flu blues

So I had a nasty case of the stomach flu this week....it began Sunday night, after we had gone out for a really nice (and darned expensive!) dinner for Father's Day, at one of our favorite places, Go Fish. I had eaten much more than I should have, and quite a lot of dairy, which despite the TWO Lactaids I took, had started to make my tummy hurt. By the time we got home, I was really off. I was feeling nauseous on top of actual stomach pain. Then, around 9ish, the vom began. And it was so raucous that I actually pulled abdominal muscles from puking too hard. I hate that. I was up all night- at one point I just wanted to fall asleep hanging over the toilet bowl because I was so exhausted. Instead, I kept crawling back up and down the hall from my room to the bathroom, and trying to climb back into bed. I didn't go to work Monday, had a 103 fever, and just felt horrifically nauseous all day. And a headache. I was not able to eat solid food, but luckily could keep all my meds down, so that was a bonus. It continued much in the same way until Wednesday, when only a slight fever, and not too much nausea, so that by the end of THAT day I had some soup with noodles and carrots and celery, and seemed to be better off. Only got to work Thursday and Friday, which is not good. That means a much crappier paycheck....and how the heezy am I supposed to pay all my insane bills if I don't have enough money???? I dunno. The only good news was a slight weight reduction since I didn't eat anything for 3 days. whoopee. And the fact that my appetite is a bit reduced....can't force that much down. Good news there. But in all, I must say, the adult stomach flu sucks a lot worse than when you're a kid, and it is all ginger-ale and toast and watching disney movies curled up on the couch. This was heinous. My chest cavity still hurts a bit, leading me to believe I may have bruised my ribs puking. Stupid flu. 

and when she was bad, she was horrid

That is a line from the childhood rhyme, 'There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid' . This morning, I was horrid. Not through any fault of my own mind you, but I must have had some severely low blood sugar, because I was shouting incoherently at my father and sister, and couldn't even function enough to test my blood sugar. My father insisted upon me taking some glucose and having some oj, and then when I was able to test after 3 glucose tabs and oj, it was only 52. So I can't imagine how low it was BEFORE that. Evidently I kept saying that I was fine and didn't need anything, and wasn't making any sense whatsoever. My dad was freaking out. See, the trouble was, I slept in. I slept in till almost 8am. On weekdays, I usually get up at 4:30, take out the dog, then we come in and I pack lunch and make breakfast and eat it. So by 5 I've eaten already. Granted, if I eat and it is a carb-filled breakfast, I bolus, but the eating forces me to check my sugar and see what it is before proceeding to bolus for whatever food. Sleeping in (despite having gotten up at 4:30 to take my meds and fall back asleep) means I didn't check my sugar, nor did I eat anything, so if it was low, how would I know? I recall waking up and feeling weird, but thinking it was because I was so OVER rested, and it felt mildly euphoric, so that is what I decided. I came down, brought viv down, and then "fell asleep" again on the couch. We think that is when I passed out. Then I reawakened when dad came down....and I can't really remember anything else. I know there was a lot of shouting on my part, and I couldn't test my own blood sugar, and eventually dad woke my sister up to come help (bad idea, she hates blood and needles and I almost made HER pass out because of it) and she told me later that I was being insane. Great. The worst part was, yes I felt weird, but I wasn't sweating, and not shaking until way into it, and I didn't KNOW that I was being incoherent. In my head, I was being fine. I didn't even know I was shouting. Given that I was unable to test, if my dad hadn't kept trying and pestering me until I could test, what would have happened? What if my dad, who isn't generally the "help Meg in medical situations" person in the family (that would be mom who is away now) hadn't realized that I had low blood sugar? I mean, I guess it was pretty obvious that my crazed shouting and irrational behavior wasn't the norm, but still,what if he didn't know, and then I couldn't test, and it just kept getting lower? Or what if I was alone? It is times like these that I really resent my insurance company, because they won't let me have the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. A CGMS would be so helpful in times like this, because it would have warned me when I started going low, so that before I got really really scary low, as I did, I would have had time and realized it. And it could test for me since I couldn't test myself. Granted, I know there is a time-delay on it of like 10-20 minutes or something, but still. This was frightening. I'm going to call my endocrinologist on Monday and tell him what happened. It is sad that I have to leave him (or he has to leave me rather, since he is moving to Colorado) and now have to go to the Joslin Clinic here, but it is closer anyway. I just hope he'll do me a last favor and write another letter to the insurance company, or at least to the new doctors, and tell them that he recommends I get the CGMS, to prevent things like this happening. Part of the issue is my other diseases. Like, my steroids go up and down, and my basal rates have to change when the steroids change, and sometimes it is hard to keep up with all the shifting. Having one more tool in my arsenal of keeping healthy blood sugar levels would be nice. Sigh. I guess for now I'll just have to be uber careful, and when I wake up to take my meds and then fall back asleep on weekends, I'll have to test and make sure I'm ok. So that I can be very very good again. 

best foot forward

Went to a podiatrist today, about the pain in my heels, and just generally, since diabetic folk like myself need to be more careful. As far as the diabetes goes, you would never know I had the disease based on my feet. Which is great news. Despite the Raynaud's occurrences that I notice in my toes (mostly discoloration not so much the numbness) my sensation is great. So then we tried to figure out what was causing the "wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night" heel pain. When he pressed my heels, it was fine. No pain to speak of. Then he pressed right where the arch meets the heel. HOLY GOD it was death on a stick. He also pressed along the sides of my feet, where the ankle meets, and boy did that suck. (didn't help that today my feet decided to swell up again). What seems to be happening is that the nerves that come down from the sides of the leg to attach to the foot around the heel periphery are being irritated. From two things, one is that I tend to bear weight weirdly, so my ankles roll in, thus stretching that inner nerve part, and also making my foot stretch so it can be more flexible and stable on the ground. The other is the deep tissue swelling irritating the nerves. I also have what I would call Pre- Plantar Fascilitis, which would cause more arch pain. So, in order to help these issues, he wants me to get compression stockings (they are evil old lady knee socks that basically just make sure you get blood flow back UP the legs through the veins, preventing swelling) and also took some plaster casts of my feet to make me insoles for arch support. Basically, though I still have an arch, my fleet are slowly flattening out. No good. So to prevent it, insoles. The good news is that I've used my entire deductible for insurance, so they'll fully cover the $555 insoles. woot. 

In other news, tapering down the steroids. Not as crazy of an appetite. But still not great. No weight loss yet. Face still huge. Going to try to get to the gym at least once this week. ho hum. but I'm trying to be patient, even though I absolutely have no patience whatsoever.

At least the foot prognosis is good.