Hi Sue:

No, Alan has not fallen on his spleen. I read on the internet that when people have very severe low platelet disorders, they remove the spleen.

That (at least I hope), that this is NOT what is going on with Alan.

He doesn't fall because he rarely goes anywhere without me. And because he really can't be on his feet, the only places he goes are to doctor appointments. Then he comes home and stays on the couch. Where I serve him. Isn't he a lucky man? I just gave him some fresh blackberries and some cantelope.

I'm glad you are feeling better.

Melody

Hi,

I am a sales rep that works in diagnostics. From what I've seen platelet counts of 130 are relatively normal. They may fall out of the "normal" reference range for the cell counter used but I suspect this isn't a cause for concern.

Just my two cents knowing how these measurements are taken and calculated from the technology side. If you ran the same sample 10 times you may have some results fall below 140 and some above. Peoples platelet counts remain pretty consistent over time so this is probably normal for him.

I doubt that ASA or Plavix is causing his platelet count to be lower. It is extremely important for stent patients to take these medications-please don't consider stopping the meds unless your physician directs you otherwise.

Again, I'm just a rep and not an MD...not even close. Just my two cents from somebody who works around labs.

Mel...
 

People with autoimmune disorders can have spleens that eat up
platelets. This happened with a friend of mine whose husband became
Diabetic type I after a severe bout of flu.

Unbeknownst to him his spleen was damaged too. They discovered it
when he had angina attacks and they found he needed a quintuple bypass..
they could not do the operation, too risky. So they removed the spleen.
His platelets were lower than Alan's and incompatible with life. He survived both procedures.

What is at issue here are the lipids.
All that honey that Alan eats has got to go.Sugars are bad for triglycerides.
Also his HDLs are low...and that can be changed too.
Fish oil will fix both of those, and improve the cholesterol ratio.
There is an RX one called Lovasa which may be covered on your insurance.
Otherwise you pay over the counter. Fish oil does not help LDLs much, but keeping them from oxidizing helps too. Antioxidants would be called for.

The stents have a bad prognosis... this procedure is not working out in the long run. So doctor's are worried they will clog up.
That is why Alan's doctor is pushing the Crestor. Besides, Crestor and Lipitor are going neck and neck and the sales force will reflect that race.

It is a tough decision to make.

Thanks Mel,
 

My Son had one of those 2 wheeler bike with training wheels,well that older
son of mine promised he would not be alone ,or have one of us with him..Well
he made it in his house,we took him to his Dr.,he sent him to Children's Hospital in Detroit,boy that chilld cried..He loooked like a 10 or 11 year old,he was tall. Being a nrse my husband thought I was going to hit her,he was 5 or 6 and in pain..He flew over the handle bars and they removed his spleen.
And now the meds Alan is taking is on the list scary..I know how Alan feels it's preety rough getting around

I was talking with my son tonigh he mentioned his nurse here in Columbia,son
in her opinion her son died from sprany for corn..So many E.R. /dr.s believe it's from thihalomethanes,this is what they put in the good old Mississippi and
Missouri River gets so dirty you fall in but you don't want a sore of anykind.
It's one of those things you can go on and on..Well Alan and all of us will be fine.. smooch on him. Hugs Sue But getting a little tired at times..:)

Mrs. D.

Alan has had his last bit of honey. I do thank you for that. He puts it on everything. He has an impulse problem (all formerly obese people still possess the traits that got them obese in the first place).

It's all about replacing bad habits with good habits. I told him "you are not bringing another cereal bar in this house".

Fresh fruits and veggies from now on. Maybe on the weekend, he can have one of my brownies. That's a guilty pleasure, that we all need, and if we don't indulge, then we MIGHT INDULGE EVERY DAY.

That's how I lost my 100 lbs. I'm still losing. Very slowly, but I'll lose.

About stents. I dont' understand this. If they are no good, then why are doctors still doing it.

Oh, I have a question about diabetes. I don't eat after 7 p.m. That's how I've been able to lose weight. Slowly, but I'm 60, and better slow and steady, than to take off 10 lbs and put it right back on.

So here's my question. Sometimes I get up and my sugar is 130. Sometimes 127. ( I can live with his, because it used to be over 265). My a1c is 6.5. They are happy with this.

But why, sometimes is my sugar 160, or 154?? I dont' get this. I eat fish, I eat my veggies. I don't juice fruit (like I do with Alan).

I once did a test. I ate something at 8 p.m. (a small apple)., The next morning my sugar was 118.

Why the heck would it not have gone up.

Does not eating after 7 p.m. make my pancreas work harder and that's why my sugar is over 120 (sometimes).

And if I do my walking for one hour, every day, then the next day my sugar is better. So I understand that exercise is key in this.

I am on 22 of the Lantus. I go to Cornell on May 30th.

During my last visit, (because Alan's nurse had told me never to go to bed without eating something, well, I listened, and at 10 p.m., I would eat a bit of something). Well, that didn't work, and my sugar went up. I went to Cornell and they said "why on earth are you eating at 10 p.m. ? I said 'because someone told me that my sugar will go DOWN at 4 a.m. and I should prevent this by eating a bit of something before bedtime"

They replied: 'You are not that type of diabetic, stop eating at 10 pm.".

I listened, and my sugar got better. I have done this 'not eating after 7 p.m." for two years now, and got my a1c down to 6.5 (from 9.0) when I first began the Cornell Protocol.

I just want to understand why, sometimes, if I don't eat after 7 p.m, my sugar might read 154, and sometimes, if I eat an apple at 8 p.m, my sugar will be 118 the next morning.

I really don't understand this diabetes thing.

I don't eat white stuff. I do occasionally eat one brownie after dinner with a cup of coffee (only on weekends).

Would having a brownie at 6 p.m. with a cup of coffee significantly impact my sugar reading at 8 am. the next morning.

That's a lot of hourse to go without any food in my body. I don't miss it. I don't need it. My sugar does not drop in the middle of the night. I feel fine.

This means I go over 10 hours without eating. Shouldn't my sugar be 100 or so the next morning??

One would think I would by hypoglycemic, but this is not the case.

I tested this theory more than once. I ate the way I normally eat. Protein, veggies, no refined carbs. I ate my dinner (usually broiled salmon or turbot fillet). I then ate something at 8 p.m. (a small apple, some 100 calorie snack thingees).

The next morning my sugar was fine.

Then, I would do the same thing, without the 8 a.m. snack. and bam, the next morning my sugar is 150 or so.

I am not taking the chromium picolinate (I ran out), going to get some today.

This whole diabetes thing is quite confusing.

And don't get me wrong. I know plenty of people who wish they could get their diabetes down to 200 in the morning. They are on insulin, oral meds, they eat fine, and sometimes they go to 400. I know I am not that type of diabetic.

And I do test during the day.

sometimes it's 115.

I wonder, if I changed to taking Lantus at night (like some people I know), would that make a difference??

Thanks if you can make heads or tails about of my diabetes question.

I just want to get up in the morning and see a sugar reading of less than 110.

And I don't want to up my insulin.

I'm thinking. As I continue to lose, (they say if you lose even 10 lbs), your sugar reading gets better)

Oh, and the Methyl B-12 is still WORKING JUST FINE!!!!

Mel..
 

as we age things change...your body becomes less efficient in some ways.

Elevated blood sugar in the morning is a response to a hypoglycemic event
while you are sleeping. The liver makes glucose when that feedback loop goes
off.

If you inject Lantus in the morning...then during the night it is wearing off, so naturally your sugars would be slightly up before the next shot.

If your A1c is good, that means OVERALL you are doing well. I think people may get overly obsessed with the process and try too hard to change things.

I think you are doing well, and that is all that matters for YOU.
This is why the ACCORD program changed suddenly...because for some people overly strict glucose control led to death (their bodies couldn't handle it).

An apple or a piece of cheese or some cottage cheese or yogurt would be a good night time snack. (not a sugar filled brownie).
Even a Glucerna bar may work for you. It is made with long acting slowly digested carbo. Buy one or two and try them? That will tell you alot right there.

Ah, I think I get what you are saying.

Are you saying that because I don't eat after 7 p.m. my body goes into hypoglycemia during the night hours, so my pancreas works overtime, so that when I get up, it might be a bit high??

And to counteract this, that at 8 p.m. or so, I might have a piece of cheese, and then go to bed at my regular time, and that I just might have a shot when I get up, that my sugar might be lower than let's say 140 or so?

Did I get this right??

And yeah, I know the aging process.. I HATE THE AGING PROCESS.

At least I got my lightbulb moment in my 50's.

Too bad it didn't stick when I lost the weight at ge 24. I looked like Elizabeth Taylor when I was that age.

But I was impulsive, compulsive and I acted on those. I ate, when I got stressed.

God, YOUTH is most definitely wasted ON THE YOUNG!!!

lol

Thanks much

this is how it works....
 

In between meals, after all your food is gone in the GI tract....

your liver responds to blood sugar levels, and when they drop it then converts amino acids to glucose. This is called gluconeogenesis.

Metformin blocks this process as part of how it works BTW.

So if you do not eat anything after 7pm, you will have a drop in blood sugar
before morning. Diabetics tend to have exaggerated responses to this.

An apple or low carb snack will be SLOWLY digested and the sugars it does contain released slowly so that the hypo dip does not occur.
A cookie/brownie or whatever, will cause a sudden blood sugar rush and then a bigger dip in the night later. The bigger the dip the more the liver responds to
the dip and MORE sugar is made and hence you test higher.
Glucerna bars are designed to be digested slowly, and so the hypo dip for diabetics is blunted and the blood sugar remains more normal.

When you eat that low carb, high fish high protein diet....you are giving your liver amino acids to be converted to sugar. Because this is a slow process the overall effect is to control wide swings up and down.

Ah, so at 7 or 7:30 p.m., I could test this by drinking, let's say, a half cup of glucerna, to see what might happen at 7:30 a.m. the next morning.

By testing various things, like a bit of cheese, a half of apple (not orange, I know this), maybe even a small piece of chicken, then I might get a better idea of how this will affect my sugar reading the next morning..?? Did I get this right??

Because when I ate something at 10 p.m, (it wasn't a piece of cheese), I always ate a carb because I thought it would PREVENT the 4 a.m. sugar low thing going on.

So if I do a small bit of protein or a slow releasing thing like some glucerna at around 7:30 p.m. and i check my sugar the next morning, ...if I do this every day, I can get an idea of what my body needs to enable a better sugar reading the next morning, right?

I got a bit confused when you said "the bigger the dip, the more your liver responds to the dip nd the more sugar is made".

I have MANY friends with diabetes. They all test over 265. They don't know what to eat. They did NOT WANT TO GO TO CORNELL WITH ME!!!

They now still weigh 300 lbs, they still don't know what to eat. They take Lantus, metformin, glyburide, etc. And nothing works. They eat nuts at night. (it's not a carb), but still, nothing works. They are all type 2. All overweight.

It's very confusing when they tell you "don't eat at night, then they say "oh, you must eat before you go to bed, and then you do what they say, and your sugar goes up".

I mean, there really should be a balance to all this. But I guess the fact that one has diabetes throws all this to the wind.

I think the body is like an automobile with all it's working parts. You feed it the right fuel, and all the parts work. (or, they ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK).

But if the fuel is not the right fuel, then the motor will act up, the carborator won't work right, the shock absorbers give you problems.

It's like a car. You do right by the car, and the car supposedly should last a long time. Maybe not forever, but at least you can trade in a car for a better model.

I'm trying to keep my car working. lol

When they say don't EAT at night...
 

They mean DINNER size meals.

Having a small snack is different than EATING.

Many people eat large meals late--- 10pm or later if going out.

To expect your body to behave the way it did when you were 25 and you are now 60...is unrealistic.

You can test your responses you know. Test when you go to bed, and once if you get up to go to the bathroom. If you can test around 4am, it might reveal the answers to your questions.