Health & Other Issues and properly caring for reptiles right now.....

[dakski]

I have good news and bad news.

The good news first. I found a new medicine (new to me and new to the market) that helps treat my sleep disorders and for the first time in years, I have some energy. Still have a transplanted kidney and medication issues, etc. but this is the first improvement I have seen in the energy department in years. The past year or two I've been exhausted and or sleeping a lot. I am still having issues and say I am 60-70% on a good day, but that's way better than 20-30% on average.

This means I have been spending more time with and feel better about caring for the reptiles. I was worried for a while that I wasn't going to be able to care for them the way I want and they deserve over the long-term. I am happy to report, that at least at the moment, things are looking up there.

The bad news. I may have mentioned that I had an infection (happens being immune suppressed) and almost died a few months ago. Well, I had been pre-diabetic and was managing it well. However, the trauma of the illness/infection and the long-term prednisone use (a drug I cannot stop and have to take forever not to reject my kidney), etc. caused me to go full type 2 diabetic. That was contributing to me feeling badly but didn't know it until two weeks ago when I was finally diagnosed. I am on insulin now and they are still working to the dosage, but things are significantly better on that front. I was apparently walking around at times being very close to a diabetic coma.

I am the kind of person who doesn't dwell on things I cannot control and takes control of what I can. I have adjusted my diet, am continuing to lose weight, working on exercising, and taking my insulin and other meds per doctors orders. I was pretty upset initially, but after a short "pity-party" got right on track.

I am looking forward to continuing to feel better and to getting the basement fixed (still a work in progress) and spending more time with Katie, the dogs, and the reptiles.

Katie is still a work in progress, but we are getting closer, per the doctor to a full diagnosis and treatment. I likely won't share all the details of that on here as it's Katie's life and she is more private than I am. However, I will let people know when she's back on track as well.