Friday was my first day of pulmonary rehabilitation. It was not too bad. I enjoyed myself. Basically it is monitored exercise, well not basically that is exactly what it is. You walk on the treadmill, use the stationary bike or the arm pedal-thing and the physical therapist monitors your heart rate and O2 sats and makes sure you aren't gonna pass out on him.
Our therapist is awesome. I really like him. Very friendly and outgoing and really enjoys his job.
There were 3 of us on Friday but will be 4 on Monday as the one woman was sick. So far I am the youngest person. Not surprised. The older lady is on O2 and has COPD but recently had pneumonia and now needs some rehab to get back her lung functions. The other woman I am not sure about. She seemed OK with great O2 and heart rates until she started walking on the treadmill and then she plummeted and almost passed out. Very strange. She had also never used a treadmill before so he had to show her how to walk on one. That boggled my mind but I have to remember not everyone has grown up using these things for medical purposes. The older lady asked if I had had pneumonia and that was why I was there. I just said no. I figure in time I can let them into the whole world of CF and lung transplantation.
Diaphragmatic breathing is also something he is teaching everyone. Luckily my old Dr H was great about pushing this and by now I have mastered it. So at least that is one less person he has to teach.
As far as me, my O2 was decent, not going below 92% but my heart rate got high at 1.5mph on the treadmill so we stayed there for 20 minutes. Over time it will get better and I will be able to walk faster and longer while having a not-gonna-keel-over heart rate. I am glad to be out there and exercising and hopefully when the 18 classes are over I can continue on at home or maybe even find a cheap gym to go to. I will be on a schedule by that point so why not right?
My only issue, and this is something that of course will get easier with time as well, is my sugars plummeted after exercising. I happened to check when I got to my Jeep just to see since I know it can make your sugars lower. I was at 46! I quickly shoved 2 jolly ranchers in my mouth and hoped it would up quick. I didn't even notice the low. After 15 minutes I was up to 113 so I wasn't too worried then. But shit like this I wish I had been prepared for.
I had an endocrinologist appointment on Tuesday and I walked away from that knowing less than when I walked in. Only thing good that came from it was blood work to test me for Celiac's. I was not happy with her at all. I felt like she was saying my positive results on the OGTT were false and that I am not CFRD. May be so but lady I drop and have highs so apparently something is off with my pancreas beyond the normal shit. She said I don't need insulin, which I was expecting since I don't get really high (only with high sugar things like soda and donuts) and I have lows on my own (see exercise lol). But telling me nothing of any use as far as diet, what to eat with what to avoid highs, or lows, and saying I don't need to come back for 6 months is not helpful to someone who has just been told they have diabetes. Though if I notice I am over 200 often 2 hours after a meal or I go over 250 once, 2 hours after a meal I am to call her prior to the 6 months. So I guess it is a wait and see where this goes diagnosis.
That is about it for now. HAPPY BIG GAME DAY TOMORROW!!!!!! (since we can't say S*per Bowl anymore lol)
ugh, sorry about the CFRD lady. that's pretty lame.
ReplyDeleteone thing to remember is that highs are actually the weird precursor to lows in CFRD. or, to put it another way, eating things that require more insulin from your body will cause a "dump" in diabetics, meaning that your body will then manufacture extra insulin all at once (to make up for the fact that it's not regulating the sugars very well and feels itself going up) and shove it into your system, causing the low. so even if you think you are not going high and your only trouble is lows, you should still be careful about eating the sort of empty carbs that can cause sugar highs. super annoying, right?
i go low on two occasions, typically. the first is when my HR gets super high (happens often to me b/c of my SVT) and my body goes into overdrive. you experienced this at rehab, i'm guessing. the second is if i eat the wrong food without enough insulin or protein to balance it and my body panics. i very rarely have a huge drop simply b/c i've taken too much insulin. if i do go low for that, it is almost always b/c what i ate had very few carbs total. maybe that's just me, but hopefully there's something to be gained there!
my CFRD endo told me that the number one mistake CFers make is that we eat high carb (good), don't take enough insulin (bad), go low (very bad), and then assume that we've gone low because we need LESS insulin and/or more sugar. weird, right? her advice is to save almost or all of your candy habit for when you're already low. occasionally i don't follow this advice, but for the most part i've come to accept that it really does make me feel better and is safer, so that's what i do.
good luck!
Yeah I think I am going to continue to eat how I was before the diagnosis. I had no issues prior to it. I eat a lot of carbs and very few sugars (soda, candy etc). So if I stick to my normal diet I think I shall be ok for now.
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