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There's a lot on my mind lately. Some good, some bad, some neutral. Mostly, it's confusion and decisions. And mostly, it has to do with my health...of course.

I started a new prescription called Spironolactone (or Aldactone) on September 1 to help with the side effects of my PCOS. It's supposed to take about three months to truly see results, but I feel like I'm already seeing some effects. My skin, although still breaking out, is not nearly as bad as it was a few weeks ago. Granted, I'm using tea tree oil and Mederma religiously. So I can't really say if the "Spiro" is helping for sure, but it obviously isn't hurting in that area.

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When I first moved away for college back in early 2007, my health was really at its worst. We still had no idea what was going on with me...just a list of symptoms and doctors who couldn't tell me what was wrong. So I moved out on my own into a 1 bedroom apartment a little over an hour from my mom's house and less than an hour from my dad's house.

The first semester was extremely rough. I had several breakdowns on my bathroom floor, several moments of desperation, several calls home that left my parents worried. I tried to stay on top of things, but the stress made it nearly impossible.

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Last month, a friend of mine had to build a website for a class project, and the site focused on people with diabetes who had multiple health problems.  I was really struck by the title and slogan that she came up with for the project; it was "Diabetes Plus: because it's rarely just diabetes."

Those words rang true for me, as I know they do for many people, because I'm a person with type 2 diabetes, and I have several other health problems, too.

On top of diabetes, I live with congestive heart failure and related issues, obstructive sleep apnea, asthma, acid reflux, a hiatal hernia and other gastrointestinal issues, migraines, and sinus/allergy problems.  There may be something I'm forgetting, but you get the idea.

And there's an equally crazy list of medications that accompanies that list of health problems.  They are as follows:

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At the beginning of the month, I wrote about online dating. I couldn't decide how to approach my health conditions. Was I supposed to hold them back or just put everything out there from the beginning?

I decided to take a medium sized approach. The few that have progressed to getting my actual email address, I've told about my diabetes. It was easier to "admit" about my diabetes than hide it. After all, my blog, Diabetic Echoes, and so many other things in my life are because of that one diagnosis.

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Despite the fact that temperatures here in the Valley of the Sun (or as my brother likes to call it The Actual Sun) continue to hover around 100 degrees, it's technically fall, which means that flu season is upon us.

I don't think I ever got a flu shot prior to getting diabetes. I was healthy for the most part and likely didn't understand what the flu really is. And even four years into the disease, last fall was the first time I got the shot since being diagnosed.

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My husband just switched jobs, which is always a headache when it comes to health insurance. If you are lucky enough to be allowed to start right away, with no waiting period, there's still that period of limbo when the old insurance has been cancelled (and man, they don't waste any time doing that) and when your new insurance is in the system.

Of course, Olivia needed insulin while we were in limbo. I went to CVS to pick it up and it was going to cost $335.99 for three bottles of insulin. Needless to say, we can't afford that.

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I don't know a lot about the Canadian universal health care. What I have learned has been in dribs and drabs, culled from friends and from the few Canadian posters to the Children With Diabetes parents email list. I knew it varied from province to province but assumed that most diabetes supplies were covered.

And then I read this post by Andrea, over at A Garden of Na Mmoy. She has type 1 diabetes, although she doesn't post about it very often. She has a few other posts about diabetes and she's an eloquent writer no matter what the subject - you should check her out regardless. But that post really opened my eyes to the limits that any insurance, universal or private, puts on our health.

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Ever since I was little, my mom has always told me that there was a reason behind my diabetes. I've always believed her and hoped that one day I would realize what the reason was. When my other health conditions developed, we had the same conversation. There was a reason behind my health problems.

Occasionally, ideas pop into my head. Sometimes I think I know, but mostly I feel that I have no clue what's behind all my health problems. It all seems so pointless. There is one consistent theme throughout the ideas in my mind though.

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I haven't posted much on my other health conditions lately. Ever since taking Accutane, my PCOS seems to be much less of a concern. And my endometriosis is now something that I've adjusted to. But lately, I'm really feeling the physical and emotional strain of these other conditions.

The Accutane cleared my skin completely, although it did nothing for the hyperpigmentation and scarring left behind. My breakouts are now only happening around my period, although they are getting worse with each month. Nothing too alarming yet. I've been taking vitamin A every day for the past few months. I increased it the week of my last period which seemed to help that problem.

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