Health Journey

Gotta Catch Em All…NOT NO THANK YOU

As Rick’s cousin says “you need to stop collecting conditions like they are Pokemon to catch.”

This is so very true! So I have many complex chronic illnesses. I have POTS, CFS/ME, Vestibular Migraine, Small fiber neuropathy, CRPS, anxiety, depression…I wonder why?, EDS/Hyper-mobility, and which used to be the newest Pokémon I caught.

Which cause my joints shoulders, hips, neck, knees, and ankles to “go out of the socket sometimes with the least amount of movement, it hurts.

Ohh nope that’s not my newest condition. The other day I had my blood sugar tested just cause I’m in the Medi-Cal system new primary appointment. And my A1C was 8.3 so APPARENTLY I’m a diabetic now. The doctor thought maybe type 2 but that wasn’t even confirmed. So what’s Teresa’s fears? Hmm doctors, hospitals, needles….OH WAIT. Needles need to be used to test my blood. So now I have to test my blood. I haven’t got the hang of doing it myself yet causes me a lot of anxiety to do the poke but it’s only been a day.

So if I wasn’t already scared enough for listening to my body and making sure nothings an emergency. I sure am now. It’s insane how much these symptoms over lap with my other conditions.

According to ChatGPT yes I’m using this!

🔄 Symptoms high glucose and your conditions have in common

1. Exhaustion / fatigue

  • High glucose: cells aren’t using sugar properly → low usable energy
  • POTS/CFS-type issues: poor circulation + autonomic dysfunction
    👉 Feels like: “hit a wall,” heavy, drained

2. Dizziness / lightheadedness

  • High glucose: dehydration + electrolyte imbalance
  • POTS: blood pooling, heart rate changes
    👉 Can feel almost identical

3. Nausea / stomach upset

  • High glucose: slows digestion and irritates the gut
  • Your conditions: autonomic dysfunction can also affect digestion
    👉 Nausea, bloating, or even diarrhea

4. Headaches / migraines

  • High glucose: inflammation + fluid shifts
  • You already asked about migraines → big overlap
    👉 Can trigger or worsen headaches

5. Brain fog / confusion

  • High glucose: affects how your brain uses energy
  • Your baseline: fatigue + meds can already cause fog
    👉 Hard to tell apart sometimes

6. Rapid heart rate / “off” feeling

  • High glucose: dehydration → heart works harder
  • POTS: heart rate spikes with position changes
    👉 Feels like your system is “out of whack”

7. Weakness / shaky feeling

  • High glucose swings (especially if dropping from high):
    👉 can feel like a crash, even if not true low blood sugar

🚨 The tricky part

Because there’s so much overlap, it’s easy to assume:

“This is just my normal condition acting up”

…but sometimes it’s actually:

blood sugar being too high

So now I’m like how many times when I was so nauseous in bed was it POTS or high blood sugar?

It kinda feels like what do I believe. Okay I blackout from POTS. Yes that true. And I have eye issues with vestibular migraine. And I’m obviously exhausted with chronic fatigue but also that can be diabetes.

My niece has type 1 diabetes she’s only 5 years old. But now it’s all she knows. I think if she can do it I can do it. But she doesn’t have the over thinking side of it. The trying to stay away from sugar and it causes more depression, the fear of needles, ALL the other conditions I have.

Lately well for a while now, I’ve been using to use something to be able to sit up or go to something like out to dinner with hubby. I would need alcohol or soda. But now either are options!??? Am I going back to those 5 years where I could barely leave the house cause I couldn’t be upright for long enough to do anything!?

NO, I refuse to go back to those times.

Now that I’ve gotten a lot of emotions out let’s do what Teresa does best find the positives.

My dad texted this “I have been praying hard for you and maybe this latest challenge is an insight towards healing? Maybe the sensor needed to collect data needed to move the needle in the right direction and it will fix something. I still have hope.”

My mom texted

There is HOPE cause there’s one stationary belief that I have and that’s having God fight these battles with me.

I hear this song Battle Belongs.

“When all I see is the battle, You see my victory
When all I see is the mountain, You see a mountain moved
And as I walk through the shadow, Your love surrounds me
There’s nothing to fear now for I am safe with You

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You”

One thing I noticed today was sometimes diabetes awareness has a butterfly and a butterfly 🦋 has always been my own sign of HOPE.

So for now let’s take deep breaths, keep praying and hoping.

Love, T

Beauty/Lifestyle Blogger

The Proposal Story

Secret Proposal pics

It was a Wednesday evening when Ricky asked Teresa to go out to dinner on Friday for an early dinner to celebrate our 10 months together. Since we missed the celebration before. At first Teresa was quite suspicious thinking maybe the ring came in and it was time to get proposed to. But as she kept mentioning and asking to be proposed to before her Chicago trip. Ricky kept saying it probably wasn’t going to happen in time. This bummed Teresa out. Now Friday 7/29/22 Teresa asked what to wear to dinner he said what ever you’d like I’m not dressing up. Therefore this made Teresa think he wasn’t going to propose there. Plus all the other days she’s been wearing dresses and going her makeup all cute.

As we drive to dinner we have a great time chatting. Get to dinner and have to wait. So we wait outside talking about how happy we are. At dinner, Teresa jokingly says “don’t put a ring in my food I don’t want to break my teeth, he says haha no of course not I wouldn’t propose here also I’m so sorry but the ring hasn’t come I won’t be able to propose before you leave. Teresa got freaky really sad and thought she could tell by his face that he was being truthful. Teresa is taking her time eating like normal but Ricky starts to rush her a little bit saying “oh traffic just jumped to 27 mins to 57 mins, we have to go. But Teresa wants dessert! Unfortunately it’s too late and the check comes and we rush out of the restaurant to avoid the bad traffic.

They talk a little bit in the car but then Teresa gets super super tired and asks to take a little nap which worked out great because Rick ended up taking the back roads and Teresa would have gotten car sick.

As we near Teresa’s house Rick nicely wakes Teresa up saying “we are almost home but can you do me a favor and close your eyes for me?” Of course she does. As she keeps her eyes closed he drives a little more and then parks. He says “keep your eyes closed and hold on.” He gets out of the car goes into the trunk and supposedly walks away. She waits patiently. After a minute or two Rick comes back helps her unbuckle and grabs her hand saying “follow me.” He leads her up a curb and onto the sidewalk. She’s walking so slow in his words. He guides her to the swings and has her sit. Then says “okay open your eyes.” She does.

He’s right in front of her. Starts to say all there cute things. (a little boy says will you push me while on the swing next to us) then in shorts kneels down in the tan bark and pulls out a ring and says “will you marry me?” She says “yes of course!!!” Hugs and kisses him. (the little boy says are you done with that yet? Pointing to my swing.) He puts the ring in her finger. And then after a few minutes he takes my hand and says let’s walk. We walk across the park.

As we walk we are just over the moon excited and she keeps looking at her ring. Then he says “have you ever noticed over that hill there is a basketball hoop?” Teresa looks over to the right and keeps looking for it squinting cause she can’t see without her glasses very easily. Finally she sees it. He pauses turns her to the left and says “babe look.”

When she looks she sees a white pop up tent with a Love balloon, pictures strung on the wall, pink roses, a sparkling cider bottle, and fruit bowl. It was straight out of a romance movie. She kissed him and cried. Their pictures were covering the walls. What an adorable and peaceful set up.

It was pretty amazing!!!! Can’t wait to be Mrs!

Love, T

Health Journey

Let Go, Let God

We are just moving through life with good things happening. But then something comes up, interrupts our lives, whether it’s a change you weren’t expecting, a death in the family, an illness, an accident, losing a job, or moving. We are just going along “skipping through the tulips,” when all of the sudden BAM! And it’s very easy to drown in self pity.

This can create a situational depression, the feeling of hopelessness, sadness, worthlessness, and overall negative emotions. I am not afraid to say I have struggled with all of that before and am currently still working at it each day.

When your life changes in the blink of an eye it tends to hit you hard. That’s how I felt when my life went from “living my best life”, to not having the ability to do any of the things I used to do let alone get out of the house. My chronic illnesses really interrupted my life…but does it have to be an interruption? What if it could be just a whole other path to take?

Often, when life is going good it’s easy to push God to the backseat of your car and say “I’m good, just living my life.” Then when a crisis occurs, it’s hard to let God steer when He is stuck in the backseat. I have always given God the wheel and have trusted Him to take me wherever He wants and have tried not to be a backseat driver. That’s why I love the Carrie Underwood song “Jesus Take the Wheel.”

When that illness, fear, accident, negative situation happens, you are armed with the Holy Spirit to fight your battles not for you but WITH you. I do struggle with depression and sadness through all this illness, but each day I am working through it, getting the help I need, and letting God use me in any way I can even if it’s just through this blog.