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May 18, 2005

ah, the sound of jackhammers in the morning

awakened a bit earlier than planned this morning by the sound of, yes, a jackhammer... they're tearing up our streets for gas line work of some kind. i'm guessing various readers of this blog had a similar experience. damn those guys start early.

worth noting: WRIR

last night i decided to look up hypoglycemia on webmd. not sure why i never did that before; i guess webmd didn't exist when i originally researched it. over the weekend i mentioned to both my mom and aunt joan that i believe i am hypoglycemic, and they both asked, "are you on medication for that?" i've never heard of medication for it, just control via diet, but thought i should check. indeed, there's no medication. i thought webmd's recommendation to eat something sugary when you realize you're having symptoms was interesting. i've pretty much come to think of sugar as the devil incarnate, at least as far as my metabolism is concerned. but i have to admit, on the rare occasions when i really do crash, orange juice can really help, so long as i also eat real food with protien very soon afterward.

i also thought it was interesting that they say you should make the people around you aware of your problem so they can help you if you start to show symptoms. my instinct is usually to hide the fact that i'm starting to crash if i possibly can, or at least to hide my irritability, because people really don't like that side of me. i've also found that people do not really understand what i'm saying when i actually do say, "i'm crashing". i've never actually passed out, but i have gotten pretty out of it on many occasions. since i'm often alone when it happens, i have learned how to force myself to do the things i need to do to get something to eat, even though i really don't feel like it.

there's a more subtle aspect of this condition that webmd doesn't cover. i guess this is more of a "wellness" topic than a medical one. i have found that through moderate diet control (rarely eating sugar, eating meat regularly), i can prevent most crashes, but with stricter diet control (never eating sugar, never eating starches) i reach a much better stage where my mood and energy levels improve immensely and become fairly stable. however, as you can probably imagine, this level of diet control is fairly difficult to maintain over time, since starches are deeply ingrained in our cultural diet, and are not usually in the form of whole grains; they also comprise some of our favorite comfort foods.

obviously, cooking for oneself is the easiest way to ensure that one's diet is exactly how one needs it to be. i don't really mind cooking that much, but i have found that the state of my kitchen, and house in general, has an effect on how willing i am to cook for myself. right now, my dining room is filled with left over yard sale stuff that i haven't gotten to goodwill yet. and i know there are roaches living in the space between one of the cabinets and the wall. both of these problems lend to a feeling that my house is out of control, and that the kitchen is not a very desireable place to be, much less to cook in. so i eat badly, and my mood deteriorates, and my energy levels fall, and i have whole days, weekends, evenings where i accomplish nothing but whinging in my blog.

Posted by lisa at May 18, 2005 08:31 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I think the reason people ask "Are you on medication for that?' is because there is a general belief that "real" health problems are the ones there are medicines for, and that every health problem should be solved through medication.

Posted by: Lisa B on May 18, 2005 02:41 PM

also, medication is a sign that you are under the care of a physician for the condition, which i think is my mom's main concern. we were emailing about it today, and she encouraged me to make sure my physician is aware and has a record of it.

interestingly, my aunt used to administer blood glucose tolerance tests back in the late 60's when she was a medical lab technician.

i've had a variety of responses when i've told people this, from outright denial that what i was experiencing was any different from normal hunger, to people being angry or unhappy with me for my behavior while experiencing hypoglycemic shock (often for years afterwards), to people who are also very supportive and try to help me when i'm crashing.

of course, it's only been relatively recently that i've learned to take it as seriously as i do, so i guess you could say that i also have had a PR problem :) i didn't realize that it was serious so i couldn't tell people that it was serious.

and of course, people often have strong negative reactions when you tell them you are on a low carb diet. but low carb diets are the long term solution to controlling hypoglycemia. weight loss and gain are basically symptoms of how well you are controlling it.

Posted by: lisa on May 18, 2005 02:54 PM

I remember one of those sas nurse practitioners telling me to carry around lifesavers for hypoglycemic incidents. Knowing what I do now about sugar's cause of my hypoglycemia, it pisses me off a medical professional would tell me that. But whatever. I've figured it out now. I remember 2 particularly bad hypogly incidents that involved you:

(1) Arriving at Marsh's house that summer he lived with groves in that little cinder block place and being on the verge of being ill enough to have the rest of my day ruined. You were there and you had life-saving PEANUTS! They tasted so good and totally diverted the hypogly.

(2) hanging out with you and Jonathan in Durham and being so low in blood sugar that I wanted nothing more than to eat an entire loaf of white bread. So I bought one and proceeded to do so at J's house. I don't think i finished it. I think it was "bunny" bread. Yuck. Where I work now, there's a Wonder/hostess plant on the same block. I can't tell you how nauseating the stench of wonder bread baking first thing in the morning is.

Posted by: angela on May 18, 2005 03:00 PM

oh yes, i totally remember the peanut incident. i think i offered you apples first, and you were like, um, no, not gonna cut it.. or maybe that's what marsh offered you.

you know, jonathan was also hypo. and we were all huge sugar fiends. i guess the two go hand in hand.

Posted by: lisa on May 18, 2005 03:08 PM

On the jackhammer thing -- they started up at 7:30 one morning when I was trying to sleep in: it was Saturday, or I was sick, or something. They were about as close to the house as you can get without coming inside. Bah. I was hoping if they were tearing up my yard for like the 6th time since I've lived here, they were at least going to fix it right this time. Guess what? They were working on another line right over the top of the fucked-up one. Now I guess I'll have gas leaks to go along with the water leaks.

Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on May 19, 2005 07:40 PM

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