I was diagnosed with Diabetes in February of 2006 after some minor heart problems were found in November of 2005. Those diagnoses' came after 2 1/2 years of being sick. It took nearly everything out of me to be able to hold down a full-time job, let alone managing the kids and home needs (which fell short).
I could barely lift my legs, most days I was using a cane or walker to get around. I was short of breath a lot of the time, so fatigued that just the thought of going to the grocery store made me sick. When my kids went with me to the store (I almost always had to have help), they could hear me coming from an aisle over as I shuffled my feet. I can't even tell you how many doctors appointments I had consisting of neurologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, rheumatologists, ER visits, etc. or how many tests such as mri's, spinal tap, muscle, blood, etc., etc., etc. All netting nothing, so all me and my family could do was live day to day and wait it out.
I finally got a break when a local hospital was doing free screenings for PAD, peripheral arterial disease. The test consisted of taking my blood pressure in my arms and ankles. Well, my legs showed signs of mild to moderate blockage. This got me into a cardiologist that did a angiogram on my heart, lungs, neck and legs. There was no blockages, but the left side of my heart showed some weakness. My blood pressure was high on the diastolic reading getting as high as 150/110. My diagnoses was diastolic dysfunction. I had always had a little high readings on my blood glucose, but not so much so that yelled diabetes. So heart and diabetic medications were my fix.
My primary care doctor, worried that my blood glucose may get too low on the medication had me check my blood sugar on a daily basis and ran an A1C test. My first result from the A1C test was 7.0, and that was being on diabetic meds for 2 months. Any reading 7.0 and over puts you at risk for complications, like heart, eyes and circulation problems with limbs. A non-diabetic would have been closer to the 4 range.
Okay, so I have some pills now... all fixed, for a couple of years. I developed another heart problem starting in April of '07, but wasn't diagnosed until September of '08. I had these painful attacks that progressively got more intense and more frequent. I had pain in my chest, straight thru to my back and down my left arm. Towards the end of them, I also had pain in my jaw, neck and nearly passed out. They found I had PVC's, premature ventricular contractions or my heart was beating an extra beat. These can be harmless to a healthy individual, or deadly with someone that has a heart problem already or an unknown heart defect. Too many PVC's can trigger a cardiac arrest to a heart that has a defect like to an unsuspecting athlete. Good thing my problems are being treated and kept under control, so no worries there.
This diagnoses resulted in taking me off of one of my heart medications, and alas... no more attacks... I was so relieved, whew!!
Ever since my diabetes was diagnosed as the early stages, I thought all I had to do was take my meds and it seemed to keep everything under control. Hahaha... I even wasn't checking my blood sugar, my last A1C was 6.1 from a previously 5.5 result a few months prior to that. I just told people I wasn't a severe diabetic, thinking they caught it in time. Well... I got sick this past Monday, suddenly vomiting, I was shaky and overall felt really sick. My meter had stopped working (probably from lack of use, lol), so I had a co-worker take me to my mom's close by as she had a meter. My blood glucose was 76 after I had just eaten an hour previously, it should have been at least 30 points higher. So I had some fruit to bring it up and borrowed my mom's meter to keep track of it for the day.
I started doing some research on diabetes and found out it was a progressive disease O.o, what?! Something about the wacky blood glucose levels fatiguing the cells and even making the cells die off if the numbers stay up for too long. Which means the longer you are diabetic, the more progressive it becomes and less the cells handle the highs. Sounds like a vicious cycle to me.
I called my docs office, got my own meter and an updated RX for my glucose strips. Checking my blood glucose, especially when I felt sick. After my sugar dropping to 66 after eating again on Thursday, I called my doctor for an appointment. She cut my meds in half, because it was more critical that I didn't get low numbers than getting high ones. I will go back in 8 weeks instead of 5 more months to get my A1C checked again. She didn't want me to change how I eat, so the test reflects med change only and not confused by other factors.
I have been absorbing all the information I can on diabetes, trying to understand it the best I can. Understanding it is time to take this ugly beast seriously. I already have heart problems caused by the disease, so I cannot be so passive about it anymore. Gonna become an expert!
