Back Pain, Low Blood Sugars, and Lost Weight

I began 2007 weighing a prime 174 pounds. I will begin 2008 weighing a mere 157 lbs. At 5'7, 157 lbs. I am now no longer considered overweight by the stiff medical profession. I am also not exercising as often (but I am exercising), nor am I running, but perhaps at some point in 2008 I will resume my old patterns of exercise. I should hope that I will be able to as I continue to build up strength in my leg and back and decrease my pain level.

I had my back surgery in September of 2007. Tough stuff. I mean, the back surgery is tough. I am experiencing a lot of residual pain in my back which has required more vigorous pain management than I had anticipated. Currently I am doing physical therapy strength training twice a week for 50 minutes, and in January I will begin myofascial release therapy on my back as well. I switched from daily taking a Lorcet or two (way too strong for daily use!) to now I am taking trammadol a few times a day with ibuprofen to help manage pain. I would have to say that post-surgical pain in my lower back has been the most frustrating part of my experience. While I have gained a huge amount of strength in my leg and I no longer walk with a limp (or gimp), the pain is something I daily deal with. I hope that with the aggressive treatment plan I have that the pain will continue to improve. On a positive note, the pain has been improving and I have been able to reduce my trammadol intake from 8-10 tablets per day to around 6 per day.

Since my surgery my insulin intake has drastically reduced. I used to take around 40 - 45 units of novolog per day, now I am taking 20 -25. I am having a LOT of lows lately, and I've been reducing my basals like clockword (meaning every other day). With a track record like this, January 2nd can't come fast enough (that is when I order my MINILINK!)

Oh, and my a1c? The joy that it is was recently 7.6, which is the highest it has been in three years. At this height, all it can do is go down right? And with the lows I've been having I'm sure it will! I'm hopeful, also, about the Minilink technology assisting me in lowering my average sugars. I typically don't feel my lows, which means I tend to let them run a bit higher if I can't check every hour. There is a lot of fear involved with not being able to sense low blood sugars!