WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2024

I watched an interesting YouTube video this morning. This fellow wears a continuous glucose monitor and continually tests different foods to see how they affect his blood sugar. This video, in particular, caught my attention because he showed how eating something like caramel popcorn right before bed kept his blood sugar high all night. He said it was likely due, in part, to not having any activity after the snack to burn off the glucose. I know I'd been guilty of that prior to my higher A1C labs. I still fall back on a slice of sourdough from time to time. I need to go back to a tablespoon of peanut butter if I just HAVE to eat something to keep me from getting hungry at night. Bear in mind this is HIS result. We are all different, and others might be able to process a sugary snack just fine. I ate sweet things right before bed for years, and my fasting blood glucose was great until this spring - though I'm sure there were additional factors in play.

Her 88-year-old dad had about a half dozen strokes, the worst one in the prefrontal lobe. Some are affecting his arms and legs, but the bad one is affecting his decision-making ability, and judgment among other things. Mostly, he doesn't remember why he's in the hospital, and is confabulating to my friend and the nurses about why he's there, and why he isn't holding a drink or reading or walking to the bathroom. I didn't know that was a thing.

I don't know Bud well, but I'd met him more than once. The last time I saw him was when he was about 80. He was still a giant redwood of a man, nearly seven feet tall, and even with all his muscle and fat pared off of him by the years, massive.

During one of his short lucid periods yesterday, when he realized what had happened, she said he started crying. I don't think there are any good endings in this scenario, and he lives alone, so there are even fewer.

She just lost her mom a couple years ago, and her beloved older brother a few years before that. Her older sister is capable of caring for herself, but is somewhere on the spectrum, unable to work, and on public assistance. She is no support for my friend at all, but that is nothing new. The rest of the family, aunts and uncles, have their own health woes and don't live nearby, either.

Luckily, her husband, who had the heart procedure done last week, but is recovering well, should be able to get there today. I hope so.

This is not about me in any way, but her horrible rite of passage that so many seem to go through is reminding me that my mother's stroke 25 years ago killed her within 24 hours, and I've always been grateful that it was swift and seemed painless. Even more so now. That was in Texas, and my friend lived in Montana, and she picked up her phone every time I called throughout the single most devastating night of my life. All I can do is the same. 😢