So last week (or so) I was trying to avoid stepping on a cat and tripped over my pedestal fan and broke the blade. Everything else was fine and I didn't want to chuck.

Turns out the maker, Lasko, sells replacement parts, so I bought a new blade and it was here, just in time for a hot day. Although the shipping was the blade so it was about half the cost of a new fan. But I feel better not throwing away perfectly good stuff.

I hope the back calms down quickly, Teppy.

It took her like 30 seconds of squeezing and kneading my finger just to enough blood to even test.

You may be like me and make a ton of platelets. Have you ever tried platelet donation? They used to think the lower the blood pressure, the better. This infuriated my mother, who fainted from low blood pressure fairly often when she was younger. Now they think there are also low blood pressure strokes.

As I'm sure you know, Nora, the big culprits are processed foods. They have my mom on low sodium to cut down the edema from her congestive heart failure, and it's shocking to read the labels for sodium. I was always busy looking at calories and didn't pay much attention.

You may be like me and make a ton of platelets.

This is also apparently me. When I gave blood, the tech cheerfully told me that if I ever got shot, I probably wouldn't bleed out.

I know with me BP is pretty directly tied to weight. Ten pounds can drop me from high back into high normal and twenty gets me right into normal range. I may have been putting off going back to the doc until I lose some weight, since I don't want to go on BP meds. I'm not saying I AM doing that, because that would be cray-cray, but a person WHO LOOKS A LOT LIKE ME may be doing that.

Ouch, Tep!

Using the same machine will at least show a general trend. The numbers might not be perfect, but they will show improvement or hie thee to a physician information.

My blood pressure reads lower at those machines than doctor's offices. Cause I get panicky in Dr places and when humans are poking at me.

I don't think any numbers are completely accurate in my situation, but it's a range.

and it's shocking to read the labels for sodium.

It's depressing. I stopped buying some things.

I feel weird talking about how my family owned an MG Midget when I was a baby.

It's the actual name. Huh. I've never felt weird about that. If I heard someone say MG Little Person, I would blanch.

So last week (or so) I was trying to avoid stepping on a cat and tripped over my pedestal fan and broke the blade.

Owwwwwww.

But I feel better not throwing away perfectly good stuff.

My family doesn't get my ~issue~ with this.

I have a ton of platelets, so many that they clog up the line while donating and then they have to stop the whole process and toss out what little they got from me. I'm back to donating whole blood instead.

I know with me BP is pretty directly tied to weight.

Sure, but I've been this weight pretty consistently for years.

I have no-the-machine-is-not-actually-broken-just-take-it-again-trust-me, low blood pressure. And, I've always been a sodium ho.

But since I've been living clean this last month, my need for salt seems to have gone down considerably. Where once I would grind the salt into my hand and eat it as a snack, using Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning is really working out for me...and seems almost too salty...which is just weird.

Sure, but I've been this weight pretty consistently for years.

Sorry, Nora. I think I was massively unhelpful there and could have been read as being judgy. I was surprised to find out how connected it was FOR ME, is what I was trying to say--not for everyone. And even knowing that, I STILL can't seem to lose the weight, so I got nothing, I guess...
Well, I'll stop talking now.

Steph's back!! Behave, dammit.

Hey, Nora, where do you do yoga?

I have low BP, but bad cholesterol.

Lunch was fun. Going to see XM:FC tonight with girl from last night, so of course now I'm doing the "OMG what if she likes me likes me and I don't like her?" thing. Yay.