just dropping by


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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