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November 11, 2007

Adventures with Bruce - Fun with Health Care

by Ferdinand T Cat

Bruce spent the run up to the weekend doing more medical tests. The worst by far was the test to see if his diabetes was causing damage to his eyes. Since he's supposed to be losing weight, he decided to climb the stairs to the doctor's office where they were administering the tests; however, there were a bunch of guys in uniforms standing at the base of the stairs and they told him to take the elevator because the stairs were out of order.

Does that sort of thing happen to everybody, or just him?

Anyway, the eye test uses a machine that takes pictures of different parts of the retina. The pictures are then examined by a doctor to determine if anything is wrong. In order to make it easier for the camera to capture the complete retina, they put drops in your eyes to dilate the pupils. The drops seriously mess up your ability to focus your eyes, so everything becomes blurry. Bruce had a terrible incident with pupil dilation when he was in high school. On the day in question, he rode his bike to the eye doctor's office, and when he came back out after the test he couldn't see the numbers on the bike's combination lock, so he was stuck there for two hours while his vision slowly came back. Since then, he's never gone anywhere without a book to read in case he's stuck without a ride. It's been a great plan, but it was not until two days ago that he realized there is a problem with bringing a book so you can read while waiting until you can see well enough to drive.

The other problem is that putting things in his eyes scares him, and his normal reflex for dealing with fear is closing his eyes. It took a while to get enough drops in to proceed with the test. Sometime next week we'll know the results. I'm hopeful. When Bruce goes in for medical tests, they almost always find something wrong, but it's rarely what they were looking for.

In the mean time, we've been working on the glucose meter thing. The meter comes with a device that stabs you with a needle so fast that you can hardly feel it. Unfortunately, Bruce's skin is so thick that even on its highest setting the needle doesn't penetrate far enough to draw blood, so he has to do it the hard way. So far, the results make no sense. Two hours after a meal, he hovers around 120. This all started because after fasting for 12 hours, he was consistently over 200. Either the drugs kick in very quickly, or giving up Krispy Kremes makes that big of a difference. Bruce really wants to devour a dozen Krispy Kremes in one sitting to see what effect it has, but he'd be sick for hours afterward, and I'd rather not put him through that.

Still, he has a lot of good company. Everyone has been very supportive, and he does appreciate all the comments and emails. I do, too, but if you could also tell him to stop reading about all this stuff and GET BACK TO WORK ON THE BLOG I would appreciate it even more.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Sun 10:42 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (7) | More Adventures with Bruce | Tags:

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yeah, THERE ARE NO NEW FERDY PICS ON THE FRONT PAGE!!!! that is just wrong.


Posted by: maggie katzen at November 11, 2007 1:10 PM

Krispy Kremes are made mostly of sugar. The only part that isn't sugar is the hole.


Posted by: dean0 at November 11, 2007 6:50 PM

If he decides to eat the Krispy Kremes, he may as well eat TWO dozen and see if it kills him. Why go halfway? :-)


Posted by: Suldog at November 12, 2007 9:40 AM

I think Bruce's only hope to once again enjoy Krispie Kremes, is to hold a fundraiser offering a signed photo of Ferdy to any commenter who will give him a pancreas.

"Pictures for Pancreae!"


Posted by: Tom the Pooklekufr at November 12, 2007 4:33 PM

Ouch. I've gotten those eye drops before and they seriously sting.

I'm also sugar-restricted because one of the anti-rejection medications I'm on (for my recent kidney transplant) seriously raises my glucose levels and my doctors (not to mention myself) really don't want me to go through what Bruce is going through now, on top of everything else I already go through. So I kind of understand the Krispy Kremes thing. To make matters worse, my mom just got a big box of Entenmann's cinnamon rolls. Ugh.

Before my transplant, they told me I would be able to drink as much as I want. What they didn't mention is that the only thing I can drink safely is water. :P This means no more than 8 ounces of juice and 8 ounces of milk a day.

Well anyway, tell Bruce my sympathies and prayers are with him.


Posted by: Michael at November 15, 2007 12:01 AM

Thanks. And ours with you, of course.

You don't think there's a link between diabetes and playing Sonic, do you?


Posted by: Ferdy Author Profile Page at November 17, 2007 3:51 PM

Um, no. In fact, if you play Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, you can get quite a workout. :)


Posted by: Michael at December 6, 2007 2:14 AM

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