| before their time |
[Aug. 8th, 2009|23:49] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
9 hours arrythmia today. not fun.
This entry was originally posted at http://piranha.dreamwidth.org/466171.html. Please comment there using OpenID. |
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| i didn't have an axe to grind |
[May. 14th, 2009|23:56] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
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| so i ground some wheat berries into flour. |
the focus isn't quite where it should be, but of course i didn't see that until the flour had already been baked into yummy bread.
and wow, what a difference fresh flour makes. i don't usually much care for whole wheat breads, but this one was GOOD.
grinding 3 cups of wheat berries by hand into reasonably fine flour is quite the workout; i didn't do it in one stretch, but took breaks in between. if i continue with the physical labour in garden and house as i've started this year, soon i will have actual muscles.
the new grain mill (wonder mill junior) is excellent. i've wanted one for years, but could never see spending the money. however, this wasn't hideously expensive. i'll write a review as soon as i've tried grinding more things -- it has stones for dry goods, and steel burrs for oily ones. |
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| tulip tree |
[Nov. 23rd, 2008|21:38] |
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| liriodendron tulipifera, also called yellow poplar, but it isn't a poplar. glorious golden-brown fall colour. they're not common around here; this one is on the malaspina university campus. i should try and see it in spring because it has marvelous flowers. |
today could have been better -- apparently it was time for another tachycardia attack so i don't get too hopeful that i might have it beat. been going on for 14 hours now. it's not particularly bad; not as fast as it used to be, and ergo not as anxiety-producing. but it still leaves me weak and not able to really do anything much.
the paramour brought me green & black's maya gold chocolate. zir inner shaman clearly knows what's important about medicine. :) |
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| what's left |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|22:32] |
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| of a thistle head. |
tachycardia attack last night, lasted from 03:20 til 09:30. i jinxed myself by thinking earlier in the day that it had been almost 3 months since the last one, and maybe... yeah, well, if wishes were horses. but it wasn't particularly fast to start with, and the bloodpressure never went sky high either; worst was right after it started with 156 / 110 @ 132 bpm.
the best part is that i am no longer incredibly scared. in fact i am so little scared that i can fall asleep while the ticker is still in arrhythmia. one of these days i'll just go "fuck this" and hike backcountry again. also, portable defib/cardioversion units are becoming less and less expensive. just gonna train the paramour, *wry grin*. |
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| fireweed |
[Aug. 12th, 2008|21:41] |
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| (epilobium angustifolium) |
walklog:
9-12 nanaimo river regional park, 2.85 km, 0:44. just a quick walk after grocery shopping; started too late to go anywhere much.
state of the fishie health:
today i felt particularly upset with my goddamn body, so i browsed online to look at recent advances in surgery options. i'm coming to think that the whole "peace with my own body as is" idea was overrated, and that maybe i'll be more at peace if i have some things cut off. |
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| queen of oak bay |
[Jun. 15th, 2008|22:14] |
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coming into departure bay. it takes about an hour and 30 min from here to vancouver west's horseshoe bay. |
walklog:
6-15 long mailbox loop, 2.40 km, 0:29 -- that's the fastest i've walked this loop since keeping track, and i wasn't uncomfortably out of breath at any time. i didn't wear the monitor, but my heartrate felt solid, nicely elevated, but not pumping like mad.
today i woke up feeling normal for the first time since the attacks last weekend, the ticker not having any weird palpitations, and nothing in my chest feeling ... odd, for lack of a better term.
so far so good. guess it's time to call dr W for rescheduling the stress test. also need to see dr P for new RX later this month. |
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| well, that was crap |
[May. 23rd, 2008|15:15] |
ophthalmologist appointment yesterday. for those who don't know -- i am fairly phobic about anything involving my eyes getting touched. i don't wear contacts because it's torture for me to put them in -- i tried, more than once. even putting in eye drops is difficult.
so i don't go for eye examinations as often as i should. but i really had to -- for one it's been more than 10 years since i've actually had an in-depth exam (rather than just a vision test), for another, the extreme hypertension might've damaged something, for a third, one can see lots of things about the state of the blood vessels in the body much more easily in the eye than anywhere else. so this is all part of the search for my ticker problem.
last time i had an exam, i freaked out during it, and they couldn't actually finish all of it. (the time before that i freaked out before and didn't even go.) since then i've gotten better at handling things i am phobic about (meditation, mantra, desensitization, practice), so i was hoping it might go better.
uh huh. well, it did in that i didn't wimp out of the appointment and cancelled it (believe me, i wanted to). and i didn't freak out during the vision exam or the prep for dilation (though man, SHE TOUCHED MY EYEBALL. my inner animal wanted to bite her hand off.). then i had to sit in the waiting room to let the dilating drops work.
( click only if you can handle freakouts with some gross )
the good news is that my eyes are largely as ok as they can be (aside from the myopia and astigmastism which i've had all my life). there's a little cataract, which she said was sort of to be expected due to my age, and a long way from needing to be tackled with surgery. there's nothing wrong with my blood vessels. there's a bit of pigmentation in my left eye, for which she said to eat more vegetables (those with antioxidants i assume). so basically, a cleanish bill of health for the eyes.
she wants to see me again in a year. a year seems a very short time. *wry grin*. i think i'll write up a one-page manual on the care and (lack of) feeding for the vasovagally challenged piranha. and send some flowers to the office.
oh, and did you know that if you close your eyes, they can't see you? :) |
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| pop! |
[May. 13th, 2008|22:19] |
no walk today; rain all day, and had a late appointment with dr W (the internist). who still rocks. we're continuing the search for the cause of the ticker problem; more lab work. also a stress test (june 9), and a referral to an ophthalmologist (dr H, may 22). he says my BP is heading in the right direction, lots of walking good, trying to modify diet foodstuffs eaten good. blood glucose also decent, though i know i can make it more decent by eating even better ('tis hard because all my comfort foods have carb issues, and my standard recipes do as well, and i don't actually LIKE to figure out new ones). he's sympathetic, not pushy about it.
he wants me to record the glucose differently from now on -- instead of just before breakfast, on alternating days he wants to see the values before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, before bedtime. i guess i better make a spreadsheet. at least it doesn't mean i have to stick myself more often. i whined to him about the crap shoot those test strips are, and he rolled his eyes -- he seems ready at a moment's notice to blast off about incompetence in the medical industry, but barely restrains himself. *heh*.
no metoprolol for 2 days before the stress test. well, that will be stressful all in itself. |
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| state of the fishie health |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|00:38] |
i sorta fell of the "being good" wagon while the *poing* was here. not totally, i was hanging on by my fingertips -- we walked just about every day, and it was really cool that zie came with me despite me being too damn slow -- but we also ate out almost every day. so my blood glucose levels were steadily above 6.0mmol. but still under 7.0, so i am not lambasting myself too much for it.
my blood pressure also went up again during this time (140/80 ballpark in the mornings), and i returned to taking a second metoprolol before going to sleep. it's been going down again now, and i am hoping i can drop that second one again. i need to tighten up the "diet" a bit more; i've gotten sloppy. need to figure out some nicely balanced recipes of stuff i like that comes in low on the glycemic index.
ticker is doing good, only one set of weird palpitations (couple seconds) in the last two weeks. the walking is doing me much good; it lifts me up to be outside, and i am slowly developing better stamina.
state of mental health remain so-la-la; good enough to get some stuff done, get my butt outside to walk nearly every day, not good enough for government work. i continue to put off talking with dr P about this. i did not up the celexa dosage myself because ... oh, let's not go there. *sigh*, do let's go there: the pharmacy guy was really busy and gave me only enough pills for a month instead of 3 months, and when i noticed, he was all apologetic, but i was tired and didn't want to wait another 30 min for him to redo it all, and went home instead. not thinking about how that's how it's in their damn computer now, and so monthly it stays until i get a new prescription. this is like the Nth time this pharmacy has made an error with my prescriptions and they're always real sorry, but i am just tired of it. there's a brand new one across the street, and i will just take my next prescription there. possibly i'll even bring it up with dr P again, since now all the other stuff is broadly under control and maybe he can find it in his heart to LISTEN TO ME about it.
must remain careful about getting too involved in depressing discussions.
the paramour is headbanging and subvocalizing to pandora while programming. too cute. :) |
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| walklog |
[Apr. 11th, 2008|00:14] |
i should probably just do this every time i walk instead of saving them up, and maybe say something about the walk. we'll see.
03-16 mailbox++ 2.5 km 0:40
03-17 millstone side channel 2:30
03-18 mailbox++ 2.5 km 0:40
03-21 buttertubs marsh 2.4 km 1:10
03-24 mailbox++ 2.5 km 0:45
03-28 mailbox 2.0 km 0:28
04-01 colliery dam 3.4 km 1:20
04-02 lost lake & bickerton bluffs 5.2 km 2:01
04-03 linley valley 7.5 km 3:42
04-05 reservoir 1.5 km 1:05
04-06 lantzville foothills 5.4 km 2:25
04-07 jameson -> ammonite falls -> galloway gulch -> west 9.5 km 4:06
04-10 mailbox++ 2.5 km 0:52
the *poing* gets here on saturday. wonder how much walking we're gonna do. :) |
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| state of the fishie health |
[Apr. 5th, 2008|09:59] |
pretty good overall. 3 weeks ago i noticed that my morning diastolic blood pressure was consistently below / in the low 120s, instead of around 140 and i was wondering whether i might be able to dispense with half the metoprolol. so for the last 2 weeks i've only taken the met and micardis in the morning. so far, so good; my overall blood pressure looks fine now, averages to 122/72, which is lower than dr P was shooting for, and with fewer meds.
i credit all the walking and exercycling i've done for much of this, though i've also made changes to my diet. i am _not_ dieting, i am trying to change my eating habits towards lowering my blood sugar, and retaining less water -- but i am not actually on a prescribed diet, nor do i want to be since that doesn't work for me. i've basically cut salt and sugar from things i prepare myself, though i am still eating them if they're in frozen foods, or when we eat out. i am also eating a lot fewer carbs, but i've cut only the foods that rank really high on the glycemic index. i'm slowly cutting down on artificial sweeteners as well, because i don't just want to replace sugars with artificial crap where in 10 years they're gonna find out it's bad for us after all; i want to develop less of a sweet tooth, and then switch back to using natural sweeteners if the blood glucose plays along. this has worked well with salt; i have a salt substitute, but i already use very little of it.
i don't want any change to be too onerous because then i will fall off the wagon.
the celexa doesn't make me sick anymore (well, i take it just before i go to bed, so i don't actually know -- but what i don't know doesn't hurt me in this case :). it's not doing anything to improve my concentration/memory, but it's done good in that it's helped me get over the horrible hump where i didn't even want to go outside. overall the many-pronged approach is providing enough oomph -- celexa, taking daily photos, walking everywhere even if i've been there before (now with the new GPS toy) so i can map trails and count kms walked, and riding the exercycle when the weather is too bad to walk, or i am worn out from the day before.
i weigh myself occasionally, just as a datapoint. lost 17 lbs since i started exercising (do not congratulate me -- this is not a goal of mine, and i don't care that both docs said i should lose some weight; i want to be healthier, not thinner).
the blood glucose thing still has me grumbling, but overall the values are alright; hovering around 6 mmol, and i am not stressing over it. we'll see what my next HBA1c says.
my ticker has felt very normal, just a few palpitations occasionally, nothing that lasts for more than a couple beats. i am very happy about that, i've hated most that i was always listening to my heart and that it seemed to do so many weird things; that was very disconcerting.
dr W (the internist) has referred me to an ophthalmologist to have my eyes checked thoroughly. appointment on may 22 @ 14:45. |
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| walk log |
[Mar. 16th, 2008|00:01] |
i've walked a lot lately, and i think it'll make me feel good if i keep track of it for the time being. i also want to draw up routes for most of these in google maps/earth and link pictures at some later time.
03-01 hemer park main loop 1:30 hrs 4 km
03-06 weigles rd -> flynnfalls cr -> benson cr -> return 2:20 hrs 4.3 km
03-07 weigles rd -> benson cr gorge -> return 2:20 hrs
03-08 port alberni coombs candy -> hole in the wall etc -> return 2:20 hrs
03-09 port alberni coombs candy -> stokes cr falls etc -> return 2:40 hrs
03-11 neck point park 2:45 hrs 3.5 km
03-12 westwood lake large loop 3:10 hrs 6 km
03-14 long mailbox loop 0:40 hrs
03-15 maffeo sutton park -> millstone river -> caledonia park -> quick loop back 2:00 hrs |
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| state of mental health |
[Mar. 2nd, 2008|14:23] |
the celexa appears to be doing something useful now. i don't feel that i can concentrate much better or that my memory problems have improved, but i definitely have more energy and mental "oomph", evidenced by the fact that i've been out and about much more often than at the same time last year. spring always brings an improvement, but it's not fully spring here, and yet i've been feeling mild wanderlust. we've been to stocking creek, the colliery dam reservoir, walked the morden colliery trail all the way to the confluence with umm creek, and i've walked to the mailbox a few times, and generally ambled around the neighbourhood in search of interesting photo objects. i've also started cleaning my room (a major project), and bundling things to recycle/give away.
since dr P is nonresponsive when i mention that the celexa not doing enough (i've brought it up several times and he just nods and says nothing, which drives me batty; i think my general impression of being a sane and functioning person even when i am barely hanging on by my fingernails is working against me here), i will raise my dosage to 30 mg a day next week. |
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| the internist |
[Feb. 12th, 2008|14:06] |
on friday i finally had my appointment with the internist, dr w. this is the same internist the hospital was going to refer me to, but apparently that idea got lost between the ER doc and whoever else was involved in that game of telephone. then my GP was gonna make an appointment with another internist, and i don't know what happened there, but it never came about. finally, he said he'd call this one, and *whew*, this time it happened.
boy, am i glad, too. this is my kind of doctor. he's eager to find out what is wrong, he's curious, he does research (and as my luck has it, research on atrial fibrillation), he's gung-ho. he asked all the questions i thought from reading he should be asking (but which other doctors had only asked a subset of), and then some. he called the hospital to request my ECGs pronto (the ones taken while i was actually in afib). he took one right there. he was excited about my record keeping (i take my blood pressure twice and my blood glucose once a day and graph the data), he wanted to keep the graphs i brought. he was critical of some prior treatment where i had had questions (without me prompting it). he said i made the right decisions about low carbs, salt, and aspirin, and added anti-inflammatories and anti-histamines to the list of things i should stay away from. i did forget to ask how careful i have to be about caffeine; i'll ask that next time.
so now we're cooking -- i have more lab tests to do, and on thursday i do a stress test, and get a holter monitor and possibly another spiffy new machine he has, to measure stuff about my heart for a week. i am lucky, i found a fellow research geek. he might be able to use me for one of his studies; i'm fine with that.
i like him. he said "weight loss" but also said "i know, easier said than done, i am the posterchild for that" (he's chubby), so there was no particular stupid pressure, and i think i can get him away from that phrasing. i really like how engaged he was, and that he's not laid back about finding a cause -- even if we might not find one, he's not assuming that from the start, he wants to know.
generally healthwise i am ... mixed. my blood glucose levels were perfectly normal for several weeks, but this last week have been slightly above 6.1 and i am not sure why. my blood pressure is also not as low in the mornings as it was in the period before my last tach attack. but i have more energy, and i am doing more things. it all feels quietly precarious though, and any new attack will knock me over again. i am not sleeping in my room (because that's where i get these attacks -- i know this is pure superstition, but i feel better sleeping on the couch and just don't want to bother fighting it right now). the celexa still makes me mildly nauseated, so now i am taking it just before i go to sleep. no change in dosages, except for aspirin (halved it): metoprolol 50mg x 2, micardis HCT 80mg, celexa 20mg, aspirin 81mg. |
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| ticker issues |
[Jan. 16th, 2008|15:04] |
thanks for all the good wishes, it's appreciated.
it wasn't as bad as the last 3 times; i probably was in atrial fibrillation only for a few minutes (enough to wake me though). but then the damn thing beat irregularly (to the tune of 20-40 extra beats a minute) all day long.
we did drive to the ER when it was time to take my meds since i wasn't entirely sure it wasn't a sudden side effect, and taking them might make things worse. but instead the metoprolol slowed things down a bit, and i got hopeful it might stop, so i didn't go in. the ER was busy, too. i decided that if the ticker was still doing it by morning i would go in, because then i'd have a chance to see a hospital internist. finally stopped beating irregularly after 1 in the morning, an hour and a half after i took the meds. *sigh of relief*.
yeah, yeah. i know. conventional wisdom says i shoulda gone in. but i like gambling with my life data, and making decisions based on that. part of what made me feel things weren't urgent was that i actually fell asleep on the couch, and slept for a couple of hours. that certainly didn't happen before. from reading about this i know this can go on for a long time, so now i know that i too can go for many hours with it without croaking, and that makes the inclination to panic go away, which will make the next attack easier to handle. because by now it's no longer something that happened a couple of times and will never happen again, but it's probably something i'll have to live with.
i have an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow, and will see what he says about the meds; maybe i should take an extra pill if this happens, or maybe he'll up the dosage overall. i still haven't heard from an internist, either through the hospital or through the one my doctor referred me to, and i really want to push that.
i wish i had some hints as to what brings it on. i wasn't dehydrated, i do very, very little caffeine (cup of green tea on some days), i get enough potassium (and not too much), i ate the same as i eat every day, nothing extra stressful happened, my blood sugar was normal the day before (and has in fact been normal, not pre-diabetic, for the last three weeks), my blood pressure was a little higher than it had been all week, but nowhere as high as it was the previous times. i've in fact been really good; i've been exercising every day, i've been eating decently (no extra salt, no extra sugar, low carbs), i'm not forgetting meds despite my weirdo schedule (better living through list-making). it's a little frustrating not to be able to point to anything i do in specific and say "there, that triggers it, now see whether you can fix it". |
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| no picture today |
[Jan. 15th, 2008|21:00] |
ticker problems. |
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| ah, christmas eve |
[Dec. 24th, 2007|16:18] |
that means the time period during which people out in public are meaner to each other than at any other time a year is almost over.
it's a cause for celebration! maybe i should decorate for it...
i'll call it scroogemas.
i sorta would like some occasion for which to decorate a little -- i like candles and the tiny lights, the smell of evergreens, and a little sparkle. but it's not my religion, the secular outgrowth of it is overhyped and overcommercialized, obligatory gift giving sucks, the muzak grates on me, so no, Do Not Want.
the winter solstice would be an appropriate date, but actually, i am not ready to be done with winter. it'll be another 6 weeks before i really have enough of it and start to yearn for spring. i'd even like some real snow right about now, because i like how everything looks when thickly covered, because i love how the snow mutes sound, except for the crunch of my boots, because xmas lights make houses in the snow at night look magical -- but we never get any snow over xmas. i am not really complaining about it, mind. just that it would be awesome, for a couple of days.
overall, things are alright. the ticker is behaving itself, the blood pressure is now in a range that satisfies the doctor, the glucose levels are low enough so i don't need diabetes meds, and i have a referral to an internist to talk about the "slightly abnormal but not urgent" reading of the ECG, so things are moving on that front. the celexa is still making me nauseated, but never as badly as the paxil did. it's also interfering with gayboy's hobby, but oh well. it's still too early to have any effect on my mood so i need to just put up with it for now. usually by the time i notice an effect from an SSRI the GI upset goes away (the sexual dysfunction stays); we'll see whether the celexa behaves as the others.
we tend to shop for groceries right before the great rush sets in and then hermit for the duration, eating our way slowly through the stash. it's nice and warm in here, i brought in enough firewood to last the night. i have loads of anime to watch and a backlog of BL releases to read; yum. i am pondering whether i should bake cookies even if it blows the blood glucose sky high, and i just might do that.
maybe i'll call it carbmas.
i hope everyone who's celebrating something is having a wonderful time. be good to each other; it's more important than anything else. |
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| state of the fishie |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|12:58] |
i sound like an old person, what with talking just about my health and the effects of medication on my body. i should really get back to talking about mansex to provide the other pole of the age range provided within my mind, *snicker*.
started the celexa yesterday. mild GI upset last night, and this morning a bit too. also got a sore throat and a bit of a runny rose, which could be side effects, but could also mean that my multiple exposures to other people who're sick (doctor's office, pharmacy) has caught me something. i'm torn which etiology i'd prefer, *snrk*.
the blood glucose testing proceeds as it started, the numbers remain generally better than the lab test that set this all in motion, and it's still fun to see how eating what affects my blood sugar. exercise is turning out to have a strong effect if i do it right after eating -- but then it's hardest for me to get my ass in gear; i just want to sit and quietly digest instead of walking for 45 min with my heart gallopping at 120 beats a minute (that's how long the middle loop around our neighbourhood takes me). allegedly a combined program of aerobic and anaerobic exercise is best for lowering glucose levels, so i have to decide whether i want to embark on something like that. but no way am i going to a gym; that is just not going to happen, so i'll have to work out a way to do it at home. i think i also want to look into a continuous heart rate meter (the one i have is part of the blood pressure metering process and i need to sit still for that, which is inconvenient when exercising out in the great outdoors).
as before, lowered carb intake makes me less sluggish. yay. but tracking all this stuff takes up all that energy, so at this point it's pretty much not a win. i'm glad i have the atkins experiment to compare, because i know from it that the energy will continue to increase and i will have extra.
i am looking at software for the mac to help with the tracking, which can also graph various things, because i think my doctor would be helped by looking at charts rather than just numbers, and at precalculated averages (since he appeared not too good at doing the calculating himself). i should call the lifescan people because inside my sooper-dooper meter i found a coupon for a free datacable and software. what shall we bet the software only works in windows?
amusing anecdotal evidence time: for a while now i've made fun of the japanese old wives' remedy of licking a wound to make it better, which is incredibly prevalent in BL because it provides for a handy way of "indirect kissing" (since you don't do it to yourself, no, your paramour to be will endeavour to do it to you, and you will be much embarrassed by it, and the erotic tension will be thicker than blood. also, licking trickling blood, which seems to tap the same vein as nosferoticism for some -- not me, *guh*.). well, i've been licking my own wounds since i am pricking a finger 3 times day, and darn it if the ones i lick for a while don't hurt less and heal a little quicker than the ones i leave alone. |
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| more on blood sugar and eating habits |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|10:00] |
i thought i would take this glucose testing relatively easy, but noooo, no, yesterday i started keeping track of my food intake as well, just like during the atkins experiment. the good news is that at least that prepped me sufficiently, and i still have all the bookmarks around. and the books. we both eat so badly, that whatever works to get us to eat better overall is a good thing, even if it doesn't last -- who knows, it might last the next time, and it'll be easier then.
i wish i had had this meter during the atkins experiment. the effect of carbs on blood sugar is just really astonishing, and while i read about all that before, seeing it born out by actual numbers from my own blood makes it real.
yesterday my fasting glucose in the morning was 6.7, and i was wondering whether it was maybe due to me having gone for sufficiently long without food (12 hours) that my liver was already cranking out sugar. today's reading after 9 hours is 6.0! i purposely had exactly the same food as my meal the night before (though the rest of the day i didn't), but that eliminates a little of the randomness. my suspicion about the liver already pumping glucose into my blood stream might be correct. the next time i take a fasting blood test i want to control my late night food intake; that high reading might have come from not enough food before sleeping, and too long a period before eating again. i'll probably experiment some with setting an alarm and measuring my glucose levels a couple of times during the night to see what they do.
the really good news is that it seems i can relatively easily push my levels into the normal range by eating differently. yesterday i started with a higher carb meal (and the glucose 2 hours later was at 8.1), while dinner was quite low carb (and the +2 hour glucose was 5.3). i can modify that higher carb meal without too much trouble to be a little lower. i don't want to go for modifications i'll never be able to keep up, so what changes i do make have to be relatively small for now.
the main thing is to be more conscious of what i eat because when i am, i eat better (because i already know what stuff is good for me). i realize i can't stick with this level of record keeping for more than 6 months at most, but maybe this time i can acquire enough knowledge to go on reasonably well after that, even if i drop most of the record keeping.
seirei no moribito is the most beautiful anime i've seen all year. even more beautiful than suzumiya haruhi, yes. and it has an excellent female hero, competent, with not a cute thing about her, and a nice, calm alto voice. is this really coming out of japan? *snrk*. |
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| blood sugar |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|10:31] |
ok, so my fasting blood sugar is not hideously high this morning, in fact considerably lower than the lab test, at 6.7. last thing i had to eat 12 hours ago was a whole guava. this is higher than it should be (6.1 mmol/l is the upper end of the canadian guideline for normal fasting blood glucose levels), but not hugely so. it could also be slightly elevated already because this might actually be too long a time to go without food, and my liver might've already pumped out extra sugar.
*sigh of relief*. i know it's just one number, and one lower number does not a trend make, but it makes me a bit less worried, and more confident that the levels can be controlled with a bit more attention to eating well (notice how i am avoiding the 4-letter word "diet" :) and being more physically active. yesterday featured more walking around and a healthier bedtime snack than is usual (i often eat a sizeable meal before going to bed, just because i forgot to eat earlier and am ravenous).
fortunately the fingerpricking didn't hurt much, nor do the puncture sites hurt now, so pain isn't gonna be a major deterrent for testing at this point.
now i need to figure out how to delete individual test results from the spiffy meter i ended up with (lifescan's onetouch ultrasmart -- what a mouthful), so that the paramour can try this too. i chose this one because the cost for test strips locally was between $72-80 no matter what brand, and walmart spared me from giving them any money (however grudgingly) by not actually having the el-cheapo meter+strip deal available that i had read about. the cheapest strips were on sale for $70 at shoppers drugmart, for their own "life" brand, but a one-time sale does not a good investment make, and their meter was barebones. if it turns out i need to do this long-term i'll be spending more time looking for a cheap online source. (if you're in the US and are in need of cheap strips, try http://www.hocks.com, who have some amazingly low prices, but unfortunately don't ship internationally).
the ultrasmart will relieve me of keeping a written logbook by providing its own, and i can upload the data to my computer as well. it also allows for taking blood at alternate sites (palm or forearm) should the fingers get too pricked up. it can do averages and graphs, and i can record my BP and food intake as well. not bad for an experiment. |
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