More Changes....

I'm home for the break in the middle of working the 12-hour split shift. It could be worse. It could have been a 16-hour split shift, but my boss thought that would be too much for me, so we compromised at 12. It works. I did go back to bed this morning and sleep a bit later today in preparation for being up all night. The coffee is brewing, and I'm cooking up some rice and gravy for the dog. The cats' portion will have some tuna added to it.

I cook food for them every week or so since the revelation of the tainted pet food a few months back. I need to cook for them more consistently. I have found several free recipes for food and treats on the internet.

I need to begin cooking for myself more consistently, too. Things have been changing. Before bed tomorrow, I have to get scheduled in to see my doctor this week.

Quitting smoking has now become an earnest endeavor. My blood pressure hasn't been spiking up as badly as it was a couple of months ago, but it's time to quit nonetheless. The boyfriend absolutely despises the fact that I smoke. For him, it's a combination of health and cultural factors. For me, it's something that I know I need to do, and why I ever started again.... UGH!!

The changes I've been wanting to make in my diet have been put into place out of necessity. So, I figured since I was having to take the drastic plunge in the "lifestyle modification zone" I may as just go all the way and quit smoking now as well.

When my feet swelled mysteriously a few weeks back, I received several cuts and bruises in addition to the blisters. I noticed that it seemed to be taking quite a long time for the cuts to heal. I have been feeling generally crappy. Nothing specific stands out symptom-wise other than serious cravings for sweets and having headaches. As I routinely take naproxen or ibuprofen, the headaches really weren't noticeable unless it was first thing in the morning or if I missed a dose of medication. About two weeks ago, I became seriously hypoglycemic at work. (Low blood sugar.) I ate carbs for two-and-a-half hours straight to get my blood sugar to a normal level.

I do not eat regular meals. I eat one meal a day and maybe an occasional snack. As I've had a few hypoglycemic episodes over the years, I didn't think much of it except the extreme that it took to get my blood sugar to a normal level.

I began checking my blood sugar routinely over the next several days. If I ate frequently (every 3 or 4 hours) and ate mainly proteins and complex carbs, my blood sugars would stay stable and normal. Good sign. As the test, I ate a bowl of sweetened breakfast cereal. Within 30 minutes, my blood sugar skyrocketed and I had the miserable headache and the general malaise that I had noticed plaguing me over the last few weeks. The problem, my blood sugar did not come down to a normal range. It was still elevated 4 1/2 hours after eating. The test is that it should drop to a normal range within 2 hours after eating. I don't know how long it remained elevated. I didn't check it again after that.

It would seem that genetics, both my father and maternal grandmother were diabetic, and the regimen of medications that I've taken over the years (multiple years of high dose steroid therapy) have finally exacted a toll.

When I did the low-carb diet last year for weight loss, it was with the knowledge that I would some day have to make this type of diet permanent due to the familial history of diabetes. It would seem that time has arrived.

However, being the noncompliant miserable patient that we nurses make... LOL
I didn't eat a snack when I got home last night. And, I didn't eat this morning when I was up before going back to bed. When I arrived at work at 2:30 this afternoon, I attacked the donuts and took two Excedrin to deal with the headache that I knew would ensue. When my boss had told me that he was bringing donuts to work, I had made a sarcastic comment about not being able to eat them. He said sure I could. I would just need to take 6 or 7 units of insulin or some glucophage or something.... omg! Nurses are the worst! ROFLMTCFAO The Excedrin worked pretty well and when the headache hit, I only felt a bit of a dull ache. My blood sugar stayed high, but I did eat a small bit of fish and some asparagus in order to prevent the total crash that would happen when my blood sugar did finally drop.

"That guy" does not know about this most recent development yet. He will if he reads this entry before I get around to telling him.... As much as I do not want to have this particular conversation with him, it would go much better hearing it from me rather than reading it on the internet... He is very laid-back, but when he is pressed or convicted about something, his resolve is firm and not to be swayed. That is a good trait to have in being able to deal with my choleric, bossy, Type A personality.

So, between trying to quit smoking and cut excess carbohydrates and caffeine from my diet, I've been feeling a bit "out of phase" these last few days. As I told my boss, I feel like someone unscrewed my head, filled it with rocks, and when they went to screw it back on, got it cross-threaded. omg! What a miserable few days this has been! It will pass, and my hope is that it passes quickly. Nothing like lifestyle changes to the extreme!

Time to get ready to go back to work.

More stuff later when I become cognizant... which should be no later than Tuesday or Wednesday.