Thoughts on Coping With A Chronic Illness and So What IS Syndrome X anyway?

Thoughts on Coping With a Chronic Illness - Being sick sucks. That, in a nutshell sums up my thoughts on the matter but since that doesn't make for a terribly informative blog entry I should probably elaborate somewhat.

In 1995, when I was pregnant with  my daughter, a routine glucose tolerance test showed that I had gestational diabetes. Evidence of course that God has a great sense of humor since I had a lifelong phobia of needles. In one morning my life became and endless regimen of finger-sticks and carb counts and learning to draw saline solution into a syringe and inject it into my thigh in preparation for eventually doing the same with insulin.We had prayed for so long for a baby that honestly at that point making the adjustment was effortless. I would have done literally ANYTHING in order to make sure she was safe. And besides, it was only a few months, most women with gestational diabetes return to normal after delivery, I could do anything for a few months. Right?

By checking my sugar religiously 5 times a day and eating prescribed combinations of carbs/protein at set intervals during the day I managed to avoid injected insulin. A feat my endocrinologist insisted couldn't be done, but then again I was carrying a baby that my gynecologist had said couldn't happen either. On September 5, 1997 I gave birth to a beautifully healthy 7 pound 10 ounce baby girl and I left the hospital weighing 29 pounds LESS than I did when I got pregnant in the first place.

Everyone was SO certain that my sugar would return to normal once Jessica was born that no one, including me, bothered to check and see if that was what had actually happened. Being consumed with the demands of adjusting to being a mom, I don't think I noticed that the weight was not just creeping but piling back on. My eating habits hadn't changed and other than the fact that I was craving sugar more than usual I wasn't exhibiting any symptoms that something might be wrong.

I was doing research on the internet about drugs for PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) the condition that had made it so hard to get pregnant in the first place when I discovered that a diabetes drug, Glucophage (generic name Metformin) was showing promise in experimental trials with PCOS patients. (It is now the standard drug prescribed for PCOS) I took the printouts and headed off to see my doctor. Jessica had just turned two.

On November 10, 1999 I sat in my doctor's office and showed her the research I had been doing. (I had this wonderful doctor that actually appreciated educated pro-active patients.) She scanned it and said, "Let's draw a sugar check on you. Your insurance won't cover glucophage for this but if your sugar is anywhere CLOSE to abnormal I think I can make a case for it with your history." I'm not sure which of us was more shocked when my fasting bloodsugar was 141, well over the 123 threshold to be diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

Suddenly it all clicked into place. the SEVENTY pound weight gain, the fatigue, the vision changes. I was one of the fraction of women in whom Gestational Diabetes had NOT gone away. I was full blown diabetic. this was NOT in the plan. Over the next four years one diagnosis merged with another until the diagnosis of "Syndrome X" (Now also called Metabolic Syndrome and/or Metabolic Syndrome X) was reached

So What IS Syndrome X Anyway? 

Syndrome X is a cluster of 5 related disorders that, in addition to being a royal pain by themselves, are also a major predictor of future heart disease. Did I happen to mention that my father has a heart condition?

Syndrome X in a nutshell (from the book "Syndrome X" by Challem, Berkson and Smith)

"Syndrome X refers specifically to a group of health problems that includes insulin resistance (the inability to properly deal with dietary carbohydrates such as sugars, as well as one or more other problems, such as abnormal blood fats (elevated cholesterol or triglycerides), overweight and high blood pressure...

The key underpinning to Syndrome X is insulin resistance -- a diet caused hormonal logjam that interferes with the body's ability to efficiently burn the food you eat. Syndrome X occurs when the insulin resistance is combined with high levels of blood fats (cholesterol and triglycerides), too much body fat, and high blood pressure. Both insulin resistance and Syndrome X increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes -- and many other serious life-threatening diseases -- because they affect, directly or indirectly, virtually every disease process." 

Which is a long complicated way to say that my body doesn't use insulin efficiently which puts me at risk of burning out my pancreas and needing injected insulin. It also doesn't process cholesterol efficiently which puts me at risk of potentially deadly arterial plaques. It ALSO hangs on to every ounce of fat it possibly can and all of that combines to drive my blood pressure up. In short, its a pain in the ass.