I follow a few online groups that allow members to offer free items, and to request free items. To date I have not needed any of the items on offer, but you never know. Why do I continue to follow these groups if I have nothing to offer, and need nothing? Well, for one thing, they amuse me. People mostly offer free items like egg cartons, broken bathroom scales, or a half a bag of sand. People mostly request things like beds, exercise bikes, washing machines, computers, or cell phones. I find it hilarious that the items people are giving away are so very divergent from what people seem to want free of charge. And of course, I just might find a recycled gem in there, something we could truly use, and used will do.
I am sitting in my new comfortable rocking chair gazing out of the living room window. there is a stiff breeze, and it is snowing. It is a light snow, which will probably melt on contact. Our first snow of the season. I really must press Attila to get Iris the trailer positioned so that snow can be easily removed around her, and to move the snow blower into the new garden shed. Moving the snow blower involves removing the garage door to get it out, so it is a project that will take a whole evening, or half a day. Better to get it done now than wait until we are desperate to use it!
I continue to drastically cut my sodium intake, it has been almost a week and there has been no affect on my blood pressure at all, it is still just as high as it was when I first became concerned about it. I have also begun 20 minutes of vigorous house cleaning every day, a period where I don’t stop moving, and am up and down stairs quite a bit. I used to these tasks intermittently, now I am doing everything in a cluster of activity. This has no perceivable effect on my blood pressure levels. Splitting the high cholesterol pills and taking the half dose daily has similarly no perceivable affect on my high blood pressure. The quadrupled dosage of blood pressure lowering medication has had no perceivable affect on my blood pressure levels. I can feel whatever the problem is as a pressure in my head. I will be taking myself back to the walk-in clinic very soon.
I remember when my Grandmother began having strokes, before there were effective medications to control high blood pressure. She was advised to make what the “experts” now call “lifestyle changes”, like walking every day. She did all of this, but she continued to suffer from small strokes, and eventually had a massive stroke that took her life. This condition is hereditary, it is serious, and I will resist being sent home by medical people to alter my lifestyle, when my lifestyle has been, and is, relatively healthy to begin with. My Granny led a wonderfully healthy lifestyle, she just pulled a short straw in the genetic draw, and it looks like I might have as well.
Other than the snow, it has been an entirely unremarkable day.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
3°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Thursday 27 October 2016
Condition: Light Rain
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 3.1°C
Dew point: 2.4°C
Humidity: 95%
Wind: ENE 14 km/h
Visibility: 6 km
Quote
“Follow the grain in your own wood.”
Howard Thurman
We had light snow too, last night. It didn’t stick, except on the roofs of the school buses that passed by this morning.
Sorry to hear that your blood pressure hasn’t changed. I’d like to make a suggestion based on something I was going through a couple of weeks ago. My blood pressure was also high recently and I could feel it as a pressure in my head. Turns out that my thyroid hormone was too low. I had my doctor change my meds and now the pressure is gone. Haven’t had my blood pressure checked yet but I’m hoping there’s been an improvement. That said, maybe you could check and see if your TSH is too low, out of the norm? No guarantees but I was just thinking it wouldn’t hurt to check.
Hi Maggie,
Sorry to hear that none of the things or meds are helping with the blood pressure problem. Hubby was diagnosed with high BP this year (me with low) and his meds work for him so he is lucky. I tried one med and it took my appetite away and made me ill so just stopped and monitor my pressure daily and seem to be doing fine with what I do to raise it. Easier to raise than lower I think. I hope somehow you get your BP down and it stays down.
Sorry about your Grandmother. I’m named after my maternal Grandmother who died quite young (44) from asthma. My other Grandmother died from an infection in her nose. She was also 44. I never met either of my Grandmothers and wondered about them a lot.
Snowing! I bet it will look very pretty initially. I always love a first snow that is just enough to blanket everything but not too much to cause problems. Walking in fresh snow at night when everybody else is not around was one of my thrills in NY. I love the smell.
Hope things get ‘positioned’ in time so that you are set to go if the snow keeps coming. Iris and the snow blower ready to go or be properly maintained. Do you use Iris to store anything in?
Cheers to the freshly fallen Snow-Nora
Have you tried the concoction of drinking a glass of warm water w/2 TBSP of organic apple cider vinegar and 1 TBSP of organic natural honey before each of your meals? It’s supposed to do wonders for the functioning of the body and I would think maybe high blood pressure, as well. I watched a video about it the other day on YouTube and have begun doing it for myself. I’m trying to stop taking my Aleve pills each day for pain, so I’m down from 3 to 2 of them now.
I wish I could make suggestions about your blood pressure. I’ve tried everything you have, and mine stays fairly low, although it varies. Exercise helps, but you have already tried that. I’m on Ramipril (10 mgs a day), and it keeps me on track. All the best, Maggie.
Teri, that is a very good suggestion. The doctor requisitioned tests, including thyroid after my first visit. All the tests came back normal. I’ve been researching other possibilities, and printed out some material to take in with me on my next visit. I will have to wait and see what he says (or they say, I don’t get the same doctor every time, but at least the records of past visits are on file for consultation).
Tnanks Nora, I will be actively seeking a solution until I have one, or determine through medical consultaiton that there is no solution to be found, which is a long way off yet.
Your Grandmothers passed at such a young age Nora! Grandmothers are special, and I am sure yours would have adored you, and maybe they are somewhere in the universe adoring you right now.
I like the first snow as well Nora. All traces had disappeared by dinner time, I think we will have to wait a few more weeks now for it to reappear.
I think we will have enough time to get things sorted and ready for the coming winter season this weekend. Hopefully the next snowfall will hold off for another month or so, fingers crossed.
Iris has some inexpensive camping gear, buckets, and tarps stored in her for the winter, no fabrics though, nothing that would be bothered by damp, or mice.
Bex, I like the idea of the vinegar honey mixture before meals, but I have to limit my sugar to less than 5 teaspoons a day, and 1 tablspoon of honey has 3 teaspoons in it, so I couldn’t take the tonic before every meal. I could try it though just before the largest meal of the day, dinner. One drawback though is that I gag at the taste of apple cider vinegar, a bit of a drawback.
That is quite an achievement, reducing the painkillers, I am impressed. Attila says the vinegar/honey recipe is a in a book he has called Vermont Folk Medicine, a highly reccommended tonic.
Diane, what I have been doing was working fine until this summer, and suddenly nothing is working. Rampiril is an ACE inhibitor, which I took before being switched to medication I am now taking. The Allergist insisted that the ACE inhibitor would intensigy an allergic reaction, so I switched medications. With my blood pressure now as high as it is, it is going to destroy ny health, so I am thinking of attempting to go back to ACE inhibitors and take my chances with the allergic reaction. If none of this brings my blood pressure down then I think it would then be time to be referred to a specialist.
Today I prepared a roast beef dinner in the cast iron Dutch oven; beef, onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, basil, and rosemary. I browned the beef and onions well, to develop some flavour. I ate my meal with no salt at all. It was OK, but I felt very taste deprived!!
My breakfast also contains no salt at all, oatmeal, milk and dates.
For lunch I allowed myself a sandwich, two slices of bread, with peanut butter and skiff of jam.