2007-03-13
Two posts in two days - wow!
Hi again :)
Picking up where I left off yesterday�
So shoot me if you�ve heard enough, I�m not done talking!
I had out-patient chemo on a Thursday. My mid-day Saturday, I was feeling
rough. OK, rough is too mild a word� awful. If it wasn�t for My flower, I probably would have been too stubborn for my own good and sat here till it really WAS too late. As it was, she finally convinced me that I needed to call an ambulance (which I did) and ended up spending Sat noon through Monday afternoon in the hospital. The reason? I let dehydration get the best of me� an easy thing to do when you�re not feeling well to begin with.
One good thing that DID come of the hospital stay� I�m now on insulin. Now I know, that doesn�t SOUND like a good thing, but believe me it is.
Ever since I was diagnosed, I�ve been on a steroid that is designed to combat something called �tumor fever�� the tumor�s in my body are creating a fever on their own. Left unchecked, this fever would easily spike at 103 or above� not exactly a healthy situation. So, the steroid was introduced, and it worked. It effectively allowed my body to be fever-free for the better part of every 12 hours.
The down side� it sent my blood glucose readings off the chart. Way off the chart. Like� in the 500-600 range (normal is 80-120?). The only words of wisdom I received from my oncologist? Do whatever you have to do in order to maintain your weight, as that affects how much chemo we can give� and more is good. And without understanding what the blood glucose levels were doing to me� and following my Dr�s advice� I was suddenly living off of chocolate ice cream for lunch and Venti Mocha Frappachinos for snacks. Anything food that was calorie-dense and easy to eat, I was there. Of course, with all this came massive amounts of sugar.
The day after I had my last chemo, I went to the ophthalmologist. Over the course of the previous few weeks, my eyesight had deteriorated to the point where I really didn�t feel safe driving at night, and I had to know where I was going to turn during the day because I couldn�t see the street signs at all. Hell, I couldn�t read things on my TV. It had been a good year and a half since my last eyeglass prescription, so I decided it was just time for a new one. Wrong.
The ophthalmologist (spelling that word HAS to be part of their final license exam, don�t ya think?) took a look and explained that with glucose readings over 600 (which he could infer from what he was seeing in my eye � I hadn�t mentioned anything about the steroids), he could write a different prescription for each day of the month and it still wouldn�t help. Bottom line � I had to get my blood glucose readings under control and my eyes would return to normal (which that have).
So, right after I left the ophthalmologist, I headed over to my oncology center to see my Dr and let him know that something has to be done� business as usual cannot continue in regards to my glucose levels. And� he�s out of town. I did manage to get a different Dr to prescribe a glucose monitor so I could at least see how high it was (a small victory).
And� I immediately saw that my glucose levels were above 500 (the upper limit of my monitor). Damn�
So� while in the hospital over the weekend, I decided that enough was enough and I insisted that I be put on insulin. This kinda caused a stir, as most people are pretty damn resistant to the idea of taking insulin� and here I am demanding it.
Another very good outcome from all this; once upon a time, I had a primary care physician. Unfortunately, I had to quit using him and basically went through the diagnosis and subsequent treatments without one. With the insulin being prescribed, and the need for that to be managed� I was forced to go find another one. And I got lucky :)
Well, I�ve actually written this around 10AM instead of the dead of the morning hours. Time for me to venture out and make a day of this, instead of just a tick mark on the calendar.
Later!
t85225 at 10:27 a.m.
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