Wellness and Weighing In Wednesday

Well after two weeks of missed Weight Watcher's meetings I finally managed to make it to a meeting today, I weighed in and I'm happy to report I am down -1.6 pounds, which has me quite surprised because there was a problem with my blood pressure medication and after not having one of my medications for over two weeks I thought for sure I was going to see a gain.

One of the medications I take is a diuretic combination medication and the wise (not) doctor refused to refill the perscription until she saw me, apparently the month before the pharmacy called to get a 30 courtesy refill. Well I made the appointment explaining I need the medication as my BP spikes and I am a heart attack survivor, only to have the office call and reschedule. This happened again, I was really miffed, last week I finally saw the doctor, she remarks how the medication is working because without the meds my BP was 210/109. Uh Duh! 

I have to say 4 hours after restarting the medication I was alert, and feeling more myself, I managed to walk the following day though not as long or as far as I would have liked, it took four days to start feeling well. 

The first week off the medication wasn't too bad though by mid week I could tell all was not well, my energy level was quite low and I was very tired and warm all the time. By week two I was napping 3-4 hours so soundly I referred to it as the sleep of the dead, I am not normally a sound sleeper.  My enegry level was gone and any type of pyhsical actvity had me gasping for breath and the grumpiness slid in and the warm feeling changed to hot compound that with hot flashes what a week.

I left the doctor's office not only very irrate because I hate having my medications messed about especially since my BP tends to spike.  I  walked out with a plan to find a new and hopefully competent doctor.  

I think eating foods considered natural diuretics was helpful in me not retaining as much water as I would normally, I could feel the water building up in my ankles and hands, see it in my puffy face and the fact my clothes felt tight. The scale would go up 4 pounds and down 1, every other day or so and then after a week of mainly watermelon, celery, tea and lemon water the scale stopped climbing.

All the years of herbal remedies, eating healthy, eating right and knowing my body was beneficial in trying to keep things balanced. 

We have been having lovely Fall days this week with the temps barely hitting the mid 80's, the last several mornings it was 55 degrees with evening temps about the same. I have to say its a pleasure to be out and about on the walking trail when the air is cool and comfy. I think these are the days most people in Florida wait all year for, I know I sure do. It is raining now after a very overcast morning.

This week I'm feeling nostalgic, a little homesick and feeling the loss of a my dear friend Sandy who passed away a few years ago. I always feel the loss more in the autumn  or when I'm at a quilt show. When I lived in New Jersey my friend Sandy was my first quilting buddy, in the Autumn I would schedule days off so we could go antique shopping in one of our favorite places in New Jersey, the area was rural and the leaves were just ablaze in color, there was a wonderful quilt shop there where we would spend a few hours, and a few dollars, there was always somethng going on. I can still smell the aroma of spiced hot cider when I think of her. The quilt shop and a few antique shops served it every fall. 

When I moved to Florida each autumn she would send me a small packet of colorful leaves. She would glue a few to her letters and tell me where she was when she picked up the leaf, and always there was a leaf from Allentown NJ where our favorite Quilt shop was. It may sound like such a small gesture yet meant so much to me because I missed the change of season terribly the first few years I moved here.  I have plans to drive into the mountains of northern Georgia to take in the colorful leaves and you can bet I will be thinking of my friend Sandy while I'm there.  I'm going to do some apple picking and I'll research the area for a quilt shop and may be with some luck there will be hot cider some where along my journey.