Drink, Drank, Drunk

When I was diagnosed as a Type II Diabetic, most people asked if I noticed any of the classic symptoms, such as constant thirst. I cannot say that I did because I am a drinker. I constantly have a cup of fluid with me to keep my palette wet.

I am a drinker and, therefore, yes, it does get ugly quick when it involves alcohol. But that's not what we are here to talk about. Let's talk about (non-alcoholic induced) dehydration.

According to the Mayo Clinic

Dehydration occurs when you lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn't have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions. If you don't replace lost fluids, you may get dehydrated.

Dehydration can surprise you if you are not staying aware. Take for instance Awesome Cheryl during our last training ride in L'ville. The day wasn't even extremely warm, but she soon found herself experiencing the first stages of dehydrating: discolored urine, little sweating, slight headache and chills. After drinking more water, most of her symptoms subsided, but in order to catch it quickly you need to be aware of the symptoms:

• Dry, sticky mouth
• Feeling of sluggishness, tired
• Thirst
• Decreased urine
• Few or no tears when crying
• Headache
• Constipation
• Dizziness or lightheadedness

Symptoms of severe dehydration which required medical attention ASAP:

• Extreme thirst
• Extreme fussiness or irritability, sleepiness
• Very dry mouth
• Lack of sweating
• Little or no urination - urine may be dark yellow or amber
• Sunken eyes
• Skin loses elasticity, or doesn't bounce back after pinching
• Low Blood pressure
• Rapid heart beat
• Rapid breathing
• No tears when crying
• Fever

Last weekend when Cheryl & I were coming home from L'ville, I received a text from my dear husband saying he needed to talk to me about his heart rate during his run which got up to 230-240. 

SAY WHAT???

Just as I am someone who constantly has an ice cold something-something next to me, my dear hubby is my polar opposite. He can go all day long without drinking more than 16 ounces of fluid. When I asked him how much he had to drink that day, he said he had been working in the garage all day cleaning it out and drank one glass of tea with lunch. Oh my gosh. How can he drink so little????

Obviously, I was very concerned. I asked him to call our doctor on Monday and see about talking to him about the situation. Jeff's dad had a heart attack at the age of 50. Jeff is now 44. His maximum heart rate should be about 176 (220 minus age). 

Naturally, the doctor agreed that 240 was extremely high and was concerned. Jeff went through an EKG and chest x-ray that day and they found nothing. The next day he went in for a stress test. With dye injected into his veins, he ran on the treadmill for 15 minutes at 20% include, speed of 5.5. Unfortunately, they could not recreate the problem. I naturally assumed the problem was resolved because he was now properly hydrated. After receiving the all clear from the doctor, Jeff resumed running Monday night only to have his heart rate hit 230 again after running for 20 minutes. 

Could he still be dehydrated? Did he previously experience heat exhaustion which is now causing him to become easily dehydrated? Once again, we are calling the doctor to see what our next steps are. 

Punching Bag

Here I am. Looking like my husband is using me as a punching bag. Good Lord. (sigh)

I'm feeling frustrated and anxious about doing Ironman 70.3 Muncie this weekend. I hope my body doesn't react even worse to the activity this weekend. My personal prescription for the week has been rest. However, if the swelling around my eyes doesn't get better by tomorrow,I will be calling Dr. S again begging for more drugs!

Giving you the Stink Eye

As soon as I got off the bike in Louisville on Saturday, I started feeling the itch, but I initially thought it was just my imagination. By the time I woke up Sunday morning, there was no denying it. The hives were back. I spent Sunday and most of Monday downing Benadryl every four hours. Unfortunately, the medicine only seemed to work for about two and then they were back.

My Stink Eye

After several phone calls back and forth, my doctor prescribed an over the counter Zantac 150 two times a day and a much more powerful prescription for me to take before bedtime. The nurse gave me full warning to only take the prescription before bed because "it will knock you out".

I started my first Zantac in the afternoon prior to teaching my three classes for the evening: Zumba, Body Flow and Body Pump. When I finished Zumba, one of my class participants told me I should go home and put an ice compress on my eye before it swells shut. Oh, yes! There is nothing quite like scaring your class participants!

I did teach my other two classes, but came directly home to take my medicine and go to bed. I set my alarm for 5:30 am hoping I could get up and get a run in; however, when my alarm went off, I could barely open my left. Cursing silently, I got up to get a cold wash cloth to put over my eye and went back to bed.

Yesterday while waiting for my doctor to call me back, I did what every red blooded American does when they are curious about a medical condition. I googled "heat exercise hives" and discovered an article on Wikipedia for Cholinergic Urticaria. Now I'm not saying this is what is happening to me, but it sure does feel familiar. The two times I've broken out in hives have been immediately following 7+ hours of biking on a hot summer day.

When I think about it, I have had a spot on the back of my left thigh for the last two summers which breaks out. I've always thought it had to do with the sweat and sitting on vinyl chairs. I've just treated it with Cortaid and have been able to continue with my day, but now I wonder if that was the beginning of my issue.

It does worry me that my body is reacting in this way. Tell me exactly how I'm supposed to train for an Ironman in August without sweating. For now, my plan is rest. I am supposed to be racing in Ironman 70.3 Muncie on Saturday. I'm hoping to rest and let the medicine do its work before race day. Let's just hope the full effect of the antihistamines kicks in and I don't end up with hives next weekend as well.

Allergic to heat?

After a tough day of training yesterday in Louisville, I woke up this morning to a special surprise.

What the heck???

HIVES

They are back. What the heck? Two days off of prednisone and I'm breaking out again only worse. So far it's mainly on my legs.

Yesterday during my ride in Louisville, I used a new spray suntan lotion by Neutrogena and I still broke out. I doubt it's the suntan lotion.

My dear, sweet husband ran to Wal-Mart and picked up Benadryl for me. I'm hoping it does that trick; otherwise, I'll be calling my doctor to see what else we can do other than prednisone.

Could it just be a reaction to the heat? If so, that is going to make this a long, itchy summer.

A Day in Therapy

Yep, I spent the day in therapy today, physical therapy that is. After an all clear on my x-ray, I went in for an MRI on my right hip. Wow. My first MRI was quite an experience. I watched a DVD on Ireland which was not really all that interesting, but it kept my mind distracted from moving around inside the huge capsule. Naturally, I was very anxious to hear what they had to say. 


Nothing. 
Absolutely nothing showed on the MRI.
Except...some ovarian cysts which I need to have looked at. 
BEAUTIFUL!
I wasn't really looking for a reason to see ANOTHER doctor. Ins addition, they referred me to the physical therapy department to see if they could identify anything with my stride. YaY! I was so excited to have someone watch my body mechanics. 


I met Doug, the physical therapist. He asked me about my pain, which seemed rather lame. Not Doug, but my description of the pain. Does it hurt here? No. Does it hurt now? No. What about this? Uh-huh. Lame I tell you. I felt guilty that I didn't respond with a rapid YES and sweat pouring over my brow, but I knew my body is talking to me and I knew it was time to listen. 


He had me lie back on the table and moved around my left kneecap. It floated around rather nicely. He moved my right kneecap. OK, so maybe he TRIED to move my right kneecap. It wasn't exactly cooperating.  After going through numerous push and pull exercises on my legs and ankles, he had me lay down on the table while he stood down by my feet pulling them up toward his chest, jiggling them around as if they were a long rope you were trying to untwist. He had me look at my shoes while still remaining supine. 


Hmmm, my right leg looked 1.5 inches shorter than my left. He had me sit up. Interestingly enough, my right leg extended and looked 1.5 inches LONGER than my left. Lie back - short. Sit up - long. 


Before we go any further, let's state the obvious. The human body is fascinating! Did I ever tell you that I considered going to school for physical therapy, but chickened out after volunteering at a hospital and discovering I didn't like old people? And (true story here) did I tell you I considered a career in genealogy in the mid-1990s? And what would I do then but talk to the old people that I now loved and revered? I am quite the contradiction.


Anywho - back to the story. When do I feel pain? 

• When I run: It can be quite sharp, but mainly it surprises me when it jolts me out of my runner's high
• For a few days after my run: Not sharp, but I can feel the muscle which I didn't previously even know existed.
• When I push off my right food to stand
• When I do lunges - That's when I feel it over my knee cap. 
• At the beginning of Body Flow when my muscles are not warmed and we are doing shifting weight from side to side. 

Doug prescribed ultrasound for my knee, hip and ilium crest. Ha! I knew what that term was when he mentioned it! He also gave me some lateral movement exercises as well as some simple step up exercises. Some of them I can even do in the kitchen while making dinner!

I go back on the 21st. We'll see if I'm reporting any progress by then. At that time, Doug said he might ask me to run on the treadmill or outside so he can watch my stride closely. Of course, I'm hoping that with these exercises I will become less and less aware of these strange leg muscles and they will blend back into the background with the rest of my aging body and just let me get out on the road and run. 

Little Blood Sucker

The phone call came while I was sitting at work. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer the call, but when I check my messages here are the magic words I heard:

Mrs. Leber, this is Kim. We'd like to have you come to the office on Wednesday, September 8th at 9:30 am to put you on the constant glucose monitor. Please let me know if that works for you.

It's Time to Celebrate!

It's time to celebrate. Beginning next Wednesday for 3 days, I will know what my body is doing at all times - every 5 minutes - with the sugar in my system. When I eat. When I sleep. When I run, bike and swim or when I lay around like my naturally lazy self would like to do at all times. I'm so excited to see what will be happening with my body that I will be working out pretty hard over those three days. I'm planning a log run Wednesday night, a swim Thursday morning and a Body Flow class Thursday night, and a bike ride on Friday. This kind of stuff actually gets me excited. To see the inner workings of my body and understand this great creation that God has given me. The body is a complicated mass of various systems which must work together to help keep you healthy & happy. Who really understands how the body works? Not me. I thought I did until I started learning more about these disease that I have inherited from the last 4 generations of the Moore-Cronister line. Yah, thanks Great-Great-Grandpa from Ireland. Love your heritage. Not your genetics. 

Following Doctor's Orders

Since I've begun the Week of the Guinea Pig, errr, maybe that should be MONTH of the Guinea Pig, I've had a little heart to heart with myself. I says to myself, "SELF, you need a doctor you can count on. A doctor you can have a conversation with." Now it's not that I didn't like my previous doctor, or even that I thought he was incompetent. Heck no! I liked Dr. L and felt quite confident that he was going to help me figure out what the heck my body was doing and why, but I've always had a problem with authority figures.

I was a good little Midwestern girl brought up by parents who taught their children not to question authority. When an authoritative figure tells you something, you shut up, listen and do as told. Dr. L is definitely an authority figure as he is 10-15 years older than I am. I need to find someone I could talk to as a friend, someone I could trust, someone I could question without feeling as if I was disobeying. So I thought to myself, "SELF, who do you know that could meet all of your requirements?"...and I could only come up with one answer, my dear friend Dr. S. The good doc is a friend of mine. I scrapbook with his wife. We raise our kids together in our nice little town. We even vacation together.

So when I called the good doc's office last week and they told me they couldn't get me in to see  him until November I asked them to look again for a special "friends only" appointment. They found a time for me at 8:20 a.m. which is perfect for me to drop off my kids at school and head to his office.

Constant Glucose Monitor

My meeting with the good doc went well  just as I expected. We talked a lot about my blood sugars and why they go up when I run longer distances. Dr. S wanted to run some more blood test to see if I had insulin in my system causing me to be insulin resistant and to see what level of insulin my pancreas was producing. Dr. S was also hoping to get me approved for a constant glucose monitor. His office has a grant to do a study on insulin dependent using a constant glucose monitor. Dr. S calls it a "tick", but it reminds me of a leech. They attach a flat circular object to your abdomen which will take my blood sugar level every five minutes. Of course, I'm not insulin dependent. There's the rub. I guess you've got to be really sick before you can benefit from the miracle of modern medicine. However, Dr. S is hoping someone will take an interest in my case. How often do you have a Type 2 diabetic who runs miles and miles at a time? I can only hope that someone will want to study my internal organs to figure out what the heck is going on in there when I head out for a long run.

One Touch Ultra

In the meantime, I plan on having my blood drawn early next week for a c-peptide and CBC panel while I wait for that phone call to get a leech attached to my body. I am continuing to take my blood sugars first thing in the morning, before and after one meal and after exercise. After purchasing new test strips earlier this week, I'm not sure I can continue to test that often. The test strips and lancets alone will break the Leber bank! Hopefully, we will start to get some answers and I will be able to test a little less frequently once I understand my triggers.

What are you doing this week to be a proactive advocate for your own health?