Our day began with stress. Hannah is having car trouble and this has led to her having much stress. When a person has stress it never stays with just the person who is under this stress – they always share. Stress is an interesting thing. It is defined as “pressure or tension exerted on a material object” and “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances”. In this case, the 2nd definition applies. Going through this time of change and (hopefully) healing of our bodies, Tiff and I are supposed to avoid emotionally taxing circumstances. Is that possible? I don’t know a single person who has not personally experienced this emotion and had it affect the people around them. We know that a stress-free life is not possible. Tiff and I chose to handle this morning’s “stress sharing” by praying for Hannah. This was comforting to Tiff and I. Not too long afterward I received a text from Hannah and she had obviously mellowed out from her earlier tension. This causes me to be mindful of the need to pray daily.
The 4 main effects that stress has on our bodies are insomnia, diarrhea, depression and difficulty concentrating. These are all things that I don’t want in my life, especially if caused by a difficult situation. I recently heard a pod caster relate that anger, which often accompanies stress, is simply the fact that something occurred in your life that you didn’t want to occur. I don’t want to harp on this topic for very long but dealing with stress is a vital part of good health. I guess it comes down to whether we have good coping skills or not so good coping skills. Hannah’s blood pressure read high yesterday, I have concerns that her elevated stress, and difficulty handling it right now, is leading to potential health consequences. We will continue to monitor this.
At the end of the day yesterday Tiff’s legs looked trim. This may sound like a weird thing to say. I am monitoring her closely due to the severity of her heart disease and this is something to watch. She has had edema (swelling) in her legs for years, even prior to her known heart disease 5+ years ago. This is always worse at the end of the day than at the beginning. She states that she does still have some mild swelling but it is far less than just a week ago. She has also noted a decrease in her neuropathy pain. I don’t know if neuropathy (which she has because of her uncontrolled diabetes) can be reversed but improvement is also welcome. Another improvement is that yesterday she did not have any dizziness or lightheadedness. That is the first time since it began while she was in the hospital. We are seeing health improvements and this is encouraging us to stay with the plan 😊.
Overall today was just okay. Hannah was gone all day so it was just Tiff and I. We both felt kind of “blah”. No real pep or energy. No high moods – just plain blah! We have had potatoes at our dinners for 2 nights now and both of those nights Tiff’s blood sugars went very high – even with insulin use. I think that potatoes are going to be off the menu for now. We want her Hemoglobin A1C to be down when we get back to our normal lives so we want to do all we can to keep her sugars under good control. It’s interesting, we have had no sugar other than that which naturally occurs in fruits and veggies and her sugars are still high. Her body is going through the process of relearning how to manage the blood sugar and it’s taking longer than I had hoped. We will continue to monitor her overall health daily.
Day 9 is over, day 10 is on the way. As someone once said “So you mean to tell me a stress ball isn’t for throwing at people who stress you out”?
2 responses to “STRESS IS AN ISSUE TO BE DEALT WITH”
You are being prayed for daily. I love that you are blogging your journey.
Please keep up the prayers for us. This is getting tougher.