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04-10-2021, 12:33 AM | #1 | ||
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Legendary
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It's difficult to really know what to suggest I'm sorry and you're right in that it could be related to her blood sugar (or her blood pressure if that's high?).
If you have any Epsom Salts, try having her soak her foot in a bath or bucket of warm water and the salts. I would be worried if she's been lying down for a very long time (days)and not getting up and moving around. How much is she actually moving around all day and what is stopping her from walking more, is it pain or something else? |
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04-10-2021, 12:54 AM | #2 | ||
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Legendary
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Possibly...
If you're not used to eating food like that then the amount of salt in the food may have caused her leg to swell. I imagine such food would be an overload of salt. edited to add: Get your mum to lie down and use a couple of pillows or cushions so that she can raise her leg higher than her heart. See if that helps. |
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04-10-2021, 01:44 AM | #3 | ||
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Member
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Hey SoulfulYin,
I think Lara is right here and its the high salt content of fried chicken that has caused the problem and it's your mum's physical inactivity that has made her vulnerable to this. To avoid a further episode consider the following. So get her moving or even simple leg elevation for a few minutes at a time may help. Avoid salt. Avoid processed foods that are high in salt. Avoid processed/refined carbs, they encourage sodium/water retention. Drink water. I appreciate she has restrictions I think from memory you have a magnesium supplement, that's good to take Potassium rich foods such as avocado and sweet potatoes and green leafy vegetables and tomatoes and bananas help reduce sodium levels. Does she take B6 in a B multivit? That helps too, but not too much. Dandelion tea is a natural diuretic. Hope this helps. Take care SoulfulYin. I hope your mum appreciates all that you do for her. Atty |
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04-10-2021, 02:13 AM | #4 | ||
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Can do. Starting tomorrow, I'll be making sure she walks for maybe 5-10 minutes, or as long as her legs will allow her to. Avoiding salt like the plague, effective immediately. We're going to make a list of things that are confirmed to not be processed and/or high in salt, and we'll try and make meals using that list. Definitely avoiding processed/refined carbs, and probably just carbs in general. She DOES have a restriction, but it's very likely we'll get it lifted by the end of tomorrow, on account of the nurse who called yesterday saying her lab results were all normal. She might be okay to drink water at a normal rate now. Additionally, is sparkling sugar-free water okay? It's La Croix, Pure Sparkling Water. Nutrition facts says it has 0 Total Fat, 0 Sodium, 0 Total Carbs and no sweeteners. She's been drinking that or regular water, with sliced up fruits/veggies sprinkled in there too. I was on the impression we should avoid potassium since her amlodipine besylate seems to raise those levels. Maybe we should just be a little more careful with them, is the idea. Either way, we'll be careful! We have oranges, tropicana orange juice (which another diabetic friend also drinks and recommended). She does not take B6, i do not know her levels so I was worried about giving her supplements when she didn't need them. Same with magnesium-- I'm afraid they both will exacerbate her neuropathy problems. She has decaffeinated honey lemon chamomile green tea, we'll see about getting some dandelion tea too. I hope so too. I'm sure it will-- at least a little. And I'm forever going to be grateful for you and everyone else's help in this endeavor. Thank you, truly. She does, she appreciated all the nothing I did for her even before I started caring for her. I'm not proud to say it, I wasn't the best son. Kinda still far from that title, especially considering I let her eat that chicken. But my mom loved and still loves me like I am, and now she needs me to be better so she can get healthy, so I'm trying. I'll do all I can, for as long as I can. And then when she's better, I'm gonna turn my life around. Work at Costco or something, make money, make her proud. The whole shebang. |
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04-10-2021, 02:24 AM | #5 | ||
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Point taken with amlodipine. You deserve some sleep man. Nos da ... as we say in Wales |
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04-10-2021, 06:04 PM | #6 | ||
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So, mom's leg is still a liiiittle swollen, but it has been gradually de-swelling. She walked for 15 minutes today, that was a good workout. We talked about her going to my grandma's to get better help and move some of the stress off of me. Originally we both didn't want her to go, in my case it's because I'm going to be stressed no matter where she goes-- short-term care, assisted living, or grandma's. It could be a place where she'd get literally every single thing she needs to recover safely and with no incident, and I'd be beside myself stressed until she got home. That, and grandma's also already taking care of my great grandma. She might not have the time to remind my mom to take her gabapentin when she needs to, or to exercise or that stuff. That's what I'm worried about, really. I can't be there all the time. Well, I could, but I...I guess I wouldn't want to. I still have to take care of the cats. And I mean it'd probably be easier for me to just go there and visit the cats 2 times a day, but I'd have to do it early and late, since one of them has to take a pill every 12 hours. I also have to refill their water fountain frequently.
But today, we decided she should go. Grandma can cook better meals than I ever could, even if the meal she brought us last night was something mom shouldn't eat. Grandma also frequently has relatives coming over. The interaction would be nice for mom, I think. She needs that. They could also probably help her remember things she needs to do, since most of the time the relatives visit to help with my great grandma. I'm happier having her to talk to so I'm not alone in the house, but I think she needs it more than I do. Additionally, outside isn't barred by stairs that are difficult for mom to traverse. There's an outside patio both in the front and the back, she'd be able to get fresh air without having to go up or down any steps. She wouldn't stay for long, 3-4 days she says would be the longest. I'd visit probably every day, likely just to make sure she's exercising and taking her medications. I don't know. It's just, this is all rough for me. I guess either way it's gonna be. I'm just really worried, especially now after last night, that grandma will cook her something she can't have. Knowing my grandma, I don't doubt the possibility, even though she takes care of great grandma practically 24/7, and great gram is a diabetic. Idk. I guess I just can't help but to worry about mom, even when she's in likely far better hands than mine. Well, that and I hated being alone while she was in the hospital. This was even when we thought it would be as simple as them correcting her hyponatremia, and then her coming home completely fine. We also just discussed a diet plan-- I don't know why we took so long to figure that out. Mom said they were going to call her and have her talk to a nutritionist sometime, but that never happened. So i guess now we have to take initiative here. On that topic, doc didn't call today. Mom must've been wrong when she said she'd call us on saturday about the results. Maybe they meant Monday, or something. She seemed pretty sure that doc was calling today until she didn't, then she said "maybe I remembered wrong" or something along those lines. Idk. Either way, it's aggravating. Idk what she can and can't have anymore. We could be 1 more meal from a rush to the ER, and we don't even know it. Tonight we're having shrimp, potatoes and chicken baked in the oven. Mom's getting Mrs Dash seasoning substitutes to try, and the "I can't believe it's not butter" type of spread, just in case regular butter is a no-go. I'm going to make sure she doesn't put any salt on her food, but is pepper okay? |
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04-10-2021, 09:01 PM | #7 | |||
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You might look into the Dash Diet.
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04-10-2021, 01:03 AM | #8 | ||
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Her swelling is definitely going down. Slowly, but it is. I checked again, about maybe 45 minutes later or so. It doesn't feel much better than before, but it does. It's probably because she's technically still on a fluid restriction and she can't have more water, which probably made the swelling go down faster earlier on. That and the little walk she did. Doc is calling tomorrow so we can discuss that very fluid restriction, though. We'll tell her everything that happened tonight. We checked her blood pressure, too, with the little wrist thing we got. Apparently it's lower than it used to be, when we did the test. Mom's blood pressure is normally pretty high. It was 139/79 I think, or around that range. It might just be the food she ate. She had a little more water to take her pills, got up one last time (it was for a bathroom trip but still, a walk is a walk), and since then the swelling has continued to lessen. It's still noticeable, but its better than when it first started-- and when it went down the first time, maybe 1-2 hours ago. She hasn't been taking the magnesium yet, pills are too big but I'm also worried she doesn't need it, even if everything points to her needing it. I'm not a doctor, I can't just give her something that could end up making things worse. We WILL bring this up with her doctor tomorrow, though. I'm gonna collect as much info as I possibly can to relay to doc tomorrow. Her vit levels, if she needs magnesium/fish oil/any other vits, what her blood sugar is, all that. Regardless, she didn't start eating super healthy until recently, and then we regressed some today. Veggie and gluten free or not, pizza is still pizza. And that fried chicken piece definitely didn't make matters better. There was no pain or shortness of breath with the swollen leg, we made sure of that. As best we could, at least. Her blood pressure is better than it usually is, too. Other than what she ate today, there doesn't seem to be other possibilities now that I've calmed down and thought about it a little more. Not that I...y'know, am a doctor and know what it is or how to accurately find out, but still. Either way, we're calling doc tomorrow, and getting what we need. Last edited by SoulfulYin; 04-10-2021 at 04:02 AM. |
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"Thanks for this!" says: | Lara (04-10-2021) |
04-10-2021, 01:11 AM | #9 | ||
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Legendary
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You're doing just fine. Don't ever blame yourself for any of this.
Hopefully your mum can get moving around more. It's so important. Get some epsom salts if you can when you shop next. Handy to have them on hand. They're very inexpensive and I find them so helpful. Just have to make sure that you don't use too much ... follow directions. As I said get her to raise her leg higher than her heart for a while now. I'm hoping it's all good in the morning. You take care there, hey? You've got a lot on your plate and you're such a great support for your mum. |
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04-10-2021, 01:37 AM | #10 | ||
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Thank you, Lara. Sincerely. Your words help this weary soul get by in his time of need... I'll do my best to care for myself, I can't imagine how much harder things would be for my mom without me. Frankly, I don't want to imagine. I need to sleep soon so I'm not sleeping by daytime and can help my mom stay active, so I'll leave this as my last post for the night. But I truly, truly, truly appreciate your help. You and everyone else. This place has been an absolute godsend for me. I really don't know where we'd be without it. We're going to walk more, we're staying faaar far away from fried food and pizzas-- no matter how many veggies we put on it or how much gluten we take out of it, it doesn't seem to be helping (or at least it doesn't now, not after tonight). So we're going to increase our efforts in healthier dieting. Thanks for your help, again. Truly! |
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"Thanks for this!" says: | Lara (04-10-2021) |
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