(Days of work remaining before holiday time off: 9)
Hank seems mostly fine.
He's eating normally, using the pan normally, seems to be sleeping and exploring the house just fine (well, not at the same time) and for the most part, he's breathing normally. He is purring and lovey and meows and nips at my hand just the same as he always did.
Last night, he did seem a little lethargic still, and I know that was likely due to whatever sickness he has as well as the meds he's on -- I can't imagine they make him feel that great. I'd say he was at about 85% of his normal self at the time. Today he's been almost completely normal during the time I spent with him earlier this afternoon, so either he's getting over what made him sick or the meds are really working, or both.
Daisy cleaned the fish tank yesterday as well, and I don't know that I've ever seen a fish so happy in my life. He swam and explored the whole tank, including the decorations we put in there for him, he gulped down the food Daisy gave him (and the same thing happened when I fed him this morning), and every time we walk in front of the tank and he sees us, he gets all happy and dances for us.
How am I? Well, that's a question I don't really know how to answer.
Most of the time I'm fine. I wake up, I eat something in the evening, I log on to my computer, and I work the night. I get off in the morning, decompress a bit in my chair, and eventually either fall asleep there or move to the bedroom where I will sleep the rest of the day away until nearly dark (because it starts getting dark here at like, 3-4pm now).
But, there's something wrong with my stomach, and I don't know what it is. Sometimes, when I eat a meal -- it doesn't matter what it is or how little/how much -- within an hour or so I will begin feeling very ill, and will have to run to the bathroom for several rounds of what I call "the screaming shits." It is not every time, but it is often enough now to where there's a noticeable pattern. It will continue for 2-3 hours, off and on, and then I'm fine again. Perfectly fine, in fact, feeling better than I felt beforehand.
I know it's not what I've just eaten in those scenarios -- it physically cannot be what I've just eaten because food does not move through the human body in 30-60 minutes. And I'm fat, so there's more distance to travel.
That's a joke, folks.
Anyway.
There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to these events. I could eat an entire pizza and be fine, or I could have a bowl of soup and be screaming. I could eat a giant bowl of steamed vegetables and (vegetarian) chicken and be fine, or I could have some gluten free pasta with spinach-infused sauce and destroy the bathroom for several hours. There's no discernable pattern other than if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen shortly after I eat. Which is, frankly, terrifying to me. Does this mean I can't go have holiday meals with the family? That Daisy and I can't eat and then go do something afterwards unless I have close access to a toilet?
I used to say that I had an iron stomach -- I could eat anything at any time and it wouldn't affect me. A full pot of coffee on an empty stomach? Meh, no worries. I did it every day in college and grad school just to survive. Hot sauces and/or curries? No problem. A 32oz porterhouse steak or a two-foot-long sub sandwich from the grocery store deli? Sure, bring it on.
Not anymore.
Daisy has said that I've had digestive issues ever since she's known me, and I think that's mostly inaccurate. I have never had anything diagnosable, but the first five years we were together, my actual daily diet was total dogshit -- I did not have much discipline, I ate a lot of high-sodium, high-sugar, high-fat foods, with a lot of bread and a lot of calories, supplemented with enough caffeine and nicotine to kill a horse. As such, during those first five years I did have a lot of digestive problems -- problems that mostly cleared up once I stopped eating so much bread, went vegetarian, and greatly cleaned up my diet overall.
I began to think I might have a gluten allergy or sensitivity that has developed over the course of the last several months -- new allergies can, of course, spontaneously pop up sometimes. Daisy's mother acquires 2-3 more new food allergies every year. I've never had an allergy to any foods that I'm aware of -- any foods. But, my theory about gluten was dashed when I had many gluten-containing foods -- such as noodles, bread, and pizza -- and it didn't trigger the screaming shits. At all.
I began to think I might have irritable bowel syndrome -- I did fit a number of the symptoms for it, but not most of them. To be fair I have a lot of questions about some of them. but I don't think that's the overall cause. Daisy, the incredibly intelligent woman that she is, pointed this out:
I haven't vomited and I haven't had any of the heart issues, but a lot of the stuff on that list, holy hell, it matches up with me. And I started the Trulicity about six months ago, give or take. I don't fart more on Trulicity, but I have found myself belching more (eructation). I was constipated for a weekend a few weeks ago. I always have fatigue and general weakness because I work overnights and barely sleep, so that's a wash, but yeeeeeah this drug that is so far working wonderfully to control my diabetes and lower my A1C like crazy may be what's making me sick.
How did Daisy figure this out? Deductive reasoning -- it seems to be more prevalent or severe in the 1-3 days after I give myself my weekly injection, something I never put two-and-two together on before. It may be something I just have to live with, which is somewhat depressing to think about, but if that's what it is, at least we now know why.
I've been okay over the past few days, which also leads me to believe that's part of the culprit.
No comments:
Post a Comment