Update on Tor

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Spirit replied on Thu, Aug 20 2009 4:29 PM

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Joe Buffalo:  Good to hear from you.  Thought you fell off the face of the earth!  How are things going with you?

Spirit

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Joe replied on Fri, Aug 21 2009 12:10 PM

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Bill & Spirit:

Good to hear from you -- I've been doing well.  Got tired of messing with the new board when there are just so many places, blogs, etc. where I could participate more easily -- not like the old days when you could see over 100 posts per day on the Joslin boards. 

My son has been living in PA now for over a year now when he switched firms -- he's loving it there and enjoys his work which has included some international travel.

Earlier this week I spent a good part of the afternoon in the basement of our office building while tornado's hammered a little town just to our west and another just north of Spi.

My diabetes management has gone as well as could be expected. Still taking 10mg Lipitor, 1g Metformin, 20mg Lisinopril -- plus OTC 1 baby asprin & 2,000 IU D3.  At my latest Endo/RD/CDE 6 month appt. last month I was down 13 lbs puting me back to where I was when I was doing so much high adventure trips with the Boy Scouts.  Also, my A1C was 5.6%, TC was 82, LDL was 44, TG was 55, HDL was 27.  I'm still working/hoping to get the HDL up but with the LDL and TG so low my Endo didn't think I should be too concerned -- but you know me -- of course I'm concerned [grin] -- there's always room for improvement [grin] -- just remember to have fun along the way.

How has everyone been?

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mrfino replied on Fri, Aug 21 2009 1:23 PM

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Hi Joe:

Good to see you on the Joslin boards again. I hope you can master the "new" boards enough to contribute regularly again. You have been a great contributor to the discussion here.

Regarding your HDL, my endo also told me not to be too concerned about my low HDL (mine is usually 19 - 29). The endo said that the studies don't show any additional benefit of BOTH lowering TG and raising HDL over doing one but not the other. For all we know, doing one but not the other is as advantageous as it gets. The endo told me this a few years ago. Science is an ever-evolving process. I'll revisit the issue with him again the next time I see him. Like you I am concerned about my HDL level despite what the endo said.  I significantly lowered my TG with the help of gemfibrozil (Lopid). I am curious to see if my exercise and weight loss this summer have had any impact on my HDL.

John

Type 2, dx 1995 metformin and Byetta

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Joe replied on Fri, Aug 21 2009 3:04 PM

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Hi John:

Good hearing from you John.  Thanks for the nice comment.

We tried Lopid on me back in 2001 or 2002 and it had the opposite effect on me and raised my TC and especially my LDL to almost twice what they were before and even higher than what my lipids were when I was first diagnosed in 98 and weighted 60 lbs heavier!  Needless to say, we dropped that pretty quickly.  My Endo said that happens with some people.  My brother takes Lopid with no problems but still can only hit 30 on the best of days.

Obviously, There's a genetic basis for my lower HDL, I'm encouraged that my dad has always been in the mid to low 20's and he's 80 and still kicking.  Even my grandmother had lousy HDL numbers and she just recently passed away this summer one month shy of her 100th birthday.

Good luck on your next office visit.

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Spirit replied on Fri, Aug 21 2009 9:29 PM

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Earlier this week I spent a good part of the afternoon in the basement of our office building while tornado's hammered a little town just to our west and another just north of Spi.

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Joe replied on Sat, Aug 22 2009 8:10 AM

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Spirit:

  Joe:  Having grown up in the Midwest I recall the force of tornadoes and spending lots of hours below ground.  Now I'm in New England.  Thought I left that behind me.  Nope.  Tornadoes just ripped through the county northwest os us.  We got rain only.  They sure are a scary force of nature!

 

With the State Faiir going on it made it pretty exciting for the participants -- at least I was inside with a basement to go to....  The Tornado's hit during Governor's day at the fair -- I wonder if that ment anything?

Do you still have family in the Midwest?

In replying to your message I've discovered that it can't be done on an iPod/iPhone -- have to be at a real computer.  I can read posts with the iPod -- I just couldn't enter comments [though I could enter tags], interesting.

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Spirit replied on Sat, Aug 22 2009 11:45 AM

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Still have family in Ohio, none left in Mich.

Spirit

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Ron AKA replied on Sat, Aug 22 2009 12:01 PM

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Fred if you are exchanging e-mail with Tor, please pass on my condolances as well. Tor was always a thoughtful contributor here and is obviously missed.

Joe, good to see you back again. On the lower HDL you may want to try a different statin to see what happens. I'm getting a bit rusty on that subject, but I recall not all have the same effect on HDL, and some can reduce it along with reducing LDL. Zocor (Simvistatin?), was one I recall which may be better for HDL. Probably would have to increase the dose from Lipitor to keep the LDL the same. Also Crestor 10 may be worth a try too.

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Joe replied on Sat, Aug 22 2009 9:07 PM

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Ron AKA:

Joe, good to see you back again. On the lower HDL you may want to try a different statin ....

Thanks Ron.  It's good to see you on the board.  Have a good weekend.

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Tor replied on Sat, Sep 5 2009 8:09 PM

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I finally decided to check in. Things are still very far from normal but I'm finding that getting back into a routine of taking care of my physical health is not only good for the body, it also helps with healing of the mind. Walking, paying attention to what I eat and so on. In the past I always found that the Joslin groups were a good motivator and I'm sure that will be the case now as well.

I won't go into too much detail about exactly what happened, but I will say that when someone you are close to is afflicted with a mental illness and becomes psychotic and suicidal it can have a devastating affect on all those concerned. Nobody who experiences that up close wll ever be the same again. In the aftermath I was very close to losing my own mind when I found that prior to this happening everything I thought I owned, including our company, had been transferred to Vida's family who subsquently blamed me for her death and took possession of everything from our furniture and the apartment we lived in to every item in the apartment. I was prevented from attending the funeral/memorial service and only in the last days found out her ashes had been spread in the ocean by her sisters before I even knew she was dead. My family in Norway has also refused to talk to me since this happened based on a letter I have not seen but which Vida, deep in the grips of depression and paranoia,  mailed to family and friends prior to losing her mind and her life. Thankfully I have my daughter who was and is aware of the circumstances and has been very supportive of me. Also, I am very slowly starting the process of building a new business so that I can get a livelihood again. If anyone has read a book by the author Franz Kafka, this is what it would have felt like to be inside that book.

Enough said, I hope everyone is doing well.

Tor

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kat replied on Sat, Sep 5 2009 9:07 PM

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Dear Tor,

I was so pleased to see you had posted after such a long time, but then devastated to read of your losses.  You have always been a strength to many of us here, and I know you will continue to be strong throughout your own trials.  Would that there were no necessity of such a struggle.

Take good care of yourself.  My thoughts are with you.

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Dee replied on Sat, Sep 5 2009 10:58 PM

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Tor, I was so sad to hear of your loss.  Thinking of you and your daughter at this time.  Dee

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Tor replied on Sun, Sep 6 2009 1:06 AM

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Thanks Kat and Dee.

On Tuesday I found there had been a break in on my sailboat and my stereo and collection of music CDs had been stolen. We found a witness and it turned out it was Vida's daughter Anita and her sister Meena who had broken in. They claimed that in her will Vida had left them my sailboat, so the police said they'd have nothing to do with it but to get a lawyer and take it to court. The problem is that her family cleaned out our bank accounts, and anything we had of value. I'm living off unemployment insurance and not enough to pay any lawyer or court fees. An example of the craziness.

According to my doctor a mental stress situation like the one I've gone through can result in the same kind of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) that can occor after a serious accident or wartime incident, and I believe that. The effects on blood sugar levels can be significant, but that is countered a bit by a total loss of appetite. Anyway, I've not been testing for a while, didn't want to have more to worry about, but that is on the agenda now. I did have a blood works done three weeks ago though, hba1c was 5.4 and fasting bg was 117 so not totally out of range at least at that point in time.

Tor

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kat replied on Sun, Sep 6 2009 1:25 AM

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Oh, dear Tor -- even your beloved Chantress. . . .I am so sorry all this has happened.  But amazing that despite everything your hbalc is only 5.4 -- Wow!  Keep up the great work!

Of course I have no idea what might be available in BC, but here there are free legal aid clinics.  Might be worth checking out.

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Simi_Papa replied on Sun, Sep 6 2009 1:38 AM

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Thanks for updating us Tor.  I understand fully what happened.  My mother was diagnosed and hospitalized with paranoid schizophrenia and her behavior matches what happened with Vida.  If she had control of their bank accounts I am sure she would have done something similar.  I was in high school at the time and it was very scary to be home with her after school.  You've always been a hard worker so I am sure you will be able to come back from this.  I hope we can atleast offer you moral support from this board.