2018--Striving to Make This Year Our Best Possible
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One of my nieces was admitted to the hospital on Sunday. She has IBS and Crohn’s disease and has been having a severe flare up of the Chrohns for the past month or so, which has caused internal bleeding. Since Sunday she’s been given 10 units of blood, 4 iron infusions, and at least 2 units of plasma. She was moved to ICU early this morning because she got up to go to the bathroom and had a large blood loss. She managed to hit the emergency call button before losing consciousness. She is scheduled to have a colonoscopy in a few minutes to try to find the source of the bleeding. Her condition is such that the doctor hasn’t been willing to do any invasive tests due to how dangerously low her blood levels are, but at this point they just have to figure out where the bleeding is coming from. She’s also diagnosed with a severe infection that affects the GI tract and is on massive doses of antibiotics, but that doesn’t totally explain all of her symptoms. So please keep her and her family in your prayers. She has a 10 year old son and her husband is in the Army. Thankfully, his CO told him to take as much time off as he needs, but they are stationed in Williamsburg, VA with no family nearby. My sister flew up yesterday to help out. They live off base and it’s summer, so finding help to keep an eye on their son has been difficult. Even before she was moved to ICU my niece was in isolation due to the infection, so their son wasn’t allowed to see her.0
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Pam--So sorry about your niece. This sounds very frightening. I do hope the colonoscopy finds the source of bleeding and it can be corrected. I have a niece whose husband has Crohns. He is a teacher and carefully follows a routine and diet.
Maryanne--I am happy that you have found a new PT but hope the prescription for the PT is soon discovered. You are making progress so I hope the new provider is a winner.
Helene--Slow and steady is the way to go. At my age, losing weight fast means the skin doesn't shrink much. I'm leaning more toward health benefits than a number on the scale.
It has been another day of storms and big rainfall. I really had to talk myself into the 30 minutes of exercise this morning. I have the goal of 5 days a week of 30 minutes each day as a minimum. I'll try another 30 minutes this evening while watching something on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.
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My niece just came out of the colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures. They found no evidence of the source of the bleeding, so the assumption is that it must be very high in her small intestine in an area that can’t be scoped. The plan is to do an angiogram if there is further bleeding. For now, she remains in ICU and is being very closely monitored. Very scary. She was diagnosed with IBS and Crohns about a year ago and at that time she was told the Crohns was mild and given diet and medication recommendations, which she has followed fairly successfully. About 4-6 weeks ago she had a flare up of the Crohns which just continued to worsen despite medication changes, etc. until she wound up in the hospital on Sunday due to blood loss. She was having difficulty breathing and wasn’t making sense when she tried to respond to her husband’s questions. That’s when he took her to the ER.0
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Pam--You are so correct that this is very frightening. I assume she didn't take blood thinners or even nsaids such as ibuprophen, etc. Prayers!0
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Pam, what a scary, awful situation. I hope the doctors figure out where the bleeding is coming from and have a solution. I'll be praying for her and her family. It must be particularly hard for her son since he can't visit. Can he talk to her on the phone or do Facetime?0
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Just got word that my niece is being transferred tonight or tomorrow morning to a teaching hospital in Richmond, VA. Not sure why except that her doctors in Williamsburg admit to being baffled at this point. She can talk to her son but they are limiting visitors and trying to conserve her energy. Luckily my sister is there, so Grandma is there for him, and friends have been great about entertaining him and letting him spend the night now that they know the situation. I don’t think they are FaceTiming because they don’t want to scare him with all of the IVs and other equipment in use. They’ve nearly lost her at least twice this week and I’m very afraid for her. She’s definitely a fighter, but she’s also very weak and very tired at this point. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Heather. I truly do appreciate it.0
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Pam--Truly a very difficult time.
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Pam - this is truly a scary time for your family! I hope that they can figure out how to help your niece!0
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I'm glad the hospital transferred her. The doctors at a teaching hospital probably have more experience treating a situation like this than a community hospital. I'm sending prayer that the doctors can stabilize her and get to the bottom of what's causing the bleeding. This reminds me of your friend the pilot who was so seriously ill after his accident. I'm praying that your niece has a miraculous turnaround like he did.0
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Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. Heather had a good night last night with no further bleeding. She hasn’t transferred to the new hospital yet because they are waiting for a bed to become available.0
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Pam-that is good news that Heather had no further bleeding. I hope they can get her transferred soon and get her the care she needs. I'll keep sending good thoughts her way.0
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Jean-that's a gorgeous black cat.0
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It has been another day of storms and big rainfall. I really had to talk myself into the 30 minutes of exercise this morning. I have the goal of 5 days a week of 30 minutes each day as a minimum. I'll try another 30 minutes this evening while watching something on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.
This rain is getting downright annoying. I guess it's lucky that we don't rely on our garden to live. Because the outside world is a mess. Luckily, so far there has not been a downpour at any time I've had to go to physical therapy. It was spritzing yesterday but not bad enough to be a big problem which is good because I can't wear a raincoat right now.0 -
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Maryanne, you probably could use a plastic poncho while you're recovering. DH pent time yesterday planting annuals. And today we have the soaking rains you've been having. We actually had 3 nice days this week.
Today is day four of logging my meals. I've never liked doing it but admit I stay more in control when I do it. MFP i pretty easy, especially since I come here anyway. I stopped because I had problems with the site. It's been more stable lately so I'm giving it a new shot.
Pam, any updates on Heather?
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Pam--It is good to hear that your niece's bleeding has stopped.
Maryanne--The rain is getting very old. Many people near me have had their gardens washed out so all that expensive planting has been ruined.
Helene--I haven't checked lately but I'm in the 50s of days consecutively logging food at MFP. I do hope it works for you. I don't believe that "If you keep it up like this, then in 5 weeks you will weigh...."or whatever it says. I quit clicking that button as it fibs. I just log my food.
I found some NS food in back of cabinet with a July 2017 expiration date. Is it still good or is that a "best by" date.
Today, I have had cravings, cravings, cravings.0 -
I found their predictions pf loss interesting but I doubt those numbers will be true for me. Maybe they might if I was a serious exerciser (not).0
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Here’s the Heather update. At 2:30 this morning they moved her to the new hospital in Richmond. She’s in critical care in their dedicated GI unit. She and her husband met with a team of doctors this morning and they told her they will be studying her records over the weekend and should have a treatment plan by Monday. In the meantime, she has had no bleeding episodes for 2 days now, remains on a liquid diet, and was allowed to take a shower and wash her hair for the first time in over a week. That was exhausting for her, but she said being clean felt so good it was worth it. Another positive is that she no longer tests positive for the bacterial infection, so she is out of isolation. All in all, it appears she is improving although she was told it would be the end of the week at least before she might be going home. Thanks so much for your concern and prayers. We are feeling much more hopeful about her prognosis now.
I’ve been logging food on the NUMI app that NS uses but lately I’ve started logging here as well. As I use up my NS foods I’m starting to switch over some to low carb, or at least experiment with some low carb options to see if it’s sustainable for me. I do find the MFP app easier for tracking certain things. I wish it showed net carbs instead of total carbs, since I understand net carbs are what should be counted. I tried to enter a recipe a couple of days ago but was unsuccessful which I found frustrating. After entering it 3 times and not getting it to save I gave up. I’ve done this in the past without problems so I don’t know if the site is different now or if it’s just operator error. Probably the latter, lol!0 -
Pam--That is great news about Heather. Being able to take a shower and wash her hair has to be a mood booster despite it being tiring. Her prognosis definitely sounds much better.
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Wonderful news about Heather. I hope the doctor find answers o she never has to go through something like this again. I don't know the difference between net carbs and total carbs. I really just look at the calories and sodium of items. I try to stay within the total suggested numbers for my day but it I go over any category, I don't worry about it. I've been having difficulty resisting after dinner snacks. Since logging, I've been able to top snacking once I make my dessert entry and click complete.0
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The Net Carbs number reflects the grams of carbohydrate that significantly impact your blood sugar level and therefore are the only carbs you need to count. How do you determine them?
You have to read labels and take the information and use it like this: Net Carbs = Total Carbohydrates - Fiber - Sugar Alcohols (if applicable). The fiber and sugar alcohols do not affect blood sugar level so they are subtracted from the total carb number of the food.
I personally don't do this but select foods primarily from those known to have lower carbs.
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Thanks for explaining. I do what you do and will stick to that method.
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Maryanne, you probably could use a plastic poncho while you're recovering. DH pent time yesterday planting annuals. And today we have the soaking rains you've been having. We actually had 3 nice days this week.
Today is day four of logging my meals. I've never liked doing it but admit I stay more in control when I do it. MFP i pretty easy, especially since I come here anyway. I stopped because I had problems with the site. It's been more stable lately so I'm giving it a new shot.
Pam, any updates on Heather?
Good idea on the poncho!!
Great job on logging food!0 -
I found some NS food in back of cabinet with a July 2017 expiration date. Is it still good or is that a "best by" date.
Today, I have had cravings, cravings, cravings.
I am personally convinced the food won't hurt you for years past its date. Eating my stash of favorites hasn't hurt me. Some of it goes stale.0 -
Pam - I'm sure your family is relieved that she's in the teaching hospital and showing some improvement. Strong positive thoughts continue. On my cat bb we've always called them ESPs!!0
