My adventures at the hospital.

Feb 27 09:41 UTC 2000

    You heard that I was in hospital for a few days. I'd like to share my
experiences and hopefully use this as a tool for keeping on track.

    I had been depressed and not feeling that hot. Around halloween, I noticed
a small sore on the back of my left leg that was not healing. I tried most
if not all of the standard techniques for wound care, but every effort was
not doing any good. Around Christmas I bought a Merck Manual, admittedly not
the smartest thing in the world to do, but I had to know what was going on.
I sort of convinced myself that the wound on the back of my leg was due to
a DVT or Deep Vein Thrombosis, which in layman's terms is a blood clot in the
leg that could possibly break off and travel to the lung, causing a pulmonary
embolism, and after one of those, the lights go off, and you are promoted to
the afterlife.
    I was terrified to face reality. I made a date with myself to go to the
doctor on Jan 3. The scariness returned and I put it off. Meanwhile, the thing
on the back of my leg was growing to new dimensions, and dripping yellow fluid
that was really nasty looking and smelling. I learned to live with it. I was
onvinced that this was better than going to the docs.
    Last Wednesday, I had enough. The depression, the smell, the soiled
clothes and everything else was just too much. I went to UM and related my
story to the doctors. 
    They put me through an ultrasound of my leg, and found that I was for the
most part clear. Then came the x-rays, and they confirmed the diagnosis. I
have what is called Cellulitus, which has similar symtoms of DVT, but actually
comes from a staph infection that got into a cut or scrape. The staph runs
wild and kills skin cells with reckless abandon. I was told that I would've
never got it under control had I had not come in.
    Now the fun part. Along with that, I was also diagnosed with high blood
sugar which came in at 201. I am a borderline diabetic; meaning I have to take
a pill every morning, hopefully only until my weight gets under control again.
And if that's not a whole load of crud, I have high blood pressure as well,
but that too could disappear with weight loss.

    So now I am taking Keflex for the infection, and let me tell you that shit
stinks, but I can live with the smell. I am also taking a high blood pressure
pill, and a pill for the diabetes. I am also on a 2000 calorie diet, which
is no fun, but I want to be here for a while, so I'll live with that as well.

  Lesson learned: Don't be afraid of the hospital, and besides, I learned that
this is piddly stuff compared to the cancer I had. I guess the fear came from
not wanting to hear that I had the big C again. 

response 2 of 81:

Feb 27 16:36 UTC 2000

Jim - not to sound like Ken (just kidding!), but there is a fabulous, LONG,
information-filled item on weight loss and diet in the Health conference.

response 4 of 81:

Feb 27 19:07 UTC 2000

<wanders off to start a punk band called "Spastic Colon">

response 6 of 81:

Feb 27 20:34 UTC 2000

2000 kcal/day (I *hope* you meant kilocalories) equals about 98 watts.

response 8 of 81:

Feb 28 02:12 UTC 2000

  I'll go read the article, and stick to what my doctors advise me.

  Can someone tell me how many grams of carbohydrate equals 1 exchange?
I need to keep my carbs to 5 per meal, plus watch my salt, fat and caffiene
intakes. I've been doing pretty well with it. The only downside is that I am
hungry all the time, but I'm getting used to it.
  I need to drink more water as well.

  My sore on the back of my leg is looking a whole lot better than it ever
has. The antibiorics are working. I just have to keep it clean and dressed.
It is way less painful than it was, and that is a Good Thing(tm) indeed.
I mean, the last day I was in the hospital, after I cleaned it, I needed
morphine to qualm the pain. There is still some pain, but 1 motrin knocks it
out.

response 10 of 81:

Feb 28 19:15 UTC 2000

  My days of self diagnosis are over. Next time I get sick, I'm packing myself
off the the U and let them tell me what's wrong. I might even burn my Merck
Manual, but then againm keeping it around for explanations of tests might just
be of some comfort.

  I am feeling a whole lot better. The sore is now just all red with some
patches of white. The drainage is down to a trickle. Hopefully by the end of
the course of antibiotics, I will have a normal looking leg.

  Change sometimes is not an easy thing.

response 12 of 81:

Feb 28 20:05 UTC 2000

There was a really interesting item about diabetes and weight loss in one
of the conferences, but apparently the author killed it some time ago.

response 14 of 81:

Feb 29 01:05 UTC 2000

Hey, that's me that should do that.  OK.

response 16 of 81:

Feb 29 02:08 UTC 2000

 Nahh, I don't want to do that.  I will post the diet, though. He has me on
a 2000 calorie, low sodium, low caffiene, low sugar diet. It is hard, but
worth it.

response 18 of 81:

Feb 29 23:04 UTC 2000

At least keep us posted on the results, and on how much better you feel.
I don't know of any natural sources of caffeine other than Chinese-Indian type
tea, one south American type of tea, and coffee, but a lot of soft drinks have
caffeine (as well as sugar).  High-salt foods are those with nutrition lables
reading 300mg or more salt per serving.  Crackers are salty, cheese too.
Oatmeal is filling and has none of what you are avoiding except a few kcal.
You can add low-calorie apples or other fruit.

response 20 of 81:

Mar 1 04:24 UTC 2000

What sorts of vegetables are you allergic to?  And when is your projected
phase-out date?  Are you gradually lowering calorie intake or starting at
2000?  You will not be feeling very full if much of your intake is refined
food without fiber - it might actually help you to be less hungry if you cut
out sugar sooner instead of later, as it just shoots your glucose level way
up and then down, which is what makes you hungry.  What fruits and vegetables
do you tolerate?  Maybe people can suggest good ways to prepare them.
What is 'overtly' salty?

response 22 of 81:

Mar 1 19:29 UTC 2000

All cheeses are very salty so limit them.  Have you tried brocolli, zucchini,
winter squash, cabbage, cauliflower?  Spinach has oxalic acid, beans have
proteins that might bother you.  Try doing some reading up on food allergies
for suggestions as to what vegetables are best tolerated.  We knew one
'vegetarian' who said he was allergic to all vegetables and had to eat meat.
Chinese cabbage makes nice soup.  Carrots.  Beets. Turnips. Onions.  Tomatoes
or tomato juice.  Here is a great opportunity to learn new ways of cooking.
Can you tolerate dry beans?  They are very filling and not high in calories.
Whole grains take longer to digest and will keep you feeling full longer.
Brown rice, whole wheat bread (from the bread machine?), brown spaghetti.

response 24 of 81:

Mar 2 05:41 UTC 2000

  I found out that generally speaking, I can have 75m of carbs per meal, that
is, 5 exchanges of a particular food. After a trip to the supermarket this
evening, I am roundly disgusted at the amount of carbs and sugars in some
foods. I am hoping to make healthy choices.

  Jenn, thanks for the tip, I'll defintily use it. I've been drowning it in
dressing in the past, but no more of that. This is going to be one long and
rocky road, but hey, I'm up for the walk.

  The thing with the veggies is the way they taste, and also some very
negative conditioning I got as a child, so I'm not likely to go and open a
can of peas or green beans anytime soon. There are some things like raw
broccolli and cauliflower.