crowdog66: (Default)
I'm actually feeling well today. Aside from a bit of lingering depression, that is. Physically I'm not sore anywhere, I have decent energy, and the last faint traces of the allergic rash are fading.

We'll see how it goes. If I don't flag over the next twelve hours it'll be pretty good evidence that maybe, as my doctor said on the phone this morning, the truncated dose of antibiotics succeeded in kicking whatever-it-was out of my system.

I have an appointment to go see him on Thursday for another urine sample (yay) and to check out a small mole-like growth on my left thigh that is an interesting shade of sage green.

This morning's preprandial blood sugar was disappointing -- 12.9 -- but if I can exercise this afternoon hopefully that will help.

I'm crossing my fingers that I might finally be out of the woods.
crowdog66: (Default)
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.
crowdog66: (Default)
This morning I've started taking a higher dose of Metformin -- double my usual amount, and with the two dosing sets only four hours apart instead of twelve hours apart. Since Metformin has been known to *cough* have some explosive lower intestinal effects, it might be a very interesting day.

Yesterday my blood sugars spiked over 15.0 twice, and frankly I'm tired of dealing with it. Some people suffer clear physical effects at blood glucose levels that high (dizziness, blurrred vision, etc); me, I'm one of the lucky (or not so lucky) ones whose body just absorbs the impact without any symptoms. But I'm still concerned about the hit my heart and kidneys are taking, not to mention the smaller blood vessels throughout my body. So up we go on Metformin and we'll see if it calms things down a bit.

A couple of links that y'all might find amusing. First, Chuck Lorre's Vanity Cards. Vanity cards are those images that appear for two and a half seconds at the end of television shows. Rather than being content with a graphic that can be read in that brief flash of time, Lorre decided to pack his vanity cards with long and wordy musings on a variety of topics, to be read when those who taped his shows viewed them on a VCR and could use the freeze-frame function. They're very amusing and definitely worth reading.

Second, Subservient Chicken. Type in commands and watch the chicken obey! Cluck cluck, flap flap.

Off to... decide what I'm going to do today. MM or HB? Or work on fanfic for a while? *ponders*
crowdog66: (Default)
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?
crowdog66: (Default)
May the Gods bless the Internet, from which all information flows. Apparently many women with diabetes find that their blood sugar levels are harder to regulate in the days just before their period:

http://www.africansisters.com/women/Challenges_of_blood_sugar.html

http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_information/diabetes_women.php

http://www.womenshealthmatters.ca/centres/diabetes/reproductive/menstruation.html

http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/textlib/menses3.txt

This makes me feel a little bit more hopeful that my metabolism isn't completely shot.

Having a shower turned out to be a good idea -- I came out of it with my eyes *gasp!* actually open. Then I exercised, only 8 minutes, but it helped a bit more. And George was kind enough to make lunch for me: sausages, eggs, mixed vegetables, and toast. It was delicious. Emmie even got a little piece of sausage, which made her one happy cat indeed.

Now I just have to corral my achy brain and make it buckle down to work. All I really want to do is curl up in bed and sleep. Ah, hormones. How wonderful they are.
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crowdog66: (Default)
Another day of wildly careening blood glucose levels. And as usual, no symptoms except for a nagging background fatigue. I'm beginning to suspect that the rye bread we've been buying is responsible for some of it, in which case I'll have to find a different kind of bread to eat, or no bread at all, which would suck and suck mightily.

In other news: just sent an email to the head of Keycon programming regarding that handfasting I'll be performing at the convention. I'll need to use incense and my athame during the ceremony, and the key questions are whether hotel and convention policies are okay with that -- especially the athame, since a six-inch double-edged blade, unpeacebonded, could be a touchy subject.

Things That Have Made Me Go "Huh?" Today: the whole concept of decompression in comics. More on that later.

No exercise today. I'm taking one day off per week and Sunday is it.

Oh, and my period is probably just around the corner. Perhaps this explains the cloud of depression I've been operating under lately.

But I am making better time today on MM. Huzzah and hooray!

Back to work.
crowdog66: (Default)
I just finished chowing down on a pizza from Diana's Gourmet Pizzaria, which won the Best Pizza in Canada award in 2005, 2006, and 2006. Pepperoni, mushroom, and green pepper on a thin whole wheat crust. Little slices of heaven.

Earlier this afternoon I did 20 minutes of step aerobics, which had a very good effect on my blood sugars. Just after exercise and before eating some lasagna and mixed veg, my reading was 11.4; two hours later, it was still 11.4. Excellent. We'll see what it's like once this pizza has had a chance to hit my system.

George and I had planned a couple of weeks ago to go to dinner at a friend's place this weekend. Yesterday Tara called to see if we were still coming over, and I had to call her today to reschedule. I'm just not making good enough time on MM and I've had to take breaks during each working day; I"m not sure if my lack of concentration and tiredness are the result of rampaging blood sugars or not, but it's as good an explanation as any at this point.

Back to work with a cup of coffee.
crowdog66: (Default)
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.
crowdog66: (Default)
Coffee's on, and that's all I can really say about the day so far.

Through another blog I've found a link to the NaNoWriYe nessage board, which I'll have to investigate later. Hurray! Something to possibly light a fire under my butt about my novel! Trouble is, the site is as slow as molasses in January...

...which actually isn't THAT slow, as we know from the Great Boston Molasses Flood of January 15th 1919. No, seriously. I'm not making it up.

From the Wikipedia link above: Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise.

I'm surprised that more people don't know about the Great Boston Molasses Flood, but of course that was one of the years of the Spanish Flu pandemic, which was a much greater and more lethal tragedy.

EDITED TO ADD: Some diabetes details )