Been neglecting you again lately…

Interesting thing happened to me today regarding my diabetes. Took 50 mg of Precose in the morning & ate a bowl of fruit (nectarine) & bran flakes, with a little Honey Nut Cheerios thrown in because I was almost out of bran flakes. Then I had a few bites of zucchini with garlic, olive oil & potatoes & a chunk of hard baguette that I had picked up at the farmer’s market. I had an appointment at 3:00 pm at Counseling, so I took 2 big chunks of Glyburide because my blood sugar (BS) was already up to 184 when I tested it before I left.

Later in the afternoon, after I came home, I developed a pain in the center of my back (or a little above), like behind my heart. I have come to recognize that pain in that area means that my blood sugar is plunging. So I checked it & the reading didn’t look so bad, but I KNEW it was plunging, nonetheless. I could FEEL it. So I ate some watermelon & a little something else (can’t remember what right now), and kept an eye on my BS. It continued to go down. Pretty soon I was really feeling awful in the evening, but had no appetite and didn’t want to force myself to eat as I almost felt nauseous. I took my BP (140/74) and it was alright, so I kept taking my BS to make sure it didn’t go too low (it never did). But I felt sick anyway.

I finally took an acetaminophen and a Ranitidine (2^nd for the day), and ate a piece of whole wheat bread toasted with Smart Balance (and NO diabetes meds). Only then, when my BS began to climb did I feel relief. So what did I learn from this?? The pain I felt in my back I think was related to the pancreas (but I could be wrong). I also must not be so quick to pop Glyburide – especially after eating bran flakes. My BS always climbs when I do, but then comes down nicely. I took the extra Glyburide because I had to leave the house and didn’t want to have my BS too high. So I screwed myself up, and it really makes you feel SICK.

I also have been peeing all day. I drank some tea & took my 1^st diuretics at about 4:30 pm, so it could just be from that. Or maybe it was related to the diabetes symptoms.

Bottom line: you just can’t trust the numbers on the meter as that blood is coming from your forearms. The rest of the blood circulating can be much higher or lower, you just can’t tell it yet. Diabetes is nothing to fool around with. I think I better go back to walking on my treadmill again!

BTW, I went to see my primary care physician – who I hadn’t seen in YEARS. It was a good thing and she gave me some sound advice regarding the vitamins & supplements I’m taking (“Don’t take vitamin E”). She also hooked me up with a natural medicines database that is amazing (it’s for physicians) & gave me her password & ID to log in. She thinks that what I’m experiencing when I get those periods of extreme sick feelings (like when I went to the nursery with my daughter), it’s because of a combination of things: my gastroparesis, the meds I take, my diabetes, etc. Yeah, I can see that. It makes sense. Eating enough fiber to keep things moving along nicely should be a priority for me (it is). But now I’ll feel better because at least I have some idea of what’s going on with me when I feel like that.

I also went to see an orthopedic doctor in the past month about my trigger finger. He gave me a small shot of cortisone in the “pad” below the finger & guess what?? It got better!! A-maz-ing!! The pain is gone & the finger only “sticks” in that position very rarely. He said that if this didn’t work, he’d try another shot once & then I’d need minor surgery that he could do without anesthesia & on an outpatient basis. “No biggie” was his assessment.

Otherwise, everything else is ok, but I cancelled my stress test & asked my cardiologist if we could put it off for a while & she said sure, no problem. I still am on for the “home study” though next week to see about my need for extra O2. More on that later…