Yesterday I went in for my annual exam. Oh fun. I've been feeling out of sorts (weak, tired, light headed, heart palpitations) and at the urging of my husband requested some labs be drawn up.
According to my lab results, my potassium and creatinine are high and my sodium is low. I think they might have also said I'm anemic, but my brain was too busy processing all the other stuff to take time to digest that. I've been pushing the fluids and will go back in tomorrow morning for another set of labs. If my levels haven't began to normalize, then they want to admit me into the hospital so I can have an IV and my kidneys won't have to work so hard.
We looked all my symptoms up and they are early signs of chronic kidney failure. I don't think this would be as scary as it is had I not the knowledge of dialysis via my mother-in-law. She has chronic cancer and the chemo has permanently damaged her kidneys. She's ineligible for a transplant because her cancer is chronic and she has to do home dialysis 5 days a week. Everything is affected by the kidneys! This woman is so enduring and I admire her faith! But knowing that my kidneys might not be doing their job and knowing what she goes through freaks me right the heck out!
I'm guessing my diabetes definitely has a role to play in all this mess. I've been battling some really high blood sugars the last few days. I absolutely hate talking to doctors about my diabetes, with the exception of my endocrinologist, OB, and ophthalmologist. They seem to be up to date, understand Type I Diabetes, and have enough grace to realize that I'm human. Just about any other doctor I've known seems to think Type I and Type II are dealt with in the same fashion. They think I can't have any sugar, I manage my diet with exchanges, and that I need to change my management to fit their knowledge. In high school I even had a doctor try to take me off my insulin pump and put me back on injections. Soon after I was married I had another doctor assume that I needed long acting insulin in addition to my fast acting stuff (fyi- the insulin pump is constantly giving me small increments of insulin, which imitates a pancreas and negates the need for long acting insulin.)
Here's the truth: I can eat whatever I want as long as I count the carbohydrates and give insulin accordingly. For instance, I know that a piece of bread has approximately 12 carbs in it, so if I have a sandwich with two slices of bread, tomato, turkey, some mustard and mayo... it contains 30ish carbs (there's little to no carbs in the meat and perhaps a little bit in the tomato and condiments). And for every 15 carbs I need to take 1 unit of insulin. So I would take 2 units of insulin for that sandwich. Same goes for a Snicker's bar... I just read the carb total on the back of the wrapper, make sure I know how many servings I've had and presto! I know how much insulin to take! What's even cooler about Type I Diabetes now is that insulin pumps do most of the work. I have mine programmed to my body's needs (amount of time the insulin is active in my system, carb ratios, corrections for highs, target blood glucose, etc.) And further more, eating whatever I want doesn't mean I eat junk. I'm very conscious about what's going into my body and how it makes me feel. I'm not likely to have anything fluid that has sugar in it unless my blood sugar is low, just because it raises my blood sugar so quickly and it makes me feel horrible.
This is all to say that I hope they don't try to fidget with my diabetes. If anything is at fault here, it's me. I'm forgetful. Sometimes I forget to take care of myself when I'm taking care of my kids. Changing management styles is not going to take away my forgetfulness. If anything, it will make things worse.
My blood pressure was also bordering on high. Never in my life had I had problems with blood pressure, until I was pregnant. Everything returned to normal after Ander was born. I had pre-eclampsia with Solveig too. Apparently things haven't completely gone back to how they were before. I just started some medication for this condition, but it's something that I can't be on while I'm pregnant. We aren't quite to that point yet, but Kyle and I definitely want more kids! So I'm a little concerned how my body will do if it starts a pregnancy out with high blood pressure. Ick. I'm just praying for God's protection and peace.
If they do choose to hospitalize me, I'm also praying I have the gumption to tell them that I want to be hospitalized in Great Falls and not in Havre. We have more people to help with childcare in Great Falls, our insurance covers better in Great Falls, they have actually have nephrologists in Great Falls. I hope I don't have to get too defensive with them, 'cause I get emotional when I get defensive. Arg!
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