After the Vacation
Jul. 18th, 2024 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperThis morning, it was 12 days since we returned from our vacation. And as of today, I am down 15 pounds from when I weighed in on the morning after we got back.
That is actually less impressive than it sounds, because most of that weight (if not all of it) was water. We drove from Chicago, where we have really great drinking water, down to the great Southwest of the U.S., staying near Fort Worth, Texas; then Phoenix, Arizona; and then in Anaheim, California. These places all have one thing in common that I really notice:
The drinking water is salty. Sometimes, it is because the water is being softened. Sometimes, it is just brine. But none of the water compares to what I get from my tap where the water originates in Lake Michigan. And taking in all of that extra salt means that I hold extra water.
This was complicated by the fact that any day that I was driving (and there were a *lot* of those), I couldn't take my diuretic, because taking a diuretic when on the highway means that you will never get where you are going, because of all the places where you will be going. The diuretic (among other things) helps deal with the fact that the lymph circulation in my left leg is shot after the knee ligament replacement and subsequent post-op infection.
When I am carrying that much extra water around with me, my legs know it.
But time has passed, the diuretic has done its good work, and things are more or less back to normal.
Fifteen pounds (or so) of water.
Sheesh.
That is actually less impressive than it sounds, because most of that weight (if not all of it) was water. We drove from Chicago, where we have really great drinking water, down to the great Southwest of the U.S., staying near Fort Worth, Texas; then Phoenix, Arizona; and then in Anaheim, California. These places all have one thing in common that I really notice:
The drinking water is salty. Sometimes, it is because the water is being softened. Sometimes, it is just brine. But none of the water compares to what I get from my tap where the water originates in Lake Michigan. And taking in all of that extra salt means that I hold extra water.
This was complicated by the fact that any day that I was driving (and there were a *lot* of those), I couldn't take my diuretic, because taking a diuretic when on the highway means that you will never get where you are going, because of all the places where you will be going. The diuretic (among other things) helps deal with the fact that the lymph circulation in my left leg is shot after the knee ligament replacement and subsequent post-op infection.
When I am carrying that much extra water around with me, my legs know it.
But time has passed, the diuretic has done its good work, and things are more or less back to normal.
Fifteen pounds (or so) of water.
Sheesh.