Balancing Act

Of late my life has turned into a balancing act. The picture above is a pretty good approximation of how foggy and ephemeral it often feels.
I am at present recovering from three hospitalizations dating from this past March when I was suddenly felled after a social evening out with dehydration and wound up being admitted to the hospital. Since then another visit to the ER in April with more dehydration. And then around three thirty in the morning of the Fourth of July I went by ambulance with serious breathing problems back to the hospital then to be diagnosed with over hydration. Thus the beginning of the balancing act.
My diagnosis is congestive heart failure. Both my heart and my kidneys are not functioning at full efficiency. They are a team and one of their jobs is to manage hydration.
The doctors job has been to diagnose and prescribe medication. I will not recover from congestive heart failure. It can be stabilized and I can live a long time with it but it is a progressive condition and the only movement is down.
My part is to watch my fluid intake. It is to be kept up to but not over 64 ozs. per day. I record all of the fluid that I take in as the day goes by. I also must weigh myself every morning. Should my weight go below 135 (  it is presently 137.6) I must stop the Lasix ( a powerful diuretic). Should my weight go above 145 I must double the dose.
I also need to record my blood pressure every day. I do it before and after meds and I record my pulse. This information is helpful to the doctors to ascertain my progress and response to meds.
I need to eat healthfully and my vegan/vegetarian diet is particularly good for my heart and kidneys. Unfortunately one of the side effects of poor kidney function is a loss of taste. No matter what I prepare there is not much taste to my food. I discipline myself to eat it because I need it. Happily the chocolate chips in a health food (sugar free) cookie that I eat do taste like chocolate!!
I have yet another balancing act to manage. I have sciatica pain issues in my butt that allow me to sit for limited periods of time. I have to sit as long as I can and then recline. I have very painful arthritis in the back of my neck and reclining exacerbates the pain so I can only recline so long. I have issues with pain in the muscles of my hips and thighs and can only walk 200 steps before needing to rest. And I have a left knee that needs replacement so must not do too much walking. So it is a big balancing act between standing, sitting and reclining. I tried the heavy pain medication but I prefer to put up with a lot of pain to the side effects of the meds.
I am hoping to get strong enough to be able to balance going out in the world which I love to being home and quiet which I also love.
For a while I will blog about how I am staying in balance.
Today's food so far:
Hot oatmeal with raisins and soy milk for breakfast and some decaffeinated lemon tea.
A double fiber bread sandwich of tomatoe, avocado, lettuce, bacon bits and Miracle Whip plus my health cookie for lunch and a glass of orange juice.
Lots of rest this morning as I was very weak.
Dressed today in bright pink for cheer.
Did some spiritual reading, watched Deadliest Catch, ran the dishwasher.
Let Christy and Gene in so they could put her clothes in my closet. She is staying from tomorrow until next Sunday while her floors are being refinished.
Enjoying my clean house. Marth worked 7 hours this week and I can feel her thoroughness in my sparkling house. And her kindness has been a comfort to me.
Hope to get the dishwasher emptied before the day is over and fix a nutritious dinner.
Will perhaps watch a little TV and then to bed to read Game of Thrones.
Grateful for another day on the planet.