Bleh...
Sorry for the lack of postage lately. I just haven't been in the mood...
It's always been that whenever I'd get hungry and I couldn't eat right away, I'd get CRANKY and sometimes dizzy. For the last month, that's been actually getting worse and worse.
Case in point: I was stuck on cash at work on Thursday and I couldn't get to my lunch (which was in an office where a Very Important Meeting was being held. I usually eat at around noonish, and it was 1:30 before I could grab my lunch and stuff it as fast as I could into my mouth. I got CRAZY woozy at that point, and I started shaking and crying for absolutely no reason.
Combined with the fact that my vision's been getting worse and worse (I'm seeing a specialist in September), frequent urination, and headaches, I got scared shitless and hauled ass to the clinic where I usually go. My doctor wasn't in, so I had to see another one.
UGH.
She says that:
1. I could be pregnant (um... check again plzkthx)
2. That's it's impossible for me to be diabetic just because no one in my family has it
3. That I'm probably hypoglycemic, and it's "perfectly normal for a child-bearing woman of my age to have that" (NO IT ISN'T)
4. That my urination's probably a bladder infection and that the only test that she wants me to have done is a urine culture analysis (um, it's not a bladder infection. TRUST ME)
5. I'm full of shit thinking that I have migraines since they're completely at the wrong place and that I'm probably doing something to trigger my headaches, or that I need a new prescription (it's not supposed to change that frequently).
Anyways, I made her order a blood test (which she did only because it would "make me feel better") and she gave me useless pills for my migraines as well as a urine requisition because it MUST be a bladder infection (...).
When I got home, I found out that my mom was/is hypoglycemic!
I went for the blood test and the piss-inna-cup test this morning, and at lunch, I went and checked out the prices for the glucose meters. Turns out the units themselves are free -- they suck you in with the strips (which are unit specific), and they're like $85/100. I got a pack of fifty, and after that, I found out that my insurance covered everything I got (the sharps, the strips, and the unit) ONE TIME ONRY without a prescription. (Dammit, I should've gotten the pack of 100...) So everything cost me $12, which I figured was a good investment in case the morons at the lab don't see anything. (They bloody well should, because I felt like shit this morning.)
Anyways, when I got back to work, I took my blood sugar for shits and giggles. 5.3 mmol/L (95 mg/dl). I'd just eaten, so that SEEMED normal. (According to this chart, it doesn't look it. I'll rant about this more below.)
At 3:30 pm, I started getting incredibly woozy. This was 2-2.5 hours after I'd eaten, so I took it again -- 3.7 mmol/L (67 mg/dl). UM.
(6:05 PM) Cas: Okay, I have a question...
(6:05 PM) Cas: What's normal blood sugar supposed to be two hours after a meal?
(6:05 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: Usually, I think it's somewhere around 120 or so...
(6:07 PM) Cas: ... you can't possibly be serious...
(6:07 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...was it lower than that?
(6:07 PM) Cas: *double checks her conversion chart*
(6:07 PM) Cas: Mine's in mmol/L, so...
(6:08 PM) Cas: "To convert mmol/l of glucose to mg/dl, multiply by 18."
(6:08 PM) Cas: Um... 66.6.
(6:09 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...66.6 mmol/l? o.o
(6:09 PM) Cas: No, 66.6 mg/dl.
(6:09 PM) Cas: 3.7 mmol/L.
(6:09 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...yeah, that's REALLY low.
According to this chart (if it's accurate), I'm nowhere near normal.
mmol/l mg/dl interpretation
------ ----- --------------
2.0 35 extremely low, danger of unconciousness
3.0 55 low, marginal insulin reaction
4.0 75 slightly low, first symptoms of lethargy etc.
5.5 100 mecca
5 - 6 90-110 normal preprandial in nondiabetics
8.0 150 normal postprandial in nondiabetics
10.0 180 maximum postprandial in nondiabetics
11.0 200
15.0 270 a little high to very high depending on patient
16.5 300
20.0 360 getting up there
22 400 max mg/dl for some meters and strips
33 600 high danger of severe electrolyte imbalance
Preprandial = before meal
Postprandial = after meal
I took my blood sugar again just now (I'm about to go to bed), and I'm at 4.9 mmol/L (88 mg/dl).
...
I hope they find something in my blood test. I can live with having it, I just don't know what to do about it. They say that if my blood sugar gets too low, I need to eat some carbs or suck on some candy or something... I can't eat candy when I'm watching what I'm eating! I'm seeing conflicting reports that I should be on a diabetic-like diet, but won't that make things much worse?
I just really don't know how to manage this... I want them to find something so I can start being helped...
It's always been that whenever I'd get hungry and I couldn't eat right away, I'd get CRANKY and sometimes dizzy. For the last month, that's been actually getting worse and worse.
Case in point: I was stuck on cash at work on Thursday and I couldn't get to my lunch (which was in an office where a Very Important Meeting was being held. I usually eat at around noonish, and it was 1:30 before I could grab my lunch and stuff it as fast as I could into my mouth. I got CRAZY woozy at that point, and I started shaking and crying for absolutely no reason.
Combined with the fact that my vision's been getting worse and worse (I'm seeing a specialist in September), frequent urination, and headaches, I got scared shitless and hauled ass to the clinic where I usually go. My doctor wasn't in, so I had to see another one.
UGH.
She says that:
1. I could be pregnant (um... check again plzkthx)
2. That's it's impossible for me to be diabetic just because no one in my family has it
3. That I'm probably hypoglycemic, and it's "perfectly normal for a child-bearing woman of my age to have that" (NO IT ISN'T)
4. That my urination's probably a bladder infection and that the only test that she wants me to have done is a urine culture analysis (um, it's not a bladder infection. TRUST ME)
5. I'm full of shit thinking that I have migraines since they're completely at the wrong place and that I'm probably doing something to trigger my headaches, or that I need a new prescription (it's not supposed to change that frequently).
Anyways, I made her order a blood test (which she did only because it would "make me feel better") and she gave me useless pills for my migraines as well as a urine requisition because it MUST be a bladder infection (...).
When I got home, I found out that my mom was/is hypoglycemic!
I went for the blood test and the piss-inna-cup test this morning, and at lunch, I went and checked out the prices for the glucose meters. Turns out the units themselves are free -- they suck you in with the strips (which are unit specific), and they're like $85/100. I got a pack of fifty, and after that, I found out that my insurance covered everything I got (the sharps, the strips, and the unit) ONE TIME ONRY without a prescription. (Dammit, I should've gotten the pack of 100...) So everything cost me $12, which I figured was a good investment in case the morons at the lab don't see anything. (They bloody well should, because I felt like shit this morning.)
Anyways, when I got back to work, I took my blood sugar for shits and giggles. 5.3 mmol/L (95 mg/dl). I'd just eaten, so that SEEMED normal. (According to this chart, it doesn't look it. I'll rant about this more below.)
At 3:30 pm, I started getting incredibly woozy. This was 2-2.5 hours after I'd eaten, so I took it again -- 3.7 mmol/L (67 mg/dl). UM.
(6:05 PM) Cas: Okay, I have a question...
(6:05 PM) Cas: What's normal blood sugar supposed to be two hours after a meal?
(6:05 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: Usually, I think it's somewhere around 120 or so...
(6:07 PM) Cas: ... you can't possibly be serious...
(6:07 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...was it lower than that?
(6:07 PM) Cas: *double checks her conversion chart*
(6:07 PM) Cas: Mine's in mmol/L, so...
(6:08 PM) Cas: "To convert mmol/l of glucose to mg/dl, multiply by 18."
(6:08 PM) Cas: Um... 66.6.
(6:09 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...66.6 mmol/l? o.o
(6:09 PM) Cas: No, 66.6 mg/dl.
(6:09 PM) Cas: 3.7 mmol/L.
(6:09 PM) H.S. Broadfoot: ...yeah, that's REALLY low.
According to this chart (if it's accurate), I'm nowhere near normal.
mmol/l mg/dl interpretation
------ ----- --------------
2.0 35 extremely low, danger of unconciousness
3.0 55 low, marginal insulin reaction
4.0 75 slightly low, first symptoms of lethargy etc.
5.5 100 mecca
5 - 6 90-110 normal preprandial in nondiabetics
8.0 150 normal postprandial in nondiabetics
10.0 180 maximum postprandial in nondiabetics
11.0 200
15.0 270 a little high to very high depending on patient
16.5 300
20.0 360 getting up there
22 400 max mg/dl for some meters and strips
33 600 high danger of severe electrolyte imbalance
Preprandial = before meal
Postprandial = after meal
I took my blood sugar again just now (I'm about to go to bed), and I'm at 4.9 mmol/L (88 mg/dl).
...
I hope they find something in my blood test. I can live with having it, I just don't know what to do about it. They say that if my blood sugar gets too low, I need to eat some carbs or suck on some candy or something... I can't eat candy when I'm watching what I'm eating! I'm seeing conflicting reports that I should be on a diabetic-like diet, but won't that make things much worse?
I just really don't know how to manage this... I want them to find something so I can start being helped...