Medical Mumbo Jumbo

I been putting off writing about these two things for a while now. Not sure why. One is about diabetes and sometimes I get tired of writing about and thinking about it for that matter. *TMI ALERT* The second is about my experience of having an ablation to control some heavy bleeding I've been having with my periods. I guess I've put this one off b/c I'm not sure how may people will really be all the interested in that experience.

First the diabetes. About two months ago we had the opportunity to switch Brady's insulin pump from the medtronic pump to the Animas ping pump. They are basically the same except for a few things. The animas ping pump has a blood sugar meter that also works as a remote for Brady's pump. This feature is so handy in the car when I can't get to his pump or when he runs away as soon as I hand him a snack. The second feature we liked was the fact that it's water proof. I can not explain how many times I've said "oh shit!" because I've realized I have forgotten to take off his pump in the summer when he's wanted to go play in the water. You would think after living with this disease for almost 4 years that it would be the first thing I think about, but I would seriously forget my name if my husband didn't call me every morning from work. My memory is really that bad. So that fact that this pump can go 12ft under water is a plus but not really necessary. The third feature which is pretty crucial is that it has a lower basal rate than the other pump. Which means he can get a lower dose of insulin every hour which he really needs at night since he tends to go low while he sleeps and doesn't wake up.

The animas pump does have a few negatives. One is that it doesn't have an integrated Contunious Glucouse Moniter yet, but the company is working on it. The second is that it doesn't automatically program the insulin dosage after you type in the carb amount into the meter/remote, you have to type it in manually, which takes some extra time. Apparently medtronic patented this feature.


Next on to the post some men and women may not want to read. So two weeks ago I had an ablation where a doctor burns the lining of your uterus either with some kind of laser thing I think or scalding hot water. I chose the latter b/c as my doctor informed me it has better results. Between 40-60% of women stop having a period all together and others just have light spotting. I also had to have a hysteroscopy where they look inside your uterus with a camera to make sure nothing bad is going on. Not everyone has to have this done, but I found out that my uterus is tipped so they couldn't see all of it in the ultrasound. I also had a DNC.

Thankfully I was asleep for all that fun that was happening between my legs. I had the option of being awake, but I've been awake for surgery before and never enjoyed it. Too many bad sounds and smells. I also had the option of having general anesthesia or some happy drugs w/ a spinal. I chose the latter again. Which the anesthesiologist was happy about b/c he didn't think general was a great option with my heart.

Really the worst part of the whole thing was the anesthesia. I hate anesthesia, it makes me feel so weird after the whole thing is said and done. That whole afternoon after I had the procedure I felt really agitated and couldn't sit still which sucked b/c I also felt extremely tired. I could barely keep my eyes open. I had some pretty good cramping for about 4-5 hours, but nothing unbearable. I only took ibuprofen for a day. As far as the results, it hasn't been long enough to tell yet. The doctor says you have discharge for two weeks or so and no hanky panky until it stops.

So there ya have it, you are all up to date and the medical goings on in our house. I'm sure you all were dying to know these things. I swear I need to start writing a book about all the different strange medical experiences this family has. It would be a damn long book for sure.