Lately, my health has been up and down. I feel things changing in my body that simple aging cannot explain away.
I have spent my life running from my health. That is the simple truth.
#1 - I am a lousy diabetic. I do not take my medicine. I am so deep in the denial that I am surprised I have not stroked out or something equally horrible.
Part of the problem is that I feel no one is listening to me. I complained loudly that the diabetes medicine I was on was doing A. Nothing and B. Making me feel like shit - reflux, swelling, weight gain. I so do NOT need weight gain.
So, I complained about it and she switched the pills to a pill. It is a tiny little pill and is supposedly better tolerated by people with sensitive stomachs. That's me alright.
However, I also complained that lantus - the shot I take - makes my stomach swell up. If I want to gain - literally - 25 to 30 lbs, all I have to do is take my 80 units of lantus every day. PResto! Chango! I will gain it in about two weeks. I am NOT exaggerating.
So, honestly, I do not take my lantus. Why? Well, there is a significant difference between 380 lbs and 405 - 410 lbs for me. I feel HORRIBLE at 410. I feel pretty okay at 380. I know that you skinny people out there won't understand that but you don't have to. I do.
So, I am on a new diabetes regimen. I am taking Actos 45 mg a day. I have been good about taking it every single day.
#2 - I have some pretty bad back pain. It is bad. Let's just leave it at that. Insert whatever horrible description you want, you won't understand. I can't get up in the morning without a terribly wrenching pain that lasts - sometimes - several hours. Lately, it lasts all day.
So, the doctor has me taking 800 mg of ibuprophen 3x a day plus a muscle relaxer called Cyclobenzaprine (10 mg) before bed. It does seem to take the edge off.
#3 - DID ANYONE READ ABOVE THAT I HAVE REFLUX? The doctor knows I have reflux. 3 800 mg tablets of ibuprophen + a muscle relaxer +Actos +biotin +a multi-vitamin means that my stomach is an acid pit.
I am talking about the kind of acid reflux that washes up into your upper sinus cavities and down your windpipe while you are sleeping. IT washes out my ears until I actually wake up with SCABS in my ears from the hydrochloric acid - from my stomach - boiling out my ear canals. When I say I have reflux, I am NOT talking about a tad of heart burn. I am talking about a miserable, acid wash to my entire digestive system. It leaves me bloated, miserable, and in pain.
#4 - So, logically (not), I added two MORE pills to my regimine. I am now taking something called Flora Smart and something called Digest Gold ( I might have that name wrong - its in the other room). The Flora smart promises me 6 billion organisms per caplet. The Digest Gold is friendly fauna plus enzymes to help me digest my food.
Anyway, the idea is that the antibiotics I have taken from time to time as needed, have killed off my friendly fauna and this has caused my reflux. Who knows? I have no idea. I will give it a go.
Speaking of, at least that part of the friendly fauna and enzyme treatment appears to be working. I am more regular than I have been in months. Not that anyone really needed to hear that.
#5 - I am trying - TRYING - to switch to organic food. It is hard. The push on this is the improvement organic dairy products have made to my, uhm, monthly visitor. Things in that area are much less difficult than they have been in the past.
I have been on my period for several years at a time with only a few days off here and there. I had a doctor ask me once if I really thought that this caused mood symptoms. I looked her dead in the eye and said "HOW GOOD OF A FUCKING MOOD WOULD YOU BE IN IF YOU HAD BEEN ON YOUR PERIOD FOR 492 DAYS STRAIGHT?" She said "Good Point."
sigh.
Also, organic food is very expensive. Thanks to Hurricane Ike and the resultant power outtage, we had a pretty clean fridge. I mean, I had not had such a bare freezer since we moved in five, er, six years ago. So, we packed up our re-usable grocery bags and headed off to Whole Fooods. AND SPENT $465.
gasp. grasp chest over heart. gag. pass out.
Now, in all fairness, I had not gone grocery shopping for real since mid-April. I hate grocery shopping. We did not have anything in the house. Normally, I go shopping once a month and spend about $250 all together and only have to pick up milk and bread about once a week - plus the diet citrus drop which we go through a lot of (i know, i know - doesn't help the tummy, does it?)
So, considering we had NOTHING in the fridgep; very little in the cabinet; nada. So, if we had gone to Kroger, we would have spent about $400.
I didn't get anything fancy. I picked up every little thing and compared prices. Was thing X 10cents cheaper than thing Y? Hmmm? I'll get the cheaper one every time. It takes forever to carefully pick through the grocery store, analyze all the nutritional information on the packages, determine the right price, etc. Anyway, it took forever.
And I got home and realized we didn't get TP.
omfg.
*head->desk* *head->desk*
When we got it all loaded into the car, I sat there in a stupor. I couldn't believe how much it cost. I never do. This is why - I tell myself - people go shopping every week. It's ever so much easier to spend $100 once a week than $400 all at once.
#6 - The point of course is to get better food and eat better and not feel so bad all the time. I have no idea if the food I'm eating is causing it. I Really Don't. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Enough whining. I'm going to do an entirely different post on my new kitty. :D
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
happy
confused![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
loved
embarrassed
aggravated
refreshed
amused
blah
hot
accomplished