I wish I could still eat popcorn.

Last night was seriously lousy for me. I had a major issue with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage), a condition that flares up at night and feels like somebody set my hands and feet on fire with a blowtorch. I was wide awake and thoroughly miserable until 5:20 this morning, finally managing four hours of sleep on the chaise in the family room because I didn’t want to thrash around in bed and annoy Sam. In case you don’t know much about diabetic neuropathy, the following information is from WebMD.com. Symptoms of diabetic peripheral neuropathy can include:

• Tingling, numbness, tightness, or burning, shooting, and stabbing pain in the feet, hands, or other parts of the body.
• Sensitive skin that may be painful to the touch; prickling, burning, tingling, or sharp stabbing sensations may occur spontaneously and usually worsen at night.
• Greatly reduced or greatly increased sensitivity to touch or temperature.
• Difficulty walking, weakness and loss of balance and coordination.
• “Foot drop,” a condition in which you can’t lift the front of one or both feet.

For the record, I experience all of the above on a daily basis in addition to the following symptoms of autonomic neuropathy (nerve damage to parts of the body that you can’t control):

• Unregulated body temperature.
• Heartburn, indigestion or difficulty swallowing.
• Difficulty sensing when the bladder is full. (Oy.)
• Dizziness, weakness, or fainting when you stand or sit up from a reclining position.
• Difficulty knowing when your blood sugar is too low.

I guess the ones that annoy me most from the second group of symptoms are unregulated body temperature (on Tuesday it was 95.2° ... positively hypothermic!), difficulty swallowing — which doesn’t happen too often, thank God, but always leads to a crazy performance in restaurants — and most recently I can no longer discern when my blood sugar is too low! A year ago I’d get clammy, disoriented and desperately hungry if my blood sugar fell below 60; yesterday it dropped to 46 and I sat at my desk working on a Howdygram post for more than an hour with no adverse symptoms AT ALL.

The point is, DIABETES SUCKS. It’s a never-ending joy ride of needles, doctors, pain, frustration and aggravation. I know I’ve said this before, but if anybody ever gives you a choice of diseases I strongly recommend that you pick something else.

And now, living proof that celebrities age badly just like the rest of us. Actually, it may even be worse when you consider the dough they waste on plastic surgery and stylists who try to make them look half their age, such as Mary Tyler Moore with her orange eye shadow. Holy crap.

I think I’ll pour myself a nice big glass of soy milk and watch one of my favorite movies. This morning I recorded I Know Where I’m Going on TCM, an unusual film from 1945 starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesy that’s set in a desolate coastal village in northern Scotland during a gale. I have no idea what time Sam will be home from work tonight so I might be able to watch the whole thing straight through.

I wish I could still eat popcorn. (Too many carbs.)