Managing to Manage Your Health
Joy tested Paul's blood sugar yesterday about 45 minutes or so after he ate lunch. It was 209. An hour or so later it was 159. She didn't seem too alarmed by that.
Yesterday evening at Wal-Mart we met a nurse from our clinic and Paul was telling her about his levels, and she said he should go immediately today and see the doctor. He said he is going to call and let him know and that this was Dr. Garner's recommendation that he have this done after a meal. We want to be clear that all this is doctor's orders and that we're not trying to manage his own health concerns; or are we? We should be, it seems to me.
Bren said diabetes manifests differently in different people. It took the doctors 2 years to discover she has diabetes, after foot pain and irreversible neuropathy. She asked what Paul's A1C test showed and I said he had never had one. (Dr. Beaton hasn't done one because the office [fasting] tests have been around 120-123.) Also he has never had the glucose test, where he would have to drink the sugary sweet stuff and have the analysis.
I know doctors have to proceed with what they know, and that they first do no harm, that they don't just right off the bat start with medication or insulin. But now with his glucose levels as high as they have been, and they are not like 500 or 800!, I think it warrants a much closer monitoring. Bren said her endocrinologist told her that any time your blood sugar is over 120 it is doing some kind of damage somewhere in your body.
This has been the focus of our thoughts these last few weeks and it makes me, at least, so aware of what is important. Because of some health issues of my own (reflux), I had been sleeping in Amy's room for some time and the head of the bed is raised up several inches. But I had gone back to "our" bed because I just wanted to be close to Paul, in spite of radio noises all through the night. (This is a lifetime habit of his: listening to the radio All Night Long.) And the mattress on the queen size bed is so much more comfortable, even though both beds have pillow top mattresses. But lately I've noticed I've been coughing more and sucking on the Hall's Defense lozenges more. And maybe it's allergies; I haven't been using the Flonase as much lately. But last night Paul said there was no need making myself sick by sleeping with him (that sounds funny!) and so I went back to Amy's room. I didn't sleep as well, even without the radio noise. The bed isn't as comfortable, and there's just something about being beside Paul. This arrangement works okay; I mean, I hate to ask him to sleep at a slant, too. It does take some getting used to.
Oscar found me this morning. He had a little trouble a few weeks ago, locating me in the front bedroom and Paul said he came back in there this morning looking for me, 'cause that's where I've been. But he found me in the back bedroom and I helped him up onto the bed. He can't jump up on that bed as easily as the front one. He's a good little bedfellow and that's a comfort, but he gets right in the middle of the bed. So I guess no matter who you sleep with, you have to make adjustments.
It's what you have to do to manage your health.
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