Is this the right touch?

Glucophage........sounds like a massage stroke.........

Years ago I was a massage therapist and taught sports massage. In Swedish massage, there is a stroke called effleurage. It's a smooth palms applied feather light to security blanket deep stroke that invokes a sense of well being. Glucophage sounds like that, kind of soothing. My brain had visions of this drug easing my blood sugar into normal range and it probably does that but just like the grilled cheese sandwich, there is more to the story.....

Now here is my disclaimer, what you are about to read may or may not be graphic in nature.

I like to call this my poopy pill. The first time I took it at night and in the morning it had side effects that made it impossible to make my last trip to San Francisco. For one thing, I didn't think that I could make it from my house to the airport without having to stop more than twice to use the bathroom. And second, it gives me gas that a 6 year old boy in a make shift club house would be envious of. I'm afraid that they would have had to make an emergency evacuation of the aircraft had I made my flight. I had visions of letting one slip on the flight (cause it can't be controlled!) and the emergency oxygen masks dropping from the overhead panels. It WAS that bad! When I filled the prescription, the pharmacist kindly called me over to the consultation window and discreetly whispered to me that it was going to have some "less than pleasant side effects and I might want to stay close to home for the first couple of days". I asked if I could use an over the counter remedy to counter act the effects and he looked at me sadly and told me "no". I suspect he has had some personal experience with this.

So I cancelled my San Francisco plans and spent the week on half a dose in the mornings and made earnest attempts to get a grip on my diet. That was, until the grilled cheese experience yesterday. I started my full dose in the mornings and at night after the kryptonite sandwich.

It takes time but my body is adjusting and the side effects are easing. I have visions once again of the gentle easing pressure of the Glucophage wrapping loving hands around the excess sugars from my liver and restoring a sense of well being to my body..........

This does bring to mind a funny travel story that has NOTHING to do with diabetes!
I travel every week 4-5 days. I don't know about you but I get bored in airports and restless on long commercial flights. I have to find ways to entertain myself.

On this particular flight to Iforgotwhere, I was not fortunate enough to get a window or aisle seat. I'm OK with that. but this time I was sitting between two rather large mountain men, neither of which were willing to let me have an arm rest, so I sat there with my shoulder blades pointed towards each other like the people on either side of me were contagious cause you can't invade personal space, its a RULE!. About 5 minutes after lift off I remembered that I was letting a friend of mine fly Peg, my airplane and his girlfriend had a tendency to get airsick. I was going to need another airsick bag in my plane. I reach forward and pull it out of the seat back in front of me. This little action didn't go unnoticed by my seat mates and I found that I had a little more shoulder room.

Now like I said, I have to find ways to entertain myself. This was going to be a 4 hour flight and sitting like I was sitting was going to be painful by the end of the first hour. With this tiny bit more breathing space I was allowed, the oxygen got to my brain and I could think clearer. Think thoughts I probably should not be thinking. But I still didn't have enough oxygen to my brain to enforce the inner social director into action, so I reached up and opened the air valve up top (called a weemac by the way, cute huh?), the air was now directed right down on me and in this small gesture, the gentlemen to my right and left leaned apart a tad more, I now had arm rests. More oxygen to my brain now but still not enough for the inner social director to step up and tell me to "play nice", so I began to fan myself with the airsick bag..................I now have enough room between me and my seat mates to sublease. I wipe my brow and................

These guys were true gentlemen. In stereo, they asked me if I was OK. I wiped my brow again and said I would be fine. Mountain man on my right (the coveted aisle seat) offered me his seat...in case I should have to get up in a hurry. I graciously accepted! Having had enough oxygen to my brain now, I knew a good thing when I saw it. Eventually, the inner social director got the best of me and when drinks were served, I sprung for drinks for my seat mates, then once they were friendly and cordial, I confessed. I just needed the bag for my own plane. I switched back to my assigned seat and the Mountain men kindly gave me a bit more room and an arm rest. They were good guys, smelled good, looked good, not a bad spot to be in, sandwiched inbetween to big strong men.

Did you know that when you are on the moving sidewalks in the airports, if you turn around and walk in place it looks like you are doing the Moon walk? Yep, it does. Gotta find some way of entertaining myself.