My leukemia's back.

[Blooie]

Me too.

 

[donrae]

Thank you my friends. He was pretty much in shock when we went over last night. His mom was a hoarder/shack dweller type who lived in a totally unsafe structure. Now he's faced with the demo of the place, clean up, plus all the guilt of "should I have tried harder to get her to be safe?".....Poor guy.

 

[Bunnylady]

Rachel, I'm sorry for Gary -- you can't save people from themselves, no matter how much you care. I'll be praying for him.

 

[donrae]

Wow, long day in town today, but the weather here was wonderful! It was in the 70s, sunny and just beautiful. Driving around with the windows down, appreciating the short hair

Saw the pulmonologist this am and talked about the prednisone. My main question was, is it realistic to expect to get off the steroid altogether? Answer---not so much. He thinks I'll always be on a low dose, like 5-10 mg a day. Not really what I wanted to hear, but at least now I have realistic expectations.

Second question was, when I taper down and if I have a flare with my lungs, is that causing more damage or is it just a make me miserable thing? Is it a "suck it up and get through a week or so and my body will normalize and tolerate the lower dose?" again....nope. A flare is actually causing new damage to the airways he says. Goody.

On the good note, my spirometery was the best it's been since I've been seeing him. Still not great, but I'll take what I can get, right? He gave me some samples of Pulmicort, to add in as an additional inhaled steroid to the Advair once my prednisone gets down to 10mg a day. I like the idea of the inhaled meds better, but I understand the prednisone is not just working on my lungs right now, it's holding the gvh in check all over the body.

Sugars are improving a little. Under 300 all day today--baby steps! and no episodes of low sugar, so that's a good thing. Being home alone that's kind of concerning for me, especially being new to the insulin again. Once I have a better handle on how it works with me, I'll be a little more assertive about dropping the numbers down. But at this level, I had no headache or blurry vision today, so I'm much happier!

Another good note--I have another new layer! I guess I lost track of how old some of my barred Rock pullets are, I thought they were still a month out. Found a nice little light brown pullet egg in their pen today, and when I let them out to free range with the main flock (working on integrating), Eric courted and mated her. I'm excited because she and the other two Rocks will be Eric's ladies for black sex links later this spring, his little harem

 

[lazy gardener]

Rachel, you are wise to take it slow on bringing your BS into check. Better to bring it down gradually than to take more insulin, drop rapidly and get into a low. Are you recognizing the signs of a low? You might want to keep some glucose tabs in your pocket for now. That way, if you do get into a low, and your brain gets fuzzy, you'll have them handy, instead of having to process. "I think my BS is low. But... what to eat, and I need to get to the kitchen." I've seen my hubby standing in the kitchen with a dazed look on his face, in the middle of a low. He knew he needed to get to food, but was unable to process from there. And sometimes when he's in the middle of something, he'll know that a low is coming on, but not take steps to correct... just need to "get that thing done first." I still, after all of these years need to remind him to turn his pump off if he's doing any physical labor. He calls me the "Diabetic Police". So be it! I'm a nasty cop when I need to be!

 

[Bunnylady]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1080666/well-my-wife-passed-away

Hey, guys, I'm asking for your prayers for my friend Spook. This is a man who pretty much lives and breathes the connections to family and community, but during the last few years, he has lost so many family members that meant so much to him. The hammer blows keep falling; this last is the cruelest of all.

 

[N F C]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1080666/well-my-wife-passed-away

Hey, guys, I'm asking for your prayers for my friend Spook. This is a man who pretty much lives and breathes the connections to family and community, but during the last few years, he has lost so many family members that meant so much to him. The hammer blows keep falling; this last is the cruelest of all.

Bunny, I just finished reading it right before seeing your post. What a terrible loss.

 

[sourland]

I can not imagine the devastation of Spook's loss.

 

[Bunnylady]

I know no words can really soothe that kind of pain, but I am absolute cr*p when it comes to finding the "right thing" to say.

 

[donrae]

Lg, thanks for the advice, I forget you live with a diabetic

I got the handy dandy cartoon printout of low sugar symptoms on the fridge and reviewed it with the boys. I have the glucogon injection in case of extreme low sugar, and went over how to use it with them, as well as how to check my sugar with the meter. We had a whole little diabetes 101 class in the kitchen

.

I hadn't thought about carrying something on me, I'll look into that. I'm not doing enough physical labor to reduce my sugar that much, but it's good to Be Prepared!

167 this morning! I think the bigger dose of metformin is causing some gi issues, though. I may have to split that dose up to twice a day instead of once.




As for spook----I simply can't fathom. I mean, all us married folks know one of us has to go first, but......