I'm Moving!

No, not I'm not packing up all my things and moving (yet), I'm moving my blog! The archives will stay up here indefinitely, so feel free to come on back to check anything you missed. In the meantime, please change your bookmarks and come see me at my new blog! Once there, please click on the penguin and he'll open the door for you. Please remember, it's a work in progress!

That insulin will sneak up on you when you least expect it...

I'd been doing so good with my hypoglycemia, and then it all came to a screeching halt. Generally remembering to take my glyset, and not eating too many things that would try to push me in the wrong direction. I got cocky. My blood sugar readings were good, and I let it go to my head. And then WHAM! It started out quietly enough, I was sitting here on the computer, playing around with this and that, reading a few blogs. And then I started to shake while I was talking to Hilary. And it didn't stop. Odd, I thought. And then, for whatever reason, it smacked me in the head like a bowling ball. Blood sugar. I grabbed my meter, and tried to make a turkey sandwich. Before I started to eat it, though, I took the minute and a half to check my sugar. 82. Almost as low as I went the day I was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia. Shit. So I started shoveling in sandwich. I was about 1/4 of the way through it when I realized that I was supposed to take my glucose tab before I started eating. D'oh! So, trying to jump over the cat, I grabbed a glucose tab off of my bedside cabinet. 15 minutes after testing the first time, I retested. 97. Hmmm. Grab another tablet... oooh, raspberry. Hey no fair, these ones don't even taste like raspberry! Eat some more sandwich, try to go through the sequence of events in my mind. Glucose + sandwich = higher blood sugar, equals crash again, equals roller coaster. Um, yeah, better take a glyset. Gotta love reactive hypoglycemia. And remind me not to get anymore of these raspberry glucose tabs. Yech.

What a pain in the... Hip!

Well, exactly one week before Christmas, we piled into the car yet again to head upstate to the Mayo Clinic, which is starting to feel a bit like my home away from home. (Even though it'd been a while since the last visit, I still remembered where the cafeteria is... and after a second, everything else, too.) I got to wait a decent amount of time before my xrays were done, and that was an experience in and of itself. The radiology department was absolutely packed with patients needing xrays and other scans, and everyone was surprised that it would be so crowded so close to the holidays. Maybe everyone made their appointments thinking that it would be empty around then? Once we got to Orthopaedics, we didn't even have time to sit down before they called me. After a few minutes of sitting we encountered Dr. Yue, who was the orthopaedic surgery fellow. He did a history and checked me out, and then went to talk to the doc. A few minutes later both of them were back. They poked, they prodded, they had me walk like a duck, they debated about what different problems could cause a pituitary adenoma. They confirmed that I have a labral tear in my right hip, and that my labrum is becoming detached from the bone in my left hip, although they don't know how long this has been going on. They poked and prodded and had me walk some more, and then they said the words that I hate to hear - this case has a different flavor from the typical labral tears. They weren't quite sure what to make of it. It actually got worse from there, though, because they declared me unfit for surgery, due to my hypermobility. In the words of the surgeon, 'someone is going to look at your hips and want to operate... don't let them, that's when you need to run like hell'. They told me to try PT to strengthen up everything around my hips, hoping that will lessen the pain some. I'm hoping that it will strengthen things up enough that they'll reconsider surgery. Because, as if my right hip wasn't enough, my left hip has started to join in on things. I guess it was feeling left out or something. And then they wrote me a script for 3 more months of happy pills, since the 2 months worth that I'd been given previously were all gone. I think that says it all to me, that they gave me that many for that long without a word. All because I'm too closely related to Gumby. *sigh*

Not much news

I haven't posted in a while, since I hurt my hip the beginning of the month and have been rather gimpy since. Yesterday I woke up and seem to have come down with the flu, so I spent most of my time since then sleeping. I'm finally starting to feel a bit better, so that's definitely a good thing in my book! Tomorrow I see Dr. Dhruv and get the results of my 3rd ACTH test - I actually had a dream about it last night, heh. I think I need some more dream fodder! All for now...

Bilateral atraumatic anterior dislocation

Aka, my hips suck. PT was chugging along just fine, until last week, when one of the releases that Lisa did to my knee made my hip pop out of the socket. It wasn't the first time, by any means, but it was the worst time. Normally when my hips pop out, I can pop them back into place by fiddling and wiggling around a bit. This time, none of my tricks were enough. Even Lisa had trouble getting it back into the socket. The results were nothing that I want to deal with. My hip has hurt like the dickens ever since. My knee hurt, because finally getting my hip back in place undid the release that she'd done on my knee (which was what dislocated my hip in the first place). Talk about a never ending circle. And my ankle decided to get in on the act too, because really, why not? My next day of PT, I started back at the very beginning. No leg press, no bicycle. Just easy releases and rubber bands to try to strengthen my ankle. All progress gone. Today was almost as bad. Once again I walked into PT limping because of my hip. I could feel that my knee and hip were swollen - and this in someone who, as a general rule, doesn't swell. Today, though, I could feel the fluid, feel the weight of everything in my joints, the shifting, the stiffness. More rubber bands, just a little bit on the leg press. Some easy releases. And then my hip dislocated again. Fortunately it went back in more easily this time. Unfortunately, everything is so inflamed already that the experience was more painful that usual. Try to do some releases on my hip. Tell me where it hurts the most - here, here, or here. I'm given a new point of reference for what a 10 on the pain scale means, I see stars, almost black out. That one! Final attempt, flip me over onto my stomach, check out my back. Pelvis is out of alignment, aha! Release here, release there. Not much improvement. Try one more release... *POP*! there goes the hip. Crap. Push this way, pull that way. *POP*! back into the socket. And with that one pop, my pelvis is back in alignment. Ice my ankle, ice my knee, ice my hip again. When do I see orthopaedics? The 24th... now I'm going for my knee and my hip. It was enough of a problem before, it's a big problem now. Lisa doesn't know what to make of it, normally hips dislocate posteriorly. Ten percent are anterior. And not atraumatic. Get ready to go to Mayo. Questions for the endocrinologist. Questions for infectious diseases. Will I end up seeing rheumatology? It's anyone's guess, the allergist seems to think so. He tested my lung function - it's at 65%. Lousy. Add another inhaler to the list of meds. Two puffs, twice a day. One by mouth, one by nose. Thank goodness it's working with the congestion. For the first time in months I can breath again. Appointments with the GP. Letters to get from endo. More time with Ortho, more PT appointments. More MRIs, most likely. Another trip to the allergist to get more allergy tests, and the results of the blood allergy tests. Time for my head to explode.

Bits and Blobs

Health updates, as they come rolling out of my brain and spill off my fingers and into the keyboard. PT is going about the same as PT always goes. The muscle release type stuff is really helping, and my flexibility has improved remarkably. Unfortunately, my knee is still giving me trouble, to the point where it is currently taped. I'm under 'orders' to see 'at least the GP' to get it checked out. Lisa suspects that when I hurt my ankle I also did something to my knee's meniscus. *groan* Self administered injections still suck. Bandaid shopping today was a bust, as I refuse to get plain bandaids and they only had Scooby Doo and Spongebob. Oh well. We'll see what they have at Walmart - last time I remember they had tons of varieties, so we'll have to look more closely.

3... 2... 1...

Well, yesterday was, as I told a friend, the first day of the rest of my life. Har. The nurse who was supposed to teach me to do my growth hormone injections came, and teaching commenced. She was friendly enough, but the idea of self-injections is never fun and most of the information that they have to cover is repetitive and pretty much self explanatory. Fortunately it doesn't look like it'll be too bad, and now the biggest part is figuring out how to keep the growth hormone cold when I travel. It has a very specific temperature range that it's supposed to stay within, and a lot of options don't get cold enough. We'll have to figure out what to do in case of a power outtage/hurricane etc too. Ugh. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot online about growth hormone and these topics, so I've been cheating and reading tips on storing a type of diabetes medication that happens to have the same temperature range. Fun stuff. I've been doing PT for my ankle, and Lisa (the physical therapist of the moment) has been doing a lot of tension release type things to my leg. It's really helping my ankle, though it's not nearly at 100%. Today she put me on the bike for the first time, only 10 minutes but I did .8 miles. I was shooting for a whole mile, but I just couldn't do it. I guess that's my goal for next time! I love the bike at PT, and I can't wait til I can ride my bike again. Too bad I'll have to put new tires on it beforehand. Oh well, it's been a long time since Brian and I would go work on our bikes in the garage. I'm sure I can manage it though! Wonder where my toolkit is? Hmmm... Okay, enough blathering from me. Anyone have any suggestions about what kind of bandaids I should get for my injections? Right now I'm using a shrek one. Maybe I should get little tattoo ones instead, and wear shorts and freak people out. Bwahahaha. *ahem* Well, toodles!

Home Again

Earlier than expected, too. You see, when someone tells Anne they will see her on Thursday, and the assumption all along was that she would likely have all her appts this week, etc, etc, etc.....the mind assumes that is what is going to happen. One does not think to look more closely at the appt print out page, and check the small print that shows the date of the appts. One sees Thursday, in big letters, and assumes this Thursday. So, I got up early, got a good start on loading the car, woke Anne, we ate and checked out, and drove to the Mayo Clinic, and went to the 2nd floor west wing for Anne's appt. To be told, your appt is in October. WHAT????? Took a look at the appt sheet, yep, 19 October. Geezzzzzzzz. We were so shocked, surprised and irritated, we weren't sure what to do. So, we stopped at the cafe and got Anne a drink, and we killed a little time. Then, off to the car and we headed home. Anyway, we will make a trip back to the Mayo in October, and see what they have to say. I hope they can actually tell her something constructive at that time. It is good to be home, in any case, and the kitties are really glad to have us back. Mickey is sitting on the computer desk, watching me type this. So sweet! I figure the trip back will be a piece of cake, since I sort of know my way around that area now. I am sure Anne will post soon and give her take on things.