When we went to the Endo yesterday — just as an aside, isn’t it bad enough that I have a disease that starts with “di”? Why do they have to call the doctor who specializes in it an “Endo”? Just sayin’.
Anyway, when we went to the Endo yesterday she told us that she wanted me to start Lipitor for the high cholesterol. She said that there are three different elements that are tested for cholesterol. Having diabetes will heighten one of them (the Triglycerides), but that particular one is fine in my case. The one that is bad (LDL Cholesterol) should be under 100 — mine is 219. Once again, my body chooses to overachieve only to have picked the wrong area to do it in. It’s a bit like having the all-time record for strike outs. On one hand it’s a pretty big achievement. On the other hand….
I woke up this morning and had a BG level of 346. I had followed the doctor’s orders and stopped taking the Metformin as of last night. I wondered if that was part of what was going on. Not being a doctor, I shrugged my shoulders and moved on into my day. I gave myself an adjusted shot of insulin based on that number and then ate breakfast about 15-20 minutes later as prescribed.
About three hours in, my body started to shake a little. I thought it was because I was a little cold. Our house can be a little chilly at times. Then my body started to tremble — a lot. It wasn’t anything that someone looking at me would have seen, but I could feel it. It was unnerving. At one point I had to lean against a wall to gain my bearings. I was experiencing a moment of low sugar (hypoglycemia.)
I took a moment to take a reading — 124. After running on the blood sugar equivalent of high octane for so long, any numbers inside the normal range actually affect my body as hypoglycemia. I ate some food and it passed after awhile.
I had some running around to do, so I headed out to get it done. While I was out, I realized it was lunch time, and I needed to get something to eat. It was at this point that the realization hit me about what needed to happen. I had packed my backpack earlier in the morning to include all my new gear — glucose monitor, needles, Humalog pen, needles for the pen, alcohol swabs…everything. Now to check my BG level and figure out how much insulin I needed to inject. To this point, it was easy. I checked the BG in the car. No sweat. Next step, head in to the public bathroom and shoot the insulin into my stomach. Yeah. This is a first. I stepped into the only stall in the room and it was nasty. I mean, the guys-are-pigs kind of nasty. I wasn’t expecting a sterile environment, but come on. “Need to do this fast,” was the only thing going through my mind — except for the constant repetition of “ick, ick, ick.”
For those of you who know me well this next statement may come as quite a shock. I had a salad for lunch. No, seriously. I really did. Here’s a picture of it.
I think it's only fair to say that it was better than it looks in the picture. Grilled asparagus, spinach, chicken, multi-colored carrots (however that happens — sounds like a government experiment gone awry), a little cheese, and bacon. Because — say it with me — everything’s better with bacon.
The next stop in the day was the diabetes educator. All three of us went. Brenda and Star are being a great support rallying around this change and seeing it as a team effort for the entire family. The educator’s name is Stephanie. She was great. A lot of the same information was given in this initial meeting. But it was good to hear it again. She was willing to skip over some of it, but I told her to go ahead. The more I hear it the more natural and instinctive it will become. Star was great. She sat and listened right along with Brenda and me.
The four M’s — Meals, Motion, Medication, and Monitoring. The one I think will be the hardest will be the motion category. It’s basically another way of saying exercise, but I like it. It takes your mind to another level of understanding what exercise really is. It’s just keeping your body in motion. It doesn’t have to be the latest craze of fitness programs at the gym. It can be built into daily life. Walk to the store instead of drive. Use the push mower for part of the yard instead of the tractor. Stuff like that. Nice. That seems doable