I feel I ought to write something in defence of the net; it's actually a good place. Yes, I may have had unwanted contact from one individual and it's possible for a person's past to rear up its ugly head sometimes, but the web has also been responsible for me reconnecting with someone with whom I was very good friends, when we met at Royal Holloway during my first M.A back in 2001. We've shared a couple of very long phone conversations since this initial discovery of me, by the lady in question, and it's amazing to feel as if the friendship is just where it was all those years ago! Hopefully we will have the opportunity to actually see each other in person - and yes, if you are reading this, it is a plug from me to you to get on and apply to do that PhD; I want to proof-read that 100, 000 word book about Isabella! I'm on the case of several friends about this particular issue, so all of you who are in that boat there is one thing I have to say - hop to it!
Aside from that, in the weird world of Eve and medication, things are afoot. After another consultation with another doctor about blood sugar levels, it seems apparent I can not tolerate the Diabetes tablets, so we're looking at Insulin again, but not all the time. I shall be on a fairly rigorous testing program and only using the drug when I need to, which may be three times in one day and then not for two. This is, of course, assuming that I don't have some crashing reaction to it, as I did with Glipizide. Ending up in A&E, unable to get my blood sugar above 2.6 was not a lot of fun.
So, why didn't the doctors get my drug right? Well, this is what my Paleo Pal will recognise as the 'Factor of Eve'. I've used that phrase a few times too often in front of her! And by this I mean two things. Firstly, most doctors are completely in the dark when it comes to transplantation and the nitty gritty of medication requirements. Secondly, my body doesn't react to any medication, the way it is supposed to react. No, they don't know why. Harefield and I have been making this up as we go along, for the last 26 ½ years, based on what they know, compared with my observations about my own body. For example, I am on one drug called Erythropoietin. It seems that most people are on two doses a week, but that was too much for me, so with a bit of mathematical jigging of numbers from me at home and agreement from the hospital, I inject 700u every 5 days. I've been counting days like this since I was 15. I am the only patient I know who has this regime, but at least the hospital was flexible enough to allow me to do this!
However, back to the blood sugar. Two things came into play regarding my departure to A&E hypoing on a drug that should not have caused hypos: the reaction time of the Glipizide should have been two hours and it extended to about 24 hours in me. Then, the usual response to a hypo is to eat a sugary snack and something with carbohydrate to get you back on your feet. This did not work. In a two hour interval I ate 7 slices of marmalade on toast, two chocolate bars, 4 chocolate biscuits, a packet of crisps and 15 sachets of sugar. My level remained stubbornly under 3 and I lost a kilo in weight over the course of the night. My body doesn't react to any medication, the way it is supposed to react.
And this problem is causing me another problem. I was becoming anaemic on the vegan diet, despite injecting Erythropoietin, taking iron tablets and taking a multi-vitamin a day. So, I ran a dietary experiment at the request of one of my medical teams - I had to reintroduce meat/fish/diary and see what happened. Sticking aside any thoughts of animal welfare for the moment, the whole thing was rather interesting. Well, it was rather explosive: my stomach now disagrees vehemently with dairy - although goats cheese and eggs are tolerated, as guests in the dairy department. I ate meat and fish a few times in one week and my blood sugar sky rocketed. I suspect the actual problem was that because there was something extra back on my plate, the vegetable content was a lot lower. It was this, or the 'Factor of Eve' intervened and I have a suspected issue with animal fats (I read 'something somewhere' about transplant+diabetes+kidney disease+animal fat). Briefly, back on the omni diet, my anaemia started to recover. I also observed that my blood glucose was a lot worse with dairy than meat, and it was worse with meat than with fish.
But, then I had to get back to the vegan diet to try and sort out the increased blood sugar. My levels are coming back down again and my anaemia is going back up, despite the medical intervention as detailed above. I could scream! In a nutshell, it looks like I don't absorb the nutrients from tablets, I do in dead animal form. My body does not react to medication the way it is supposed to react. I have an appointment to discuss all of this with a dietician (poor lady) in November. She's going to struggle with the next paragraph as well.
Diabetics are supposed to moderate their carbohydrate intake. Yesterday, I scoffed down a bean burger, a wrap, chips and a cheeseless pizza. My blood sugar was normal all day. Today, for lunch I had a home made (no junk food in sight) broccoli and cauliflower curry - I had no rice, potato or naan bread. My blood sugar shot up to 13. My body does not behave the way it is supposed to behave. This will be driving my Paleo pal nuts, if she is reading this!! But it's evidence, I think, that when it comes to diet that one size does not fit all. I would not cope on her diet, but I have to say, she looks pretty good on it! On the other hand, I think she'd keel over in agony if she ate mine.
So what's going on? As far as I can see, I have a reaction to my steroids. My blood glucose is elevated (most days) 6 hours after ingestion. It continues reacting to food for another 6 hours or so. The doctor now thinks I am not strictly Diabetic. I am just having a 'Diabetic-Style' reaction. I have normal blood glucose from about 10pm until about 1pm the next day. One day I skipped my steroids (ok, I was sick in Bognor and it came back up). My blood glucose did not rise that day.
I'm a bugger aren't I?
