Boy, was the year of the pandemic an interesting one for me as far as my health goes.
Thankfully throughout that time, my migraines became less and less. Still, other issues started popping up, like a new diagnosis of Colitis. My heart conditions came back, and I discovered I even have some minor blockage due to scar tissue from a previous heart procedure. I had this awful fatigue that came on pretty much this time last year, but I didn't think to mention it to any of my doctors for a few months. Since my body had been through so much, I thought maybe it was that or even "silent migraines."
My neurologist thought it was a side effect of my migraine medication and prescribed me Cymbalta to boost energy. Although it was originally prescribed as an antidepressant, it is now used for nerve pain, and what else? Chronic Fatigue.
Sadly, that only worked for 3 days then the chronic fatigue prevailed.
My general practitioner said to give the Cymbalta a full 3 months to kick in, and if it weren't any better, we would do some lab work. Well, after a few months we get to the present, about 2 weeks ago. By now, I was not only needing to take 1 or 2 long naps during the day EVERY day, but I was having the worst night sweats, experiencing hair loss, extreme thirst, my internal thermometer got jacked up where I was hot ALL of the time, and I'd had several "episodes" of being out somewhere and breaking out into a sweat, getting discombobulated, and dying of hunger. To me, the episodes felt like low blood sugar, but everything else had me thinking, gulp...." the change," so we scheduled bloodwork on Thursday, May 27th.
A few hours later, I got a message from my doctor & a call from his nurse that I had a diabetic glucose level of 289 after 14 hours of fasting and needed to go to Urgent Care to get it down. By the time I arrived, it had gone up to 495. They put me on an IV to help bring it down, and over an hour later, it was still at 304. I was feeling better, but they wanted to send me to the ER if I wasn't. They reluctantly sent me home with a promise that if I started feeling poorly, I would go to the ER, which is easy to do since it's only a 1/2 mile from my house.
I received a call from my general practitioner with the official diagnosis of "Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) with Hyperglycemia". I started a new medicine Metformin and stayed on it for a few days, and starting checking my blood glucose levels at home. OUCH!
While my glucose numbers were reduced by 50% with the Metformin, after 5 days, they were still in the high 200's so my doctor added in Junovia, and fortunately, that combo is found in just 1 pill Junamet, a BIG pill! After just 1 dose of Junamet, my numbers were reduced to the low-high 100's! This is pretty much where all of my numbers are pre-food, and my doc thinks after changing my diet and adding exercise, I can get these numbers within the normal range, which is 70-100. So far, almost every reading post-food has been right on target, which is anything under 180.
So now I will be navigating my life with Type 2 Diabetes with Hyperglycemia.
If I didn't think eating as a vegetarian-migraineur with 3 heart conditions was hard enough, now I have to find a plan to eat as a diabetic-vegetarian-migraineur with 3 heart conditions, LOL!
Overall, I am doing well. I still struggle with the fatigue, but at least it isn't every day or as bad. I immediately changed my diet, and if you know me, you know I love sugar: candy, cupcakes, cake, pie, ice cream, ALL OF IT. However, I love my body and healthy life a LOT more and will continue to stay on track and hopefully get back to running as soon as I muster up some energy to do so.
I was fairly surprised at how quickly I could find healthy zero-low sugar and low-carb snacks and food. I will meet with a dietician soon to help even more and look forward to getting even healthier.
I'm mainly thankful to know why I've been struggling with these crazy symptoms. Luckily, the chronic fatigue and hair loss were NOT side effects from my migraine medication which is amazing because I was thinking of switching to another, less effective drug.
I will come back and periodically post new recipes to me; if you'd like that, you can comment below, and I'll do my best to comply!
I am also open to any recipes you may have; if you are also living with T2DM, just post them in the comments.
Thank you all and take care! Remember, if you feel unwell or experiencing any of the symtopms I mentioned above, please immediately contact your doctor or healthcare professional.