Thursday, September 27, 2012

Intro to Me (Part 3 -- A Better Me?)



What am I trying to do here besides bitch and complain?   I just want to document my journey as I try out different things.... I want to shout from the mountaintops when I've accomplished a goal (or at least made some progress) and I want to have a pity party when I've had a setback.

First,  I need to put some starting stats up.   As I said, I'm not sure how many of these I can change, so I'm not really going to give myself exact goals.   That makes it harder because it is easier to be motivated when you have exact goals.   The only goal I will give myself is weight because although due to some circumstances I might not be able to get down to my preferred weight, I think there is no reason I shouldn't be able to get down to my official healthy range weight.

Obviously, my ideal is to reverse my diabetes and get off all diabetes drugs and the blood pressure meds.   But, I'm not sure if my pancreas is too damaged for that now.   It is something to ask the endocrinologist at the next appointment.  But, I would like to at least be able to reduce the amount of insulin I'm taking.   I'm going to get very obsessive about my numbers... I did that once and was having some good numbers.   My latest A1C (this is a number that sort of averages the last 3 months of blood glucose numbers) was 7%.   Most medical associations say that you don't want to go over 7% as a diabetic.  My endo is more strict and wants it closer to 6%.  I do, too! 

So, as I mentioned, I weigh 164.8 as of this morning (9/26/2012).  I absolutely want to get to 130, which will put me at the top of the official healthy range for my height.   In 90 days, as I said, 10 lbs will make me ecstatic.  So, if 3 months from now I weigh 155, yay for me (incidentally, I weighed 155 lbs when I was diagnosed with diabetes).

I want my triglycerides as close to normal as possible.   My June report said they were a whopping 530, which is extremely high.   Luckily, they dropped down to 330 in September, which is still very high, but lowering.

And it would be nice to get off the blood pressure meds because technically, the migraine med I take is also a blood pressure med, so I shouldn't need two!!

Now, that was all just the health stuff....   I also want to get my house clean and organized and maybe reclaim some of my former self... the things I used to like to do.

So, let's just recap:

  • Improve/reverse diabetes and reduce/eliminate diabetes meds
  • Lose 10 lbs in 90 days (with ultimate goal of 30ish lbs)
  • Lower triglycerides
  • Get off blood pressure med
  • Clean house
  • Find the old me

Intro to Me (Part 2 -- The Scary List)



So, what do all these illnesses mean?  Ouch!   It means that I am tired a lot... and get fatigued easily.  It means that I hurt a lot... and any kind of exercise hurt (it was training and doing the Avon 2 Day Walk for Cancer which triggered my Dercum's).  It means I wake up and spend most mornings retching (luckily with little vomiting), with movement making it worse.  I get horrible headaches from time to time.  I get pain and bloating in my stomach.  And blah, blah, blah...whine, whine, complain.  You'll learn more as I talk about my days....

It also means I have to take a whole bunch of pills!!   And (as mentioned previously) a few shots.

So, what all do I take?   Here's the CURRENT scary list (and what I take it for):

  • Humulog Insulin -- 3 times/day with meals (15-20 units depending on carbs in meal) Diabetes
  • Lantus Insulin -- this is the delayed release type, 1/day (34 units) Diabetes
  • metformin -- 1000mg 2/day   Diabetes
  • Propanolol ER -- 160mg/day    Migraines
  • Ambien -- 10 mg 1/day  Hypersomnia/Narcolepsy (helps me to stay asleep all night!)
  • fluoxetine -- 40mg 1/day   Depression/OCD
  • Lisinopril -- 5mg 1/day   Diabetes (to prevent kidney/liver damage)
  • Lo Loestrin -- 1/day  Estrogen Replacement
  • HCTZ -- 25mg 1/day High Blood Pressure
  • Erythyromycin -- 500mg 2/day  Gastroparesis
  • Prilosec -- 1/day  Gastroparesis
  • Vicodin -- up to 3 pills (7.5/750mg) as needed for pain
  • xanax -- up to 3 pills (.5 mg) as needed for anxiety
  • phenergan -- around 7mg (1/4th pill) up to 2/day as needed for nausea
  • Bonine -- thinking of replacing phenergan with this because it causes less drowsiness -- 1 pill/day -- kinda alternating right now

Those are the prescription drugs (and OTC ones), here's the supplements I take:

  • centrum silver 1 a day vitamin
  • Vitamin D
  • Magnesium
  • Vitamin B-12
  • probiotics
  • low dose aspirin
  • Flax oil (either through flax fit tablets or straight up flax oil)
  • Gas-x

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Intro to Me (Part 1 -- Laundry List)



Hello and welcome to my journey to try to get a bit healthier.   Although this will be a lifetime journey, I chose to give myself 90 days to find the path and get used to it.  In this blog, I will write about my progress and setbacks and challenges.  Warning:  I will complain... a lot!  So, if you don't want to read someone whining about their aches and pains and stomach issues and how they want a donut, don't read!  I keep things mainly to myself in other venues (facebook, work) but here, I'm going to let it all hang out.   I don't mind some advice (a recipe you've liked, someone who has the same issues that has found something that works well) and I appreciate support... but I don't want lectures (especially when I have setbacks).

Okay, so just a teensy bit about me.  I'm 43.  I'm overweight (officially, I need to lose 33 lbs to be considered in healthy range... ideally, that would be closer to 40 lbs.   For my 90 days, 10 lbs will make me ecstatic).  I have a variety of health issues, which I will go over below. I take a ton of meds.   I'd like to be able to get off some of my meds and improve my health status at least a little bit.  I don't think, however, that I can improve to the point that I will be able to get off more than 1 or 2 of them and that I can "cure" any of my illnesses, but if I can increase my energy and be able to get more done and know that I'm trying... well, I'll be happy.

So, what do I have?  Here's my laundry list of the significant things:

  • Diabetes -- at the moment, insulin-dependent:   4 shots a day (3 fast acting & 1 long release)
  • Dercum's Disease (DD) -- rare disease characterized by multiple painful fatty tumors....  also comes with a host of issues.   More info can be found here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dercum's_disease
  • Gastroparesis (GP) -- stomach paralysis which causes delayed gastric emptying...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroparesis
  • Idiopathic Hypersomnia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome -- depending on which doc you ask.  LOL.  I go with the Sleep Center, which diagnosed the IH.  They felt it was narcolepsy, but I was one REM shy of the diagnosis.   I also have mild sleep apnea.   The IH/narco causes sleepiness during the day and will make me wake up to hallucinations -- hypnopompic -- at night if I don't take a sleeping pill  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypersomnia
  • Fibromyalgia (FM) -- to be honest, I'm not sure about this one.  I think maybe it is just the pain from my Dercum's.   But, I've been diagnosed.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibromyalgia
  • Chronic Kidney Stones  -- Have passed over 50 since I was 19.  Currently have two small ones (1-2mm each) in each kidney
  • New Diagnosis:   Bile Gastritis -- I've been researching and this can be a chronic illness if I'm not careful  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bile-reflux/DS00651
  • High Blood pressure (treated with meds), high tryglycerides, fatty liver
  • Raynaud's Disease (makes me very sensitive to cold  & you'll see me with ear muffsif the temp dips below 60 degrees!)  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/raynauds-disease/DS00433
  • Depression, anxiety, OCD (I have several ways this is manifested which I attempt to keep hidden from most.  I will just talk about it in general terms, like "My OCD was a bit better today...")
  • Migraines -- nearly always on my left side.  I rate them from a level 1-3, with 1 being throbbing and just annoying and 3 being nauseous and light sensitive and can't do anything
  • I also went into early peri-menopause a few years ago... most of the symptoms have passed, but I still get them from time to time.
  • Irritable Bowel -- probably caused by the other issues I have (DD, GP)