Diabetes anyone?

Hello to anyone who finds themselves reading this.  Todays post is not a rant about anything specific, just about life in general.

Its been a bit of a difficult month or so really, suffered an MS relapse, which meant I'd been struggling with everything for a few weeks before I eventually admitted defeat and asked for help.  As it gets worse and I struggle more I reach a point where I realise I can't carry on any longer and need to get treated, this came when I walked up the corridor at work and realised I couldn't feel the bottom half of my body at all, felt like I'd floated along.  My fatigue levels were through the roof too, was ready to drop by about 10am, amongst other things.  So like I say, I'd admitted defeat, and called the MS nurses.  They agreed that I could have the steroids orally this time instead of spending most of the week in the hospital getting them IV.  So I was able to work for a few extra days while they got into my system.  May have pushed it a bit too far though, as by lunchtime on one Wednesday I was on the verge of collapse, so I went home and have been off ever since, almost 4 weeks now.

The steroids don't like me very much, and I always react badly to them.  I had the usual swelling, end up like the Michelin Man, dizziness, and felt really really unwell.  For 3 days I couldn't even sit upright for more than a few minutes, just couldn't hold my own head up without support.  Went to the doctors and almost passed out in the waiting room, surprising how quickly the doc can see you when they fear you may make a mess on their floor! hehehe  So I spent the majority of about 5 days in bed, for the most part sleeping.  Then as the light began to appear at the end of the tunnel, and I was able to sit upright again, it was time for my monthly visit to the Day Unit for my Tysabri.

This was an eventful day to say the least, luckily my usual tysabri buddy was there to keep my spirits up, and the staff are lovely too.  They did the first test of the day, and the dipstick showed my glucose levels were off the scale, but we put it down to the recent steroids throwing things out so the support worker did a BM and nearly fell off her chair when it showed 23.8.  The doctor asked if I'd forgotten my insulin that morning, and how much jam I'd had on my toast, the entire pot!  They asked if I'm a known diabetic, so I told them I'm actually known for not being diabetic, and so it began.

There were blood tests, more BM's and the dreaded Arterial Blood Gases.  In a previous job in the emergency admissions unit I'd seen many ABG's done, and had an idea of how painful it was going to be, and boy was I not disappointed.  The doctor doing it said it might be a bit sore, I'm going to show her the difference between a bit sore and ABG's if I ever see her again.  Her first go missed, so she spent about 2-3 minutes digging around in my wrist for nothing.  Her second go was looking like it was heading the same way, until after several minutes of digging she found what she was looking for and got the blood.  I was very well behaved throughout, only cried a little bit and only swore in my head (a very lot), but it was one of the most painful things ever.  Nest time they say ABG I'll be the one thats just left the building!  When she finished the doc even had the cheek to say she was sweating, I told her she should be sat where I was!

She then came back to add insult to injury (there was injury I had massive black bruising) and said they would be admitting me to hospital.  I pointed out that this would not be necessary and eventually she came round to my way of thinking, after much begging.  The upshot was, after being seen by the diabetic registrar, that the steroids have done something to me and I am now diabetic.  So keeping everything crossed that it can be controlled by tablets.

Hows that for service though, good old NHS!  You go for one thing and they send you home the same day with diabetes to add to your repertoire!

Well this went in a totally different direction from the one I had in mind when I started - go figure.  So thats enough of my woes for now.  Hope you are having a good Sunday, or whatever other day it may be when you read this!

Take care

C x