Tag Archives: Diabetes

Multiple Sclerosis Hypertension and Now Pre-Diabetic

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    Cow Painting Ever since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis back in 2000 my blood pressure has slowly crept up to a point where it was really starting to bother both myself and my family doctor. At first I was prescribed low doses of something that I don’t recall the name of but it made me cough to the point where it had to be changed to Losartan Potassium. And at first this seemed to bring my BP down to a more reasonable level. But it didn’t take long until the dose had to be doubled to 50mg and then doubled again to a 100mg which is where I’m at now and it still doesn’t seem to be enough to lower my blood pressure down to a safer level.

     I think my doctor might also be starting to get concerned with this because he ordered a complete blood work up to see if something else may be causing my higher pressure levels. However as the results are now back they are all, for the post part, in the normal range with one exception. My glucose levels were high enough for my doctor to announce that I am now pretty much pre-diabetic.

     In one respect this does not come as to much of a shock to me as just about everyone on both sides of my family are also either diabetic or like me, at some early stage of becoming diabetic. But in another respect I remember reading early on after my MS diagnosis that people who became diabetic rarely developed multiple sclerosis and vice versus as well. Another myth bites the dust.

     There is a bright side to this diagnosis that if I watch my weight and my diet I should never develop full blown diabetes. Unfortunately this still doesn’t explain the hypertension. His guess is a combination of stress related factors along with the fact that I really don’t get enough exercise being at least part of the problem. And he stated that higher BP is somewhat common for people with MS. I do try and exercise as much as I can but it tires me out at a pretty fast rate and I live in a place where it rains a lot which also makes getting out more of a problem. And telling me that I am now one step closer to being diabetic certainly doesn’t help reduce any stress that I may be experiencing.

     I have another appointment in a couple of weeks so I won’t know until then whether we are going to increase my current BP drug or try something new. Which means for now, the mystery continues!

 

Bill Walker

MS Cancer Diabetes Anything Else?

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Ferry Ring or the Circle of Life

    

     Roughly fifteen years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and I was instantly thrust into a new way of life that, I might add, I had not asked for. And then about four years ago a lesion on my neck, just to the right and below my right ear, was diagnosed as being pre-melanoma and required a surgical procedure to remove it. I so far, have been fortunate enough not to have had any more of these kinds of lesions. However now I will always have to be, especially since I have very fair skin, very careful about any skin anomaly that I, or my doctor, may find. Yep, just one more thing that I have to worry about as I get older.

     You know, it seems to me that anyone who is diagnosed with something like Multiple Sclerosis or Cancer should never again have to face a life changing health issue of the same magnitude. And now I’m two for two as I travel into my twilight years of this lifetime. And now I am more then totally convinced that the Eleventh Commandment should have been, If thou suffers from one terrible disease then thou shall not have to ever face another one in this lifetime.

     And for me, unfortunately, it doesn’t end there either. My family is just loaded with diabetics and pre-diabetics as far as the family tree can be traced. And I was aware of that when I was first diagnosed with MS so I read what I could find out about this on the internet which of course is not always the most reliable of sources but when I was looking, all those years ago, I was lucky just to be able to figure out how to get onto the internet in the first place so questioning what I was reading wasn’t exactly a concern at the time.

     At any rate, I was quite relieved when I stumbled across an article, or opinion, you decide, about people who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis rarely ever being diagnosed with Diabetes from that point on. Which, of course, isn’t true but there is a strange ending to my story here in the present day. While everyone else in my families blood sugar soars after they eat mine does not. And this has left a couple my doctors quite perplexed, so in my case, maybe the MS Diabetic thing is true after all? Well, I can only hope so, because there is also a fair amount of Cardiac Disease in my family as well. But that’s another story, and another worry, for another day. Right now, I’m just happy that all I have is just MS!

Bill Walker