Just Like (a) Human

It’s been a long time since I actually spent a few minutes talking here.

There’s a lot going on in my life, and some of it causes the biggest changes. Namely, I’ve had some health issues going on over the past month. It started with bronchitis (so it seemed), with coughing, wheezing, dizziness and night sweats. The urgent care clinic prescribed a couple of medicines that were just ridiculously expensive, and I had the scrips shot down for tried and true alternatives that were covered by my insurance.

Got over the inflamed tubes, so I thought. Some tiredness, body aches, a little nausea still going on in the J camp at the time, so I shrugged it off initially, thinking I picked up a cold.

Then the thirst started.

I started getting really, really damn thirsty. Couldn’t keep enough liquid down, it seemed. Water was making me feel thirstier. Gatorade was helping a little with the dry mouth. Kool-Aid was painting a weird film in my mouth. Constantly turning up a cup to down some liquid, even at work, where I was going through 8, 9, 10 cups of water a shift easily, and still had dry corners on my mouth, with some cracking as well…

It was driving me nuts.

But not as much as what happens when someone drinks all that liquid.

I was having to frequently, frequently urinate. Couldn’t hold it in for more than an hour at a time. Had to put people on hold while at work just to make it to the restroom. Kept having to drop into code between some calls to answer the screaming level of pain that came from a full bladder. It was agitating to say the least, but it was also wrecking my sleep — waking up 2, 3, even 4 times a night to micturate, as well as alleviate the dry mouth… it took its toll.

The dizziness, weariness, frequent urination, and disorientation just got worse, to the point that I ended up going to the hospital.

When they checked me in, my blood sugar was at 601 points. This number is why I couldn’t keep enough water in me. This is why I had to go so bloody often. So now, the doctors have me on insulin and a couple of other medications to regulate things, and to get me back down to where I can be just like normal people.

One good thing comes of all this, though:

Since all of this trouble started, I’ve been losing weight.
I’m down to a much nicer 309 pounds — a 30 pound loss in weight over an undetermined amount of time, and a 3 pound loss since last week. If I keep dropping weight like this, maybe I won’t have to keep paying the fat tax to buy clothes.

That’s the month and a half in a nutshell, really.