I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, and all my numbers were down – blood glucose, sodium, cholesterol… Except my kidney function went down, too. My PCP says it’s most likely due to dehydration, and I’m not drinking enough water. She says it’s possible that when I had my stroke, it turned off the part of my brain that tells me I’m thirsty. I was always thirsty before the stroke. I was peeing all the time bc I drank so much water, and the bestie would make sure she had bottled waters stocked when I would come over. And I always had to drink ice cold water. And if a bottled water was sitting there for a while, I wouldn’t drink it even if I knew it was mine. After I had the stroke, I def stopped drinking so much water. When we would travel internationally and be out the whole day, I could go the entire day without needing to use the bathroom. When we went out to lunch for Jessie’s birthday, Christine had to go pee 4 different times 😳 and I didn’t go once. We would think she was pregnant if she didn’t get her tubes tied after the twins 😅 Now I don’t even need the water to be ice cold to drink it, and I’ll drink from a bottle of water that’s been sitting there (as long as I know it’s mine).

I have been walking a lot more since I got Milo, but I haven’t been hydrating more. I did wake up with a charley horse earlier this month, too, and I haven’t had a charley horse in years! This wasn’t the last time I had one, but the most memorable – it was after a Hoobastank (!) show at the now defunct Canes Bar & Grill. I went too hard, jumping around the entire show, and on the way back to my then-boyfriend’s car, I got a charley horse in both my legs. He massaged my stems as I cried like a baby 😅

Anyway, she said I should drink at least 100 oz of water daily, so I brought my old Hydro Flask out from retirement and Amazon Primed these electrolytes my sister uses for good measure. The Hydro only holds 20 oz of water, but I’d rather drink 5 of those than haul a whole ass gallon of water on my walks with Milo. Pammie gave us all personalized micro Hydros last Christmas. It only holds one tongue-dip of water, but how stinkin’ cute is it?!

Milo barely drinks water, too, so I got him a water fountain. Chel bought some for her cats, and it’s totally helped them drink more! I ordered mine off Instagram, and it’s coming from fucking China, so results are TBD 😅