Three month test results

Doing the happy dance here!!!

You should extend your right arm out in front of you, bend it at the elbow and reach around and give yourself a big pat on the back! You done good!

Now if you can just hold the line on these numbers you will probably be healthy as a horse and outlive us all!

Great job!

Thanks Jeannie and fergusc. I was aiming for the 5's in the A1C and still aiming! What else can I do ti get it down? I am trying to get off the prednisone and that should really lower it quite a bit I think. I just can't find a doctor to help get off the pred while lowering the lantus so I don't crash. Still looking for an endo as my internest doesn't feel comfortable doing it. I do it myself if I knew how much to lower the meds together. Medical care here is so poor and I have great insurance. I can't fathom what people do without insurance.

Question: The crestor is eating away my muscles so dr. changed to lipitor. I think I can do it with eating. Is this safe to try? Dr. will check in a month to see if it happening with the lipitor but I don't need any more muscle loss. Still dropping weight fast, 5 pounds at a time. If the lipitor is still eating my muscles, dr. has no choice but to take me off. Also, I was very sick when the first test were done so they were bound to be bad, right?? Otherwise my levels there were always low. It seems once they put you on a med, they never want to take you off. I am on $3500 a month in drugs and want to get off some of these. Thanks for making me feel not so very alone with this disease:) Any advice is so appreciated:)

Ceebee, I hope you can find another doctor!  It seems you're on several medications and maybe you need to be re-evaluated?! 

Hi:) A lot of my meds are for allergies and asthma. I think I could do with less but no doctor wants to take me off. They keep putting me on pred and yanking me off and it was a cycle. Now I am on 20mg for the past three months. I will try lowering it the 5 mg at a time and see if that is the answer. I see a new lung doc next week so we will see. I also am making an appointment with a new endo. Finding good doctors is the trick:)

Congrats on the numbers Ceebee!

about the meds--you can get off them--I did. Years ago I took prednisone for asthma and aldactone for hormone imbalance.  The prednisone saw my bs increase and the aldactone caused a dramatic rise in cholesterol and triglycerides (from 106 to over 300).  It took a bunch of years but eventually I was able to get off the prednisone.  I found certain berries (Blueberry) really helped with my asthma (still don't know why).  So, I only use the prednisone now when I have an upper respiratory infection.  As of the cholesterol meds--I found that the after getting off the aldactone the numbers didn't quite come back down to under 200.  Instead they hovered around 250 while on the cholesterol meds and I was getting a lot of muscle cramps.  So, with my doctor's permission I stopped taking the meds for a month and then had my cholesterol checked.  It was down to 195, at the end of 3 months it was 106 and at the end of 1 year the numbers were 165.  They have stayed between 150 and 195 ever since.  It was 3 years ago that I quit taking them.  My liver enzymes have been normal since quitting them.  The only thing I did was watch the amount of fried foods and trans fats that I consumed.

So--if I can do it, I'm pretty certain you can do it.  But, like you said, the trick is finding a doctor who will work with you on this and is open to trying things.  I was lucky in the the doctor I had at the time was open to herbal approaches and trying to get off meds--its too bad he left practice to go back home.

Let us know how it goes.

Marburg

ceebee said...
Thanks Jeannie and fergusc. I was aiming for the 5's in the A1C and still aiming! What else can I do ti get it down? I am trying to get off the prednisone and that should really lower it quite a bit I think. I just can't find a doctor to help get off the pred while lowering the lantus so I don't crash. Still looking for an endo as my internest doesn't feel comfortable doing it. I do it myself if I knew how much to lower the meds together. Medical care here is so poor and I have great insurance. I can't fathom what people do without insurance.

Question: The crestor is eating away my muscles so dr. changed to lipitor. I think I can do it with eating. Is this safe to try? Dr. will check in a month to see if it happening with the lipitor but I don't need any more muscle loss. Still dropping weight fast, 5 pounds at a time. If the lipitor is still eating my muscles, dr. has no choice but to take me off. Also, I was very sick when the first test were done so they were bound to be bad, right?? Otherwise my levels there were always low. It seems once they put you on a med, they never want to take you off. I am on $3500 a month in drugs and want to get off some of these. Thanks for making me feel not so very alone with this disease:) Any advice is so appreciated:)

Ceebee, I'm not sure if you are trying to lose weight but I thought I'd pass this along about weight and blood pressure.  I was very overweight at one time.  My blood pressure raised to about your level.  I was put on diuretics and that really helped.  Then, when I moved, my new doctor gave me Accupril 10 mg.  It's a blood pressure med.  He said I was spilling a little protein in my urine and this would help prevent me from ever being on dialysis since it takes the protein out of the system.  I did as he said.  I continued to lose weight.

 

After losing about 60 pounds, I started having problems with digestion and kept getting partial bowel obstructions and being hospitalized.  I was not given medication in the hospital and, when they sent me home they told me to continue all medication.  I'd get sick almost immediately!  I was getting short of breath, dizzy, I could barely eat anything without having a blockage. 

 

During a check-up, my blood pressure was 60/32!  They couldn't believe that I was walking.  They told me to stop the diuretic and I'd be fine, but that wasn't so.  While reaching for a pan under my cabinet, I nearly passed out and, when I stood up I literally couldn't breath!  I knew it was my blood pressure and stopped my pills and called my doctor the next day, since it was a Sunday.  When I saw him, my blood pressure was 117/60 and has remained like that for over two years with no medication!  (He thinks that the combination of diuretics and blood pressure pills slowed everything down, including my organs.  It's rare but can happen.  It slowed down my bowels to the poiint of getting frequent bowel obstructions.) 

 

So, the reason for this long story is to say, be careful about blood pressure pills if you are losing weight.  I'm glad to see that you have a blood pressure monitor.  I didn't, at the time but I have one now.  I had always heard that once you had to take blood pressure pills, you had to take them the rest of your life.  This obviously isn't true.  So, please be vigilent.  I don't want anyone going through what I did.  I could have died.

 

P.S.  By losing weight, my diabetes is better and I'm not spilling protein anymore. 

 

Sherrine

Ceebee, I think maybe you should drink more water, if you aren't already.  That helps keep things moving better.  Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the symptoms of fibromyalgia.  I'm putting a link for you to read about it.  This is from the National Institute of Health.  Hope this helps.  If  you have more questions, pop over to the fibro forum and I'll help you there.   

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/ibs/#symptoms

Sherrine

LOL Jeannie:) I am glad you told me that because no doctor did. I guess it is fortunate I can't tolerate any fruit and keep my bg low. I am just wondering what other important facts the doctors forgot to mention? I appreciate all the help I get here:)

ceebee,
I know you want off the pred but you need to go slower then you are talking about. Once you get to 5mg's you really need to do 4 for a week 3... etc. Also at least tell your doctor you are doing this even if you don't plan on asking his opinion. Adrenal insufficiency is very dangerous and even more so if you have diabetes.
Please be careful.

Ceebee, are the 5 mg tablets scored so that you can cut them in half?  If so, I'd take one 10 mg tablet and 1/2 of a five mg tablet.  (That would be equivilent to 12 1/2 mg.)  See if that works.  If it does, then drop down to the 10 mg tablets.  After that take a 5 mg and 1/2 of another 5 mg.  (That would be equivelent to 7 1/2 mg.)  Then progress to one 5 mg tablet and lastly down to 1/2 of a five mg tablet. See what I mean?  If you are concerned, call you doctor and ask how you should wean yourself off.  You need instructions.  Besides, Ceebee, that's what you are paying them for...advice!

 

Sherrine

Ceebee, A very belated "Way to go, girl!" You are really doing an awesome job. I am needing inspiration to get back on track and this is wonderful inspiration. You keep up the good work.