life changing
short answer to subject, i've been diagnosed with type two diabetes.
short answer to concer, nope, not dying just yet, not even super concerned about my mortality at the moment.
long answer about everything.
couple of weeks ago i went to the doctor for something entirely unrelated to diabetes. while i was there, because i generally, eventually come around to doing pretty much everything that really concerns my wife and she wants to happen, i asked the doctor to test me for diabetes. i already knew that i was in a pretty high risk factor group. not only is there my weight and all too sedentary lifestyle and while i don't really have a fondness for sweets and desserts really, i've pounded the pop for way too long in my to try to say that i'm sugar conservative but also my mother and her three brothers have it and so does my dad.
so the doctor agreed i was in a high risk group and sent me down for a simple blood test to look at my blood sugar. this is the one where you fast for 10 hours before the test and they just take some blood and look at you cholesterol and blood sugar.
well the good news is that i have good bad cholesterol levels. my good cholesterol levels could be a bit higher but aren't really at risk either. i was astounded by this one...for a guy my size with my diet...having good bad cholesterol is really quite good news.
in other news, even after fasting for 11 hours, my blood sugar was 12.1.
normal person average is 6. diabetics try to stay under 7.
so that gave the doctor lots of confidence in saying that i'm type 2 diabetic.
enough confidence that she said i didn't have to do the other tests with the sugar water and etc that come after it. i guess it's good, if you're going to succeed at something to succeed well.
she decided using whatever crystal diagnosis ball that dr's have that i don't need insulin and that i can go on metformin to help control my blood sugar and...diabetes....for some reason it was hard to type that part.
before she wanted me to go on the pills she did want me to do another test, a hemoglobin test which apparently could tell her my 3 month average blood sugar. the other thing she did was to send my info off to the diabetes clinic so i could take my diabetes training.
it was a pretty big shock, this whole diagnosis of diabetes thing. i mean, it's not like it comes of a great shock that i have it, the portents were all around for it but it's not so good either. diabetes might be one of those things that you can definitely live with but it's also one of those things that if you screw it up too badly you can lose limbs, eyes, go into a coma and etc. that's a lot to wrap your mind around.
i didn't tell anyone at first.
in fact, i told J, of course, and she kind of freaked out a bit with worry but still managed to be pretty supportive. and my parents, who went into tell-me-how-to-live mode instantly which was absolutely charming but not unhelpful. and one other person. that was it until right now. gosh, it's only been a week so far.
there wasn't anything to do instantly about it.
the things i have done:
from that moment i cut free sugar from my diet. i've had about 2 tablespoons of ketchup since that time. i also cut white bread, pasta and rice (not hard with pasta and rice, i eat very little of those anyways). it was harder to cut these. we went camping last weekend and the only real buns i could find for the hotdogs were brown bread which aren't that much better. but whole grain buns for burgers and sandwiches and etc. cut my potato intake, when it exists in half. one of my meals each day since then has been salad (with exception of camping)
none of these things are actually enough for a true diabetic diet but i also want to move forward with proper information rather than a ton of anecdotal information. maybe i'm easing into it...maybe too much. i also havn't been as good as i should be either. we had pizza after coming back from camping sunday night. bad in so many respects for diabetes. way too much white flour, too much fat, too much, something else or whatever. i think maybe part of me was holding out for a reprieve from the hemoglobin tests. maybe it was a 2 day anomally.
yeah, whatever. i took the hemoglobin test the next morning after the diagnosis...wow, it's really only been a week so far. they called me the next day to come back in to discuss the results. they took 2 weeks to call me the first time. that's a little scary but luckily i didn't get that message until we came back from camping. i also had some trepidation about my diet for the past 3 months. with the move and whatever other random excuses i can come up with, my diet's been really rather horrid. there was no way i was going to have a good result if i had any sugar issues at all.
but when i called back in for an appointment on monday the receptionist said that there was no emergency indicated in the appointment and since the dr was sick mon-tues we set the appointment up for today.
well today sunk it.
my avg blood sugar over the last 3 months was 9.1.
that's not good at all.
not dead but not good. (all opinions such as this are filtered through the ears i possess while listening to a dr...but i'm pretty sure i'm still not dead).
definitely confirms the whole you're-a-diabetic part.
i also got a call from the diabetic clinic. my training is a 2 hour stint the week before and then three 4 hour classes in the afternoon in the first week of november. that's quite a time to go with figuring stuff out myself...but the dr's confident i'll be ok.
it helps that my parents feel they're already experts on the illness.
no, it actually does. they've given me a good brand of blood tester to go out and buy. they're giving me a blood pressure tester to use. this is good because my blood pressure came in a little higher than it shoudl be for a diabetic. Doc feels it will come in line just fine as i eat better, lose weight and do some exercise but wants me to track it.
i've noticed some things.
if i eat too many carbs at lunch, i do have a huge sugar crash, only it's not a sugar crash, it's my body trying to function with way too much sugar in it. and that's actually really bad for me. huh, good incentive right there.
in fact, in a week of eating much better, i really do feel a lot better already.
not that i thought i felt bad before. but tonight i had surplus energy and bounded off the couch during dexter to fold laundry just cause it was there. folding laundry isn't really one of my tasks around the house, but there it was needing doing so i hopped up and did it. that's pretty cool. there could be some good things about diabetes.
you know, other than the free eye test every two years.
and getting to stab myself with a little lancet multiple times a day for a while and then maybe every day for the rest of my life.
so how do i feel about it...i dunno.
i know j is bent around the bend with concern.
i know that i'm still processing it cause at one point tonight i had to have j stop talking about it for a bit because it was overwhelming.
i'm figuring it out.
i'll live.
short answer to concer, nope, not dying just yet, not even super concerned about my mortality at the moment.
long answer about everything.
couple of weeks ago i went to the doctor for something entirely unrelated to diabetes. while i was there, because i generally, eventually come around to doing pretty much everything that really concerns my wife and she wants to happen, i asked the doctor to test me for diabetes. i already knew that i was in a pretty high risk factor group. not only is there my weight and all too sedentary lifestyle and while i don't really have a fondness for sweets and desserts really, i've pounded the pop for way too long in my to try to say that i'm sugar conservative but also my mother and her three brothers have it and so does my dad.
so the doctor agreed i was in a high risk group and sent me down for a simple blood test to look at my blood sugar. this is the one where you fast for 10 hours before the test and they just take some blood and look at you cholesterol and blood sugar.
well the good news is that i have good bad cholesterol levels. my good cholesterol levels could be a bit higher but aren't really at risk either. i was astounded by this one...for a guy my size with my diet...having good bad cholesterol is really quite good news.
in other news, even after fasting for 11 hours, my blood sugar was 12.1.
normal person average is 6. diabetics try to stay under 7.
so that gave the doctor lots of confidence in saying that i'm type 2 diabetic.
enough confidence that she said i didn't have to do the other tests with the sugar water and etc that come after it. i guess it's good, if you're going to succeed at something to succeed well.
she decided using whatever crystal diagnosis ball that dr's have that i don't need insulin and that i can go on metformin to help control my blood sugar and...diabetes....for some reason it was hard to type that part.
before she wanted me to go on the pills she did want me to do another test, a hemoglobin test which apparently could tell her my 3 month average blood sugar. the other thing she did was to send my info off to the diabetes clinic so i could take my diabetes training.
it was a pretty big shock, this whole diagnosis of diabetes thing. i mean, it's not like it comes of a great shock that i have it, the portents were all around for it but it's not so good either. diabetes might be one of those things that you can definitely live with but it's also one of those things that if you screw it up too badly you can lose limbs, eyes, go into a coma and etc. that's a lot to wrap your mind around.
i didn't tell anyone at first.
in fact, i told J, of course, and she kind of freaked out a bit with worry but still managed to be pretty supportive. and my parents, who went into tell-me-how-to-live mode instantly which was absolutely charming but not unhelpful. and one other person. that was it until right now. gosh, it's only been a week so far.
there wasn't anything to do instantly about it.
the things i have done:
from that moment i cut free sugar from my diet. i've had about 2 tablespoons of ketchup since that time. i also cut white bread, pasta and rice (not hard with pasta and rice, i eat very little of those anyways). it was harder to cut these. we went camping last weekend and the only real buns i could find for the hotdogs were brown bread which aren't that much better. but whole grain buns for burgers and sandwiches and etc. cut my potato intake, when it exists in half. one of my meals each day since then has been salad (with exception of camping)
none of these things are actually enough for a true diabetic diet but i also want to move forward with proper information rather than a ton of anecdotal information. maybe i'm easing into it...maybe too much. i also havn't been as good as i should be either. we had pizza after coming back from camping sunday night. bad in so many respects for diabetes. way too much white flour, too much fat, too much, something else or whatever. i think maybe part of me was holding out for a reprieve from the hemoglobin tests. maybe it was a 2 day anomally.
yeah, whatever. i took the hemoglobin test the next morning after the diagnosis...wow, it's really only been a week so far. they called me the next day to come back in to discuss the results. they took 2 weeks to call me the first time. that's a little scary but luckily i didn't get that message until we came back from camping. i also had some trepidation about my diet for the past 3 months. with the move and whatever other random excuses i can come up with, my diet's been really rather horrid. there was no way i was going to have a good result if i had any sugar issues at all.
but when i called back in for an appointment on monday the receptionist said that there was no emergency indicated in the appointment and since the dr was sick mon-tues we set the appointment up for today.
well today sunk it.
my avg blood sugar over the last 3 months was 9.1.
that's not good at all.
not dead but not good. (all opinions such as this are filtered through the ears i possess while listening to a dr...but i'm pretty sure i'm still not dead).
definitely confirms the whole you're-a-diabetic part.
i also got a call from the diabetic clinic. my training is a 2 hour stint the week before and then three 4 hour classes in the afternoon in the first week of november. that's quite a time to go with figuring stuff out myself...but the dr's confident i'll be ok.
it helps that my parents feel they're already experts on the illness.
no, it actually does. they've given me a good brand of blood tester to go out and buy. they're giving me a blood pressure tester to use. this is good because my blood pressure came in a little higher than it shoudl be for a diabetic. Doc feels it will come in line just fine as i eat better, lose weight and do some exercise but wants me to track it.
i've noticed some things.
if i eat too many carbs at lunch, i do have a huge sugar crash, only it's not a sugar crash, it's my body trying to function with way too much sugar in it. and that's actually really bad for me. huh, good incentive right there.
in fact, in a week of eating much better, i really do feel a lot better already.
not that i thought i felt bad before. but tonight i had surplus energy and bounded off the couch during dexter to fold laundry just cause it was there. folding laundry isn't really one of my tasks around the house, but there it was needing doing so i hopped up and did it. that's pretty cool. there could be some good things about diabetes.
you know, other than the free eye test every two years.
and getting to stab myself with a little lancet multiple times a day for a while and then maybe every day for the rest of my life.
so how do i feel about it...i dunno.
i know j is bent around the bend with concern.
i know that i'm still processing it cause at one point tonight i had to have j stop talking about it for a bit because it was overwhelming.
i'm figuring it out.
i'll live.