Good morning!! It's FINALLY not raining here in Boston, so it is a GREAT morning.
It's been a long time since I've posted but I've been busy recuperating & unfortunately, dealing with a few complications and 1 more unexpected surgery. It's been a crazy 4 months in a lot of ways!!! The biggest of which has been the learning curve asssociated with the diabetes that has developed. My islet cell transplant didn't take, so as a result, I now have type 1 diabetes (T1D). That's ok!! I'm still very happy I had the surgery, but I very much would have lilked not to have developed the diabetes. In the beginning, right after the surgery, I was taking multiple daily injections of both fast & long acting insulin, but I didn't feel as if my blood sugars were very well controlled. On April 1, 2013, I started on a Medtronics Revel Minimed Paradigm insulin pump!!!! And I haven't looked back since!!! Not having to inject myself 4-6 times a day is GREAT!!!! I still have to jab my finger 10-12 times a day & more if it's a weird blood sugar day, but I don't mind doing this. It gives me great info on where my blood sugar is & how I need to treat it or have something to eat. But I HATED the frequent insulin injections!!
I LOVE my pump!! I only have to change the infusion site, where the insulin gets administered into my body, every 3 days!!! Not too shabby!!!! 1 needle every 3 days verses 4-6 a day?? I'll take it!! Plus, I was able to get a purple pump!! How cool is that!! They are available in several different colors and purple actually spoke to me!! I also was able to add a "skin" or sticker to the pump to decorate it more to my personality. I chose a skin of my favorite fabric designer, Kaffe Fassett!! Once I figure out how to add a pic, I will show u my purple pump & my AWESOME skin. I've recently started with a continuos glucose monitor but more on that later.
So, overall the diabetes thing is tolerable, but I'm learning that my pancreas was responsible for much more than the medical community is aware of...or at least that's my humble opinion. Obviously, my digestion of fats, carbs, & proteins is now controlled by oral enzymes that I take, but I'm experiencing a few other gastrointestinal changes that I didn't expect. Let's just say the time it takes my nutrition to enter and exit my body is radically different than it ever was. I've experienced both a speeding up and a slowing down & it just depends on the day & what I have had to eat that determines which end of the spectrum I'm on.
I've also have also had the joy of experiencing a small bowel obstruction over the Memorial Day weekend. It started suddenly & unexpectedly the Thursday before the holiday & by the time Sunday rolled around, it was quite obvious to the doctors that it wasn't going to resolve on it's own, so I needed a little surgical fix to correct things. Once I woke up after the surgery, I was already feeling better than I had in days!!! I'm told these obstructions are not uncommon following abdominal surgery & frequently they can resolve on their own with IV fluids & the dreaded, nasogastric tube (NG), but that didn't come to pass for me & the surgery was necessary. SO was the NG tube but it wasn't as bad of an experience as it could have been because the tube did actually help my symptoms.
Overall, I'm recovering nicely from both surgeries! And, the best part is that the severe, constant, debilitating pain is gone & I'm learning to deal with a "new normal" since the surgery. I had to let go of the dream that I would get my old self back once I had recovered. That was hard! I definitely had to rethink my expectations following my pancreatectomy. I'm definitely better but somedays this new normal is a lot to deal with & I'm not quite sure how to get through some of the difficult days. I have to admit there has been a day or 2 where I have reconsidered whether having my pancreas removed was a good idea at all. But when I'm having a good day, that thought doesn't even register.
I'm still fairly early in my recovery as I'm told it can take up to 18 months to fully recover but the good days far outweigh the bad!! So, it's a GREAT morning in Boston!!!
