Well, it is clear that I am going up and down, weight-wise. As I indicated in my last post, I have begun to reflect more carefully on this after the heart failure docs worried about my gains. Recall that they want me to take torsemide (Lasix) whenever I get an overnight gain of 1.5 lbs or more. I have resisted at least in part because these gains seem to be related to eating and drinking too much the day/evening before. Also, I seem to plateau for awhile suggesting that the gains are real weight.
Abandon that last thought! On 22 Jan I was 226.3. That was a 1.1 lb increase from the day before, but was determinative because I could see water in my ankles after a day on my feet. So I took a pill. Result--as I posted last time--was a loss of 8.1 lbs to 218.2. That was the most water-weight I have expelled in one day ever. The following day I put back on 2.1 lbs. By rights I should have taken another pill at that time, But I did not. The next day I jumped another 1.6 lbs (221.9). Clearly another torsemide was necessary. The following day I had lost another 6.3 lbs to 215.6. In other words I had gone from 226.3 on 22 Jan to 215.6 lbs on 26 Jan, a loss of 10.7 lbs in 4 days. Since then I have gained I have gained 5.1 lbs to today's weight of 221.7. I am going to have to take another pill.
The pills themselves are innocuous enough except that they require one to be near a urinal about every half hour for about 6 hours. I have begun taking them in the early afternoon so as not to impede workouts and errands and not interfere with sleep at night. One also takes a potassium pill as the dehydration is apparently hard on the kidneys and the potassium helps with that.
Yet I want to be careful about dehydration. It is and was signaled this past week with leg and foot cramps during sleep at the 215 lb level.
Stay tuned....
Monday, January 29, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
2018 and all's well
Another month goes by and I dither about writing a new post since I don't have much to offer. On health: the antibiotics did their thing and I am newly well again. It took a number of days--maybe even a week--to get most of the debris out of my lungs after the antibiotics were done. I'm back working out, reasonably consistently, watching the weight--hovering around 223 (3 lb above goal)--cutting back a bit on the alcohol. Doing the stuff that every one seems to do as we start a new year.
To be alive this long is amazing. I know when I was young that I thought I would be lucky to see a new century turn. I was 62 when that happened and my cohort's average time on the planet was running out. Now here we are some 18 years later. There are several times that in days of yore I would have died. Thanks to modern medicine, that did not happen. For that I am thankful.
The only real issue that concerns me currently is the tendency of my body to store water. In my last heart clinic checkup they wanted me to take the Lasix pill whenever I gained a pound or two overnight. My tendency has been to wait and see whether the gains continue each day. So I had a week recently in which it seemed I gained near a pound every day, let's say 5 lbs for the week. I took a pill and lost 5-6 lbs. But in the succeeding days I put back on half of that. And I felt very dehydrated until I did. Since that time my weight has gone down occasionally along with up occasionally. The variations seem related to eating out and booze. Much lower variation if those two conditions are absent. Now it seems that I may gain a pound or two for a day or two and then I expel that water and drop two pounds overnight. The latter seems a very good sign. I am wondering whether I may see less of this as my heart strengthens.
Still awaiting house completion but the end of the tunnel may be approaching.
To be alive this long is amazing. I know when I was young that I thought I would be lucky to see a new century turn. I was 62 when that happened and my cohort's average time on the planet was running out. Now here we are some 18 years later. There are several times that in days of yore I would have died. Thanks to modern medicine, that did not happen. For that I am thankful.
The only real issue that concerns me currently is the tendency of my body to store water. In my last heart clinic checkup they wanted me to take the Lasix pill whenever I gained a pound or two overnight. My tendency has been to wait and see whether the gains continue each day. So I had a week recently in which it seemed I gained near a pound every day, let's say 5 lbs for the week. I took a pill and lost 5-6 lbs. But in the succeeding days I put back on half of that. And I felt very dehydrated until I did. Since that time my weight has gone down occasionally along with up occasionally. The variations seem related to eating out and booze. Much lower variation if those two conditions are absent. Now it seems that I may gain a pound or two for a day or two and then I expel that water and drop two pounds overnight. The latter seems a very good sign. I am wondering whether I may see less of this as my heart strengthens.
Still awaiting house completion but the end of the tunnel may be approaching.
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