Friday, September 18, 2009

Not at all!


Hah! I don't have diabetes at all. It was all a huge mistake due to the wrong settings of my glucose meter and the test strips that were past their use by date. I tested myself at home this afternoon before I went to the GP's office and our glucose values were quite a bit different, where I tested high and they tested low, so they told me to take the meter to the medical supplier and have it tested, which I did, and it turned out that all the settings were wrong and that the strips were no good anymore. Once the problem was fixed, we could look in the memory and see that now all the values were normal and that I don't have diabetes again at all, which means freedom for me.

Freedom from having to go on a special diet and freedom from having to keep checking my glucose levels and freedom from having to take another medicine, or worse, shoot insulin. Yippee!

So, I have no idea why I am thirsty all the time and why I have to go to the toilet so much, well yes, because I drink so many fluids, and I think my eyes are just bothering me because I wasn't wearing my glasses, so now I'm wearing my glasses all the time, except when I do things up close. I can't wear them then, because I don't see anything when I do. It may be the medication that's making me so thirsty and maybe I've been thirsty all along, but I was drinking so much coffee that I didn't realize it. Everything can be explained away, thank God.

Nobody notices when I wear my glasses. I don't think it makes a difference whether I have them on or not. To them I'm just regular old me, the same as always. I guess people look at the essence of you and not at the details. The overall picture is recognizable as you and that's all that counts.

Lord, I'm so glad that I don't have diabetes. It's like a weight has fallen off my shoulders. This is definitely reason to celebrate. I'll have to think of something special to do or eat. If I put my mind to it, I'm sure I'll come up with something. Of course, it can't be anything big or bulky, it has to be semi fluid and easy to eat. Maybe some soup will do. Tomato soup.

I worked on my second painting this morning and it is as good as finished, I just have to add a few finishing touches to it that will be a few minutes work. I couldn't finish it today, because I had to wait for the paint to dry. I sat and watched paint dry and then decided to go home early, because there is nothing less sensible to do than watch paint dry. It's like watching snails travel across a brick path. You don't do it for entertainment. It dulls your mind very quickly. It's like watching Jesker sleep, except that I feel some endearment when I do, but it does get boring.

At our coffee break, I couldn't find my lighter and sat there with a cigarette in my mouth and no light. There was no one out there with a light for me, so I had to track down a lighter somewhere, but everybody seemed to have disappeared into the woodworks. There was nobody there, but I finally found a lighter at the least likely of places, with my ergo therapist who does not smoke, but who happened to have a lighter in her desk drawer. Great relief for me and many thanks to my ergo therapist who gave it to me gracefully and didn't say that I had to quit smoking. At least I was spared that well meaning speech. It does nobody any good and just gets my hackles up. I should stand outside fast food restaurants and badger people who go in and out and also take up post outside the butcher's and the liquor store.

Don't get me started, once I get going I'll be picketing cars with single drivers in them who clog up all the roads leading into and through town every day, who pollute the air so badly that the traffic crossing close to here is the worst one in the region for very unhealthy air to inhale. That's where I stand with my bike waiting for the light to change to green. It's part of the Route du Soleil, de way to France and Spain for everybody who is in search of the sun. And all the trucks that transport goods to the north and to the south. End of tantrum.

I called my aunt this afternoon who lives in Flushing (Vlissingen). That's where the sea outside the dikes is higher than the land behind it. I haven't been to visit her in a long time. It's been at least six years and she only lives two hours away by car. Of course, I don't have a car, but still, I should go there some day. She is my favorite aunt and we can talk about anything when it is just the two of us, but when we talk on the phone, her husband is often around and that cramps our style. We need to have a girl's talk, just the two of us. So, I need to go see her, just like I need to go see my older sister and never get around to that. One day...

So far I've found four large hairy spiders in the apartment and I've drowned one of them, the cats got two of them and the other one escaped. More will show up, I'm sure of it. It is a test of my bravery.

Well, that is it for today. You all have a lovely day and don't do anything I woudn't do. That leaves you with a lot of choices.

Ciao,
Nora.

9 comments:

Babaloo said...

Phew, so relieved it was only a technical problem and not diabetes!!!

Maybe it is the medication that makes you so thirsty, who knows. Are you really drinking that much? If it stays that way, maybe check it out with your GP. I have no idea what other conditions (other than diabetes) could cause excessive thirst but there probably are some and it's worth getting that checked out.

Have a lovely Friday afternoon/evening, relieved now as you are of those worries!

xx

Friend of the Bear said...

Hi Nora. So glad it was a mix up.

Medications require fluids to wash the by products of them out of your system, so that could be the cause. ALso some meds cause a dry mouth which can also contribute. I still think pure juice is a bad idea because of the high sugar content. Ooops! Hope that didn't get your hackles up. Won't mention it again. Promise.

There must be a lot of spiders in my place this year as I keep finding strings of web every so often. Rarely had that before. Have only actually seen two so far though. They're successfully hiding from me.

When I see one I get them onto a piece of card and chuck them out the window onto the roof. And hope they don't crawl back in again, silly things.

Have a lovely evening.

Best wishes,
Bearfriend xx

lebanesa said...

Glad to hear that is sorted out.
It did sound a bit unlikely that you had a recurrence of the diabetes and no other side effects. I am glad it was a machine malfunction and not diabetes or your imagination. A relief all round.
It is true that you do need to take plenty of fluids, Nora, as you take quite a lot of meds and they have to flush through as Friend of the Bear says, also you are unable to eat a lot due to your gastric band, so the fluids are one way of keeping everything going.
Yippee you
hugs
xxx

Maggie May said...

I am SO PLEASED that you don't have diabetes, Nora. Really pleased. You have enough to cope with.

I wonder if you are eating too much salt? Hidden in all sorts of foods? I am reading a lot about manufacturers putting too much salt in everything & of course that makes you thirsty. Could be the drugs as well.

Oh Nora, I am so pleased with your news! X

Gail said...

Are those pigs just for me? Thanks.

So funny...my WV is promeat!!!!

Gail said...

I was so excited about the pigs and the WV, I forgot to celebrate your good news...how wonderful that worry is gone!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad that you don't have diabetes after all! As you say, that means freedom from a lot of necessary little tasks and constraints. And I'm sure that you'll soon figure out the causes of your other symptoms (the thirst, for example) in your usual logical way.

Jeannette StG said...

So glad -you must be relieved not to have diabetes!!!
Hey, I'm interested to see your painting whenever it's finished:)
My goodness Irene, Vlissingen is one of the cities/towns I frequently visited in my teen years: Vlissingen, in Middelburg I went to 5th and 6th grade, and I lived in Goes for a number of years - what a small world!

John M. Mora said...

good news...nora