We’ve had better weeks. I’m hoping tomorrow starts off a new week with more positive things in it than negative. Even though I don’t write much about the negative things, especially on FB where I write daily good things lists, there are still sometimes unpleasant or bad things happening in my life that color everything else. Even if I can always find good things each day, that doesn’t mean that an accumulation of non-good things doesn’t sometimes take its toll.
On Wednesday, I saw the diabetes nurse, and my blood sugar levels were up again. No surprise, considering they were already up in March and then I went to the States for 4 weeks and ate everything in sight, but not a fun consequence regardless. I spoke with her about multiple issues that have been plaguing me: sudden massive hair loss, a chronic infection on my eyelid, and a concern about an eye disease that my sister was recently diagnosed with that I need to get checked for as well.
She was shocked that I hadn’t been to see an eye doctor since 2015 considering that typically diabetes patients go every other year at a minimum, and when I explained that the eye doctor had told me then that I didn’t need to come so regularly if I was still considered “diabetes-free” and there were no changes of concern, she made more shocked noises, and is getting me a referral to see an eye doctor stat. She also told me I needed to see the diabetes doctor to talk about medication as well as the other issues, and she got me in for the following day to see him.
So I went back to the healthcare clinic the next day to see Dr. Björn who, in addition to renewing my allergy meds, which I had just run out of, also got me started on diabetes medicine, plus prescribed two different cortisone salves for my eye infection and talked to me about all the other issues I had. I was there for 1.5 hours. He told me that I should probably have started the diabetes medication five or more years ago, and that they start patients on it much sooner nowadays than they used to, because the pills are so well-proven and help to prevent all kinds of major diabetes complications as well as getting blood sugar levels under control. The only major bummer about them is that side effects include nausea and “digestive issues”, both of which I’ve been experiencing every day since I started the medication. If they don’t taper off, we’ll have to discuss adjusting the dose or the type of pills when I go back in a month again.
Then, yesterday, Anders confessed that he’s been having some eye issues the last few days, and last night, while we were watching Sweden win Eurovision, he was googling the symptoms and got scared because they were related to very severe issues. He’s been having a floating dark spot and then yesterday was experiencing white flashes as well. Both of which turned out to be indicators for detached retinas, which is majorly not good. He called 1177 right away and talked to a nurse, who agreed that he shouldn’t wait until Monday but should call immediately today (because it was nearly midnight last night when he was talking to her), and get an appointment today if possible with the eye clinic. So, he called this morning and talked to the eye clinic, but they didn’t have the same urgency and he has an appointment tomorrow afternoon, after which we hope to know more. If it IS a detaching or detached retina, there are a couple of surgical options, which is good, because the outcome otherwise is loss of vision. 🙁
In other news, we’ve had over a week of gorgeous warm sunny nearly-summer weather, and everything is blooming and beautiful. Anders washed and oiled the deck and this afternoon when I got home from the AIC Mother’s Day brunch, he had put all the new deck furniture together, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy the greenery and the birdsong. While I was talking to my sister, and then my mom, he was planting everything in the vegetable garden, so if all goes well, we’ll soon have snap peas, yellow onions, red onions, potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi and cucumber starting. And his sister has promised us a couple of tomato plants, plus we have lots of flowers on the cherry tree, so I’m cautiously hopeful for a bumper crop this year. I love spring!
Mood: optimistic
Music: Gustaph—Because of You