I have stayed on track with adding things to my diet, but am waiting for long term positive results. Adding certain beans and more olive oil, etc. I know is supposed to help, but I can't say there is a radical change so far, of course. I will say, my tea consumption has branched out even more and, for varieties sake, have added different flavors, caffeine free. Everything still revolves around my hibiscus tea and white tea, they stay my base.
In my tea quest, I found and harvested some boneset plants and dried it for boneset tea in my kitchen. Removing flowers and leaves after drying for two weeks or so, I tossed those in my food processor and stored it in my cabinet in a jar. Great tea for cold and flu, etc. I want it for my whole family, but taking NyQuil or other cold relief meds makes my blood pressure go sky high, so I am happy to have this option. I tested it on myself and didn't die, yay! Plus my nose, which was a little stuffy, opened fast, and stayed open for hours on testing day. I was surprised! My husband took some, he was ok other than breaking out in a full body sweat, suddenly. Lasted about 10 minutes. Yeahhh, it's supposed to do that as well, but didn't happen to me. Last night I gave my third kid some boneset tea. He had some wheeziness and a barking cough. I was amazed how he perked up and didn't cough all the evening until this morning. He said he felt much better. Side note, this tea is VILE, but my sick kid said it didn't taste that terrible....lucky him.
I went to the doctor last on Saturday the 20th and after weeks of being on the meds, was pretty pleased to have left the initial side effects behind me, but had a list of new ones that have popped up. Feeling light headed off and on I do expect, but I have been bruising like nothing else! Crazy, huge, big bruises. I am a pretty sturdy gal in this regard, and have not ever had but one bruise at a time. I am only a house wife and mom, and bashing your knee caps into cabinet handles is about my worst danger. Maybe a bruise a week, maybe every other week. But now five or six a week?? And they are GIANT, spreading out further than I have ever seen. And it takes less pressure to bruise up. I carried a 24 pack of bottled water under my arm from the driveway to my room, and that night I had about a dozen small, spotted bruises along my inner forearm from the puckered edge of the sealed plastic seam. I looked like a needle junkie! Not cool.
I also saw spontaneous red spots showing on my legs. Perhaps two at a time, they come and go in a couple of days or up to three weeks. Not razor burn from shaving, these are under the skin, smooth vivid maroon spots, pin sized to 2 mm. Very strange, painless, not itchy.
Also, my left ankle swells every single day. It ranges from barely noticeable puffiness to ankle bones are flush with the swelling. My right ankle swells about half the time as the left. It really depends on how much I am on my feet for the day.
One happy thing is my walking and jogging seems not to be a factor with my ankles, neither good nor bad. I see no difference, but at least I am not being held back because of it. I have been steadily working on stamina, and go about 12-20 miles per week, and try always to increase my time or distance. I am very pleased with my increase in muscle and I can tell very much so, having my blood pressure in check, I can go much further and work out harder than in the past, prior to meds. I have a pretty good jogging buddy now, Ringo a white German Shepherd, but he can turn into a drag ass sometimes....ok, every time. He hits his "not going faster than a trot" wall at some point. I have not taken him over past a 4 mile trip. I am skeptical. But he is happy and willing and I love having an extra set of ears and eyes with me. My only current disappointment with my jogging is my resting heart rate has shown no change at all. That does bum me out some. It is staying in the 70 beats per minute range. It really should be much better than that, so odds are I will be turning my attention to it soon.
In addition to overall health, I have added home made sauerkraut to the entire family's diet. If I can work it in the meal, raw being even more beneficial, I will. Along with homemade buttermilk, these are a great source of probiotics. I have known people who only use yogurt or acidophilus supplements after a round of an antibiotic, but also some use it for daily digestive health, and making buttermilk and sauerkraut at home makes the cost very small. And insofar as the salt content of sauerkraut, I use a teaspoon and half for a one quart jar, and I can live with that lol. No problem, and you can eat it with almost anything.
I go back to the doctor in two weeks, he wants to check my cholesterol again, and also my platelet level to see if there is an explanation for the bruising and swelling beyond the Lisinopril. My hunch is, it's the medicine, and I don't think I can let that stand, if so. But, we will see!
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