The fact that I’m working with people in three counties and every country has a different daylight savings time is bonkers. (And makes scheduling meetings a nightmare)

That does sound needlessly complicated, meara!

Had my BP followup call with my doctor (who seems nice, presumably I will meet her someday) and I'm getting a prescription for a low dose of, um, Lisinopril? Which I will pick up on Wednesday after getting All the Bloodwork (liver, kidney, thyroid, diabetes, probably some other stuff) - my doctor recommends just walking in first thing in the morning after fasting rather than trying to make an appointment and I can't manage that tomorrow but I think I can on Wednesday. We had zero discussion of making any lifestyle changes which kind of surprised me but is also sort of a relief because, really, I don't think I could actually do anything differently right now. But one of the symptoms of high blood pressure is fatigue, so maybe treating it will help with that? Although one of the side effects of this drug is tiredness. We'll just have to see how that shakes out.

So that's my excitement for the day!

In my experience lisinopril will get you the rest you need by making you fall asleep whenever you stop moving for the first six months or so.

That's her, though, looking at her photos, only when she's playing Zoe. Wow, she seriously has a range of looks.

She definitely has a range, but WOW does some of that range include Matilda. Good eye, Epic!

I'm sorry for everyone's wonky balance and peripheral vision with masks! A year and a half in the only thing I'm noticing is that I spend a lot of most days that I go to the library to work feeling groggy and fuzzy-headed, and I finally figured out why--the KN95s I use at work sit just in the creases of my eye bags and squoosh them up just a little, and when I'm having trouble keeping my eyes all the way open my brain interprets that as "Must be tired" no matter what the actual reason. It happens when my allergies get bad, too--my eyes get pink and itchy and I want to rub them, and my brain says, "Ah, I know what this is! We must be tired!" NO, BRAIN. BAD BRAIN. STOP. ::yawn::

ION, Prubs has been nestled in a blanket on my lap for the last 25 minutes making soft little contented noises and just chilling. Most guinea pigs tolerate touching and pets and skritches, and a few enjoy them, but she's the first one I've ever known who just goes full-on snooze-all-day lapcat. She's a blissed out, relaxed and utterly trusting MOAR PETS lump in a way almost no prey animal ever is, and it's truly the best feeling to be the recipient of such trust.

I'm also fretting because she has a lump on her lower abdomen--not painful, or impeding her movements or feeding or bothering her in any way, but it's big and I don't like it at all. We've been putting off taking her to the vet to get it checked out because piggies don't often survive even minimally invasive procedures and as long as it wasn't growing fast or hurting her in any way it seemed like taking her in would do more harm than good, but it's big enough that we have to. Her quality of life is totally fine and I feel horribly sure that if we'd taken her in a while ago she'd likely have passed a while ago , and I worry that the outcome will be bad at her visit next month. I just have no faith in anything medical going well for any creature, human or non-, at all anymore.

So I'm just skritching her forehead and massaging her tiny shoulders and listening to the weird little grumbly-but-happy noises we call "porpling" and loving her while she's here.

Lisinopril 40mg/day worked very well for me. Then during chemo last winter my blood pressure started dropping TOO low. So the Lisinopril dose was dropped to 20mg/day, and that has continued to work well for me ever since.

Aw, Prubs {{{JZ}}}

Thanks, Matt and dcp, good to know!

Lisinopril high five. I'm also on a low dose.

Boy, peer pressure about taking drugs is different in your 50s

Ha!

Not wrong about peer pressure and drugs at older ages.

Prubs is sweet.