Real-People Sick

I’d meant to do a light and fun post this past Friday, breaking up the deeper thought-provoking posts from earlier in the week. But apparently, there was a different plan in place for me.

“Real person sick” was the new adventure to navigate.

The week after Thanksgiving, Suzi came down with a stomach bug. Our friendly primary care physician designated it as “The Flu.” Despite all the cautionary warnings to do the opposite, we haven’t had flu shots in a few years. No consequences. Apparently, this year was the hiccup when the flu came calling. She came down with it, and it lasted a few days before she was finally back and work and in good form again.

We thought I’d avoided it.

Last Thursday proved us wrong, and I got a “healthy” dose of being “real-person sick” in a way that was, for me, a first in several years. Not the respiratory kind of ill.

Anyhow, it wasn’t a pleasant day. A very busy and hectic work day was derailed and I also had cancel a much-anticipated JDRF Outreach meetings that morning. Wasn’t even able to work from home, as I’m typically able to do. Nope. Spent most of the day in bed, tossing and turning and eventually battling a fever that went up to 100.  The same routine mostly on Saturday, though I did improve as the day went on. Not eating anything made me weak, and even more restless.

Then there was essentially two days of not eating regular food, only grape Gatorade and regular 7up. Toast and soup the following day seemed to be OK, and some chicken and a biscuit on Sunday night about took me over the edge.

A fun ride, indeed.

But even as the “real-person sick” subsided, the diabetes front was having a ball causing chaos.

Not being able to keep any food down, Suzi threatened to drag me to the ER if it got to the point where I wasn't able to eat after two days. Being stubborn, I eventually made it happen and we avoided that scenario.

You’d think I’d be battling Lows, since it’s hard to stay High when you don’t have the energy or interest in eating anything. But no, the illness kept me elevated mostly through Friday and the weekend in the mid to high 200s, sometimes a tad higher. Even with “rage blousing” and increased basal, the numbers wouldn’t drop.

Through all of this, my Dexcom plugged along like a champ. When the sickness struck, that was day 21 of my first sensor. And it kept going all day, through Saturday, and even through Sunday pretty darn accurately. In the end, we lasted 23 days together until Sunday even when I VOLUNTARILY decided to remove the arm sensor for a “free” shower.

My pump site was another story. It was time to change my site on Friday, yet I just didn’t have the energy to do that over the weekend and on Saturday night I just disconnected completely. Went most of the day, and into Sunday afternoon, on only multiple daily injections of Humalog. At times, my sugars went into the 300s and I couldn’t tell whether the feeling in my gut was “d-related” or “real person sick” related.

Frustrating feeling, indeed.

Lessons:

• You know you’re sick when you don’t feel well enough for Twitter updates.
• Flu shots might still be a crap shoot, but they also might be justified.
• Drinking grape Gatorade and regular 7up just doesn’t "feel right." Actually, it feels like I'm committing a crime.
• The dog is very sad when I’m sick. The cat could care less, and seemed bothered that I was invading her "alone time."
• My wife rules and takes excellent care of me.. and there’s just no way to express how awesome she is.
• Even when you’re really sick, missing a day at work puts you behind. Immensely.
• I’ve had no coffee or Diet Coke since Thursday… this is either really depressing, or the start of something important. To Be Determined.