Meet Trixy!

Meet Trixy. Our family cat, aka our furry faced baby.

I myself have always been the cat lover between the two of us. I have always grown up with cats, and brought two cats into the relationship when I met Vince. Years later, they both passed away from old age, and I decided I couldn’t live in an empty house and had to get another cat. Vince isn’t (or wasn’t ;) ) a cat person but he agreed the house felt empty after the two had died. So about two years ago we adopted Trixy. She was about 1 years old at the time. I would have liked to have gotten a kitten, but I know how silly and crazy kittens can be. I used my better judgment and knew the little claws would wreak havoc on Vince’s nerve damaged limbs. So I was looking for a young cat and came across Trixy. When we met her, she came onto my lap, and went right to sleep. I just knew she was the one. I looked at Vince and he said “okay” Again, he isn’t the cat person, it was me.

So now two years later, here we are. Vince stays home weekdays, while I am off at work. He has his little routine to keep himself occupied. Apparently, Trixy is part of his routine. She follows him from room to room, lays in “her spot” on the couch and watches tv with him, and even accompanies him to bed for his afternoon naps. They often even play during the day. She is the most playful adult cat I have ever seen. She loves to have her belly rubbed and will let Vince or I do this for as long as we will sit there and continue. One thing that clued me in to their new bond is the fact that she is so in tune with him. When he is having a bad pain day, she will sit next to him, and lick his hand and arm forever. Yes, she licks him for minutes, like 10 mins straight. She will lick my hand but only for a few seconds at a time. Not like him.

I am so glad he has her. They keep each other company during the day. I truly believe in the pet therapy that adult centers and hospitals use. I see firsthand how it helps to keep people going.

Is your Endo your family?

What a day. Vince has been sounding like he is wheezing in his breathing for a few weeks now, and we haven't really addressed it. I guess we have bigger things to worry about? I suppose so. 

Well today it really sounded bad so I took him to see our family doctor. This is one doctor that he doesn't see very often. He just goes to the office for his blood work and flu shots etc. We just figure, with the 6 specialists he sees frequently, there is no need to see the family doctor. Surely, one of these other guys would pick up on something that might be wrong, right? Well, apparently not. Our family doctor knows us pretty well, since I go there too. When she saw it was Vince as the patient she said, "my! Haven't seen you in about 3 years since you got sick with bronchitis" (btw that was a week before our wedding day lol) I spoke up and explained we actually didn't think it was necessary since he is constantly under a doctors care but she brought up a good point to that. A family doctor is someone that can take all of those doctors someone sees and be the "one in charge" and make sure nothing is missed in the patients care. This makes complete sense, I just never really thought about it. We always think of his Endo as his family doctor. He takes his blood pressure, put him on meds, checks his cholesterol, put him on meds, and checks his major organs. All of this every three months. This seems even more thorough than a family doctor visit would be. My question is for other Type 1's who see an Endocrinologist. Do you consider them your main doctor, your family doctor? And are they as thorough as ours?

So back to the breathing issue... Turns out yes, he was wheezing and also has post nasal drip so of course this means more meds. I am hoping however that maybe this is seasonal. Or if not maybe it will go away on it's own after it is under control. Vince hasn't had asthma in the past. Just some wheezing with a cold and such. So we will see. Until then, inhalers are added to the medicine drawer.

One great thing about going today is he found out that he lost some weight! Yay! Hope it continues since it may help the nerve pain a little bit. Not sure if it would but one can only
hope :)

Selective Hearing

I wanted to share a super short story with my DOC buddies and I completely forgot! I am not sure why this is, but when Vince's CGM beeps to alert him of one thing or another, he tends to tune it out. Probably because the darn thing beeps so much that we have named it "Mr. Beeps" yes we are big kids at heart. It could also be because its not very loud. I would like it to be able to be set at the "annoying alarm clock blaring at you as you jump up in bed when it goes off" level so we hear it more so we don't sleep through it. Anyway, when I normally hear Mr. beeps and I tell him "your beeping!!!" sometimes he heard it and already knows why he is beeping and other times he just didn't realize it. I have become very alert to it for obvious reasons. Gotta stay on top of this stuff :) So we went out to get lunch on Saturday afternoon and as Vince was waiting for the food, I went around the corner to get our drinks and find a table. As I am doing this I could have sworn I heard Mr. Beeps. I thought for a second and then realized there is no way I could have heard it. There were lots of kids running around and I was no where near Vince. So once he came over to the table and sat down, I said to him that I thought I heard him beeping but I was probably imagining it since I was too far away to hear it. He checked just in case and what do you know...he was in fact beeping. I have no clue how I heard this! I have actually been known to have bad hearing. I am the one that says "what" to you 10 times before I can figure out what your saying (annoying I know lololol) But apparently, I have trained my ears to listen for that sound at all times. It's amazing what you do without even realizing it. All in a day of being with a diabetic :)

It's ALL unpredictable...

So it seems, not only is Diabetes itself unpredictable, but so are medications. All medications have side effects but they don't always go away after while. I have said before how most of Vince's medications cause drowsiness. When it normally hits him, he will go lay down and take a nap and then once he wakes up, he is better and more alert. Mind you, he takes the same medications at the same time everyday. But for some reason the drowsiness hits him harder some days more than others. This evening is one of those days. I have no idea why this is, but he just can't keep his eyes open. While dinner was in the oven, he told me he needed a site change, or pump change as we call it. Of course I feel bad about it now, but I actually got annoyed. Not at him, just at the fact that it needed to be done right at dinner time. I asked him if it could wait until after dinner, but it couldn't. He only had 10 units left in the reservoir. So I got the supplies and did my part to set up the site as he took off the old one and prepared the pump for the new reservoir. In the midst of it all, I had to constantly wake him up because he kept falling asleep. Once the site change was done, we ate dinner. Well, at least he tried. I had to tell him to wake up about a dozen times. Then he finally said that he couldn't eat anymore because he didn't have an appetite. (another side effect he is struggling with) so now he had bolused for dinner and couldn't eat....great. So we agreed the best thing to do was a bowl of frozen yogurt to make up for the uneaten portion of dinner to be sure he covered his carbs he accounted for. As I am typing this he is starting to doze off again so I think it will be an early night to bed for him. Poor guy...

Why don't they GET IT?

How come no matter how much you try to explain, people just don't understand? They don't understand the BG checks at 2AM, the highs and pumping insulin into you through a machine desperately trying to get it down so you feel better, the extreme lows and horrible effects it has on the body, the eating when you don't want to, the 24/7 painful shocks in the limbs, living in fear of things that normal people don't even think twice about, and trying to just be happy all the while sitting home everyday because you can barely do anything anymore, let alone trying to work. It frustrates me that people can't understand this. I know it's hard to understand when you don't live it day to day but it still frustrates me. People just don't understand the effects that diabetes and other medications has on people. Some medications do things to you that you don't like, makes you act a little crazier and nuttier than you may normally act, but you know you have to stick it out because it is the only thing that is helping.

Well this is the story of my husbands life, starting a few years ago. Sure, people say they understand, but they don't. They don't understand my husband and they don't understand me. My fears and worries that I have for him. I guess I can't expect people to understand it, but part of me does. Part of me wants to scream to the world, our life sucks, but we make the best of it. We do as much as we can to keep a smile on our faces day after day no matter what is handed to us. I thank God everyday that we have each other. Sure my life would be very different if Vince were not in my life, but the same goes for him. We would be very different people if we didn't have each other. We are each others, other half. When one is pulled down, the other one can always pull them back up. I am so thankful for that.

I just wish people could understand us a little better, but I know that is not the reality of the Diabetic and Neuropathy world.