Mom & Me Four Archive

...The Tangled Neuron on the Information & Resources page. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but I first ran into this site serendipitously in late March or early April of this year, just before my mother's "routine" doctor's appointment, when her hemoglobin had taken a surprising dip. It was this site that challenged me to consider, once again, the risks of frequent blood transfusions over those of high iron supplementation. I continued to come out on the side of aggressive iron supplementation for my mother, partly because of Niferex-150. But, I thought about it again and did more research. So far, iron supplementation seems to be working for Mom. I think it will, as long as her kidney's remain stable.
    A frequent, quiet reader of these journals e'd me and asked, well, here, let me quote her: "With your mom retaining fluid, why do you not restrict salt? I can see where the ham is something that she probably won't give up and then it isn't worth pushing the point. V-8 juice has a lot of salt as do regular peanuts etc. I had to keep my mom's salt intake below one gram a day (1987-1988), which meant making mayonnaise and bread for her because there wasn't as much healthy food available back then. For her it was because of congestive heart failure."
    I wrote her back to say I would be answering, in a few days, but it is convoluted. So, I decided to answer here. My mother is more prone to experience episodes of low electrolytes rather than high. She had only one episode of high electrolytes and her physician put her there with a combination of Prednisone, furosemide, K-Chlor and salt pills. To be fair, though, this was after a low electrolyte episode. After the high electrolyte episode I tried a low electrolyte diet on her; researched it through the USDA Nutrient Database. Luckily, at the time, she was seeing some doctor every week to two weeks and having her blood drawn for at least a CBC and BMP every week. Within a week of me instituting a low electrolyte diet (which was actually pretty easy, I also make our mayonnaise, in order to keep out sugar, but it helped here, too; I also bake bread for her through the fall, winter and spring) her electrolytes had dipped out of the normal range. Later, of course, in early August of 2004, I discovered I could over hydrate her into low electrolytes.
    So, this is, fundamentally, why she is not only allowed salt (and potassium) but I sometimes makes sure she gets a good amount of it. We swing back and forth, for instance between low sodium V-8 juice and regularly sodiumized V-8. As well, her water retention is just as apt to be provoked by low electrolytes, as by low hemoglobin, as by, well, not, actually as by electrolyte overload, as her only episode of this was induced by electrolyte supplements.
    Sometimes I'll purposely cut back, but not cut out, electrolytes. More often than not, if her feet are swelling and I want to head torso (CHF) swelling off at the pass, I'll give her 10 mg furosemide and up the electrolytes in the diet.
    She used to, by the way, practically live on sodium/electrolyte injected foods. At this point, I'd say her electrolyte tolerability is average, the electrolyte portion of our diet is average to low average, and she seems to be doing fine. I only used furosemide 5 times over a two and a half month period before this last health review. That was pretty good. One of those times I accidentally gave her too much and had to scurry to make sure she got enough salt and fluids within a couple of hours, her debilitation became obvious quickly; she was a little like a drunken sailor.
    As well, my mother's diagnosis of CHF has remained debatable. More often than not, after routine ultrasounds and whatever else they do, always making note of the leaky mitral valve, common in the elderly, her doctors are as apt to pronounce her heart "fine" as they are to note "a little enlargement". I blithely refer to episodes of swelling as "CHF" in her monthly health reviews, but she is just as likely, at this point, to die of the quick development and bursting of an abdominal aneurysm as anything. Despite her frailties, she has an unusually resilient spirit.

    Did I mention why I was up at 0430 (I was actually awakened at 0300...I think 0430 was the first time I looked at the clock)? Our cats figured a way to undo a loose screen and get out. At 0300 they were climbing the screen from the outside, calling to be let in. I immediately, upon letting them in, found the offending screen, thought I reinforced it well enough with duct tape, decided to have coffee, stay up, enjoy the latter part of my favorite time of day...and, subsequently discovered that I hadn't reinforced the screen well enough.
    Otherwise, yesterday was a slow day for Mom. She remembered the visit and reminisced about it, once again asking about who "that other young woman was", and was she "related".
    I considered going to Costco early this morning to replenish my sparkling water (that's practically all I drink), but I've got enough to last me another day and this day seems to be drying out and shaping up nicely. Maybe I'll be able to do a little catching-up with the journals and some people.
    I've performed a second reinforcement of the screen and it has already proven sturdy. That's the problem with animals. You usually have to fix an offending avenue to The Great Outdoors in front of them. Thus, they study your movements and take these into consideration the next time they try the gate. The Little Girl immediately tried to get out and couldn't. So, we're okay for awhile. As a precaution, though, I am going to have each of them micro-chipped and databased this week. This is not a good place to let pets roam wild. They are, outside, Happy Meals To Go.
    Later.
    I'm sure.