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Dec. 27th, 2018 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckI have a theory about what's been going on with me, physically, for the last few years. I think I've had chronic issues with some sort of borderline low sodium thing. My blood tests have been in normal range every time, but I *feel* better and think better when I add extra salt to my daily diet. I've been doing it since last weekend, and Scott has noticed the difference.
When I say 'extra salt,' I'm talking about a pinch here and there that wouldn't add up to a teaspoon over the course of the day. It would explain why a burger made at home (with zero added salt) would be less effective at helping me feel better than a burger bought from Wendy's or from a sit-down restaurant. I'd been thinking for years that it was something about fat content or iron content or protein, but I couldn't replicate it at home, no matter what I tried.
I've been taking Wellbutrin for many years, and that gives me chronic dry mouth issues. I can't have artificial sweeteners, so chewing gums or sucking on hard candies aren't options. Biotene tastes to me like a lidocaine gargle, so it's out, too.
That's left me with sipping water constantly. Once in a while, I mix it up with herbal tea. I'm probably drinking 80-100 ounces of water a day plus whatever caffeinated beverages I drink.
My blood pressure has always been on the very low end of normal. Since my lumpectomy, it's moved up to just below the middle of normal range. I'm not worried about hypertension as a result of a little more salt. Given that, when I started wondering about it last week, I decided that I could experiment for a week or two to see what happened. I'm being cautious about amounts because I don't want to get to a point where my body thinks everything should taste like salt.
We don't standardly add salt or any other seasoning when we cook meat or vegetables. We just never have. Right now, I'm adding a pinch or two of salt to my morning coffee (16 ounce cup) and some to at least one refill of my (20 ounce) water bottle per day. I'd rather put it in my water than on food because it's a lot easier to balance. If I can taste it, I dilute things further. If I put too much in, say, a bowl of oatmeal, it's considerably harder to move back to the right level.
The name for having low sodium is 'hyponatremia.' Symptoms include headache, confusion, altered mental states, tiredness, restlessness, weakness. It can also increase anxiety. It's just not an easy thing to research because Google assumes people asking about 'low salt' are wanting advice on hypotension, no-salt cooking, etc. The fact that all of those symptoms are things that could be explicable as part of other problems I have makes pinpointing a problem hard (see also: how long it took me to get diagnosed with iron deficient anemia).
Scott didn't work Christmas Eve, so we could do a lot of food preparation early in the day. I took a whole wheat English muffin and a mix of tuna, ranch dressing, and shredded cheese for my dinner. The English muffin was kind of unpleasantly dry, so maybe I should have put the tuna on it and transported it that way. I was just afraid it would get soggy. (Toasting it before we went seemed useless, and there wasn't a way to toast it after we got there.)
Cordelia is appalled by the fact that I sang both loudly and slightly off-key during the Christmas Eve service. One or the other would be acceptable, but she has stated that she will not stand next to me at future Christmas services.
The current minister at Scott's parents' church does communion rather than having members of the congregation exchange greetings. Apparently there's only time for one or the other during Methodist services. I prefer the greetings because they're much less fraught with questions of who can safely eat/drink what.
I took an Ativan early in the day on Christmas Eve and then another six hours later. At one point, I was taking tablets that were twice the dosage that my current ones are (both on an as needed basis), so I thought that two in a day wouldn't be Too Much.
I did not have a headache on Christmas Eve. This is unprecedented. I'm not sure if it was the added salt or the extra Ativan.
I'll write about Christmas tomorrow.
When I say 'extra salt,' I'm talking about a pinch here and there that wouldn't add up to a teaspoon over the course of the day. It would explain why a burger made at home (with zero added salt) would be less effective at helping me feel better than a burger bought from Wendy's or from a sit-down restaurant. I'd been thinking for years that it was something about fat content or iron content or protein, but I couldn't replicate it at home, no matter what I tried.
I've been taking Wellbutrin for many years, and that gives me chronic dry mouth issues. I can't have artificial sweeteners, so chewing gums or sucking on hard candies aren't options. Biotene tastes to me like a lidocaine gargle, so it's out, too.
That's left me with sipping water constantly. Once in a while, I mix it up with herbal tea. I'm probably drinking 80-100 ounces of water a day plus whatever caffeinated beverages I drink.
My blood pressure has always been on the very low end of normal. Since my lumpectomy, it's moved up to just below the middle of normal range. I'm not worried about hypertension as a result of a little more salt. Given that, when I started wondering about it last week, I decided that I could experiment for a week or two to see what happened. I'm being cautious about amounts because I don't want to get to a point where my body thinks everything should taste like salt.
We don't standardly add salt or any other seasoning when we cook meat or vegetables. We just never have. Right now, I'm adding a pinch or two of salt to my morning coffee (16 ounce cup) and some to at least one refill of my (20 ounce) water bottle per day. I'd rather put it in my water than on food because it's a lot easier to balance. If I can taste it, I dilute things further. If I put too much in, say, a bowl of oatmeal, it's considerably harder to move back to the right level.
The name for having low sodium is 'hyponatremia.' Symptoms include headache, confusion, altered mental states, tiredness, restlessness, weakness. It can also increase anxiety. It's just not an easy thing to research because Google assumes people asking about 'low salt' are wanting advice on hypotension, no-salt cooking, etc. The fact that all of those symptoms are things that could be explicable as part of other problems I have makes pinpointing a problem hard (see also: how long it took me to get diagnosed with iron deficient anemia).
Scott didn't work Christmas Eve, so we could do a lot of food preparation early in the day. I took a whole wheat English muffin and a mix of tuna, ranch dressing, and shredded cheese for my dinner. The English muffin was kind of unpleasantly dry, so maybe I should have put the tuna on it and transported it that way. I was just afraid it would get soggy. (Toasting it before we went seemed useless, and there wasn't a way to toast it after we got there.)
Cordelia is appalled by the fact that I sang both loudly and slightly off-key during the Christmas Eve service. One or the other would be acceptable, but she has stated that she will not stand next to me at future Christmas services.
The current minister at Scott's parents' church does communion rather than having members of the congregation exchange greetings. Apparently there's only time for one or the other during Methodist services. I prefer the greetings because they're much less fraught with questions of who can safely eat/drink what.
I took an Ativan early in the day on Christmas Eve and then another six hours later. At one point, I was taking tablets that were twice the dosage that my current ones are (both on an as needed basis), so I thought that two in a day wouldn't be Too Much.
I did not have a headache on Christmas Eve. This is unprecedented. I'm not sure if it was the added salt or the extra Ativan.
I'll write about Christmas tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 03:10 am (UTC)*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 11:41 am (UTC)* probably a commercial name, the other one we have is hydralyte.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 04:49 pm (UTC)I vote strongly in favor of singing loudly and off-key!!! Not that I get a vote! But I'm in favor of doing sociable things with enthusiasm and gusto, and singing loudly and off-key qualifies. :)