Visit to see Lynne in Still Listening to Spirit

I got up in the middle of the night for the bathroom trip I needed. I was attacked by vertigo, a VERY BAD attack of vertigo. I took 3 steps before it hit and I had a hard time backing up those 3 steps to sit back on the bed.

Scary, very scary. Head swimming, room twirling and tilting, I sat there thinking “I’ve gotta pee, NOW!” Here’s how my brain works with a little bit of Spirit thrown in… I stood up and took a step sideways. Obviously walking forward wasn’t working. I ‘crabbed’ my way to the bathroom and back and fell back into bed exhausted and concerned.

I got out of bed at 7:30am to get ready for work and the same vertigo hit me again. Crabbing to the bathroom and then to my chair worked but I wasn’t feeling much better. The vertigo wasn’t enough to make me throw up, but almost.

I called Eric to tell him I wasn’t coming in. No big deal as it turns out, it blew 40 to 50mph winds all day and poured rain as well.

I sat and reviewed what might be the problem. AHA, I hadn’t eaten last night. I had a cup of hot tea and a hand full of Bugles. Obviously I needed to eat! I got to the kitchen without incident and mixed me a smoothie with milk, a bit of sugar, a banana and some Carnation breakfast drink.

Back in my chair, I lifted the drink and Spirit said “Check your glucose.” I thought, no, this will fix me. Spirit said again “Check your glucose.” I leaned back to take my first drink and Spirit prodded me again. I said a bad word, kicked my feet off the footstool, stood and went to check my glucose. I am usually very sorry if I don’t pay attention to Spirit.

I had 1 test strip left, haven’t any idea how long it has been since I did this. Test strips expensive, $1 a day. I was shocked to see 378 on the meter. Holy sh**! Normal, or close to normal for me is between 100 and 125. Hoo boy, I realized I was in big trouble.

I called the clinic at 10am, Lynne had just gotten in and would call me back. She was on late shift, beginning at 11am and extending until 7pm and on call with few appointments. She called me back at noon and by 1pm I was in the office.

The first surprise was the weigh-in, 215 pounds. I told V that couldn’t be right. It was. I am always 245 to 255 I don’t care what I do. Good? Nope, that’s 40 pounds lost since March.

Saw lynne with her new trainee/intern. Blood sugar by vein draw was 500. Of course I was losing weight. All the sugar and so on was so big an amount that none of it was binding to my fat cells.

I asked Lynne if she could just give me some meds for the vertigo and let the blood sugars go until I lose another 20 or so pounds. I was joking, she was not amused!

After much discussion about budget, effective meds, etc. Lynne brought me a new meter with 50 test strips, some needles and some insulin to inject. One insulin I will inject every day, once a day. The other insulin was very fast acting and would bring my number down quickly.

Intern girl showed me how to load the syringe and was fixing to inject me in my stomach fat. I said “Oh, give it here, tell me what to do.” I didn’t feel a thing. Intern girl loaded the fast acting insulin and I did that one too.

I then had to stay for an hour so they could monitor me to make sure the insulin wouldn’t cause a crash the other way with too low number.

Home I came, upstairs I went. I napped throughout the day with Copy settling in firmly and for the long haul with me. I didn’t sleep deeply, but truly napped.

I checked my glucose before eating a very small meal around 8pm and the number was 275. Better but not good. I see Lynne tomorrow at 10:30am at the clinic. She is the oncall for the weekend and keeps 10am to 2pm clinic hours on Saturday when it is her turn.

So many ‘clues’ missed by me or ignored. I am taking this very seriously and am not messing around. For me now it is protein from meat and cheese, fresh veggies, and fruits. Lynne says I should keep it down to NO carbs or sugars until I am at the good number.

Vertigo is still in attendance, but much less violent and short-term.

Ah, blessed be!