Yet Another Medical Project
I certainly wasn’t expecting another medical project to take on, but apparently God had other designs. I have been feeling very dizzy, nauseous and lethargic for several weeks again, kind of like I was 18 months ago. Then, two days ago while I was at my dad’s house, I decided to check my blood sugar.
My dad is diabetic and has been doing the whole diabetic-thing for 13 years. He is now taking insulin shots everyday. He has a couple of glucometers.
A normal blood sugar reading is 80-120. After I stuck myself and squeezed the drop of blood onto the test strip, was waited for the analysis. I’ve done this several times before, and the readings were always normal. We thought for a while that blood sugar was the problem 18 months ago when I first started having the vertigo and stuff, but my readings were never off — always around 100 or slightly over, never more than 130.
Then the glucomter beeped and I saw the display: 557. Yes, you read that right. 557. My mother gasped and said "Oh, gosh, that’s alarmingly high." My dad said "these things are not always exact." and suggested that I test it again. The second time the reading was 467. Just to make sure it wasn’t really going wonky, my dad checked his. His reading was 213, which is apparently normal for him at that time of day.
Needless to say, that meant that I was going to go to the doctor again.
I debated back and forth whether or not I really wanted to commit to this, yet another medical project, but Penny convinced me to go in to the doctor yesterday. I didn’t eat anything before the appointment (I was still feeling nauseous so it wasn’t difficult to not eat.) I explained the whole situation to him and he said that since I hadn’t eaten, they would do a fasting blood sugar test. I should get the results in a day or so.
After going to the doctor, Penny and I went out to eat at a local pizza and salad restaurant. I ate a small pizza salad, which comes with ham, olives, onions and cheese. Not real diabetic, but still, I ordered the small one. I would normally eat an entire large one.
After eating, we had to run a couple of errands then returned home. I walked back to my folks place and asked to use the glucomter again. It was about an hour after eating, and I wasn’t feeling the cotton-mouth, dying of thirst that I had been having. This time the reading was 318. Rats.
So, today I have started to eat like a diabetic (my portions are still probably too large, but I’m trying. And the standard that I’m using is the way my dad’s doctor told him to eat when he was diagnosed 13 years ago.)
Here’s what today’s menu was: (I usually don’t eat breakfast)
5:15 a.m. (early start today because of a bible study) half a banana, 1 piece of whole wheat toast, 6 oz of whole milk (we don’t buy skim, at least not yet.)
10:45 a.m. (half a banana, probably a cup of carrots)
Noon (one slice of turkey, two pieces of whole wheat bread, a little mayo and mustard; about 6 Frito Scoops®, half a cup of carrots.)
4 p.m. (small granny smith apple – yum!)
6:30 p.m. (half a cup of cottage cheese; 3 saltines.)
8:15 p.m. (small serving of meatloaf; large serving of steamed broccoli and cauliflower; small serving of green beans; 6 oz. of whole milk.)
So, now I’m sitting here at 9 p.m. yearning for chocolate. Argh.
