Re: just dropping by
- From: Jennifer <jenniferNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:43:08 GMT
I'm glad to hear your update RK...
I often wondered how you were doing.
It sounds like you've been through the mill... but you're hanging in!
I wish you all the best,
Jennifer
rk wrote:
Hello most,
After much persistance from many I still talk to in email asking me to drop in if anything to give a short update on myself. So here I am. Word of warning, this is slightly long so if you don't like me I probably have you already KF, but I will NOT be responding to any posts that are just going to try to instigate me. You simply aren't worth the same quality of air as I breath. So just save your breath. LOL
I'm doing pretty well if I say so myself. My doctors think I'm doing even better. I know how some in here loved to laugh and mock me, saying I didn't have
glucose control. Well, sadly, they are the ones that apparently do not have a grasp on their glucose control. I've always had control over my glucose. It was
my glucose that wouldn't allow me to control it. Or rather it was my body that wouldn't. After 15yrs of chronic pain and about 6-7yrs of somewhat on/off relief
inbetween that time I finally bitched enough to my doctors who got the ball rolling and sent me to the right sets of doctors. I had more MRI's, XRays and EMG's oh joy! But it was well worth it in the end. Just a month ago, on July 6th I went in for radical surgery to save the rest of the feeling in my lower half. I was confirmed with a grade 4, spondylolisthesis. The only way to repair this is a fusion which I gladly opted to do. Figured the pain cannot be any worse then I have now. I'm going in with nothing, so I had nothing to lose.
The weeks prior my glucose was running anywhere from 210-330 constantly. My meter average was 223. My A1C was 8.7% and didn't matter what I ate, didn't matter the amount of pain meds I was taking either. Nothing was helping. Which I think in a sense helped my doctors understand I was finally at my ropes end because I was beyond compliant and nothing they were suggesting was helping. With this, my rheum, my endo and my neuro have started a study which I'm one of the participants in trying to find the exact relationship between the effects of chronic pain and inflammation on the body of a diabetic in relationship to complications. Which btw, I still have NONE!
Anyhow... I went in for my surgery. The neurosurgeon did a lamectomy at L2/L3, L5/S1, and removed the old scar tissue in L4/L5. Thankfully I didn't have further stenosis so I didn't need a diskectomy. He put in a titanium cage from L2-L5 and put in 2 stablizing rods. He also decompressed both sides of my spine. Basically untrapping the spinal nerves that have all been pinched for so long. All in all I ended up with about a 10in cut which has healed up nicely already.
I'd been around and around with my rheum about me if I had ankylosing spondylitis which she assured me that I didn't because my SI joints weren't fused naturally. Though all of my other tests and blood work "showed" that I most likely did. So, I gave up on that and just opted to get fixed what could be fixed so that I could see if I could have a few weeks, years of relief. I still have DDD and OA in my back and in many other joints of my body unfortunately. Well, within the 4th hour of getting out of recovery and me fighting to get my cath removed I pulled myself to the side of my bed, swung my legs over and Mike helped me into a wheelchair. With IV pole in tow we went down to the cafeteria I went to get a mocha cappicino and a smoke. I'd removed myself from my morphine pills about 2 weeks prior to surgery because my doctor said that those who take oral morphine end up needing morphine IV more and were in the hospital longer. Well that wasn't for me. So, I just tapered myself off of them. LOL OHHHHHHH big drug addict I am huh? Proved wrong again, SLAM! Anyhow, I guess it was just the meds they gave me while I was under, but I didn't really need any pain meds until about 9pm that first night and then the nurse asked me what I wanted. Took them and felt a heck of a lot better. But boy was I tired!~!!!
I'm sure some are wondering how the nurses were with my glucose testing? LOL well what a funny story there too. In my pre-op because I'm diabetic which they continued to get confused thinking I was a T2 instead of a T1 but they said I had to be cleared by a cardiologist. Well I fought that left and right and lost. So, I ended up having a stress test doppler done. Which resulted in me having to come back because the day before they blew out 6 veins in my arms and I was covered in black and blue. Well, next day went fine and my ticker is in perfect shape!
Anyhow, I had to remove my pump for the surgery itself because I had no where to attach it to. Which I'd asked the nurses to replace it once I was out, but they didn't so by the time I woke I was around 300 which wasn't as bad as I thought I would have been. But I'd been given a glucose IV with Insulin at the same time. They did say I hit 876 while in surgery because they didn't think I needed insulin. DUH! Sadly, all they keep seeing is that I was over 30 when dx'd therefore, I MUST be a T2!!! idiots. Anyhow, after I got my pump back on after I woke up in recovery I bolused thankfully only a unit and within a hour I was
from mid 300 to 150. From there, I've realized I now have CONTROL over my glucose!
I've thankfully not gained but a few pounds from being home, not able to move much. I'm restricted from driving, cannot walk without a walker or back brace. I'm supposed to "limit" my outtings. I refuse to use a walker so I got a cane instead. I'm not supposed to climb stairs, sadly, thats where my shower is, so I take those carefully and limit my trips. Most of my outtings are only to the doctors. Other then we now think when my doctor decompressed both sides of my nerves that he recompressed one because my left calf and foot are very numb. It's not "painfull" per say, but it is very numb and I'm having a hard time moving the body parts. Spreading my toes and flexing my ankle is almost impossible most times. When I'd gone in last week to speak to my doctor about this,
I asked him for a A1C because of the control that I had, had within the month of getting out of the hospital. I was using only 28-35u of insulin a day for eating close to 250-300gm of carbs a day. My ratio went from 10:1/11:1 to 19:1/22:1. I was running 50-110. My fasting was down to 85 most mornings and I
actually having to watch for hypos which I was having 4-5 a week the first couple of weeks until I figured out my new ratios. Well, my A1C came back at 5.9!!!
Right now, I'm on a month of Prednisone to see if we can reduce the internal swelling which we think is wrong of why I cannot feel my leg and foot. I'm
still having a hard time trying to understand that I'm doing so well after only a month of having this type of surgery done. ALL of my doctors say most that
have this type of surgery done it usually takes them 2-3 months to even begin to get out of bed for more then a few hours a day. Hell, LOL I was pissed
because I wanted to go to see the Brickyard this past weekend. We had tickets!!! So, Mike and Danni went and sent me pictures via the camera phone LOL
they were 20 seats up from the front row at the Start/Stop line. Cant beat that!
Anyhow.. thats about all thats going on with me. Everything else is great! A buddy of mine is coming in from Washington next month and another up
from Florida and we're heading to Michigan to see another one of our friends. I'm doing great still being able to control my glucose while on the prednisone. It's a bit more tricky. I've had a few highs until I figured out another new ratio but really haven't had it that bad and after a week of taking it, I can now
feel the outside of my foot and my calf isn't as numb, so I think its working. I have 3 weeks left so we'll see.
Sorry, this is so long. But I'm just glad that I ended up being correct with my understanding of why my glucose was the way it was. I might hang around here and there, not really sure. I'm not sure how long the study my doctors are going to do, but when I find out more if anyone is interested I'll be happy to post.
It's in relationship to chronic pain, genetic pre-disposition to inflammation and autoimmune diseases in what it does to the glucose in the body. Some are diabetic and some aren't. I know there are like 30 T1's in there, of all different ages. Theres a 19yr old T1 who has JRA. And just think, I'm not even 40 yet!
Aloha & Peace to all!
RK,
T1 Animas IR1250 pumper
who finally made her doctors understand!
.
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