It's been four weeks since I started taking the potassium-sparing drug spironolactone; it's also been four weeks since I stopped drinking milk as well as not eating potassium rich foods. Today I did yet another blood test to see how my body is reacting to the medication and how my diet is faring.
My potassium level is 4.8 mEq/l, which is comfortably below the recommended maximum level of 5.1 mEq/l. Last month the value was 3.9 mEq/l, but before that it was 4.9 mEq/l. I've had my blood tested for potassium nine times so far this year, and the values have varied from 3.8 to 4.9. My conclusion is that I should keep on with my low potassium diet for at least another month.
So what have I been eating? Chicken has less potassium than fish, so I've been cooking the 'chicken and rice in a pot' dish every week. For breakfast I've been eating an omelette (eggs don't have much potassium) with grated cheese (even less potassium). In the evenings, apart from salad (cucumber along with red and yellow bell peppers, no potassium rich tomatoes) and tuna (canned tuna is apparently potassium deficient), I've been eating some peculiar vegan deserts.
The desert pictured on the left would appear to be a typical chocolate flavoured mousse. But it's vegan and in fact it's made from sesame (in Hebrew, sumsum, that explains the name 'soom')! I caught a whiff of sesame (a taste that I generally don't like) when I opened the container, but afterwards it was like eating a regular chocolate desert. The funny thing is that both my wife and my daughter thought that it tasted terrible! Maybe there are advantages in being almost anosmic.
A second desert that I tried but liked less is a bizarre concoction based on oats. I bought two based on blueberries and two based on apples; so far I've only tried the first, and its taste is somewhat peculiar. Most of the taste is fine but there is an intruding note that I can't describe. This is definitely edible but less enjoyable than the chocolate sesame. I'm not going to try the banana based version as this probably has got a higher level of potassium.
As I have discovered very quickly, there is no legislative requirement to print potassium levels on foods so no one does. Thus I don't know whether non-dairy ice cream is better than dairy ice cream, or even how much potassium is in the two above products.
I used to say that I was a 'milkaholic'; I would drink more than the usual daily amount, and like an alcoholic, I would say that the first drink slides down so easily that another one is immediately called for. I quit the milk without any problems, although occasionally I find myself eyeing the milk cartons in the fridge. To be honest, I had two cups of tea with milk today: I didn't find the taste particularly enticing so it looks like I can stay 'on the wagon' with few problems.
I've also been playing around with the beta blocker medication. After a week of not taking it at all and seeing the number of apneic incidents reduce but the blood pressure slowly rise, I then had a week of taking the medication in the morning. The apnea did not increase (good) and the blood pressure went down again, but there were a few days that I felt completely washed out at 9 am. My compromise was to take half a tablet in the morning: this seems to be the best solution as the blood pressure is good, even in the afternoon, there are few apnea and I don't seem to be tired.
I have yet another doctor's appointment on Sunday. Theoretically I should also make an appointment to see the nephrologist; I like him personally and he has also done a lot for me, but now he seems not to be in agreement with the family doctor.
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