The last time I updated y’all about my health issues was back in January, when I talked about starting to go to the pain management doctor, and starting to use the BiPap machine for sleep apnea. The BiPap machine has really helped me. I sleep better, if not a bit longer, since I don’t stop breathing 36 times an hour every night. As far as the pain management doctor goes, I think it was one of my best decisions in a long time. She has me off of percocet, which I was afraid I would be taking for the rest of my life. Now, I take Gabapentin three times a day, and hydrocodeon two times a day. That is instead of taking percocet five or six times a day. So that is a good thing.
The pain I was having in my abdomen has almost completely disappeared, but because I am no longer experiencing that, it allowed a pain in my side and back to be brought to the forefront. It is a continuous aching, sometimes throbbing pain in my right side, where my kidney is on that side. I mentioned it to my pain management doctor back in February, and she seemed to just brush it off, and sort of made me feel like she thought I was trying to get more pain meds. But believe me, that is not the case. I don’t want to be on so many pain meds that all I do is sleep all day.
So, when I went to my endocrinologist last month, they found a urinary tract infection. They called in an antibiotic for me, and referred me to a urologist. Yes, another doctor added to the roll. Before I get into the urologist stuff, I have to tell y’all that I have been having episodes of LOW blood sugar. I have been diabetic since 2001, and have never experienced low blood sugar until now. If you’ve followed me for some time, you will know that I went through some rough times of not being able to get my blood sugar down low enough, so this is a new thing for me.
The low blood sugar usually happens in the early morning. The cats wake me up around 5:30 every morning wanting to be fed. My routine is that I feed the cats, check my blood sugar, then wait for the cats to finish eating so I can let them outside. I can tell when my blood sugar is below 70 or so because I feel like I am going to fall down. My hands shake, and my heart beats at a very fast rate. I have a container of glucose tablets, so I take four, wait 15 minutes, and check my blood sugar again. There have been times when my BS is in the 50’s, and when that happens, I have to take 12 of the glucose tablets to get my sugar up high enough. That is pretty scary to me.
I went to the urologist three weeks ago. They took a urine sample and sent it to the lab. Then we talked a bit about my symptoms and why I was there. They scheduled a CT scan for a week later. Then yesterday I had my follow up appointment to discuss the results of the tests. They found no infection, and a large kidney stone that I have had for about twenty or so years was not anything that they would worry about. They did find a large cyst on my right kidney, but they also said that the cyst would not be something that would cause the pain I have been having. They want to take a closer look at it though, so they have scheduled me for an ultrasound next week.
I asked the doctor what they would do if there is a cyst, and she said they would only watch it to make sure it doesn’t get bigger. She also suggested that the pain I am experiencing is probably caused by muscle strain due to side and back muscles having to compensate for my lack of abdominal muscles. So, that is where I stand with my health right now. One more doctor added to the pile, with no answers to the questions I have about why I am still in pain five years after my surgery. I’ll try to catch you up after my ultrasound follow up appointment in two weeks.
