Chh chhh changes

Over the last two weeks, I've had to drastically change my diet. Everything "white" is out, since if I am going to eat carbs, they need to be higher value. Whole grain breads, whole wheat pasta, brown rice. The brown rice by the way, is a major learning curve, and we're still learning.

Even my coffee habit has changed. I've gone from at least two quad shot flavored lattes a day to one cup of regular coffee with sweetener and sugar free creamer first thing and a second half regular half decaf cup later in the day.

And I actually eat lunch when I come home for lunch, instead of just drinking coffee. It's only a container of fat free, sugar free Greek yogurt (protein, fiber and minimal carbs all in one go, without having to mess with chia seeds or oats at night).

Obviously, the biggest adjustment has been the sugar-free thing. I like my sweets. Despite the fact that sweeteners are better now, there's still an obvious taste difference. And at the moment because my sugars are up and down like a fiddler's elbow, I can't even eat fruit to get my sweet fix. Life is spent balancing good carbs versus bad carbs, and protein. And eating salad. Lots of salad. Some day, I may be able to indulge every once in a while, but that's not going to be today.

So, I will get my steps in at work, and once my treadmill gets here Friday, walk on it every evening after dinner (when my blood sugar tends to spike the worst), and hopefully wrestle my cholesterol and sugars down to acceptable. The good news is my blood pressure is already down to acceptable, thanks to meds.

Life can change in an instant

Life is already upside down, thanks to the Coronavirus, but now it's even weirder.

On Wednesday, April 29, I started having a tightness in my chest. I was getting a bit freaked out, thinking I might have Corona. I went in the bath, thinking the steam might help. Instead it made things even more uncomfortable with an odd pain in my jaw. I quickly got out, one leg shaved, one not.

I got some sleep and next morning I felt fine, until I got in the shower. Then the pain came back. I got the second leg shaved and got the heck out. After sitting a bit, things were better, so I went to work. After being at work for a while I knew something was wrong. The tightness wasn't going away, and now my head hurt too. So I told my boss I had a killer headache and went home.

At home, the pain continued and I was having horrid cold sweats and feeling so rotten I couldn't even type in my info to make a virtual urgent care appointment and had to drag my daughter out of bed to do it for me.

Long story short (too late!), the PA told me to go to the ER immediately.

Turns out, I was having a heart attack. I also had a blood sugar reading in the 400s! So, two stents later and a bunch of new meds, I am home. I'm officially diabetic, taking blood sugar readings before every meal and injecting insulin. And because I have heart disease, I'm also taking meds to lower my cholesterol and blood pressure, along with baby aspirin and another med to keep the stents open. The aspirin will be something I will take for the rest of my life.

The ultimate goal is to control everything else with diet eventually, along with Metformin to get me off injected insulin eventually. I started that last night and this morning I was soooo close to having a "normal" sugar reading! So hopefully, that's the start of something good.

I've met with multiple cardiologists, have a new primary care doc and a pharmacist working with her to keep my meds straight. I go in for blood work May 12, "meet" with my cardiologist on the 13th for a follow up, and then my PCP on the 28th. Somewhere in there, they'll hopefully let me go back to work.

So this blog is pretty much going to be health related instead of craft related, if only to let me get my thoughts down and out.