Someone Call a Doctor!

Well, actually, someone already did, several times.  January 2018, I went to St V hospital in Anderson to have my right hip replaced.  I had been trying for about two years to successfully have the surgery.  Around two years ago, it was scheduled for July  26, 2016.  On July 25, my father passed away.  I cancelled the surgery.  I tried again a few months later, but, due to stress from Dad’s death and my sister’s diagnosis with cancer, I became ill with gastro paresis.  This persisted until, actually, July of 2017, when my doctor and I finally figured it out (I will let him have some of the credit.  I did all the research and he agreed).  With the monthly session of V and D (sick at both ends) gone, I got my sugar back down to a strong 6.8 (below 8.0 for surgery) and we tried setting it up again.  In the midst of this I managed to badly burn my hand and had to deal with that.  On my last appointment with a GP doctor, for a final check, he reran an A1C and it came out to 8.3.  Surgery was postponed again.  This time, just for about a month.  I had to see a diabetic specialist and we discussed my diet and possible medical solutions.

Now, I am not a person who swallows pills very well.  I had several incidents with food and such when I was younger and it just doesn’t work for me.  So, one of the new medications wasn’t going to work. The other was almost $350 a month.  I worked with the company to get coupons for that medicine.  Finally, the specialist approved my blood readings and diet and we were on for surgery.  Then, the diabetic specialist decided I should go on insulin for a couple of weeks before the surgery and after until my sugar was back to normal.  The insulin was a long-acting and a one-for-each-meal type.  The long-acting was about $600 a a month and the short-acting was around $150.  I ended up buying 1/2 Rx for each and using it before, then after for about 1 week.

What I have noticed is that my sugar levels are higher now than when I was on insulin than when I was on the older medicines.  I will attribute some to pain, but I am just wondering…

So, my temp solution is to remain as it is until the pain stops, reschedule the return appointment until after I am allowed to drive, so I can go to Planet Fitness and exercise for a couple of weeks and see what that does.  Am I being ridiculous?

I ask you…

Namaste,

Scott

To Vegan or not to Vegan…

As many of you know, I have been vegan since July of 2014.  For those that have difficulties knowing what that means, I do not eat meat, nor take in dairy.  That means no hamburgers, no cheese, no eggs, no milk, no ice cream, no regular chocolate.  I did this because I read a good book that discussed research stating nearly all people in the study who stuck to a vegan diet (and they were diabetic) had their blood sugar, their cholesterol, and their blood pressure go down, as well as their weight.  For many they stopped being diabetic about 6-9 months into the program.

My blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol has, indeed, gone down.  My weight has dropped a bit.  The problem was that, after 17 months of the diet (and being very careful for the first 8 months), I am not satisfied that, the program has been worth it.  My feelings are if I would eat reasonably and exercise I would see as much, if not more, positive results.

I do not feel this means it doesn’t work; it just doesn’t work well enough for me.

So, after some deliberation, I have altered the diet for me.  I will still restrict myself to more leaner meats.  I will still mostly avoid regular chocolate.  I will still cut down on cheese.  I will still, of course, watch my sugar, test my glucose, and blood pressure, as well as take all my meds.

However, I believe my life will be more fruitful  and enjoyable) if I do this in moderation, exercise in moderation (try 20-30 minutes of light-moderate exercise 3x a week), and try to keep more active in general by doing a lot of versatile things.

I no longer love food; I enjoy food, but it no longer rules me.  That came out of this diet.  I proved to myself and others I could do this for over 1 year.  There’s nothing wrong with the diet.  If you watch your protein and vary your foods, it is very healthy.  I may go back on it again if I start feeling sluggish or gaining weight that can’t be explained by muscle.

I just wanted to keep all of you up to date on me, one of my favorite subjects.

I am making some social changes in my life; perhaps, more on that another time.

In the meantime, let me simply wish you all well, eat healthy, enjoy life, and smile – a lot…

Namaste,

Scott

If It Is Balanced, I am in for Some Good Times!

Father/Daughter Dance

I, now, get to tell the whole story of the dream wedding.  You see, it went wonderfully, however, behind the scenes with me I was living a quiet kind of chaos.  Truly, if life is balanced, I am in for some good times.  Here we go:

Some type of x-ray machine was used to guide the doctors in giving my injection.

First, in order to walk my daughter up the stairs and down the aisle as well as dance the father/daughter dance (“Butterfly Kisses”) with her, I had to go to a specialist and receive an injection in the hip to reduce nearly all the inflammation so the joint would not hurt and I wouldn’t have to use a cane.

The last time I did this, my sugar stayed fine, but the shot had no effect.  So, I requested going back to the first shot which worked really well, but caused my sugar to spike for about 24 hours.  My family doctor and I had talked before and I knew what med I could take a little more of and that a one-day spike would not really hurt me.  I just needed to watch things.  I arrived at the office late (traffic) and was ushered in.  The shot and all was done in about 1 hour and I headed to my one-day vacation at a hotel I chose about 10 miles from the wedding.  I would have to change hotels on Thursday, but I didn’t have to make the 120 mile round trip home and back the next day for the wedding rehearsal.

I got settled in, set up my computer, got ready, and planned on a relaxing evening.  I lay back in the bed, turned on Showtime to watch a movie, and … the power went out!

This phone would have worked during the power outage.

It was only out a few seconds.  However, it took out the TV, the phones, and the Internet.  I didn’t get upset, so much as I wanted to get it fixed.  I got up to go tell them at the front desk (phone wouldn’t work) and decided it was too far to walk right now.  It all came back in about 20 minutes.

That evening, I settled down to eat supper (dinner was at Cracker Barrel right after the injection procedure).  I took my sugar and it was 220!(2:21PM) I took the extra med and waited. About 3:42, it was 192 (normal is less than 130).  At 6:51pm it was 171.  It was 177 at 8:11.  I called the doctor at this point as I wanted to eat.  He never returned my call.  I left another message for him.  He never returned my call (still hasn’t).

At 10:36, it was still 158, but I took my regular meds, ate about 3/4 usual meal.  It was 208 just after midnight, then 156 around 3:30AM.  I decided it was going down, I was going to sleep.

The next morning about 8:30, it had dropped to 122 and with breakfast and all was only 138 at 11:30, so I knew I was out of trouble.  I was also out of time at that hotel (great vacation – lol).  I over-shot supper just a little, but sugar was still only at 140 and, after that it never got to the 120 mark.

The great thing was my hip got continually better and I did walk my daughter down that aisle and I danced, slowly, but decently, and she was so pleased, it was worth the mess.

I did have to relearn one thing:  I have always made it a habit to take my Kindle and/or a book with me everywhere.  It is a luck thing.  I never need it if I take it.  I was running late to the rehearsal, so I didn’t take the Kindle.  I was off on the time and arrived an hour early!  Could’ve used that Kindle!

After the wedding, my son stayed with me at the hotel for the evening.  We visited the next day, ate lunch with Dad and Mom, then, I dropped him off at his other grandparents for the evening and they were to get him to the hospital.  That time went well.

Second. I got home Saturday night.  Now, I will add to this story by saying that I put all my things on the floor and went to my computer.  I sat in my favorite comfy chair, leaned back, and then was lying on my face on the floor.  The chair was in the only position it can be in to tip!

Welcome Home, Scott!

My cat, Tamika, was ecstatic to have me home.  When I had the stroke and was gone for months, she became very nervous and lost most of her hair.  Of course, this time was much less time, but I know she couldn’t know why I was gone.  My Mom stopped by to feed her, check the water, and check her on Thursday so it wouldn’t seem as long.

Regardless, Tamika had no tuna for several days (her favorite).  That night I didn’t want to eat tuna (I give her the nearly-empty can), so I broke my rule and gave her a full can.  Then I promptly forgot I had given it to her (stroke memory).  The next day I saw her finish off the can.  A little later I thought I heard her sneeze behind me.  I turned around and she walked behind my chair and threw up most of the tuna and a hairball!

What a welcome home!

Thirdly, on Sunday, I went to Cracker Barrel again for a late lunch. I can eat the meatloaf dinner there with green beans, carrots, and one piece of bread and my sugar stay normal.  I took my Kindle and read, spending a couple of hours there relaxing, reading, and eating.

About 2/3 of the way through my meal, my fork made a little dance move and flipped a fairly large piece of meatloaf (loaded with ketchup, of course) to my shirt.  At this point, it bounced down, striking my shirt near the waist, my pants (ahem) on the crotch-zipper, down my pant leg, on the bottoms of the pant leg, and onto the floor.  Water and napkins did something to help the situation; however, I somehow felt I had been strafed by a dead cow.  The blood-looking ketchup made the false entry wounds very visible.

I finished quickly and went home.

Finally, Sunday night I hoped things would settle down into the regular routine and I could begin my week per normal.

Early in the morning I got up, as usual, to go to the restroom and to get a drink; it was dark.  I went to the kitchen (not unusual) and the cat followed (not unusual).  It was when we reached the kitchen that the cat (as per normal) got ahead of me and dropped in her normal spot on the kitchen floor.  I was sleepy.  I know this is going to happen.  However, as I stepped out of the way, I can only assume she decided to swish her tail to a point directly under my foot.

She squeals, I jump at the sound, and…lose my balance.

I have noticed that, when I fall, my world slows down.  I can see and think and react much better and faster than normal.  If it is adrenaline, then I am thankful for it as it has saved me many times.  This time, it allowed me to dropped to my knees with my palms hitting the floor the hardest, breaking my fall.  I knew the cat was under me and silently hoped she was on the move so I would not land directly on her.  My eyes caught the blurry flash of her tail to my side and moving past me as I hit the floor.

No damage done; we all lived and are uninjured.

My world, people, and welcome to it! (As the old show went)  I think, really think, that something wonderful must be coming up as the world seems to be trying to balance it out with all the mess it dealt to me from Wednesday to Monday!

Namaste,

Scott

I have been Told…

I have been told a lot of things over the years, especially by the “experts”.This has concerned a wide variety of subjects and, even the experts haven’t agreed most of the time.
One of the biggies, recently, for me has been Dreamfield’s Pasta. Since working very hard on my Diabetic Diet concerning carbs, I have looked to labels more and more. When a good friend recommended DF to me, I went to the local Kroger’s and looked for it. The label gave an astounding promise of 5 net carbs per serving! This was simply beyond belief. So, I bought it, took it home, and began eating. Now, I am much more careful since my stroke, so I did continue my research and test on my own. I subscribed to the comments on DF and was devastated to hear that all the “experts” and scientific testing showed that DF was no better than any other pasta and referred to it as the “Dreamfield Fraud”.

I decided to test harder. After conducting some fairly intensive personal tests and redoing them off and on for the last few months, I have concluded that, for me, DF works. I have revised it just a bit (under cook the pasta just a shade – Al Dente) and use a low-carb sauce now. However, it does not raise my sugar and allows me to eat a good portion of spaghetti now when I feel the urge.

What amazed me more was that, after I commented on the website about my findings and conclusions (I always said “for me” and “test for yourself”), I was told that 1) I was wrong; 2) I was a liar 3) I was telling a story to promote DR (I was a rep). I retested and put the findings out again, and, again, was told that I was not a scientist and was, therefore, doing it wrong and so on. People would almost hatefully argue this with me, as if I was calling them liars with their own discoveries.

It did not seem to matter that I kept stating that it was true “for me” and that everyone “should test” for themselves. I pointed out that not everyone was alike and that, only by checking things out for themselves, would they really know.

It’s been kinda funny, but, in the last few weeks, I have had several people comment on the site that, “I tested this and it works for me” and “not everyone is the same”.

The reason I put this here is two-fold:

First, many people take it as a personal attack if you say anything different from their views. I notice this in all areas, but, especially, in religion.

Second, I have also seen that, once someone speaks up, it doesn’t take long before there are others.

My Dad is in the hospital; “experts” (well, one) have said what he needs and dismissed my sister when she asked questions about it all. I find that terrifying that an “expert” no longer considers it necessary to study the situation more and that he/she is not willing to explain the situation to those extremely concerned about the matter.

As I told my students many times, “Science, in my opinion, is a ‘best guess’ thing, in spite of ‘facts’. After all, we were a flat world once. Also, there was no such thing as germs or radiation.”

We change our “facts” all the time. It is now believed that an object (sub-atomic, but an object) can, indeed, be in two places at once. Supposedly, it can be proved. What this all tells me is that an expert should be someone who is continually looking to improve and find new facts, and everyone can learn from others.

I hope and plan to never stop learning. And, a good way for me to learn has been to teach.

All of you have something to teach and much to learn.

Do both.
Namaste,
Scott