Wednesday, January 30, 2013

New Developements

Hey all!  Sorry I've been gone for a while but I haven't been feeling well for the past few weeks and the other day I found out why: I am hypoglycemic.  This, on top of my insulin resistance, has resulted in fainting spells, trips to the ER in an ambulance, loss of money since I can't work after having an episode and just down right crumminess all around.  
    It started well over a year ago but I was always told there was nothing wrong with me.  My blood sugars were always in  the acceptable range and I was negative for diabetes and on meds for my insulin resistance.  I had quite a few bouts of it starting last February that lasted into May or June but then things stopped and I figured hey all right, I'm all better.  Nope, not even close.  
    A few weeks ago, while I was guarding on deck, I passed out.  I was unconscious for nearly a full minute (or so I'm told) and was transported to the hospital. They did all their poking and prodding and ran all their tests and guess what?  There was absolutely nothing wrong with me.  I was in perfect health except that I fainted... but you know that's just a tiny detail. ;)
   So after a few weeks of this I finally got into see a specialist and he says it's "hypoglycemia" but gave it a much different and more complicated name.  He said it was basically the same thing but they'd renamed it because not everyone who had the symptoms had low blood sugar readings.  In fact a lot of people were suffering all the symptoms of it but had perfect blood sugar.  I am one of those lucky people.  I'm also one of those "great" patients where it's easy to track what foods trigger my episodes because I have such strong symptoms.
   I can't say how relieve I was that someone had finally given me a definitive answer.  I was starting to think I was somehow making this happen by stressing or thinking about it too much or something.  And now that I have an answer I also have new meds (oh joy, something else to remember ;) ) and a new diet plan.  Because my band is not tight yet, I'm able to follow this diet pretty much to a tee.  I'm to eat 6 times a day; 3 meals and 3 snacks.  I can't go over 30 carbs per meal and no more than 15 carbs per snack.  Along with my new meds, I am also taking cinnamon tablets since they've been shown to help regulate blood sugar or something like that. (I'm on so many meds these days it's hard to keep it all straight).
   Unfortunately for me, however, this diet is not a straight shot "you do this, you'll get better" kind of thing.  Every person's body reacts differently to foods and it's trial and error for me to find those foods that, even though they're within my allotted carbs, trigger an episode.  Since beginning this two days ago I've been constantly fatigued but had no dizziness  no blurry vision and no fainting; at least until this afternoon.  I woke up after my nap and my vision was blurry, I was nauseous and I felt like I was going to fall over.  I then laid down and went into convulsions (kind of).  They're more like when you start to shiver and you can't control it but bigger and my hold body literally convulses but I'm completely conscious through the entire 30 second or less process.  
   Don't worry though I ate lunch and then finally, after my snack a few hours later was feeling better.  I'm still tired, but that might be something I have to deal with for a while.  How about any of you?  Did/do any of you have to deal with something like this before or after your banding?  Did it eventually get better?

Stay safe, Stay happy, Stay hopeful
Super (Medicated) Woman signing off

1 comment:

  1. since you are a 6 meal plan...you should give me a call some time I am doing it to and I know something that would help you.

    And good for you for taking cinnamon tablets...I've been taking them for a while now and it has helped a lot too.

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