Mom & Me Five Archive

...latest doctor's appointment blood draw are up at the immediately previous link. I covered the highlights a few posts back. As I was entering them, using last September's tests as a template, I noticed that she tested worse then, too, in regard to her anemia indicators, than she tends to up here. I'm not sure why that is, but, you know, whatever. Her doctor's scribbled notes on one of the pages indicated that he considers her liver and kidneys "OK", as well as her anemia. I wasn't pleased that her hematocrit was at 30.0, though. Generally, when someone is on dialysis for renal failure, anything below 30.0 is considered grounds for EPO shots. Not that this would be a problem, but I'm a little alarmed. I'm going to see to it, of course, that we're more meticulous about her routine blood draws every month, for awhile, targeting April 23rd for the next one. I expect she'll look much better, by then.
    I read a little on some of the lows and highs that showed up this time, specifically her cholesterol readings. It seems that the Lipid Panel is supposed to be administered to a fasting patient and eating within the 12 hour period previous to the blood draw can be a problem. This always happens, though, when we have a doctor's appointment. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea, when blood is drawn in September, to suggest that he write an Rx for the Lipid Panel so I can take her in up here after her normal fasting from night to morning. Even after a 12 hour fast, though, I'm sure all her cholesterol readings are way out of whack. She has, occasionally, come in normal but always when she's been ill, which is usually accompanied by loss of appetite and a severe drop in food intake over a period of time. This isn't the best way to bring her under control. I'm also taking into consideration Mona's writing on the coincidence of low vs. high cholesterol readings in connection with Alzheimer's/dementia, even though much of this is speculation. I do know that my mother's cholesterol has pretty much always run high, at least in her elder years. Previous to this, cholesterol tests weren't administered nearly as often and, as far as I know, none exist in any of her records previous to her officially entering her elder years.
    However, I will keep a closer watch on her diet. As I was reviewing the results with MCS today, I recalled that we've already cut back quite a bit on cheese, for no other reason than Mom hasn't been particularly interested in it. Meat, of course, is a problem, and we can go a bit leaner at dinner without risking complaints, I think. Other than that, the main culprit is her breakfast bacon and I've already mentioned the solution for that. Out of curiosity, today I surveyed Mom about varieties of breakfasts which don't include eggs or bacon, such as oatmeal with fruit, breakfast cereal (I mentioned her favorite, Grape Nuts), using 2%, 1% or skim milk on cereal (her preference is half and half, or whole milk, in a pinch), breakfasts which are, chiefly, fruit and nuts and maybe home made oat muffins, etc. Her response? "You can eat those, if you want [How generous of her, yes?!?], but I'll stick with my eggs and bacon." So, there. That's settled. We'll definitely begin substituting Canadian bacon. Turkey and soy bacon aren't possibilities...we've already tried those and Mom is not a fan of anything that masquerades as breakfast meat.
    My assumption is that, as long as her appetite is healthy, we'll probably never get her cholesterol within approved limits, but I share her PCP's alarm at her triglycerides, this time, and I think we can do something about getting all her cholesterol indicators close enough in line so that, at least, her LDL can be calculated without doing a direct LDL test.
    I know, I still have lots to make up. It snowed this evening by surprise and it looks like we're in for a cold weekend, as well, Mom is responding to the sudden return of winter weather as usual, slowing down quite a bit, so I'm hoping to do some much needed catching up both here and over at The Dailies over the weekend. Do I hear someone whispering, "Yeah, we've heard that before..." I know. You have. What can I say, except...
    ...later.