Health Matters

Some have called January 23 the "saddest day of the year," what with the psychological effects of shortened days and all that. Indeed, last year on this date we lost Johnny Carson. However, the 1/23's of my life over the past five years have been anywhere from neutral to excellent days (it was 1/23/01 when Ian first asked me to be the SM for Poona). This year's 1/23 falls nearer to the latter category. In short:

6.1

That number, my friends, is my current A1c level. A1c will mean nothing to most of you. It is, however, one of the most important numbers in my life. Basically, the A1c is a measurement of blood glucose levels over a roughly three-month period. The goal that type 2 diabetics are told to strive toward is getting that number under 7.

To give you some perspective, my A1c level the day I was admitted to the hospital last year was over 15, more than twice what non-diabetic levels are. A1c tests don't even work above values of 18. The A1c of 15 means that for the three months leading up to my stroke, I had an average blood glucose (BG) level of between 270 and 300. Non-diabetics seldomly get above 130, and are normally between 80 and 105. (Some more perspective: when I was admitted, my very first BG reading was 460.) My current A1c level corresponds to a 90-day BG average of about 120.

My doctor, who was somewhat astounded to hear of my experience at Veselka back in November (chronicled here) was thrilled with the A1c result. I was ecstatic, to the point of pumping my fist in the air in celebration.

This is not the end of the story. It's just the beginning. I can't write the rest. The rest of the story comes in the next decades, as I continue to find that balance of loving food (which I do) and enjoying the right kinds of food (which I'm doing).

Part 2 of this entry comes as yet another confirmation of several things I've come to accept as true over the past six months:
1) My family doctor, who I valued so much for 20 years, has fallen into incompetency or, at the very least, a dangerous complacency.
2) My old GP actually was a quack.
3) I continue to receive the best health care of my life in my socialized-medicine environment.

The reason I went to see the doc today was because the problem I've had with my left arm four times over the past two years (two of which are chronicled here and here) started recurring last Thursday. The lifespan of this thing has become predictable: Three days of increasing amounts of pain, followed by four to six days of unbearable pain, sleeplessness, inability to move and a humongous dose of crankiness. So, when I realized that the cycle was starting up again, I made the doctor's appointment.

When I went in to see her last December, I let her know that we were in the Season of Sasquatch (what I've come to call this affliction, for lack of a better term), and she indicated that should it reoccur to get to her quickly and we'd set up surgery consults and get the core of the infection removed.

It was progressing over the weekend more or less as expected. However, last night I was somewhat surprised that I still had some mobility in my arm (usually by Day 4, that's not the case). This morning when I woke up (Sleeping through the night on Day 5? How odd.) it didn't feel any worse than it did the night before.

Goldie gave me a prescription of antibiotics, which she told me not to fill unless and until it got worse. She gave me a referral to the surgeon, whom she said not to see if it didn't get worse. She is of the very firm opinion that this Sasquatch thing has been a complication relating to my DM (physician shorthand for type 2 diabetes), and now that it is under control for the moment, the severity of this complication is likely to become lower or possibly disappear entirely.

For the moment, I still have some pain, especially when I try to move my arm too much. The next 48 hours are going to be very telling, and are something of a cliffhanger for me: Will Sasquatch Return?
More later....

The fact that I'm not in excruciating pain when I fully expected to be, and the 6.1 thing both have made this particular 1/23 one of the better ones. Hey, you take the good news when you can, right?