Collection of today

[freyakitten]

We have crickets in the walls, ceilings and under the carpet at work. Rather, we had. Yesterday, my boss went nuts with the surface spray around the door, because we could see an entire colony of ants preparing to move inside to avoid todays' downpour. As she sprayed the front step, crickets scattered in all directions, in most cases obviously affected by the chemicals. At the end of the day, I found I missed the sound of them yelling their heads off as the light begins to fade.

The biggest cricket is still running around, alive but confused.

Tired, tired tired.

Today, I went googling and found a couple of websites devoted to one of my medical problems, mitochondrial disease or disfunction. I went googling because I'm finding it difficult to explain to people why I'm ill and exhausted with no discernable (to their eyes) reason, and I'd like to put together a collection of resources for reference. I won't say CFS because that's just not true, although a lot of the symptoms I display are similar. I do like the description here, though. This one explains much better than I do why I'm glad I only display mild to medium problems at the moment. And here, part of why I don't want to have kids.

Thankyou very much for the chocolate reverancepavane. I needed that. I really needed the hugs.

Comments

[kriste]

mitochondrial disease
out of curiosity are there genetic tests for this? How is diagnosis confirmed?

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

See here.

[kriste]

thanks

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

For me, being diagnosed first involved getting tested for diabetes, coming up with almost-but-not-quite-conclusive results and getting referred to an endocrinologist. The endocrinologist ordered testing for everything including renal function, liver function, AIDS, a whole bunch of other things that I can't remember at the moment, and he stuck blood lactase levels on there almost as an afterthought. He didn't think is was diabetes, that I was more likely to be hypoglycaemic, and that he should test for everything else that might conceivably be causing the symptoms I was manifesting.

Everything came up negative, except the blood lactase levels, which was 5.45mmol/L. Normal maximum is 2mmol, when you've just been doing exercise. This explained the exhaustion, aching everything, the trembling and twitching, and the exercise intolerance. I find that my blood lactate levels also affect cognitive ability especially my ability to make connections between disparate pieces of information and my ability to communicate.

Since being diagnosed with lactic acidosis, I've turned up with chronic reflux, but I've found that reducing sugar intake and small amounts of regular exercise reduce the effects of the lactic acidosis, and increases my co-ordination. A diet almost the reverse of what I grew up with also helps ;) much more carbohydrates and much less protein.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

That's a shame - I've always loved the sound of crickets quietly singing away as you work, and they don't tend to eat much. Still, ants in the office would suck.

As for the mitochondrial issues, it's interesting to read a little more about them, and see how they compare to what's going on in my fractured physiology. My sympathies for all the nastiness our respective conditions entail.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The crickets in our office aren't quiet. When next door is using their industrial drills, the crickets drown them out. Now I have only the whining of my screen to distract me.

Thanks for the sympathy - I'm just feeling a little self-pitying with the aftermath of the most recent UTI and antibiotics, and the exhaustion as everything tries to get back on track isn't helping. Neither is the lost sleep due to self-guilt-tripping over incidents where other people are getting frustrated because I'm exhausted and they're trying to be nice, and I haven't said a single thing all day because I don't have the energy to keep up my side of a conversation and walk around in the same day.

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

De nada. Any time.