I went to the quack last Tuesday for my 6 month checkup. After a lot of toing-and-froing trying to find the records of my last blood test in the computer and finally getting St. Thomas’s Hospital to fax them in, we discovered that my blood sugar level (on average) was 9.2 over the 4 week period before May. Worrisome when the “normal” range is 5.1-7.1 or so. So she changed my medications: out with the Avandia, in with something-starting-with-gly- .
I started taking them (2 per day, breakfast and dinner) Tuesday night. Wednesday, in late morning, I felt a bit shaky and had to eat something to get my blood sugar up. Thursday morning I woke up at about 4 am feeling odd. I got up and noticed that I had the shakes a bit. So I went downstairs and tried to take my blood sugar, but because of the nerves I couldn’t get a good enough blood sample. I drank a Danone Actimel drink and felt OK a few minutes later. Nearly the same thing happened this morning, but I was successful at taking the blood sugar reading: 5.4. Somewhat on the low end of normal. Another Actimel. This afternoon, after being on the exercise bike for 45 minutes at the gym, I began to feel shaky again. I had to eat an energy bar.
Pattern: I think that the new medication is too strong for me. However, I’ll have to have some history of blood testing behind me before I go back to the quack and demand that my medication be adjusted. So I will have to test myself every time this happens at home. I hate this as it involves a pen-like object shooting a lancet into the ball of your finger, then squeezing a drop of blood onto a test strip in a machine.
On the other measurement fronts, all my liver and kidney function is OK, but my blood pressure was up (160 over 91) and my cholesterol was slightly high at 5.1 (5 is the optimal upper limit for a diabetic). Taking my blood pressure at home has afforded readings that culminated in 124 over 81 last night. So I think it’s white-coat syndrome in the doctor’s office. As for the cholesterol, it could be that we’ve started to have butter instead of margarine. Wotta world, eh? I feel like I can’t eat anything anymore. As my mother said just before she died of a heart attack but after she went on a crash diet, “You wouldn’t want to eat here anymore.” because of the dietary austerity.
However, I made meat loaf with Cream of Mushroom soup frosting, mashed potatoes (made with a ricer, of course), and peas tonight. More cholesterol (although there was lots of rendered fat in the pan that didn’t get into me). Oh, well.
Oh, and that little unpleasantness I had after I returned from India? It was viral, not bacterial. They couldn’t culture anything from the sample I provided. I wonder where I caught it and what it was.
My poor beagle… As a person who has found avoiding doctors the best strategy, I thoroughly recommend following your yens. I also like testing. I test my blood pressure, which tends to go up when I feel crummy, and my blood sugar, which tends to go wacky when I eat too much or (more often) too little. Needless to say, I don’t do the sugar test that often, because it is , as you describe, unpleasant. Also somewhat expensive.
I’ve never understood ricing potatoes. I’ve heard the arguments for it, but my masher works just fine.
As a diabetic, I get all prescriptions for free here in the UK. So price doesn’t come into it particularly when testing blood. I slept the whole night without feeling shaky. I shall test my sugar now and then have breakfast.
My blood pressure last night was 124 over 78. I don’t think I have major blood pressure problems except when the quack is taking it.
I like creamy mashed potatoes, with no discernable evidence that the potatoes actually existed in solid form. Thus, ricing works for me. But, YMMV of course. Some people like to know that the mashed potatoes actually grew somewhere and were not just extruded from a plant. That’s OK, too.
Slightly important: I grew up in Maine, and I love potatoes. I love my mashed potatoes lumpy. But even if I liked them creamy, I’d be hard pressed to like washing the ricer, and I’d mash the hell out of them to make them creamy to avoid the cleanup. But we agree to disagree, yes?
Good going on the blood pressure. You seem to be winning on that front.
Take care, doll.
Well, I believe that everything comes with a price. Creamy mashed potatoes come with a price: HWMBO won’t wash the ricer, so I do.
I’m certain that your mashed potatoes are just as creamy as mine. We just get there in different ways.
My mother’s mashed potatoes were lumpy as all getout. And baked potatoes needed to be in the oven for hours (this is pre-microwave).
The blood pressure thang is a difference of location, I’m certain. The quack was fussing around with trying to get my previous blood sugar etc. readings, taking phone calls, and I was sitting there on tendercooks…er…tenterhooks. So no wonder my bp was so high. I would love to get rid of the diuretic as it’s a real imposition to have to be near the loo all morning.
We’ve now had the inevitable debate. Do we have a ricer? The housemate claims no. I have produced the ricer, which has been sitting right out on the shelf in the pantry for years. (It’s the squish kind, like a giant garlic press, rather than the rotary kind my mother had.)
The housemate looked at it and said, “Must be French. The Italians would never do this.” 🙂
I still mash. Skins on. Cut up, boil, drain, cream, salt, pepper, butter, mash.
And I still take massive amounts of a beta blocker, not to do with blood pressure (mine is low) but due to a theory that my brain problems are somehow related to a migraine process. Don’t know, but the propranolol seems to help. Not expensive, just a lot of pills.
The French one is the rotary one, I think. Mine is a plastic squish kind we got at Habitat years ago for
Yes, I do have the vivid dreams. Recently dreamed that while I was sleeping, my mother dyed my hair magenta. 🙂