I started cutting back at the start of the year as a result of my doctor wanting to get my A1C under control and putting me on Mounjaro. I decided to switch to a healthier diet to come in way under the goal she set and it worked...but now I find myself getting full quicker and trying to eat lighter meals as a result.

>Another wrinkle that has developed over the last couple of weeks is
>that my mother, who was already suffering from Anemia of Unknown
>Origin and possibly impaired kidney function, somehow came down with
>Enterococcus faecalis blood sepsis. This is a bad, bad
>infection, with something like a 30% mortality rate. She's been
>hospitalized for two weeks while doctors first figured out what it was
>and what antibiotic to throw at it, then pumped her full of IV
>vancomycin for days on end.
>
>The good news there is that she's feeling better every day, apart from
>the boredom and all the IVs and blood draws, and they're supposedly
>going to release her tomorrow. What happens then... remains to be
>seen. Given that this whole mess started with her going to bed one
>night feeling (her anemic version of) fine and woke up three days
>later in the hospital, after Vincent finally called an ambulance, she
>probably shouldn't sleep upstairs any more.
>
>A one-legged man isn't going to be able to go up there and check on
>her, and she has a weird habit of leaving her phone downstairs. The
>only communication they had over those days was shouted remarks up and
>down the stairs, and Vincent says she sounded perfectly coherent to
>him--as she did when I stopped by an hour before he finally called an
>ambulance--but she remembers nothing of having any conversations with
>either of us during that time. The whole thing's been pretty scary.
>And they still haven't figured out where the iron that should be in
>her blood is going.

We've been dealing with a similar situation since the beginning of the year, as what seemed like my mother fainting and hitting her head turned into a full-on stroke in less than 48 hours. The revelation that her blood sugar was out of control because she'd stopped taking her meds again as they gave her "gastrointestinal distress" (trans: regular bouts of diarrhea) came as no surprise since she'd had a heart attack a few years ago for the same reason.

Thankfully the stroke itself was mild and the only long-term effect (so far) is weakness in her left side that she's slowly working through is a blessing. What is not so much is the medical bureaucratic fuckery that's slow-walked the revelation that her aortic artery is almost 80% blocked and very likely the explanation for why circulation in her hips and legs is so poor. She's scheduled for surgery on Dec 4th to laproscopically remove as much of the blockage as possible and install a stent to restore full blood flow.

>Oh, and while the first phase of that was going on, I had another UTI
>and felt like absolute shit for a week, because of course I did.

Yeah, I'm due for my annual sinus infection any time now.

>While all that was happening: On the plus side, Dad and I have been
>taking some time to reorganize my kitchen and hopefully convert it
>from its current slobular chaos into an environment in which I can
>actually explore my new culinary horizons. On the minus side, that's
>using up time we would otherwise be spending in the shop. We did get
>in there for a while this week, and it was nice to be back in the cool
>quiet and think about what the hell we were doing before we were so
>rudely interrupted by life.

Always good to have a hobby when life decides to bend you over and labor at your posterior with a crowbar.

>Anyway, that's the State of the Gryphon address for now. I'm doing
>fine, Mom's... improving... and things may be returning to normal
>shop-wise later this month or in December.
>
>Weather permitting. It is the beginning of winter in Maine, after
>all.

We had snow flurries this past Tuesday that came as a complete shock considering the temp the day before was in the high 40s. It's shaping up to be an...interesting end to the year.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject