My grandma had an appointment to see her doctor on November 22nd 2016. She had already had her blood tests done and we were going in to see how they turned out. First off, they always weigh her before she goes in. Her weight was 122 pounds. She used to be in the 130's, but her weight has continuously come down a bit each time we go to the doctor. I'm not sure why because she eats a lot of empty calories. She loves her sweets and treats. She has to have some kind of pie or cake or something with her dinner each night, and she likes to have a cookie after she eats our nice healthy lunch of chicken salad everyday. Oh well. The nurse led us into the room where we were going to see the doctor. They always go over her medications and take her blood pressure. The nurse put the cuff on my grandma's arm and then went over the medications before she actually started it. I thought that was great, because the nurse told me, that she wanted to give my grandma a chance to relax with the cuff on, before she started the machine. I have done the same thing when I take her blood pressure at home. My grandma's blood pressure is always high. Like 176/66 kind of high. I have had her listen to meditations before and during the blood pressure taking, and it has made a huge difference when she does that. So I'm never surprised when the reading is high in the office. However, this time, the monitor would not take a reading. The nurse tried 3 or 4 times on my grandma's arm and even switched arms and it would not register a reading. We wondered if it was the machine, and I offered my arm to test it out and make sure if it was working. The nurse took my blood pressure and it worked just fine. So we tried it again on my grandma and it wouldn't register. The nurse went to get another nurse to help. The new nurse put the cuff on my grandma's arm and held her arm straight out, and it finally took a reading. I can't remember now, what the reading was. I am writing this on 1/5/2017. So it's been a little over a month since this happened. I do remember that the reading was high as usual. The nurses left and the doctor came in shortly after that.
The doctor came in and she went over her test results with us. Everything looked really good except her sodium levels. No surprise. We have been dealing with low sodium levels for a few years now. The doctor told us we should limit her fluid intake. I told her we already have done that. I told her that the last time she told us to do that, I went home and figured out how much she can have at each meal time and when she takes her pills. The doctor started talking about a time when my grandma was in the hospital for a sodium drip. She asked how that went. I told her that my grandma had never been in the hospital for anything like that. The doctor was a bit confused and wasn't convinced that my grandma had not been in the hospital for this. It was a little weird for me to have to tell her, "No, my grandma has never been in the hospital for anything like that". The doctor was still a bit confused about that, but then started to talk about other things we could do. The only thing she could think to do was to change her medication. She decided to change her losartan/hctz to a lower dosage. I was so happy to hear this, because I have been wanting her to do this for a long time and she wouldn't. I have asked in the past, if she could separate the water pill from the blood pressure part of the pill and she said she was afraid that the swelling would come back. I don't remember my grandma ever having a big problem with swelling before, but maybe she did. Maybe that was before I started taking care of her and it just has never been an issue. Anyway, I'm glad that she has been able to try out this new pill. So far I haven't seen a big difference in her blood pressure, but we will see. The doctor wanted her to try out this new pill and then go back for another blood test to see how her sodium levels are.
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what I can do to help her sodium levels. One thing I thought about, was the beets in the juice we make her. I know that beets are a liver cleanser. They are also a blood cleanser. I was wondering if because they cleanse the blood, that maybe that could have something to do with the low sodium level in her blood. So, yesterday we made a new batch of juice and we left the beets out of it this time. I am curious to see if they make any difference in her sodium levels. She still had a couple of jars of the previous juice with beets, so I want to give her a chance to start drinking the new juice, before I take her to get her blood tested again. It should be interesting to see what happens.
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