[Sailor Steve]

I've held off saying anything because there's some weird and quirky juju going on in my life. Whereas I was beset by all sorts of ailments over the last several months, I don't know what's related to what. Probably everything is related to everything. It's just all so strange.

First, the diarrhea. The GI Doctor had me start taking a pill at bedtime to go with the one in the morning and the eight Loperamide (Imodium) I take throughout the day. At the same time the Diabetes Nurse had me stop taking a weekly injection whose main side effect is, you guessed it, diarrhea. Also at the same time I started drinking Protein Shakes and eating high-protein foods. A week later, for the first time in years, the diarrhea was gone. Stopped. Disappeared completely. Which of the three caused it? Which combination? All of them? Unfortunately my blood sugars are way up again. What caused that? Same questions, and no answers so far.

Second, the Leg Swelling. The sores on my legs are gone, so they stopped the weekly leg-wraps. The swelling specialist had been using Farrow Wraps on my left leg. They handed me over to him and he put one on the right leg as well. A week later both calfs were normal, which is great but doesn't help the thighs, which were still massively swollen.

I've previously mentioned that the pump suit had come but the trainer/specialist was just leaving town for two weeks. Two weeks later she was back and came to my apartment. She set up the suit and had me tear it down and put it together until I was comfortable doing it and could get it right. Then she put me in the suit, turned it on and then left. An hour later (it runs in one-hour cycles) it was done and I took it off. I expected that I should do this every day, and keep wearing the Farrow Wraps all day long, at least until the new Compression Socks came.

The doctor has ordered custom socks just for me. His last few sessions partly consisted of him measuring everything imaginable on my feet and legs. They are being made in Germany and should be here any day.

Then something funny happened. The next day the swelling was gone. All of it. Feed, ankles, calfs, thighs, even my lower stomach. Don't know why. I experimented myself by not wearing the Farrow Wraps. In the last two weeks I've used the pump suit three times. That's it. No wraps, no compression socks. Nothing but those three sessions with the pump. The swelling seems to be completely gone.

Third, the weight. When I suddenly had extra swelling and a huge weight gain they removed a lot of "water" (lymphatic fluid) from my stomach, resulting in a twelve-pound weight loss. Unfortunately most of it came back and two weeks later I looked worse that ever. They repeated the process, and this time I lost fourteen pounds, ending up at 197. That's when the swelling started to go away, and may also have been a contributing factor. I kept losing weight over the next several weeks. I've kept a running record of the whole process, and right now I weigh 155. Some of that is still water, hence the protein regimen. I'm taking two different diuretics (water pills), plus Potassium to counter the loss of that mineral that goes with water loss.

Fourth, the eyes. They've decided to go ahead with the cataract surgery on the left eye. After waiting ten months they're finally fixing the other one. The only bad news is that I had decided to go the split-vision route, with one eye set to regular distance and the other set for reading, thus avoiding the need to carry a pair of reading glasses everywhere I go. I told them that since the first surgery until the other cataract got too bad I have done quite well with having split-vision. He said the problem isn't whether I can read or not, it's physical. My left eye is still showing complications (swelling, bleeding etc) that could cause me to lose the eye. For this reason they don't want to use split-vision. We'll see how it goes.

So, several problems have suddenly gotten better, and in all cases more than one change has been made so nobody is sure exactly what caused the improvement in each one. Hopefully we'll figure it out. Meanwhile I'll see my personal Provider and the Diabetes Nurse together on Tuesday. We'll be discussing all of this then.