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Recovering
16 October 2017, 21:42,
#1
Recovering
I have had quite the adventure for the past few months.

Back in June I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. It was a sudden onset since my checkup 6 months earlier had been clear of any difficulties.

My blood sugar was not just a bit high, I was extremely high and well over the danger threshold. You folks use a different system that we do but we can just say that the blood sugar was 5x over normal.

Type 2 diabetes is not something you catch, or something you cause. It is a condition where the liver and pancreas quite working together. Insulin is still being produced, but the body rejects the insulin, which makes the blood sugar go up.

The results can be devastating; kidney failure, liver failure, escalated incidence of heart attack, elevated cholesterol, damage to circulation resulting in amputation of limbs is common as well as decreased resistance to infections.

I lost my first wife to type 1 diabetes complications many decades ago and my sudden diagnosis scared the crap out of me! I went on a strict zero sugar/low carb diet and began a cardio workout program.

I was not "over the top" with my weight but I was overweight at 240 pounds and 5'10". The diet and workout program has helped me drop a few pounds and more will follow.

More importantly my blood sugar is back to the normal range and my cholesterol is back under control.

The return to near normalcy was just in time to go through a procedure for removal of a cataract in my left eye. I had the right eye done 8 years ago and the left was overdue. I have been recovering from that procedure for a week.

Not really recovering one might say, just taking it easy. The procedure was a painless 10 minute process with sleeping with a patch over the eye for one night the greatest inconvenience. Eye drops three times daily are a follow up some folks do not like, but that part I do not mind. Put the drops in, close your eyes and take a little nap!

All this, from a prepper point of view, could be seen as preventive maintenance, especially the eye. I can now see better than I have since I was 20!

The diabetes means there is one more medication I must stock up on ASAP. At this point they are keeping me on a 30 day supply, which I feel is very restrictive. I need to figure out a way to secure my 6 month supply as I do with my other life sustaining meds. That might be a slight problem since my normal script writer has retired.
__________
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16 October 2017, 23:14,
#2
RE: Recovering
I have been type two for fifteen years....and same here MB 30 day supply for all my meds ...but i am going to have a meeting with the pharmacist to discuss having a six month supply....at present here in WALES these meds are FREE ....i expect to pay for an increase in supply ....which is fine , i will ring for a appointment shortly.
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17 October 2017, 14:27,
#3
RE: Recovering
I can get a three month supply just by asking. No problem there since it is not a narcotic or "controlled substance.

It is the other 90 day supply I have to wrangle. I have done it in the past by having a friend that can write script give me a second prescription which I fill at a different pharmacy. I can then run on the 90 day to 90 days supply w/backup. I know that at any point I have a 4-6 month backup.

It is not illegal, just something the doctors will not do since they want to do blood work and a check up on regular intervals. I have friends in the missionary fields that carry a one year supply when they travel to Africa or South America.

Some of my meds are also free, some are at a very reasonable rate of $12 U.S. for 90 day supply. None that I take are extremely expensive in spite of what you hear, see, and read in the tabloids about American health care. My regular Dr. visits and lab work is also free.

Specialist trips get pricey, so I try to keep them to a minimum. This cataract procedure I just had will cost me $75 "co-pay" plus the special meds which were $100. The remainder of the cost is covered by the government funded old folks insurance.

I figure $175 for a new eye is reasonable, and I have known it was needed for over a year. I will just have to live for another year or two so it will become cost effective.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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17 October 2017, 16:44,
#4
RE: Recovering
Sorry to hear that. I know you will get your 6 months supply.

I have been reading up about making my own and there are ways to do it. Must be worth a look.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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17 October 2017, 20:40,
#5
RE: Recovering
Depends on what one is attempting to make on a do-it-yourself basis.

So far I have not seen reference to any kitchen table recipes for metformin for the insulin reduction, statins for cholesterol, or blood pressure controls that actually work consistently and reliably.

No controlling the diet will not do the job, I am beyond that vegan diet curing all my ills, as are many in my age group.

Those three medications are the primary reasons that life expectancy is longer now than it was if you were born in 1900.

In a true SHTF world I would have been dead at age 54 from a massive heart attack that was treated as a routine procedure in a modern medical facility.

Same for the diabetes I now face. I have watched the death process and I do not intend to go through it myself. I will take my pills and leave the back room pharmacy to those that are more adventurous than myself. The safety range of normal blood sugar is too narrow for taking that risk. The two slices of bread on a sandwich will throw my numbers off for two days when on the meds, and I was 5x the safe limit without meds.

Three years after my heart attack my cardiologist congratulated me for being one of the few that lived that long after a major episode. He told me that most of his patients left his care against recommendations, refused to take their meds, refused to quit smoking and failed to follow any aftercare recommendations. He told me that 90% of them had a second heart attack within three years and were dead within five years.

I am 13 years down the road from the heart attack now, and I do not begrudge taking a 7 pills each morning and 5 each night at a total cost of about $1 per day so I can continue being the cranky old man I have become.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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17 October 2017, 21:09,
#6
RE: Recovering
so I can continue being the cranky old man I have become.

NO NEVER !.....you sweet ole thang !
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18 October 2017, 10:52,
#7
RE: Recovering
and long may you be that way.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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18 October 2017, 17:00,
#8
RE: Recovering
OH!

I have ideas and opinions I do not even pretend to express on here, believe it or not.

Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, why the very idea of someone doubting their existence or demeaning their value to society!

Selective censorship of literature! Not on my watch! Even if George Eliot was a deceptive radical and from the use of the name a suspected transgender person her works should remain in circulation!

Over crowding in the prisons?? Not a problem. Give each of them a zombie killer blade confiscated from an average citizen trying to slip on onto an airplane and tell them there is only enough lunch for one person, then come back an hour latter and tell the survivor you ate his lunch.

I do hope you realize I am kidding. At least on part of the above. I will leave it to the individual to decide which parts I am kidding about.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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18 October 2017, 20:25,
#9
RE: Recovering
Easter Bunny is alive and well. The rest I'm not sure about I suspect they don't exist.

I was with you up to the joking part then finished disappointed. I'm hoping you were kidding about Father Christmas.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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1 November 2017, 21:16,
#10
RE: Recovering
I reached a milestone today. This morning when I did my blood sugar test I was below the cutoff limit for a normal rating.

It has taken four months to reach this goal. I was inside the safe zone within 72 hours of starting the program but it has taken me this long to reach my goal of normal blood sugar.

I am still on the diabetes meds, and that may continue for some time, or forever, but that is not a trouble to me, I take other daily meds so this is simply one more pill. But I may be able to stop that pill if I lose more weight and the blood sugar keeps going down. I can not let it get too low just as it should not get too high.

Part of this may be due to my loss of some weight. A stone and 3/4 by your measures. 10K by other measures or 25 pounds give or take.

I am also cycling for 6-8 miles daily. I just worked it out while on the bike putting in my time for today and in the past 4 months I have biked roughly 750 miles.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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