Wednesday

Learn something new every day. It turns out that Melatonin impedes blood clotting. I learned this online after donating blood yesterday, because it took forever to get the puncture wound to stop bleeding actively. I went home with a pressure bandage on it, and when I took it off, 3 hours after the donation completed, it threatened to start bleeding again. Google being my friend, I did a quick search on supplements that impede blood clotting, and Melatonin was one of the first hits. And I had taken 10 mg the night before. Q. E. D.

All is well now, although I do have a band-aid on the spot, just in case it changes it's mind about healing. But that wasn't all I learned from donating blood. My blood pressure yesterday was 96/58, which is quite low. Low-Normal, I believe; certainly I'm not having syncope upon standing abruptly or anything like that. Reminds me of my first physical after going Paleo, when we had to do it twice because reading 1 was ridiculously low. And my pulse was 72 - this, a few minutes after wandering around the building to find the donation truck and filling out paperwork and what-not, so I wouldn't quite call it a resting pulse - I know mine has been in the mid-60s generally. Finally, my hemoglobin level was at 14.9, which is high-normal for women (upper limit per a quick search is 15.1). So I'm not anemic - quite the opposite. Which is the main reason I wanted to donate; to shed some iron. I hope it worked.

As usual, I wasn't particularly affected by donating - not dizzy or lightheaded or anything. I don't know if that's to do with a fat-based metabolism (but is mine these days???) or what. And I was able to climb the stairs to work this morning without feeling any less capable than usual and not at all winded.

156.6 this morning (if a pint's a pound, shouldn't I have lost one?); here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• strawberries
  
• salad with ham and cheese and blue cheese dressing
  
• macadamia nuts
  
• chips and salsa
  
• 3-stack enchiladas montada (cheese) with green chile
  
• 8-10 chocolate blueberries
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

My stomach has been upset in a mild way for the past few days; I figure I'll just let it sort itself out for now without getting all weird about weight.

Sleep was pretty ucky, but to do with the dogs, not me. They were up a total of 4 times last night, of which I recall 3, after having raw bones yesterday. I'm quite tired this morning, which could be blood loss or sleep loss. What was interesting was that I had fewer hot flashes last night (writes she as one starts happening now). I thought maybe it was to do with the donation, but more likely they're rearranging their schedule. The meds should arrive Monday with the rest of the mail; looking forward to improvements with fingers crossed.

Short vacation (or long weekend) starts after work today. Desperately needed by all of us. I plan to get my vitamin D naturally for a few days, at a minimum.