Managing Asthma, COPD and Diabetes: steroids, side effects and food diary
Published 21 Mar 2018
Janet, 59, tells us about the consequences of the treatments she's been taking for her Asthma and COPD, which led to the development of such conditions as Type 2 Diabetes, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis, High blood pressure. However, by adapting her diet and her numerous treatments, Janet manages to reduce her doses, lose weight and stay positive.
My married name was Janet Collins but since my husband walked out last November I prefer Jan Staley. I will be 60 in July and have 2 children plus one much loved granddaughter. My daughter Zoe is nearly 35 lives with her partner (they are getting married in November) and my 6 year old granddaughter Amerthyst about half hours drive away. We talk every day and she comes over at least once a week. My son Nathan is 26 and having put his life on hold to make sure I was OK has just changed jobs and is now working full time as a team leader for a local garden company.
I used to work as an educational officer at a Tudor Manor House but had to pack it in 12 years ago when my asthma got too bad. Nowadays I love to do lots of different crafts and write. I have just started a fundraising campaign for the British Heart foundation selling homemade cards and small gifts.
My son once counted the number of doses of medicines I was on in a day and it was something like 60 to 70 including insulin, nebuliser, inhalers, nasal sprays and tablets. He reckons that I could set up a chemist's!
The reason I have to take these medicines are to do with the number of illnesses I have.
Asthma and COPD
I have already mentioned asthma which I was diagnosed with at 2, at 4 my mum was told it was childhood asthma and I would grow out of it. It goes in cycles, will stabilise for a few years and then go downhill. As well as chronic brittle asthma, I have recently been diagnosed with COPD as well. At the moment I am under Southampton hospital using 2 new treatments, 1 is a machine that goes over my bed and acts as a large filter to clean the air and recycle it. The other is a course of injections that I have once a month, since even the nurses giving it me can't pronounce it I am not going to try. I have been on prednisone, steroid tablets for 15 years at least, since Christmas as a result of these injections I have managed to reduce them to 6 mg from 15 mg.
Consequences of the treatments
If I had known the side effects I am not sure that I would have gone on them. My digestive system is shot, they tried to do an endoscopy last week but had to abort it as there was so much debris floating around. I also have diverticulitis and irritable bowel disease (different from IBS apparently), a hiatus hernia which is so big it needs operating on but they can't because they can't find an anesthetist who is prepared to take the risk with my asthma.
Otherwise I have osteoarthritis in my back and hips plus onset osteoporosis in my left hip. All these are side effects of the steroids, that and the fact that I put loads of weight on. As a result of the weight and the steroids I developed high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Food diary for diabetes
I was diagnosed with diabetes in July 2015 but I couldn't control it with diet so I was put on metformin but that didn't work either. In January 2016, 4 days after I buried my mum I was rushed into the HDU unit of our local hospital with pneumonia and my readings were so erratic, I was going from 3.5 to over 20 in a day, that they would put me on insulin. Even with insulin and trying to monitor my diet my readings were still very variable.
I was referred to a dietician but he was worse than useless, he couldn't seem to get it in his head that I was allergic to wheat gluten, nuts, and had to watch things like spicy or citrus foods. His obsession was with what made a portion of fruit, so I didn't bother with that after a couple of sessions. By this time I was getting really frustrated especially since my ex-husband was also diabetic and could eat more or less what he liked.
After he walked out I asked my son to help me do a food diary and monitor what I eat. We picked up on things like potatoes and mushrooms sent my blood sugar levels up. Thanks to my son Nathan's help my blood sugar levels have stabilised between, on most days, 7 and 12 which is a lot better but I still want to bring them down a bit more. The problem is that because my diabetes was undiagnosed and was all over the place that I have a lot of complications with fatty growths in 1 eye and on my arm, plus numbness in my feet (can't think of the technical name), that sort of thing.
Try to be positive
As a result of all these things I suffer from depression but am on tablets for it and I always try to be positive. With the reduction in my steroids I have lost weight which is helping my diabetes etc. so that is good. I want to lose more weight so my diet will still need some fine tuning but I am getting there and making plans for the future.
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hi Janet,
I sympathise with you greatly as you have a lot on your plate but I want to ask you something because I was misdiagnosed for years myself.
I don’t want to make this post about me but about you!
Have you ever had your thyroid checked?
For either under active which is called hypo thyroidism or over active which is called hyper thyroidism.
A lot of your symptoms sound similar to my own and I was given many diagnosis over the years.
I do have osteoarthritis in my spine and hips. That said, the excruciating pain in my legs that I thought was sciatica, The mood swings, The sweating, The hair loss, The weight loss followed by the weight gain, Generally feeling awful and very lethargic. I could barely get a breath, My heart rate was extremely high and I don’t remember much of January 2017.
Because I had been missed diagnosed I ended up having a thyroid storm which you can google.
Damn well nearly killed me!
I am only here today because I didn’t get to see my normal GP on my second trip to my doctors surgery that week.
By the time I had got myself into the surgery I was shaking from head to foot which had been a symptom for over a year. They even toyed with the idea that I had MS, Then it was fibromyalgia and I don’t have either and I knew it.
So although this is a slightly different angle will you please ask them to check your thyroid levels?
It’s an autoimmune disease that causes so many problems but there is lifelong treatment out there for it.
You don’t need to get your thyroid removed as I have refused that myself, after all it saved my life!
Wishing you the very best of luck for the future because it sounds like you have been through hell and back.
The only way is up from here on in!
Xxx
@JazzyC I don't think you've seen these comments
well done for keeping so positive and being active in your own treatment xx I have copd asthma and am riddled with arthritis too .. knees neck hip hands etc etc etc lol. .. I have become more depressed as the pain and disability increases (who wouldn’t?) but the thing is to keep going and try to enjoy life xx the steroids seem to make me more wheezy than the flare ups so i avoid them if possible but they give you such an appetite I have increased in size and weight too .. anyway I ramble ... but what I wanted to say is you are not alone xxx and chatting to each other about it definitely helps xxxx
Janet
Most of the solution is attitude. I too have many pathologies and take over 40 tablets and numerous injections per day. The answer is to stay positive, think positive thoughts and you will lose the weight and feel like a new person.
Fair play to your son for his unstinting help with managing your food intake, which I might add is not as easy as you might think.
Don't forget OUR CARENITY FAMILY ARE always here for you.
Take Care Gal and remember 'STAY POSITIVE'
A year on and so much has changed, I am off the steroids, cut back on my nebules, lost weight and doing things I never thought possible I run my own asthma support group Dorset Asthma and COPD support group on Facebook and am starting regular meetings. mmonth ago I travelled to London to address a conference of 300 delegates from all over the world on living with asthma and it went really well. Future plans include doing voluntary work with asthma UK and attending another conference in June. Everything is going brilliantly and I am looking forward to the future
