Well...Fuck a Duck!

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck...

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I can tell you the latest medical news from our household. About 3 months after Gabe was born, my hubby was diagnosed as a Type 2 (insulin resistant) diabetic. This means at that time his body was producing insulin but it wasn't using it effectively. Many Type 2 diabetics have an easy time getting it under control but some don't. Vic never had an easy time getting his under control despite following doctor's orders scrupulously. This means his body is highly resistant to the insulin.

Vic finally got his diabetes under control...for a while. Then, a couple of months ago, his blood sugar swung out of control again. His diet didn't change. His activities didn't change. The meds simply were doing nothing for it. So, his doc added insulin to the oral meds. Specifically, he added Lantus which is a long acting insulin. This still did very little to control his blood sugar. So his doc referred him to an endocrinologist.

The endocrinologist looked at Vic's bloodwork and realized his pancreas was no longer producing insulin. This changed his diagnosis to Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when something (sometimes a virus) causes your immune system to attack the cells of the pancreas. This damages the pancreas which means it no longer produces insulin. So, all the oral meds he had been taking were no longer any good because they are designed to work with insulin produced by the body not insulin that is injected. However, Vic is still extremely resistant to insulin. The dosage he has already up to is more than the body wants to deal with at any one time (which makes the body more resistant). So, they are switching him off of humalog to a more concentrated form of insulin and they are dividing his lantus injections into morning and evening doses. At this point, Vic qualifies as a brittle diabetic because his insulin resistance is causing his diabetes to be uncontrolled. They are looking into an insulin pump because they help out greatly in these cases (and they also are great for people who have jobs with irregular schedules...like people who run 911 centers). Once his diabetes is under control, Vic is going to consider weight loss surgery...probably lap band surgery. Hopefully, the weight loss that would result from that might solve the insulin resistance making the diabetes easier to control long term.

Its so frustrating because Vic has fallen into the small percentage of people who has trouble controlling diabetes no matter what he does. For some people, the oral meds for type 2 diabetes can cause weight gain which then makes the diabetes harder to control. Vic had lost about 80 lbs prior to dignosis and the meds caused it all to come back. Now, because he is insulin resistant, he has to take extremely high doses of insulin which also can cause weight gain...ARGH. Its not FUCKING fair. Why do we always seem to fall on the losing end of the medical odds?