medical update
neck surgery
Finally found the right leverage to get the appointment setter to call me. Surgery in late August. It’s looking iffy about getting the second/final surgery done1 by the time my lease is up in mid-December.
update 1 - a more complicated surgery
Based on what I remembered from the surgical consult it would be an ACDF (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion) between C4 and C7. After reading the release forms the longer hospital stay and recovery estimates made more sense; it’s C4 ACDF + C6 ACCF (anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion). The C6 (with discs) is coming out and replaced with a titanium pillar. I’m starting to feel a bit like robocop.
update 2 - comfy recliner
One of the tips I’ve seen online for such surgeries is to have a recliner ready for when laying in a bed is uncomfortable. I picked up a $20 recliner off craigslist (Hi, Mike!) and manhandled it into this upstairs apartment. This is the 2nd object I purchased that will not go into the campervan; the first was the microwave.
the sugah
My A1C has been high-normal for years. This month it went above the diagnostic criteria for diabetes. Yay. Started the traditional first-line med (metformin) a few days ago. Started diabetic self-management classes at the VA.
I asked my GP for an Rx for a continuous glucose monitor but apparently you have to be bad enough that you need insulin to get a CGM. So I started looking for options. Turns out there are some consumer-grade units available without a script. I picked up an Abbot Lingo and affixed it today. After about an hour of warm-up it start delivering useful data. It’s enlightening to see what kind of eating drives blood glucose up and how exercise drives it down.
It’s early on but a couple things are working together:
- the metformin is reducing between-meal hunger
- watching the monitor is reminding me to eat less and eat more slowly
I haven’t eaten much meat in recent years because of both cost and difficulty of storing it in the camper. But I will probably need to ramp up lean meat consumption to displace some of the carbs I’ve been eating.
My first attempt was some pan-seared chicken thigh “fillets”. Normally I like bone-in but it was too hot to bake. The butterflied thighs cooked evenly and had actual flavor and juice unlike chicken breast.
update
It’s been a ~week or so on the metformin and monitoring BG with the Lingo I’m learning a lot. The whole Glycemic Index thing is surprising; some things I thought would cause spikes don’t, and vice versa. And because I’m stubborn it’s one thing to see a food listed on the GI and another to watch it affect by BG numbers. Main offenders right now: white potatoes and white bread.
My hunger remains decreased and I’m trying to get used to always being a little bit hungry. At this early stage I’m dropping 1lb/day although I suspect that will taper off. The BMI indicator says at 6ft I will be overweight until ≤183lbs. Seems a little off because my shoulders are wide so I have more weight for my height. But I felt pretty good when I was 185lbs. Maybe 190lbs would be a reachable target.
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and recovered enough to move everything back into the camper, or to a different apartment. ↩