We all know what Mom likes to eat daily:

Toast/English Muffin with butter (smart choice?) and jelly
Coffee with 1/2 & 1/2
Sandwich - SHE ONLY EATS 1/4 OF A SANDWICH WHEN I HAVE BEEN THERE
Soup and Sandwich or crackers or vegie sticks for dinner (one small bowl)
and SNACKS all day (cookies and candy)


It would seem to be an easy enough thing to come up with a diet plan on a daily/monthly/weekly basis that would account for sodium simply because she eats so little.

I understand that sodium is a no-no, but when Mom says she ate a bologna sandwich for lunch, number 1, I would question it. In my experience, Mom makes things up as she goes. She could be remembering a bologna sandwich from 10 years ago. Was there actually bologna in the house? Maybe it was deli turkey, so what does that tell you? But even then, it is only a 1/4 of a sandwich. We could make ourselves crazy here and there is such a simple solution - write down a daily diet for whoever is providing her food and that is what she gets. Post it on the fridge.

We could actually write down what we know she eats right now and understand what her current sodium intake is and start from there.

Sodium is bad. Yes. Sodium contributes to Mom's swelling, etc., but let's not overlook the fact that she could swell anyway. She has been swelling like that FOR YEARS, even pre-bypass surgery. This is not a new condition. Now, she is in congestive heart failure. Her heart does not work. It could be that no amount of diet adjustment will help anything but that does not mean we shouldn't try. I'm just sort of weary of the piling on of guilt. I for one sort of resent a doctor who contributes to it by adding additional guilt. This is the second time now that I know of that he has been wagging his finger at us. The other time was over the Zoloft.

Why don't we take a few posts to give ourselves pats on the back for jobs well done in a very difficult situtation in the care of our an obstinate 82 year old, ill mother. We are not going to be perfect. But I for one think that we are pretty close. Everyone's commitment is outstanding. If we could analyze her food intake to understand just how much sodium she actually is taking in in a day and move on from there, we would probably all feel better.