good...why are they better than plastic? more resistant to damage? are they easy to clean?
great idea with the electric candles. they will prob be popular thoughout these next few yrs.
[ Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Next Page ]
Oh to wake up naturally - it IS a gift! Especially nice and early like that...
How does your Garmin measure blood oxygenation? What will this show you?
A slower day is OK - but I must say, interesting technique to keep you out of bed. I hadn't thought of doing that!
horn_of_plenty on 05/24/2021:
you are right that staying in bed all day is the beginning of a bad cycle, yeah. easy for me to get into that habit too.
7,000 steps is still quite a bit!
bearcountrygg on 05/24/2021:
Staying in bed is the pits when it's time to do something and you don't want to......I think it requires getting up...getting dressed and at least sitting in an upright position....it's tough though.