WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR FEBRUARY 2017

canookie wrote: »

lol I used to tell people Cheetos is so multi-faceted! It's a snack and then with your fingers becomes a great eye-shadow!!

Accountability Post Progress update of my Feb goals.
Saturday's Results
✔1. Log/COMPLETE the entry daily.
✔2. No eating after 9pm.
3. Fiber 30g daily
4. Walk 30 active Fitbit min daily.
5. Declutter ✔️clothes, books, office supplies.
✔6. In bed by midnight

Forgot to post this morning. Yesterday was more of the same low energy. But I did eat better. I've had a much better day today. Feeling good. Energized. In bed now...
Onward.

-- Ginger in Texas

Kate UK

Lenora- The effects you mentioned of sleep apnea on your heart, energy, & cognitive functioning are exactly the things that most concern me & make me want to get tested. Probably should've insisted on it a long time ago. There've been so many big stressors in my life over the past several years & so many different things that I know have also impacted my sleep that I've just tried to deal with minimizing them to solve the problem. Sometimes it's worked & I've been able to sleep a bit better than other times so it's been difficult to assess the cause of the problem. As I said, often it's been due to hormonal changes that cause overheating, etc., sometimes stress, eating too late at night & not even getting to bed until about 5 hrs or less before I have to get up again the next day. Other external things have also caused me to get woken up, too. I've also wondered if the allergy/asthma Rx I take before bed (Singulair) is also actually making me awake. It's supposed to make you drowsy, so told to take before bed, but I know it's often the opposite for me. People talk about taking Nyquil to knock you out when have a cold, etc., but that makes me feel really wired. So maybe the Singulair is doing that, too. I also know we really need a new mattress, so that could be part of the problem, but have been waiting until after we do some reno to get a new one. We did put a wedge shaped thick pad under the mattress (between it & box springs) a few yrs ago to elevate the head of the bead a few in. to help with acid reflux problems both hubby & I have.

I'm at the point, though, that I know something HAS to be done to improve this. I'm aware of all the health reasons why it's so important to get enough sleep. I'm really tired (pun intended) of being so tired all the time & feel like I'm getting early dementia half the time. Having memory problems lots of the time the past few yrs & on days I've gotten very little sleep, it's no surprise to me that I feel like I'm in a mental fog. I've been noticing that some of the Rx meds I've taken can impact memory, too, so trying to get off of them. Also wondering if the metal fillings I've had in several of my teeth for over 30 yrs are leaching mercury or something into my system slowly over time so much that that's also affecting my memory, etc.

I've also been wanting to see if getting back to regular exercising will help me sleep. So far, it's made me feel more tired before bed, but not sure it's made much difference overall. Haven't been doing it that long, though, so hard to tell yet. I do manage to get more sleep when I don't have to work the next day (on wkend or on vacation). Still wake up sometimes in night, but at least don't have to get up a 5, so can try to go back to sleep again in the morning & get a little more. On vacation this wk, so will hopefully get more sleep. Last night I went to bed about 9:30 pm & slept ok. Still woke up a couple of times & when woke up about 6 am, felt wouldn't fall back to sleep again, so just decided to get up. Not feeling as tired as usual, so guess I slept better.

So even though I feel that there are so many factors that could be the cause, I want to make sure apnea isn't one of them. If not, at least I can rule it out & if it is, then get treatment to resolve the problem. I'll definitely talk to my NP at next appt in couple of wks about it. Not sure where the test will be done. Maybe at the hospital or there's a place in the area that's a sleep specialty center, so maybe there. ??? Will keep you posted on what happens.

Thanks for the support. Have some questions about using a C-pap if it comes to that.

-- Becky (NY)

Good morning all! Happy Monday! It has been a beautiful blue sky weekend here in West Michigan! The temps have been in the high 50's, so I have been outside quite a bit. Longer walks, walks by the lake, and some yard work. This is Michigan, so I am sure the unseasonable weather will be short lived. We will be back to the gray skies and freezing temps again; but I will take this weekend respite, gratefully!
Went shopping this weekend for something to wear for my sister's memorial. Two hours shopping and I came home with a maxi skirt. Going to borrow a sweater or jacket from my sister in law's closet to wear with it. Just don't have the energy to go out and look/try on more stuff. Not a clothes shopper.
Heather- You look gorgeous in red! The pics of the kids are darling! Fingers crossed for you and the sale of your home. I know you have been waiting so patiently for this to happen so you can make your move!
Beth-Thank you for sharing your love story of your son! He sounds like an amazing young man, which of course, is a great testament to your nurturing and love!
Pip- Your pups just look so content and loved! Thank you for sharing your story of Lenny and Kirby. As for the psychiatrist who advised you not to say anything about Lenny's illness; just wow. I am stunned a mental health professional would feel lying or not saying something would be good for you. As far as people accepting/rejecting what you have to say; ignorant people are everywhere, but I have faith in most people's belief that love triumphs all. Those we have lost are not/were not defined by their illness. My mom and sister were not cancer, just as Lenny was not HIV. They were much more than their illness. And Kirby is just an amazing man, and I am glad you have him!
Well, I am going to hop off and get ready for kiddos. There is no school today, due to teacher inservice, so which kids show up today is kind of a mystery. Makes life interesting. The sun has just come up and the sky to the west is a beautiful rainbow of indigo, plummy purples and rosy pink! To the east there is golds and oranges on the horizon. Love and hugs to you all xoxoxo KJ (Kelly)

Happy Monday

Gym this morning 20 mins bike, rower and treadmill 40 squats (have 40 more to do today on challenge)

I am trying the egg fast for 3 days to try and break my plateau has anyone else done this. I don't normally do anything extreme but I'm afraid that the gaining and losing the same couple of pounds is going to derail me altogether

Kate UK

Becky – Last night got an email article from WebMD about sleep apnea. Besides making you stop breathing sometimes up to 400x a night; heart problems, mental problems, it also will increase the changes of stroke. My Neurologist’s ‘nurse’ (and I use that term extremely loosely) informed me that my MRI showed ‘age-related dementia’. I think it was the way she told me that made me think she was being ‘flippant’; so I went to get the results and took them to my GP to look over and made an appointment to go see him and ask the questions that I definitely wasn’t going to get answered by Neurologist's office. What really torqued me off; was she called with the labs results and started telling me then said, ‘oh, well … that’s not yours; I am just trying to multi-task’. Do WHAT? How you multi-task with the results can be so important that a patient might need to come back in for additional tests. I think if she is still with him, when I go back (the earliest appointment is 8 months out) … I will have to complain about how the entire ordeal went down. He is only working part-time until the hospital hires another ‘full-time’ Neurologist. I really liked the one he has taken the place of; she explained things, would answer your questions, and, unfortunately I ‘need’ a local Neurologist who can see me, immediately, if I have another seizure. Going somewhere else would not be viable to do.

One thing that I found out; but, not surprised at, is because I am so claustrophobic; having even a ½ mask felt like someone was covering both my nose and mouth; I use a ‘wisp’ mask which only covers your nose. Sometimes, especially if my nose is stopped up; I have to pull it away from my face, in order to try to clear the stoppage up. When I have a bad cold; I will swab a little Mentholatim (SP?) in my nostrils beforehand, which helps; but, a lot of time, not changing the mask every 3 weeks is the issue. I would suggest taking your own pillow with you. I sleep with a feather pillow that I can get it conformed to my head. The pillows at the ‘lung MD’s sleep study lab’ were thick and hard as were the beds. The first one I they had what was something like a sleep number bed; it could be adjusted to what you bed at home feels more like. Also they put a lot more electrodes on it; and, when I needed to get up; because they were all bunched up together, all the nurse had to do was unhook them and throw them over my shoulder. It was a ‘big deal’ if you called the nurse at the MD’s office because she had to unhook each and every lead. Did not take me but once to make sure I called before I felt like I would pee in the bed waiting for her. I don’t think it makes that much of a difference; but, at the hospital I felt like there were more than one nurse on call. They had a lot more going on than MD’s office which only had 3 rooms.

Kelly – In West Michigan you call 50° an unseasonably warm weather; when in SW GA we’d call it ‘unseasonable cool weather’.
I’m not really a clothes shopper; but, I do shop for clothes at the same store; I just have to put on my blinders as I walk past the shoe department on the way in. Good sales and good prices on most things.

Pip and Kelly – I agree that a disease or disorder does not define the person. But; even today, people still tend to shun people as if they think that just being in the same room will cause them to ‘catch’ something that a lot of times is not ‘contagious’. Magic Johnson has lived a couple of decades with HIV and still looks quite healthy.

OK, yesterday I did my walking around the property and came up with one path to take to give me 45 minutes of walking; I am thinking if I add in the ‘timber trail’ I will up it to an hour or more. Will go and do it as soon as the weather warms up in the middle of the day. So much easier to walk ‘outside’ than to try to even get just 20 minute in on the treadmill.

Welcome to all the ‘newbies’ and the ones that I have not responded to lately. Still chilling; but, when that stops will begin my “Great Purge” of the house, not that I will throw out that much. I will just make it easier to find things.

Lenora