Hairy moments.....

Over the past week I appear to have been fighting off some sort of bug. And with the amount of time I've had off work and the range of symptoms I've been getting you would think it was some hybrid form of MRSA crossed with Swine Flu, Pneumonia, pregnancy and plain old reliable cold.

It started with stomach cramps almost a week ago. They felt like the ones you get just before you throw up, ahhh such a lovely feeling. But they never developed into anything more than stomach cramps. Nevertheless they lasted through the night and resulted in me sleeping most of Monday to catch up on some Zzzz's.

Next, I got the overwhelming tiredness. Even two busy days at work seemed to floor me and Thursday I was beyond shattered, even being too tired to shower or eat during the day. Those who know me know that if I'm off my food, at least one part of hell must have frozen over. My guess is that it was a lot cooler in hell that day.

Friday brought more of the tummy rumbles. Never seeming to turn into a full on dose of stomach flu, but enough for me to feel sick, sluggish, off my food and as though I could sleep for a week.

Saturday and Sunday came and things seemed to get a bit better. Still the tiredness loomed, but I'm not the best in sweltering weather anyway, I'm more of a spring and autumn person, fresh and sunny - that's how I do things. The troubles diabetics have with hot weather are well-known and unfortunately never solved. It is just a foible of diabetes - hot weather equals sugars doing just what they want.

Last night however things got a little more worrying that just high or low sugars. I went to bed feeling tired but generally OK. The work clothes had been dusted off and laid out ready for the morning. I'd be surprised if I still knew how to do my job, but I need to learn it again quick smart if I'm to catch up on last week's gathering work gaining momentum on my desk.

I woke up about 45 minutes after I had gone to sleep, feeling very odd. Dizzy, queasy and like the bathroom was far too far away. I sat up and tried to carefully navigate my way to the bathroom. As soon as I arrived by the loo I started hurling with a vengeance. Supportive as always a sleepy looking Jamie arrived at the bathroom door extending me his sympathies. Asking if I was OK and could he get me anything. "Ohhh, I'm OK," I managed, in between involuntary spasms.

He sat with me while the display continued. Eventually we agreed that I would need to blood test. I felt fine 'betes wise, but the situation a diabetic should avoid at all costs is vomiting with low blood sugars, because the energy used up vomiting teamed with low sugars and inability to keep any sugary fluids down, can lead to unconsciousness and even coma.

So I decided to test just to make sure I was OK during my little throwing up session.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BEEEEEEP.

The blood glucose meter tells me I'm 2.7 mmol. Even for me that is quite low.

Right, sugary water it is. Lucozade is likely just to upset my stomach even more and I can't cope with eating right now. So Jamie disappeared to get me some sugary water while I continued to get reacquainted with the toilet bowl. Yuk.

After downing the whole glass of sugared water and leaving it about 10 minutes to ensure the liquid would have got into my system, I tested again.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BEEEEEP.

The blood glucose meter tells me I'm 2.2mmol.

Right, we started to get worried as that is very low by my standards and at the moment I was showing no signs of stopping.

Luckily, after a few more throwing up sessions, I managed to empty my system enough for my stomach to give me a break. I went up to 4.7mmol and was happy that whatever didn't like being in me was out. And frankly I was pleased to be rid of whatever it was too! The feeling was clearly mutual between myself and my imposter.

In total it took almost 12 teaspoons of sugar to stabilise me. This is a HUGE amount considering three is normally more than adequate. I was also expecting a huge rebound after that, partly due to how low I had gone and partly due to the amount of sugar I had chowed down on. Luckily 11.1mmol is the highest I've had since last night which is great, if not baffling.

I have no idea what happened or what it was that caused my little hacking session, but I really hope that after a week of this hybrid disease I have been living with, that was the last of it. I'm not sure how many more symptoms I can actually get!