August, 2009. Six months since surgery

Aug 11, 2009

My DS surgery was 6 months ago this week.   I've lost just over 70 pounds and I feel better than I have done in years.   There hasn't been a magic remission of the kidney disease, I still need the ProCrit to force my body to make enough red blood cells to live on, and I am still taking insulin for my Type II diabetes.   I think realistically, I may never not be diabetic.   My father was Type II diabetic, and he never was overweight in his life.   So there might be some inherited weakness there.   Two of my brothers have died already.   One basically was killed by his doctors and nurses in hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.   But he wouldn't have been in hospital if he weren't diabetic.   The other brother wasn't diabetic (that I know of - he wasn't great for seeking medical help) but he died of pancreatic cancer.    So there might be something other than obesity that leads to my diabetes.

But still, as to the diabetes, it's much better!   I was taking 90 Units of Lantus (long acting) insulin every night before bed.   Now I'm taking 16.   I was taking Humalog (quick acting) before each meal, even meals without any countable carbs, plus a sliding scale for readings that were out of line even if I hadn't eaten.   Now I usually check my blood sugar twice a day, and I don't use the sliding scale at all.   No Humalog with meals, either.   Today I checked my blood sugar before supper and it was 89.   Perfect.   My last A1C was below 5.   Anything below 6 is considered to be excellent control.   My A1C has always been below 6 since I've been treated for diabetes.   Whenever my glucose got out of control, I'd show up at my doctor's office and get something bigger, stronger, more-better and keep the A1C down.   Of course, my red blood cells die early so who knows how long a period of time the A1C actually averages?   

We still haven't replaced our lovely dogs that we lost so close together.   There was an episode where a bad guy chose our parking area behind our house to hide his car from the police.   I saw the car and made sure everything was locked up, got my granddaughter and called 911.   She never woke up!   Well, until the police officers were in my house, whilst I was printing pictures of the car and the license plate, and one of the officers saw my beautiful ginger tabby cat and started calling him and woke the baby!   Anyway, the sleeping baby (4 months old) and I sat in the dining area of my family room or kitchen or whatever area it is where I can have access to all three doors of our house.   If I heard a commotion at one of them, I planned to run out the other one.   That never happened.   He got into his car and drove off before the officers arrived.   They recognized his license number - they'd been chasing him when he ran into another car.   After that accident, he started driving even faster and more aggressively, they told me.   So I don't know if they backed off to keep someone from being hurt, or if they just lost him.  

But anyway, I'd have felt a lot less scared and unprotected if I'd had a nice, big, jug-headed rottweiler at my feet!   Yeah, I know.   It's not the dogs' job to protect me, it's my job to protect them.   But just having one is reassuring and I think is a bit of a deterrent.   I think bad guys are more likely to be afraid of rotties than are non-bad guys.  Plus, I live at the top of a very steep driveway and front garden.   If I had a rottweiler, I could put a pulling harness on him or her, and if we went for a walk, and I was tired or having problems getting up the hill, I could hang on to the harness and ask the dog to pull me up the hill.   Hey, that's not cruel!   Dogs LOVE to have a job, and rottweilers pull like anything.   I have friends who cart with theirs; two or three passengers per cart!   And I've seen them pull cars out of muddy ditches before.   One rottie can pull like a half a ton - I don't weigh anything like that any more.

So, I'm going to see what's available.   Wish me luck!  

So, like my three-month update, I'm very happy.   It would be nice still to be losing 5-9 pounds a week like I did for a short while after my 3-month stall broke.   But as long as I average 10# a month, then I'm right in there in the curve and I like that!

Dennie

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