Curious Little Review

    I've been noticing, as I've been going through the archived part of these Dailies journals and combining posts to cut down on the number of pages, that exactly three years ago (I'm working through the fall of 2005, right now) Mom used to move her bowels practically every day and her heart rate was about 15-20 beats per minute less. Although I'm not surprised about the change in bowel movements, since she is eating significantly less roughage, now (Cobb salads, for instance, have disappeared from our menu because about a year and a half ago she started eating the meat, croutons and olives and leaving everything else), I was surprised about her heart rate. I ran both of these comparisons by our Hospice Nurse, who visited yesterday. He, of course, confirmed my guess about the bowel movements. When I told him about the heart rate difference, I wondered, aloud, if this could be due to the fact that I read, in a Medscape article, that Ipratroprium increases heart rate. He confirmed this but also said that both her lessening bowel movements and her elevated heart rate could also be because her heart is working harder, now, because her lungs aren't nearly as strong as they used to be; and, as well, her motility is probably less (this is true, even though her "motility" wasn't great three years ago) and her metabolism has slowed, of course. He concluded by saying, "I'm fine with it."
    Actually, so am I. I was just curious.