Highs and Lows

For almost two weeks now I have been a wee bit under the weather. You see, I had this ugly sinus infection that decided it didn't like its' current place of residence. So, seeing the "for rent" sign posted by my lungs, it decided that a move was in order. Needless to say, walking pneumonia really isn't that cool of a thing to be dealing with (sugar readings all over the place and lots of other "quirky" things). But, this isn't what I wanted to write about today...

Last Friday, despite the moving party that was occurring inside my body, I trudged off to physical therapy (mainly because I had forgotten to cancel the appointment and was going to get charged either way). After donning my mask to prevent me from spreading any germs I proceeded to trudge through 10 minutes of wall slides, having my knee "knifed" to break up the scar tissue, 10 minutes on the stationary bike, three minutes of squats against the wall, two reps of 10 "four ways" fighting the resistance tubing attached to the wall, two reps of 15 hamstring curls, two reps of 20 ball tosses while only standing on my surgery leg and finally five minutes on the StairMaster 4000 (roughly 10 flights of stairs).

I was just cruising past the seventh floor of my imaginary ten story building when it happened: my body started to shake uncontrollably and instead of just trudging along through my last three flights of stairs I had to call it quits. After curling up on the therapy table and having the electrodes attached to and ice placed on my knee I pulled out my sugar tester and stabbed my finger. Shoot. Zombie finger (thanks Kerri for teaching me that term). So I felt around and found my warmest finger and stabbed it. Fortunately I was able to get just enough blood to get a reading: 68 mg/dl. I had just caught my first low.

For those of you just joining me here's the recap: 72 minutes into a 75 minute workout my sugars tanked. My physical therapy was first thing in the morning, I hadn't grabbed anything to eat and I hadn't brought anything with me to correct my shortsightedness.  And, I was paying the price.

And then it happened. I felt an intense wave of heat and dizziness sweep over my body.  I'd felt these same sensations before. I had always attributed them to being tired, but this time things were different. I was still a little disorientated from the low but was fearful that I was going even lower and that this was another sign of the low I was surfing. I pulled out my tester and went for the other side of my non-zombie finger to see where I was headed (I still had about nine minutes left of knee muscle shock therapy). Lo and behold I was reading 132 mg/dl. Can you say "LIVER DUMP" boys and girls?

I guess I should be grateful that my liver works somewhat correctly and did what it was supposed to (and had enough glucose in storage). I should be, but I'm not. I'm pretty scared that I had a 64 mg/dl swing in roughly eight minutes. I should be grateful that I have a better understanding of how my diabetes causes my body to work. Instead I have fears and insecurities that continue to haunt me.

New Years

Well, another year has slipped into the history books.  There was lots of change in my life over the last year.  Here are just a few of the highlights (I’ve included explanations by way of hash tags):

• Diagnosed a Type 2 Diabetic. #icandohardthings
• Knee surgery. #ouch
• Earlobe extension surgery. #checkingtoseeifyoureawake
• Cancer scare. #cancersucks
• Watching my children fail. #whydonttheylearn
• Surgery on wife’s ankle. #doubleouch
• Newtown, Connecticut. #tragedy
• Being banned from soda. #byebyedrpepper

Not everything was bad:

• Knee surgery. #nopain
• Weight loss. #20poundsgone
• Increased exercise. #walkskiporrun
• Didn’t have cancer. #cancersucks
• Camping with son in Wyoming. #martinscove
• Camping with family at Goblin Valley. #noberylliumspherehere
• Watching my children succeed. #theywerelistening
• Kissing my wife on New Year’s Eve. #stillinlove
• Newtown, Connecticut. #hugyourkids
• Being banned from soda. #drinkwater

I hope you and your family have a great 2013!

Vigilance

Wow.  I never thought that I would ever need to write this post, but the events of the last week have - shall we say - opened my eyes to a problem I have.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently had knee surgery.  To complicate this, my wife had surgery to remove a bone spur on her heal and stretch her achilles tendon.  To quote her Doctor, "Your toes need to be elevated above your nose for the next two weeks."  So, short of trips to the powder room (does anyone really call it that anymore?), she is flat on her back in bed.

 

What does this have to do with vigilance?  Let me start by saying that I have no clue how my beloved wife is able to accomplish everything she does in a day.  Having dealt with everything she does for the better part of a week now, I'm at a loss to explain how she has the time to do it short of magic (time-turner anyone?).

 

This morning while sitting in physical therapy with my knee wrapped in a pile of heat wraps I realized that I hadn't checked my blood glucose in almost two days.  Oops...  I also realized that I didn't take my meds yesterday.  Double oops... Would being on insulin make these "oops'" fewer and farther between? Definitely, as I'm sure having to put a needle into my body EVERY meal would be a constant reminder to do what is right... But for now I'm not on insulin and have got to figure out a better way of managing my diabetes (any and all suggestions are currently being solicited - leave a comment if you want to help this silly man out).

Holiday Thoughts

Editors Note:  I have to apologize for the lateness of this blog post.  I thought I had the post scheduled to publish on December 26th.  Upon further investigation I discovered that the post was scheduled for December 26, 2013...  So, in the immortal words of Yakko Warner, "Go figure."


You'd think that my being somewhat in touch with Santa Claus during the holidays would have allowed him to work his magic on what ended up in my Christmas stocking this year...  It seems logical, doesn't it?  But, somehow not a thing ended up in my stocking that was compatible with my new reduced-sugar-blood-glucose-friendly lifestyle.  I'm confident that a little while after Santa left the North Pole to make his deliveries there was an elf looking at a pile of diabetes friendly treats sitting on one of the workbenches scratching his head and wondering how the treats hadn't found their way into Santa's bag and onto his sleigh.  I'm sure that when Santa got to my home he was scratching his head too.  I'm sure that they both had a small cry over their hot chocolate about the whole debacle after Santa arrived home and had woken from a well-deserved nap.

Meanwhile back at Casa de Eric's there was much joy and mayhem occurring throughout the home as little ones were waking and enjoying the day.  Ruckus and joy - how could anything be wrong or out of place?  But there was.  Sitting in the corner of the room was a man whose facial expression contained the look of a little boy being left out.  A man watching every bite and morsel disappear into his children's mouths.  A man wondering, "What happened Santa?!?!?!?"

Now don't get me wrong, we had a beautiful Christmas.  It was a Christmas to remember.  It was a day when all the children got along and no Band-Aids were required.  It was a day when there was gratitude for all that was given and for those doing the giving.  It was memorable and special.  It was also the first Christmas where I didn't eat a single piece of candy - and that was a HUGE victory for me.  On Christmas my willpower soared higher than Apollo 11 during the first moon landing.  And it was a good day!

So, to everyone out there, just remember that there's always hope.  And with hope comes effort.  And with effort comes success.

May you and your families have the most joyous and safe holidays possible.

And That's The Way It Is...

Twenty six years. It can't be that long... Twenty six years ago this week Bruce Hornsby and the Range hit number one with "The Way It Is." Wow. My oldest child is now the same age I was when that song came out. Now I feel a wee-bit old...

When I was even younger than I was when Bruce was crooning his hit, our home always watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Cronkite was the king of honesty in my parents' home and it was a rare day when we would miss his broadcast. Every evening he would end his broadcast with the phrase, "And that's the way it is..." That was Walter Cronkite - straight shooting and matter of fact. So today I'm borrowing Mr. Cronkite's phrase.

Five weeks ago I had my knee scoped (I guess arthroscopic surgery is the technical term). Anyway, the doctor found a severe tear of my meniscus. He trimmed off the tear and cleaned things up inside my knee (the technical term, once again, would be partial medial menisectomy). And with the completion of the surgery my mobility became all but nothing.  And, for me, that became "the way it is..."

Until the time of my surgery I was losing weight.  I was being more active.  I was watching more of what I ate.  And then...  Snip, snip, snip.  My knee was fixed but my activity was gone.  Sitting around with not much to do was hard.  It has affected my willpower.  It has eroded my momentum.  "And that's the way it is..."

Now don't get me wrong.  I really have had quite a few blessings come from this.  For the first 72 hours or so I was totally dependent upon others.  That is quite humbling.  When I was first diagnosed with diabetes I considered myself fairly independent due to my family connections to the disease.  There were things that I didn't know and was surprised to learn from the literature that I received at my diabetes education classes.  That was humbling too, but not quite like my surgery.  I truly felt I had a good handle on my diabetes - but I really didn't (and still don't).  "And that's the way it is..."

My road back from surgery has been fun / painful / happy / sad / frustrating / joyous / maddening / relief.  You can pretty much name just about any emotion and I have felt it.  Physical Therapy has been quite brutal at times and rather rewarding at others.  It truly is a blessing despite the hardship.  I dread PT tomorrow but I will go because I need to.  "And that's the way it is..."

As difficult as things are right now for me and my family (did I mention that my wife is flat in bed due to surgery to fix a heel bone spur and stretch her achilles tendon?) our lives are truly blessed.  As out of control I feel I am with my diabetes right now, I'm still trying.  With the holiday madness descending upon us I know that we are going to be ok - that I'm going to be ok - and that I can do this.  I can climb this mountain and succeed.

"And that's the way it is..."