One of those days from hell.... count your blessings

Search
Go

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List
This thread has been locked
Messages 1 - 41 of total 41 in this topic
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Original Post - May 14, 2013 - 10:21pm PT
Layton and I often shared our various ailments. We commiserated during
his many phone calls to me, and we kept our tongues in our cheeks.
It's not as though to complain helps a lot, or that people are all
that sympathetic ultimately. So, in that spirit, I mean not to
complain but just rather to invite you all to count your blessings
and be grateful for your health. Today I had one of those "days
from hell," as they are called.

I have tremendous pain in my right eye. I had this once before,
and the eye doctor did every possible test at that time but
but found nothing. That pain finally subsided and, fortunately,
went away but now today returned with a vengeance, with no apparent
cause. It has been agony. I was trying to take a nap, sleep away
some of the pain, as it were, when suddenly it felt as though I
was going to perish where I lay. I got up and found my blood
glucose level had plummeted to almost 50, and was headed downward,
but at the moment about a point or two from "all she wrote."
I managed, at the limit of my ability and physical strength
to stuff some food down. I phoned a friend who ran over with
some orange juice, and I slowly started to recover, though with
the shakes and chills and so forth. Such a drop, called hypoglycemia,
takes a huge toll on the body, and I still feel as though a truck
hit me.

In and around these two events I was also having some very
painful cramps or spasms in my bladder, due to the infection I
have battled for two years now and not been able to shake. My
lady urologist does not want me to go on the Cipro, the
powerful antibiotic, unless I get really sick and have symptoms,
because I am going to build up an immunity to it. And it would
be of no effect if I really need it again. The cramps feel as
though you are being stabbed in your lowest stomach, bladder
area, so they're no fun at all.

When I have a day like this it makes me greatly appreciate the better
days. I wanted more than anything to work on some writing and some
music today and could do nothing.... It's good to read about
others and their adventures..., with squinting, straining eyes...
(the pain in the one eye almost produces sympathetic blindness
in the other). Forgive the typos, as I have to go mostly by feel.
Levy

Big Wall climber
So Cal
May 14, 2013 - 10:32pm PT
Pat, Sorry to hear of your difficult days. I sincerely hope you get the care you need & the doctors find a way to treat what is causing all of this.

I'll be sending some good thoughts your way.
snakefoot

climber
cali
May 14, 2013 - 10:34pm PT
endless battle it seems. it can destroy your body, but keep up the spirit and i wish you better days.
stilltrying

Trad climber
washington indiana
May 14, 2013 - 10:46pm PT
Wishing you happier days and relief from your ailments Mr. Ament.
Leggs

Sport climber
Is this a trick question?
May 14, 2013 - 10:51pm PT
Thank you for the reminder to count our blessings, Pat. Many forget ...

Healing vibes and energy to you from the desert of Tucson.


~peace
10b4me

Ice climber
Soon 2B Arizona
May 14, 2013 - 10:54pm PT
Pat, I hope you have better days, and I know you will
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
May 14, 2013 - 10:55pm PT
Pat,

Keeping a few little bottles of Gatorade around might be beneficial. Gatorade works even faster than orange juice when you're in a hypoglycemic state...it's flavored with pure glucose.

Other common sports drinks are much slower because they're usually sucrose or fructose and take longer to digest and get into bloodstream.

Sadly, the more hypoglycemic incidents you have ...the less you're able to discern them coming on.

Sorry for the sermon...best wishes!
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
May 14, 2013 - 11:14pm PT
Pat-

So sorry! I'll send a private email, but please, what Jenny said and your doctors. Your daughters and friends need you to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. You still have so much creativity to give. If good wishes alone could heal, you'd be in perfect health by now.
Scrubber

climber
Straight outta Squampton
May 14, 2013 - 11:20pm PT
Wow, that sounds absolutely horrible. I wish you a speedy return to health, whatever it takes. Sh#t like this sure puts our petty little day to day wimperings into perspective...

Kris
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 14, 2013 - 11:26pm PT
Prayers and Positive thoughts to you who is and has been a big part of this community. Having worked in the Healthcare Community for over 20 years it seems like you are seeking good help.

Onliest other thing I can recommend is to find time to be at peace with your soul. Find a quiet, beautiful place and put aside all the things that pull at your peace and joy....and there are lots of those in our lives. Forgive, love those that are almost an enemy in our lives and enjoy just this one day. I'ts all we have, really.

When I was at crisis after Dan died I began to live
One day at a time
one step at a time
with Peace, Patience and Perseverance.....Later with Joy included.

Five plus years out it has worked.

Peace Dude, lynnie
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 14, 2013 - 11:44pm PT
Thanks everyone. I don't mean to be a pain. Just sounding
off again.... as is my nature.
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 14, 2013 - 11:49pm PT
People aren't "pains" Patrick. We are all humans, living the human condition. We all, each and everyone of us, have sweet, easy parts of life and then perhaps difficult challenges that are like climbing up your first lead and you're run out.

It's a good thing to hear from you. Life is challenging but after the crux you will live and grow. lynnie
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
May 15, 2013 - 09:29am PT
Your prose suffers when you are like that...it is easy to tell. You aren't able to give it your usual vigorous re-writing or it would be different phrasing. Just the casual obsevation, Pat. You are terribly distracted.

When I have bouts of fighting to bring up sticky mucous so that I can get a full breath, I get drenched in sweat. I just experienced this from five a.m. till sixish. It often takes longer, but this one seemed desperate. You NEED to breathe, even if it is simply in order to be able to think well. Also, I find I cannot concentrate and so I hang it up until I can at least breathe without extra effort, and then I sit for fifteen and enjoy the feeling, knowing it's coming again, but knowing also there are others like me.

Visiting my old Flames buddy Jeff, his lady, Denice (Denny), told me of her allergies and how she fights it constantly. It is daily hell with asthma. I find my spirit wants so badly to go climb or simply walk up to the base of the Cookie Cliff or the simple approach to LL--and my old body is dying slowly and can't support vigorous activity, not even this very limited approach. This makes it true hell, denial of what we think we might use, having earned it through living, to bring us some bit of happiness before the final curtain.

Whine completed, there are blessings, and the biggest is the realization that I haven't used my time until recently at all well. I am being forced into a corner and made to surrender these ideas and expressions of my self, like it or not that my time can't be spent frivolously, as was my wont before the onset of this disease. I used to have so much of it, too.


Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
May 15, 2013 - 10:07am PT
Mouse, I used to have terrible respiratory problems also (15 years' worth) which were diagnosed as asthma. I was in the ER at least twice every year and struggled so hard to breath, I've pushed part of my diaphragm from my abdominal cavity up into my chest cavity. I took buckets of steroids and had all the side effects. Eventually I went to National Jewish Hospital in Denver, #1 respiratory hospital in the world, and discovered I had sinus and vocal cord problems, not true asthma. The treatment is entirely different and I've been ok ever since, so you might consider a second opinion from the very best.
Kalimon

Social climber
Ridgway, CO
May 15, 2013 - 11:24am PT
Sound off all you want brother . . . we are all here to listen.

Sending the best of thoughts.

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 15, 2013 - 04:52pm PT
Not sure what writing recently of mine fell short for you, Mouse.
I don't think my writing really has any problem, just my
body.
Fossil climber

Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
May 15, 2013 - 06:23pm PT
Hang in there, buddy. Amazing what you can come back from, even if it takes some time.
Fossil climber

Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
May 15, 2013 - 06:24pm PT
Hang in there, buddy. Amazing what you can come back from.
Michelle

Social climber
1187 Hunterwasser
May 15, 2013 - 07:06pm PT
Sending the happy vibes your way!
crunch

Social climber
CO
May 15, 2013 - 07:12pm PT
Glucose works much faster than other sugars and carbs (like OJ) because your body spends a few minutes converting these other sugars into glucose. Cut out the middle man! Try to always have some of these with you:

http://www.walgreens.com/q/oral-glucose-tablets

guyman

Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
May 15, 2013 - 07:48pm PT
I hope you feel better.

Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
May 15, 2013 - 07:57pm PT
these frickin young doctors now days,

use to get tetracyclin for lung infections from my old doc,

now they want to save those for when i really need them, like when i'm dead,

can not count the number of times i would have been happier had they just givin me the stickin pills,

i mean when your pushin 60, what is the point of saving them for later?

i want to enjoy life now, not when i am dead,

going to break into a pharmacy if they keep this crap up,

billionaire pill companies will come up with a new drug anyway, rant over,

Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
May 15, 2013 - 10:15pm PT
My best thoughts for you, Pat! It really sucks to get old, doesn't it?

Rodger
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
May 15, 2013 - 11:26pm PT
Hey Brokedown, Miss yo.:D

Good thing is ..... at least we are here to get old. Smiles, lynnie
splitter

Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
May 16, 2013 - 12:06am PT
Leggs - Thank you for the reminder to count our blessings, Pat. Many forget...

So true.

I believe that is instrumental, in both getting through those valleys of despair that we unfortunately encounter as we travel the long and winding road called life, and in appreciating what we do have and not letting the emphasis be on what we don't have in our day to day life. Counting our blessings while we still have the time to appreciate them is something I probably should have done more of throughout my life. I still need that occasional reminder, so thanks! And btw, you're a blessing to us, and are in my thoughts and prayers. Hope your feeling better soon.
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
May 16, 2013 - 12:47am PT
hey there say, patrick... get well soon...

there must be a connection??? to the glucose, or blood pressure thing??
and the eye pain?


just guessing, as it all happened at once...


a friend of mine, from england, take blood pressure medicine to keep her blood pressure down, in her EYE... she has some kind of condition, and the pressure builds up in her in eye, she was going to go blind from this, but they found out what it was and this has kept it at bay, though she can't can't always do strenuose eye-work... and is not good in bright light...

forgot what this was called, or how they found it... it has not affected her other eye, which was good...

it has something to do with the blood vessels, somewhere in or around? the eye...


hope you eye will be okay...
if it keeps happening, you may want to check around with some other doctor on that...



keep your spirits up! and keep sharing when you are down,
friends will be more than happy to give you a hand to higher ground, :)
Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
May 16, 2013 - 08:30am PT
Pat,
Hope you are feeling better. If you can get outside in the glorious spring weather that finally arrived, it is bound to help.
Rick
Michelle Gill

climber
Redding, CA
May 16, 2013 - 11:00am PT
I don't know what compelled me to read your thread, Pat. But I'm glad I did. I hope you are well on the mend. Your writing reminded me of my husband Ian, who was a big wall climber as well. Bless his heart, he passed away 6 months ago and I miss him terribly. Thank you for the reminder to feel blessed on the good days. I am just taking this one day at a time myself. Here is a link to his last thread if you would like to read it.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1861560&msg=1861560#msg1861560
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 16, 2013 - 08:22pm PT
Thank you so much, Michelle. Ian was a very impressive spirit. Sometimes
it seems the great ones are given the greater tests. I wish I had
known him, but I sensed him and grew to like him in just the messages
he posted.
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2013 - 07:48pm PT
When I get it little bit better together I want to
climb in Eldorado. Rick, you owe me (haha). Take me
up something easy... just for the view and to think of Layton....
hamie

Social climber
Thekoots
May 18, 2013 - 01:46am PT
Hey Pat
I have just reached P83 in "Stories of a Young Climber", it's a fun read--and a marked contrast to the opening post in this thread. I hope you're feeling better today.
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 18, 2013 - 04:43am PT
Yes that was another mostly journal piece, just start writing
and see what unfolds. I then later cut about half of it, but
as I look back now it definitely needed more work. That was my
thing for a while, simply to write and then, if I felt it was
at least ok, publish it....
cliffhanger

Trad climber
California
May 18, 2013 - 12:49pm PT
I had the same problem, very painful. I cured it with fasting. I used the fruit fast with an occasional shot of buttermilk. Eat only to prevent traumatic starvation, some days hardly any fruit at all. And buttermilk only when starvation feels quite desperate, once or twice a week at first then less often. You can eliminate the buttermilk and drink grass juice instead for a better program. Wheatgrass or wild grasses sprouting up in the high mountains as the snow melts off. Chew up the wild grass, suck down the juice, and spit out the pulp.
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 18, 2013 - 10:35pm PT
Cliffhanger, not sure what particular problem you're referring to, and
I don't quite follow your thoughts about buttermilk and mountain grass,
etc. Are you talking about the glucose level drop?
jogill

climber
Colorado
May 18, 2013 - 11:57pm PT
With your problems, Pat, IMHO that diet sounds like a disaster.


;>\
cliffhanger

Trad climber
California
May 19, 2013 - 04:07am PT
I was referring to the eye problem. You eat enough so that your body only uses the food it has stored for lean times, primarily your fat. All of your muscle and organs are preserved. You eat very little at first but when your fat is gone, you up your intake to give yourself the needed calories. Fruit is very easy for the body to digest, giving all your internal organs a chance to heal themselves.
Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2013 - 06:18pm PT
Sorry, but that diet wouldn't work with me. Almost any fruit
seriously spikes my blood, even with insulin. And when I don't
eat and try to lose weight, I get serious drop-outs the other
direction. It's a messy disease, diabetes, and you can't deal with
it in any normal sort of way. There are, of course several kinds
of diabetes. There is type 1, where you don't have insulin in your
body. Then there is type 2, where you have insulin but it doesn't
get through the receptors, so you take medicine to open the receptors,
or you bathe yourself in insulin (as I'm doing). Another kind of
diabetes is environmental, where you simply manifest the symptoms
of diabetes by eating too much and getting overweight. If you lose
the weight and start eating right, the symptoms go away. This kind
would respond well to a starvation diet of sort, if it isn't
too sudden, because in fact with this kind you really
don't have diabetes. My type: if I were to lose 80 pounds and get
really fit I would still have it. The battle is simply to keep the
blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible, and in my case
that's an hourly battle....
cliffhanger

Trad climber
California
May 20, 2013 - 02:30am PT
A friend of mine also has Type 1. We thought that maybe if a small piece of fruit was eaten say about every 15 minutes +/- it might work. But she too was unwilling to try it. I gave up all animal products except buttermilk after my eye problem and it never reoccurred. Maybe that would be worth a shot.

Good luck with everything.
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
May 20, 2013 - 03:05am PT
Corelation is not causation. I remember when Layton Kor was convinced that his diet of lettuce, carrots, and celery had cured his lung disease. Then I read that it was either spontaneously cured by the body's immune system or the patients died despite treatment. He said it was lettuce, I say it was luck.
Brokedownclimber

Trad climber
Douglas, WY
May 20, 2013 - 10:14am PT
Just a comment to Cliffhanger: Many of these extreme diets are very dangerous to diabetics. I was really overweight about 12 years ago (>235 pounds) and I tried the "Adkins Diet." This avoids carbohydrates and focusses on eating a high fat diet, all the while monitoring urinary ketones with ketostrips. It deliberately induces ketosis, but the weight loss is phenomenal, and I went down to 192 pounds in under 6 weeks. I went up to climb Mt. Huron over near Buena Vista, CO, and started having visual hallucinations that I attributed to symptoms similar to diabetic insulin shock. Stopped the diet, but several side effects stayed with me for quite some time: irregular heartbeat and occasional bouts of vertigo. My tolerance for caffeine (too much coffee) was affected as well, so I monitor my caffeine intake carefully in order to retain my FAA flight medical status (Class 2 Medical for Commercial Pilots).
climbski2

Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
May 21, 2013 - 12:17am PT
Be well Pat and if not know there is a lot of love for you in this strange little world of climbing. Feel free to vent and lean on us as much as you need anytime.
Messages 1 - 41 of total 41 in this topic
Return to Forum List
 
Our Guidebooks
spacerCheck 'em out!
SuperTopo Guidebooks

guidebook icon
Try a free sample topo!

 
SuperTopo on the Web

Recent Route Beta