Melody,

Seems to me that at least a private taxi would be better, or better yet, an ambulette considering the procedure. How much is an ambulette? How far of a ride is it? Would you be willing to take donations? You've helped so many on this board.....we could all donate via paypal? If you think it's a good idea, count me in.

Ann

--at various times and under various circumstances. While the home blood sugar devices are not as accurate as tests done through labs, at leat you can get rough estimates, and notice any big discrepancies.

It's always possible, you know, that the 38 reading was a lab error. These do happen, and sometimes a future repetition of a test shows a more "normal" reading.

As far as Alan's spinal tap, I'm sure the doctors will want to err ont eh side of caution, meaning he will probably be monitored and allowed to lie there as long as they and both of you feel is necessary. When I had mine done, I lay still for about four hours on my back (watching TV--fortunately, I had lots of cartoons ) until I hd to get up and go to the bathroom, but I did not get a headache. (This was when I was an inpatient in SI University Hosptial in 2003, a month into my saga, getting oodles of tests performed.)

Generally, what docs look for are signs of autoimmune disease, so such as protein banding that might represent a breakdown of myelin. They will also look for excess blood cells in the fluid, or any signs of infection. Normal spinal fluid is crystal clear, cloudy fluid is suspicious. (They found absolutely nothing amiss in mine, so even a normal results doesn't necessarily rule out problems.)

You have to have made the most generous offer I have ever heard. You see, when you've had stuff happen to you and you lose trust in people and you just go along your merry way, living your life and just being glad to get up in the morning, and then some stranger comes along and offers a helping hand, well all I can say is (and you should have seen Alan's face when I told him). I can only say a resounding Thank You.

I could never accept donations. Maybe it's the italian blood or stupid pride or whatever and actually, I never thought we'd be in this position but we were talking last night about getting an ambulette. I think they run about $80 one way. So we go to the bank, take out the money and he's safe.

We have learned to live frugally and have gotten used to it. It would be nice if instead of giving aid to Africa and Iraq, our government put a little more money in a disability check every month, but hey, we're alive and Alan is doing yoga.

So believe me, when I say thank you, I mean thank you.

You are an


Mel

Here's Alan's results from last night till this morning.

After eating dinner, I took his sugar at 10 p.m., it was 95.

He had one of those 100 calorie snack bags at 11:30 pm. Ate nothing from 11:30 pm till I took his sugar this morning.

Just took his sugar at 8:30 a.m. this morning and it was 79.

Now we will eat breakfast and I'll take it again two hours later.

How's he doing so far??
mel

As long as you feed Alan that diet, which is heart healthy and
similar to that which is used to control diabetes, you are not going to
see the same blood sugar fluctuations you had reported on the test.

That test administered glucose--- to see how it was absorbed and
metabolized.

When your diet has low glycemic carbs, and protein, these are metabolized slowly, to glucose in the body and wide fluctuations are less common.

If you want to see if you can duplicate the very low reading (assuming that low reading was not an error), you need to give Alan a sugar challenge, and test for 5 hours on a fast. The next best test is after the workout, before he eats
anything.

You can use glucose tablets for the challenge (glucose is best because it requires no metabolic change--other sugars have to be changed in the body to glucose and that takes TIME). Here is a website that gives estimated elevations for certain doses. You can call the lab and find out if Alan had a 50gm solution or 100 gram solution for his test.
http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_..._treatment.php

This quote is to raise extremely low blood sugars for diabetics. But the information can pertain to helping you test at home.
Since Alan does not show the typical low blood sugar responses your
job is more difficult.
reasons for this:
1) autonomic neuropathy which blocks the symptoms
2) poor adrenal function (blunts symptom response to lows)
3) poor nutrient absorption (sugar poorly absorbed from GI tract)
4) adequate protein which blunts the sugar response
5) since lots of time has passed, he may be ignoring or not sensing
symptoms
6) he is not able to communicate body impressions well
7) poor glycogen stores
8) he has felt this way for so long he has no other memory of feeling differently!

Since he has had the neuropathy for YEARS as you state, it is not inconceivable that he has some autonomic issues.

I used to have fasting sugars of 70 commonly, when my thyroid was hypo.
I used to feel awful too, when I had to fast for tests. When this was finally
found on a radio-uptake test (technicium scan) (my serum values were not that illustrative),
and I was put on thyroid hormone, my fasting sugars went to 90 and I could do the fasting tests without discomfort. It was a small thing, and the doctor overlooked the low values as "good" instead of wondering why it was so low and looking for a reason. I was like that for 15 yrs! And angry when it was finally fixed...all that time..I felt horrible.

Your other option is to have another test..to check to see if the first one was
done in error (testing failure), and also have it done for a 5hr test..longer, to see if the low readings persist. And of course at the same time you can have the fasting insulin taken, with the first fasting glucose sample.

Mrs. D. You said you felt terrible after your fasting test. Alan never felt terrible anytime at all after any test. He never felt dizzy after not eating for a long period of time.

Tonight I will take his sugar reading, then give him the glucose tablets at about 9 p.m..(I've got the bottle right in front of me, it's called DEX 4 raspberry glucose tablets, and each tablet is 4 grams of carbs) I'll give him 4 or 5 tablets, right??) then I'll take his sugar 30 minutes later. Then nothing for the rest of the night, he'll go to sleep. Then he'll sleep all night and I'll take his sugar tomorrow morning. So we'll have a sugar reading 2 hours after dinner (9 p.m.), then the tablets, then another sugar reading at 9 30 p.m. then tomorrow morning the fasting reading.

Maybe that will tell us something. Dr. Fred is going to run a whole batch of blood tests again when we go back.

Right now, I'm calling up ambulette services.

You know I wonder about something. What on earth would this man do if he wasn't married??

lol Melody

your welcome...

good luck and i'm sure alan will do well

ann