The cons-With age, your hands get fumbly and you have a hard time doing some things.
The pros-When the drill motor slips in the process of driving a sheet rock screw and the phillips bit plunges all the way through your thumb you don't feel it as much.
Or I could have titled this-I've been bleedin on my rail.....road....
Jerry SP FOREVER http://photobucket.com/albums/f317/GAPPLEG/
On your behalf, and for all non-afflicted folks out there, let me say......
OOOOOOOWWWWW!!!
Sorry it had to happen. I hope you are okay?
Oh boy, that sounds familiar! However, the Pros and Cons for me are: (con) where did my bifocals go now! and (pro) that cordless drill falling off the bench onto my foot didn't hurt so bad!
Oh, and the other big plus. Now, for the 1st time in my life, I don't have a shortage of pill bottles to store all them little parts in!!!
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Numbness in the feet. Feels like I'm walking on marbles all the time.Lots of fun.
I've been getting pains in my feet that feels like someone jabbed a knitting needle through them. Real great when your trying to paint fine detail or working on a loco. Dropped a couple of locos over that kind of pain.
I don't have diabetes, but I was recently diagnosed with COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Luckly, it's mild and though not reversable, can be controlled by medication and breathing treatments. But I can understand the fatigue syndrome--I've had to cut back on work, at least until the meds take effect. It's also cut back on my big model railroad projects for the time being, but since this is winter (and I have a garage layout), I never do much major work until Spring and Summer, anyway. Unfortunately, having COPD leaves you VERY susceptible to colds and flu during this season, and I'm just coming off a bout with pneumonia that has left me tired, groggy and VERY cranky.
Going back to work next Monday, but only part-time for a while. Right now, the model railroad projects consist of tuning up some of my brass steamers and re-placing the cruddy couplers on my Walther's passenger cars with Kadees.
Have to go out and clean up the MR track and stuff, when I get the energy back. Don't even want to think about it, right now.
Old age ain't for sissies.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
GAPPLEG wrote:I sure Jeffery will chime in at some point too.
You must have known that I would be reading this.
I was first diagnosed in 1983 as a type II diabetic. Nothing serious they said. I was put on pills and it was left at that. Two years later, my vision started getting really flakey. Clear one day and blurry the next. Next came pain, swelling and numbness in my feet. That wasn't the worst of it though. That came when I started getting dizzy and passing out. I went back to the doctor for an examination and was immediatly admitted as a type I diabetic with a blood sugar level over 700. That was in 1985. The blood sugar problem was brought under control through exercise and diet but not before serious damage had occured. I couldn't feel my feet, except for some pain now and then and my fingers were getting numb. Jump ahead to 1995. No real progression of any nerve damage, the diet and all had been working as it was supposed to and I still had full use of my arms and legs. But I was starting to have problems with my energy level. I would tire quickly and just wasn't any good the rest of the day. In 1998, my blood sugar went out of control again. The medicine was no longer working. The docs put me on a new type of medicine that worked better. By this time, I had lost almost all feeling in my hands and the numbness in my feet was climbing up my legs. I could no longer do fine detail work as my hands were getting too shaky and it was getting really hard to hold onto things without crushing them. At this point, I decided it would be in my best interest to stop workinf with flex track and go back to sectional track. I was getting too many cuts from the tools and such. 2004, disaster struck. I was working as a custodial employee at the Ft Polk commisary at the time. I was pushing a floor scrubber back to the warehouse when I suddenly heard my right foot go CRUNCH! I didn't feel anything but I knew something was seriously wrong, because my foot quickly swelled to twice it's normal size. A visit to the doctor confirmed my worst fears. The bones in my foot had become soft and chalky, causing them to bend and warp out of shape. This caused a massive number of dislocations and breaks that all occured simutaniously. Three bones were dislocated and there were twelve breaks and itr was far too late for anything to be done. Again, the medicine was not working well. They once again changed my medication and this time put me on insulin injections. At the present, I take 1 shot a day (74 units of Lantus), 20 mg of Glypizide, 10 mg of another medicine for my blood pressure and various other medicines for things related to diabetes. I now have no feeling in my arms from the elbows down and no feeling in my legs from the knees down. I can walk, but I have to wear special braces and use a cane to maintain my balance. I'm permantly disabled and can no longer work. Throughout it all, my model railroading has progressed, unhindered. I've switched over to DCC and am in the process of converting my locomotives to DCC. There are some things I can't do anymore, but I've found new ways of doing many of the things that I had thought I'd never be able to do again. I've found that if I watch what I'm doing very carefully, I can do some very good detail work. You've probably all seen examples of my work posted here and there on the forum so you know what I'm talking about.
Now, if there is someone worse in the room, please step up.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
I'm now 60 and was diagnosed with type II when I was 50. Have been on three different meds since. The other day my Dr. tells me that one of the meds he has been giving me is starting to affect my kidneys, so now I have to go on insulin. As with others on this thread, tiredness, numbness, and vision are just some of the problems we work with when running our MRR.
John
I too am diabetic Insulin dependent Type II and use a pump. For me, Okay, where did I put such n such. I sympahthize w/the low blood sugars while modeling. I've got plenty of energy but, the ambition/desire is another thing. I took a hiatus in 06 and did some armor modeling instead.
Ch
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub
Jeffrey-I think your gonna take first place on this one. My doctor had to buy a better meter cause I kept pegging his. (only went to 500) I think the only thing worse than 650 is 20. I can feel I'm going low. I know what I need to do. But my brain locks up and I can't do anything about it. I know what's happening but I'm in a fog to do anything about it. You could take me by the hand and tell me to jump off a cliff and I'd probably do it. The paramedics had to bag and zap me once. They said I was blue and had been dead for a minute or two. It's pretty weird to be watching TV one minute and the next thing you know they're pushing you in the back of an ambulance.
I used to be on that Lantis and some other drug but I got tired of taking 4-5 shots a day. Been on shots for about 8 years now. I take a 70/30 mix twice a day now. Did you know you don't need a perscription for that stuff anymore? I just buy mine over the counter at Wal Mart when I'm buying my Malibu HO cars. See, I worked trains into it.
P.S.-None of the little people on my layout have diabetes. They found a cure for it in my little world.
I am a 37year old Diabetec I take two pills and it seems to keep things undercontroll evan when I eat stuff I should not. My hands get numb when driving. Also wounds will not heal as fast. The Doc says if I can lose enough weight that I may be able to control it with a healthy diet.
I am often to tired to do much of anything and having been unemployed for 3 years has made it worse. I starty a new job Monday as a temporary posistion(4 weeks period with a total of 40 hours spread between those 4 weeks.) It might lead to a longer term oppertunity.
CSXect wrote:Also wounds will not heal as fast.
I know exactly where you're coming from on that one. I had an ulcer on the bottom of my right foot that took almost three years to heal. I'm still fighting with an open sore on the bottom of the big toe of my left foot. It's been there since 2002.
jeffrey-wimberly wrote: CSXect wrote:Also wounds will not heal as fast.I know exactly where you're coming from on that one. I had an ulcer on the bottom of my right foot that took almost three years to heal. I'm still fighting with an open sore on the bottom of the big toe of my left foot. It's been there since 2002.
Diabetic here also...and have a history of leg ulcers aggravated by also having an inherited venous stasis condition. Also very prone to cellulitis from the ulcers. After several years battling those things, this past fall I was referred to a special wound clinic. It took several different trial and error approaches (one of them resulting in the most excruciating week in my life), but at the end of about 2 months, and since, I'm ulcer free. I do not know if you've had any experience with the likes of dedicated wound clinics, but the one here has worked wonders for me.
Reality...an interesting concept with no successful applications, that should always be accompanied by a "Do not try this at home" warning.
Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.
"Oooh...ahhhh...that's how this all starts...but then there's running...and screaming..."
loathar wrote: The cons-With age, your hands get fumbly and you have a hard time doing some things.The pros-When the drill motor slips in the process of driving a sheet rock screw and the phillips bit plunges all the way through your thumb you don't feel it as much.Or I could have titled this-I've been bleedin on my rail.....road....
"Hey loathar".
I'm a hypoglycemic myself. Too many sodas and candy bars as a kid is what the doctor said. I'm okay as long as I eat plenty of vegetables and watch my sugar intake really close. If I get too caught up in working on my layout or something and go without eating all day, I start getting the shakes, get irritable, then boom. I've got a headache and feel lousy the rest of the day...
Tracklayer
Ivanhen-Shingles, That one put my life on hold for almost a year. I wonder if that isn't what caused most of my nerve damage. I started seriousely looking at my pistol as a cure for my shingles. My doctor had me go for cat scans and a nerve conductivity test. This test amounted to a doctor shocking me with something like a high power train transformer and asking -did that hurt? Did that hurt? Did that hurt? Telling me my nerves where shot and handing me a bill for almost $5000 for an hour and a halfs work. I could have done that myself with a Lionel power pack a lot cheaper.
I bet we're boring the healthy people.(candy bar)
CSXect wrote:Loathar, shingles are an adult form of chicken pox. When you get over chicken pox the virus goes dormant in your nerve endings and sometimes will flare up later in life. Mom had them bad about a yearago and she could hardley stand to move.
Not to be an alarmist, but sometimes shingles are also the first sign of a more serious illness to come - like cancer... I've known a number of people over the years that came down with shingles, then within a year or so of getting over it, came down with some sort of illness. I hope this isn't the case with you.
Tracklayer wrote: CSXect wrote:Loathar, shingles are an adult form of chicken pox. When you get over chicken pox the virus goes dormant in your nerve endings and sometimes will flare up later in life. Mom had them bad about a yearago and she could hardley stand to move.Not to be an alarmist, but sometimes shingles are also the first sign of a more serious illness to come - like cancer... I've known a number of people over the years that came down with shingles, then within a year or so of getting over it, came down with some sort of illness. I hope this isn't the case with you.Tracklayer
Funny that you mentioned that mom had a kiddney removed that had cancer in it
Jeff, I have diabeties as well and while it's true that healing takes a bit longer with all the other stuff that goes along with it, I have found a great treatment for cuts or ulcers that don't seem to want to heal - my mother-in-law who lived way out in the country in northern Louisiana told me to put some of the sap from an aloe-vera plant on it and it would heal up!! Well, having a good mother-in-law that one could trust with such things, I tried it with one of her plants. In two days the cut healed on my hand to just a very small dot and completely went away in the next two days. I have a couple of friends that are diabetic as well and have encouraged them to try this- one had an ulcer on his shin for over three months that his doctor had been prescribing stuff for and it just wouldn't heal- I went to the garden department at Lowe's and bought him a small aloe-vera plant and took it to him. We actually were attending a conference in Columbus, Ohio, for a week. By the time we got home, his leg was just about completely healed. I had a bad spot on my arm and just cut a leaf off and left it on my bathroom counter and each day would cut about 1/4" inch off to expose a new end and squeeze a little on my arm. The spot disappeared in about a week. It's really effective, but the sap needs to be realitively fresh to work best.
nopb- shorline fan
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet