Do you know that feeling where your body is feeling stimulated and it wants to move, but you're feeling very spacey and internally fatigued to the point where it's hard to focus your vision on anything? Yeah, me too. I thought this was due to low blood sugar (because I can get hypoglycemic easily if I don't eat correctly,) but as it turns out, it's not. It makes sense, because when I'm actually low in blood sugar I have a whole host of other symptoms. My blood sugar can be over 120 and I still feel this way. I think it's my thyroid and adrenals actually causing this problem. That's another issue.
I finally bought a blood sugar monitor for home use. What I'm learning is that I start to get spacey, brain fogged, and extra fatigued when I'm below 95, either before or after eating a meal, but I can still use my body and function. I've tested around 80 when I've gone too long without food (meaning more than 2 hours), and I did feel drained and light headed during those times, to the point where it's hard to move if I want to. Most interestingly of all is the fact that I'm testing relatively highest first thing in the morning. My morning blood sugar has almost always been above 115, once it was 127! Mornings are the messiest time of day for me. I typically wake up feeling groggy, then once I'm fully awake I typically feel loaded with adrenaline. I'm guessing my cortisol is high, but I really need to get a 24 hour cortisol test done to confirm that. What I do know is that my blood sugar is highest during those times. An hour or so after breakfast is when my blood sugar drops. It's not a struggle to keep it above 100 through the day IF I eat meat every 2 hours. When I don't eat meat this often I tend to stay in the lower 90's, even if I eat every 2 hours. My doctor is right, again. (He's the one having me eat protein every 2 hours.)
The other interesting issue I have is that I have a very difficult time getting enough blood for the reading when my blood sugar is low. I can hold my hands under hot water, jump up and down, shake my arms, and rub my arms down into my hands. It's very difficult to get enough blood after lancing myself. When my blood sugar is above 100, it's not even half as difficult to get a good amount of blood.
Which meter did I buy? The best looking one on the shelf - I didn't really research it ahead of time. Let me tell you a quick story first:
I went out and finally bought the monitor based on a really scary situation I had a couple of weeks ago. I was PMSing like something terrible. My sugar craving was out of control. I ended up eating an entire bag of organic dried apple and bananas with cinnamon. In one sitting. It was about 50 mg of sugar in that bag. I haven't done anything like that in the last 3 years on this diet! I've splurged on 85% dark chocolate bars, but I think the caffeine affected me more than the sugar. This was the first time I've had this kind of binge on a high sugar food. I felt jittery and stimulated for about an hour and even had a headache some of that time. Then I sat down with my husband and started laughing about something with him. Mid laughing I crashed. HARD. All the energy drained from me, my right arm went completely numb and I couldn't move it, my heart started palpating down into my stomach, I couldn't see straight or focus on anything, and I started crying uncontrollably while struggling to take breaths. My husband thought I was having a stroke, and he told me I got very pale white. My husband gave me some apple juice. It did help. It took about 5 minutes to start improving, about 30 minutes to feel recovered enough to eat lots of jerky. My biggest problem is that eating sugar makes my blood sugar drop too much, and this case I ate wwwaaaayyyy too much sugar. This was definitely a hypoglycemic/ adrenal crash.
This scared me so much that I went to CVS the next chance I had to buy a glucose meter. After talking to the pharmacist and reading all the boxes, I decided on the CVS Advanced Glucose Meter. The reason is because the test strips are affordable. $12 for 50 and I can buy them without insurance. The pharmacist convinced me it's accurate enough and is easiest to use. I've never used a meter before, so I have nothing to compare it to outside of labs at the hospital.
What I like about this one:
-The fact that it tells me my blood sugar level at home.
-Easy to use, very intuitive
-Large memory bank for my readings
What I don't like about this one:
-I tend to go through about 5 strips before it gives me a reading and not an error message. Part of the problem is that I have a hard time getting enough blood to squeeze out of my fingers, and this meter doesn't need much blood. The main problem is that this machine is very finicky. I read some reviews on the machine and tons of people said that it's accurate enough and the strips are cheap, but they too gets lots of error messages. It's so much fun having to lance myself 3-5 times just to get one reading. Sigh.
-It doesn't come with the specific USB cable needed to upload my results to my computer. Not just any USB cable will work. I had to call CVS customer service, sit on hold for 20 minutes, and request they send me a free cable in the mail. No, you can't just go to CVS and get a cable. No, it doesn't come with the cable. You must call them and ask them to send it to you for free. I'm rolling my eyes about this.
-I question the results a little bit. I don't have confidence in its accuracy. The few times I've retested myself immediately after the first test I got a different reading, usually within 5 points of the first reading. That's not a big deal. Once I had a reading of 122, then when I retested I was 111. That big of a difference bothers me.
Anyway, I want to go take a nice hot bath now. :)
Monday, August 22, 2016
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Lesson Learned: Buying Used
I haven't been able to use my computer for about a week. Why? Because my husband bought me an amazing birthday present: a new computer desk! It's an L-shape desk with a hutch, meaning lots of desk space and storage space. The keyboard tray actually pulls out with ease and my fingers don't hit the bottom of the desk as I type! I can cross my legs under the keyboard tray too, because there's actually room to be a human being at this desk! (Can you tell my old desk drove me crazy?) I found this desk for sale and knew I wanted it at first sight. It was very reasonably priced too! But it's used. We bought it directly out of someone's house. I'm not being judgmental by saying this, just observant, but when I walked in the house the first thing I saw was a can of Clorox wipes and a carpet that hadn't been cleaned in years. I don't get around to vacuuming as often as I should either, so I do understand, but it should have been a red flag that this desk was going to make me sick.
I left the desk in the garage for 3 days to off gas and air out. My husband was even bothered by the smell of it at first, and he doesn't really notice smells. I wiped every part of it down in non-chlorine bleach (hydrogen peroxide) about 5 times. After 3 days it smelled a tiny bit, but it didn't seem bad. I really needed my parking spot back because storms were on their way. My father-in-law and husband brought it into my office and set it up for me. It took about an hour before I developed a headache in my office, and then the heartburn and muscle cramps. I knew there was a problem, but I was highly optimistic that with a few more days the desk would stop bothering me. I put lots of little bowls of baking soda all over the desk to absorb the smell and set up my HEPA air filter on full blast.
But that wasn't the only new piece of furniture we bought. Long story short, the only corner in my office where this desk doesn't cover a door or window isn't a true corner, it's got two corners and a diagonal wall. That left space between the desk and the other wall... enough space for a narrow table. So I looked online and found one that fits the space perfectly, then we went out and bought it from another person's house. It was affordable, in excellent condition, the right size, the right color, and the right sturdiness. His home was clean, but he was moving so everything was piled up. I couldn't really detect problems such as cleaners, fragrances, or smoke. We brought the shelf home and I stuck my nose into it in the garage. It had a mild old apartment smell, but after I washed it down with non-chlorine bleach I couldn't smell it anymore. I figured it was safe. Boy was I wrong! We brought it into my office, put it between the desk and the wall, and I set up my stuff on it. It looks and feels great! It's perfect! But the office smelled 2x worse and I was reacting pretty strongly to it for several days after the shelf got moved in. I still only smell the desk, not the shelf, but my reactions were made much worse after the shelf moved in.
I'm not this stupid. Really, I knew better. I was just very excited. I also believed that used had the potential to be safer than new due to the off gassing of formaldehyde from particle board. We couldn't afford a new desk that was made from better material, and the affordable glass desks were actually worse than I what I already had.
So for a full week now I've kept the windows open, my air filter on full blast with a new filter, my salt lamp on, lots of baking soda cups around the desk and shelf, and the door shut. I've left the office alone to detox for a full week.
I'm in the office right now. Without my Vog Mask it's tolerable, but still makes me mildly sick to my stomach with a mild headache after about 15 minutes. With my Vog Mask I've been in here for about an hour. I feel extra fatigued and have a general "gross" feeling on my skin, but the Vog Mask is helping quite a bit. I know I'm doing no favor to my health being in my office, but since it's finally tolerable, I want to use my computer!
If you have MCS you cannot be too careful.
I have a reasonable amount of hope that I can eventually use this desk safely. I think I might go buy some vodka and clean both the desk and the shelf with it. The non-chlorine bleach definitely helped, but vodka can annihilate certain chemical smells.
(Before buying the shelf that is now behind that file cabinet.)
I left the desk in the garage for 3 days to off gas and air out. My husband was even bothered by the smell of it at first, and he doesn't really notice smells. I wiped every part of it down in non-chlorine bleach (hydrogen peroxide) about 5 times. After 3 days it smelled a tiny bit, but it didn't seem bad. I really needed my parking spot back because storms were on their way. My father-in-law and husband brought it into my office and set it up for me. It took about an hour before I developed a headache in my office, and then the heartburn and muscle cramps. I knew there was a problem, but I was highly optimistic that with a few more days the desk would stop bothering me. I put lots of little bowls of baking soda all over the desk to absorb the smell and set up my HEPA air filter on full blast.
But that wasn't the only new piece of furniture we bought. Long story short, the only corner in my office where this desk doesn't cover a door or window isn't a true corner, it's got two corners and a diagonal wall. That left space between the desk and the other wall... enough space for a narrow table. So I looked online and found one that fits the space perfectly, then we went out and bought it from another person's house. It was affordable, in excellent condition, the right size, the right color, and the right sturdiness. His home was clean, but he was moving so everything was piled up. I couldn't really detect problems such as cleaners, fragrances, or smoke. We brought the shelf home and I stuck my nose into it in the garage. It had a mild old apartment smell, but after I washed it down with non-chlorine bleach I couldn't smell it anymore. I figured it was safe. Boy was I wrong! We brought it into my office, put it between the desk and the wall, and I set up my stuff on it. It looks and feels great! It's perfect! But the office smelled 2x worse and I was reacting pretty strongly to it for several days after the shelf got moved in. I still only smell the desk, not the shelf, but my reactions were made much worse after the shelf moved in.
I'm not this stupid. Really, I knew better. I was just very excited. I also believed that used had the potential to be safer than new due to the off gassing of formaldehyde from particle board. We couldn't afford a new desk that was made from better material, and the affordable glass desks were actually worse than I what I already had.
So for a full week now I've kept the windows open, my air filter on full blast with a new filter, my salt lamp on, lots of baking soda cups around the desk and shelf, and the door shut. I've left the office alone to detox for a full week.
I'm in the office right now. Without my Vog Mask it's tolerable, but still makes me mildly sick to my stomach with a mild headache after about 15 minutes. With my Vog Mask I've been in here for about an hour. I feel extra fatigued and have a general "gross" feeling on my skin, but the Vog Mask is helping quite a bit. I know I'm doing no favor to my health being in my office, but since it's finally tolerable, I want to use my computer!
If you have MCS you cannot be too careful.
I have a reasonable amount of hope that I can eventually use this desk safely. I think I might go buy some vodka and clean both the desk and the shelf with it. The non-chlorine bleach definitely helped, but vodka can annihilate certain chemical smells.
(Before buying the shelf that is now behind that file cabinet.)