Prairiecrow's InsaneJournal

Okay, this constant exhaustion is getting REALLY annoying. I haven't gone one day since the hysteroscopy without taking at least one long nap, and I haven't been able to work worth beans. It could be the sign of an underlying condition that's also causing the high blood sugar levels, or it could be a manifestation of the high blood sugar itself. (On the plus side, the cats are happy when I nap on the couch under a comfy blanket, because they get to curl up with me... no cloud that doesn't have a silver lining, apparently.)

To top it all off, today is a blah grey day, which is never good for my energy levels.

I did get a call back from my doctor, though. They had a cancellation for tomorrow afternoon at 1:20 pm and are able to fit me in. Hopefully he doesn't turn up something alarming -- or decide to put me on insulin. That would truly suck.

Oh, and some dragons who need clicky love:

/ / / /

I'm about to try to get some HB done, but am not exactly holding out high hopes of accomplishing a lot.

As for yesterday's entry about Twitter and Burma-Shave... follow the link.

IF YOU DON'T KNOW

WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE

YOU CAN'T HAVE

DRIVEN VERY FAR

BURMA-SHAVE

And then there's ( the funny story about Burma-Shave sending a supermarket manager to Mars )

2 hours post-meal blood sugars: 17.8. Far, far too high.

Noticing some tenderness in my lower right abdomen, roughly over the ovary. Experiencing some nausea as well.

Waiting for a call back from my GP. Hopefully he can see me tomorrow. Alternatively, he might advise me to just to go the urgent care ward at Misericordia.

Makes me wish I'd been checking my blood sugars these last several days. *headdesk*

On the positive side, I'm able to work today. Finishing up a second page of HB, which is more than I've been able to do on any day since the hysteroscopy.

Blood sugars are coming down. 11.7 this morning just after getting up, which is still a couple of points outside my norm but nothing to be panicked about. I'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Feeling generally better, in fact. Here's hoping I'm back to normal soon.

Please help my little ones grow up. :-) I'll be clicking other people's eggs as I see them throughout the day.

/ / / /

Maybe I can actually get some work done today. That would be wonderful, because I've been good for sweet piss-all ever since the hysteroscopy.

Courtesy of Boston.com's photo article on hurricanes as seen from orbit...

( Beautiful. Stunning. Awe-inspiring. )

Detailed information about these shots, and many others, is available on the site linked above.

Just... incredible. What a marvelous age we live in, to have such images available to us.

Yesterday my doctor phoned while I was out, so this afternoon I returned his phone call.

My A1c is 8.8, which is quite high, but we knew that it might not be in the optimum range because I've been switching to Avandia, which takes up to two months to start working. More worrisome is my "bad" cholesterol reading, which is 5.3; my last reading, from about four months ago, was 4.2.

Dr. E is going to phone the Health Sciences Centre next week and light a fire under the diabetes dietician -- hopefully they can see me for a consultation before the end of August. We're holding off on cholesterol meds for now, until we see what the combination of Avandia, exercise (which I can start again now that Reg isn't camped out in our living room) and dietary modifications can do.

My EKG was normal. Whew.

So it could have been a lot worse. I'm looking at changes to my diet and activity levels. Dammit. :-( Losing sugar was bad enough... the prospect of life without the mouth-feel of fat is immensely depressing.

What a hectic weekend. I'm glad it's over. Now I can concentrate on MM for the next few days.

The glucosamine seems to be working on Emmie's joints already. Her limp is significantly reduced.

In other medical matters... I filled out an online form for a coupon for a free Accu-Chek Compact Plus blood glucose meter. The test strips come in drums of 17, which eliminates the task of loading a new strip for each test. And they're only a couple of dollars more expensive per 100 strips than the strips for my current meter.

In half an hour I'm off to have coffee with an old friend that I reconnected with at KeyCon. Along the way I'll pick up some library books I have reserved, and after coffee I'll probably go to King Pie in Portage Place and pick up a couple of their delicious baked goods for dinner.

It's been a Good News/Bad News sort of day.

The Good News: I didn't have to have blood drawn today when I went to the doctor's.

The Bad News: I'd fasted for 13 hours. *growl*

The Good News: The doctor doesn't think my blood sugar readings over the last two weeks look too bad.

The Bad News: I disagree. I want them down a LOT lower than what I'm seeing.

The Good News: There are other medications I can try besides Metformin.

The Bad News: The next drug of choice is a sulfa drug.

The Good News: The next drug of choice after that is Avandia, and my doctor was able to give me two months worth of free samples.

The Bad News: Avandia is associated with heart problems, and I have paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. I'll have to phone my doctor tomorrow and ask him about that particular interaction.

The Good News: George has a cheque coming via FedEx for $1650 -- the kill fee on a project that fell through several months ago. We'd just about given up all hope of ever seeing that money.

The Bad News: There isn't really any, at least not associated with receiving that particular payment.

The Good News: I might be able to color all of the latest HB graphic novel. They were talking about taking part of it away from me because the artist has blown the deadline like woah and they need it colored yesterday.

The Bad News: I have to color 10 pages a day to meet their required deadline. This kicks MM completely to the curb until after next Friday.

The Further Bad News: Sleep? What the heck's that? Recreation? Forget it.

The Good News: My preprandial blood sugars this morning were at 8.6.

The Bad News: Two hours after breakfast out (oatmeal, low-sugar granola, a teeny bit of brown sugar, and milk), they were at 18.4.

The Good News: Ten minutes ago, after 26 minutes of exercise and two hours after the same sort of meal that I had for dinner the night before, they were at 7.6.

The recommended range for diabetics is 4.0-7.0 preprandially and 5.0-10.0 two hours postprandially.

The lesson is twofold:

1) Even a tiny bit of refined sugar blows my readings like woah.
2) It looks like I'm finally back on track. Oh, hallelujah.

I just tested my two-hour blood sugar, after a meal heavy on the pasta and the tomato sauce.

I expected a high reading.

I got an 11.4.

I am fucking ecstatic.

Finally back from my GP... *sigh* Just a little bit of running around and I'm exhausted all over again.

He's concerned about my blood glucose levels, all right, and has given me new instructions on when to test (once before breakfast, even before coffee, and once two hours after lunch). If my blood glucose reading cracks 15 at any point, I'm to double my daily Metformin dosage immediately, without passing GO or collecting $200. He'll see me again in a month to do my A1c and a fasting blood sugar. (He was surprised to hear that I was hitting 17 and 18 premenstrually with no apparent ill effects, since many people, at that blood glucose level, are prone to doing things like getting dizzy and passing out. Er... yay?)

The mental fogginess and irritability I've been experiencing could also be a result of high blood glucose levels, and he thinks they'll clear up once I get things under control.

As for the fatigue and the backaches, he suspects a kidney infection (diabetics are prone to getting them) and sent me for a urine test to confirm or refute that diagnosis. He also sent me for a back X-ray just to rule out any actual back problems. And guess what I saw in the change cubicle as I was stripping off to put on the flimsy blue gown they provide to preserve your dignity as you cross the waiting room to be X-rayed?

( I AM A DISPOSABLE X-RAY GOWN, etc. )

I mean, sure, it's admirable that they're trying to inject some whimsy and cheer into what is fundamentally a grim and utilitarian diagnostic process. But somehow the notion that I was being given a pep talk by an X-ray gown, of all things, made me feel more surreal than encouraged.

After everything was done at the clinic I picked up some groceries at the nearby IGA, had lunch at the Perkins a few doors down from the shopping mall, then ended up going back to the Salisbury House in the mall to get a Big Nip platter to take home to George. By the time I got on the bus I was fatigued, and now that I'm home I'm contemplating a nap before my dinner date with a friend this evening.

EDITED TO ADD: Oh, and if I do have a kidney infection, that might neatly explain the inexplicably high blood glucose levels, since the body responds to infection by ramping blood sugars. Wouldn't it be nice if it all worked out that way?

My blood sugars have been all over the place since I started monitoring again on March 28th, mostly high. Yesterday after breakfast I clocked in at 22.4, and today after breakfast it was 19.7.

This is not good. If I can't get those numbers under control through diet and exercise, it will be time to go back to my doctor and look at more medication, new medication, or possibly insulin injections.

It's very disturbing to think that I might have deteriorated that much in the course of a year. Then again, I'm not exercising as much as I was a year ago and that might have a lot to do with it.

What's even more worrying is that I have NO symptoms when my blood sugars are in the stratosphere. Well, maybe a bit of excess urination, but that's it. Diabetes would be a much easier disease to monitor and keep on top of if there were obvious and unpleasant side effects, such as people experience with food allergies. As it is, someone can be seriously diabetic for years and not be aware of it, and if you don't get sick from eating too much sugar that's one less incentive not to cheat on your diet. Especially when hot fudge sundaes are so utterly delicious.

... not that I've had one lately. I'm just saying.