2020, June 7th - Sunday - I see that weight is a bigger issue than I thought

We try and weigh mom every night before bed.  We really should do it when she wakes in the morning, but I have to be there to help her stand and balance on the scale and we can't have the scale out where she can trip on it and she can't bend down to retrieve a scale. So we do it at night, I bring the scale out, she stands on it and tries to balance as long as possible to get the weight to register.  Most nights she can do it.  Its the last thing we do before she sits on the bed and I lift her feet it and help her roll onto her side.

She weighed 214.8 tonight.  Her top weight has been 215.6, so she is near the top.  She weighs 20 lbs more than last June 8th when she was released from the hospital with her first diagnosis of Heart Trouble.  That 20 lbs does not appear to be water weight, but fat.  Her pants and shirts and bra don't fit as well.

Why?  Well we eat okay.  Maybe something from take-out once a week but the other six days a simple meal of meat, starch, vegetable.  Lunch is small like a sandwich and breakfast is 1 1/2 frozen waffles and a small dish of raspberries and half a banana.  Maybe a few oz of chocolate or a small pudding for desert, but nothing extravagant.  This is about exercise.

She can't lift her arms above her shoulders.  The arthritis is getting bad in back and shoulders and hands.  That with her numb legs and balance is just making it hard to walk much and during the virus thing its much worse.  Her heart and stay in the hospital and the bad virus (not COVID-19) in January took the stuffing out of her and her weight jumped and she got weak.  We had a PT in, but she thought she couldn't do more in the cardiovascular so did some balance and then was done in a month.

So what to do?  Well, I did it this evening.  I had her get up at a commercial and walk two laps around the kitchen.  No problem.  I got to get her out more walking.  I'll try and have her walk in the back yard more and other things.  Maybe the stationary bike.

I was thinking of getting a motorhome so mom and I could travel and have a bathroom and an easier time.  She doesn't have many more years left of being able to enjoy the world.  But... She has to lose weight first.  She needs to be more mobile than today.  She can hardly get in and out of bed herself.  I know she could do better if we tried.  Its hard for me to put other stuff aside, but will try and make it happen.

We have an ENT appointment tomorrow, but I will cancel.  Its easy, say mom has a cough.  That was to investigate her chronic coughs, but not my top priority right now.

Charles  11:32pm PST

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