HIV and Chlamydia tests returned negative (no surprises there, but good to know). Blood glucose levels were normal, but since I have spent the past couple years developing a near-zero-carb diet, and since I had not eaten for ten hours prior to my blood being drawn, that doesn't necessarily negate the possibility of some sort of hyperglycemia.
The doctor did explain that people with diabetes don't normally react to sugar intake itself but may have problems when their glucose levels move outside the normal range, so she has no idea what my problem might be, given that I react negatively to the consumption of carbohydrates, not just high/low glucose levels built up over time (and, in fact, seem incapable of having low blood glucose levels even while consuming only meat and water).
On the other hand, high ketone levels are indicative of a few things: starvation; hypoglycemia; genetic problems with metabolism; and ketoacidosis, generally resulting from diabetes. I certainly don't have hypoglycemia, though I did many years ago (which is what makes the reversal seem strange). I don't know whether the lack of food that single day prior to testing was enough to elevate my ketone levels or whether my generally poor diet and malnutrition could encompass the starvation cause. I have no idea if I have any genetically caused metabolic problems, though I wouldn't rule it out, and I still have not actually been tested for diabetes. Was also supposed to be tested for additional diseases which are not listed on these results, so am confused about that. rar
Update: Also, the psychiatrist has prescribed me a one-month minimum dosage of citalopram and will be seeing me again in two weeks (on Tuesday) to check for adverse reactions and likely up the dose. At some point after that, she may add a mood stabilizer (which seemed likely, from what she was saying).
- Current Location:United States, Owings Mills
- Current Mood:
exhausted
Comments
Self diagnosis and the internet is dangerous, though. Numbers with bloodwork that are only slightly above normal are tricky, as each lab can have a different range of where "normal" falls. (As I just found out from my doctor today, regarding potassium levels.)
I dig it's an insurance and money issue, but I think that once that get straightened out, you might have gotten your body into better condition nutrition wise (as malnutrition can fuck with a range of things, mood included), in order to then start eliminating stuff and seeing what the effect are, combined with bloodwork.
As far as the things I listed out of normal range, I don't assume they necessarily mean anything, but I figure it's good to keep track of the data just in case they do mean anything. Probably my diet is the cause of the slightly high cholesterol. I am not sure which thing might be causing the elevated ketone levels, and heightened ketone levels themselves aren't bad for you, they just can sometimes be indicative of other problems.
As far as my reactions to carbohydrates, I know that Lyme disease specialists say that it has something to do with the bacteria itself reacting to the sugars. I am skeptical of this, since there are no approved tests which detect the presence of the bacteria directly, only the presence of antibodies related to the bacteria, but I don't really know what my problem is.
I know that my limited diet is effecting me and that I will need to find ways around it, but actually eating foods that impact me negatively tends to make me far more unstable than maintaining my limited diet. I do take a B complex and just got a prescription for a multivitamin I need to fill. I do want to try and expand my food range as much as I can without hurting myself too much, and if we can figure out why I react poorly to carbohydrates and what can be done about it, that should open a lot of carbohydrate-rich gluten-free food options for me, hopefully. In the meantime, since I'm not working or anything, I have recently increased my carb intake to a point that gets difficult to tolerate and just slow down when I can tell any more will make me completely dysfunctional.
Edited at 2009-12-10 09:56 pm (UTC)
It is true that I don't have the normal reaction to gluten that Celiacs have, constipation instead of diarrhea. But isn't diarrhea typical of IBS too? So I don't know what to think.
100mg of colace daily
a probiotic (align is good or profibia)
up to two dose of Miralax daily
If I still can't go after 2 days then a Dulcolax suppository.
Ironically, what's been really helping these days has been the diet I sent you and taking milk thistle and dandelion root. I started taking it for liver support because of some of the complications I have, but it's actually been doing wonders for my IBS as well. I can't recommend the two enough.
::hugs::
http://www.itchymoms.com/diet.html
It's helped a bit with my itching related to the pregnancy. I, obviously, know it's not what you're going through but the diet was designed with support of the liver in mind so you may be able to borrow a bit from it. I've sort of made a vegetarian version of it for myself and subtracted the prenatals because of the iron. Obviously, you'd probably need to eliminate the whole grains.