February 17, 2009

Balance

I was really looking forward to attending the Bariatric Support group steering committee meeting last night.
Unfortunately, I ended up in the hospital over the weekend.
I was walking on Saturday morning about an hour after breakfast. it was a nice day, with little wind, and I was feeling good.
I got chugging along and was thinking about what i was going to do with the rest of my life when all of a sudden, I ran out of gas. I had walked about 1 and a quarter miles at that point. I came to a dead stop because my arms and legs stopped working.
I looked up and saw a man and woman walking a dog coming towards me, and I decided I didn't have the energy to talk to them or interact with the dog, so I turned around right there and started slowly walking back towards home.
I managed to walk about a quarter mile slowly, very slowly, to a guard rail where I could sit down and rest. I sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. My mind was a bit mushy, and I felt disconnected to the world, but I was able to reason things out.
I hate to admit when I am really sick, so I had a tough time trying to figure out if this was real, or I was just watching too much TV.
I decided this was real, so I got out my blue tooth and had to toss an imaginary coin to see if I should call my wife who was still sleeping, or 911. The emergency service won and I punched the number into my new phone.
Before I had done this, I remembered to look at the street signs to know where I was. I can't imagine trying to explain to someone where I was when I didn't know the street name.
I spoke to the operator who stayed on the line with me until the ambulance arrived, preceded by the local police. They did a quick assessment and decided I should take a ride to the hospital.
The paramedic gave me some liquid sugar in a tube, and I began to feel a bit better. I didn't make the connection to low blood sugar until two days later, however.
I spent all day Saturday in the ER, and they then transferred me to a room. I didn't get to eat anything until 8 that night, so I was fasting from 7 in the morning. That's no fun at all! Not my choice, they just never got around to feeding me. I had one cup of water and a bag of D5W.
They did tests on me all three days. I had brain scans, Cat Scans, Dog scans, ultrasounds (I'm not pregnant!), and they also took 10 tubes of blood during my stay.
They did sugar level tests and my fingers feel like pin cushions!
All circulation tests came out just fine, and that is a relief. My heart and arteries are fine.
My blood sugar got low again on Monday and they managed to do a test to monitor it and figure out the problem. It's not diabetes.
It's just my body adjusting to the loss of weight. I burn too many calories because the body is used to having 89 more pounds on it.
So now, I have to carry some sugar around with me, and monitor my blood sugar levels with a thingy that poke holes in my body, mostly fingers.
...................But, I'm feeling much better now!

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