I got a gift at the end of July. At the time it didn’t seem like it, but it was.
Last summer, after about 6 months of dragging around feeling totally exhausted and barely able to function a lot of the time, I took myself off to the doctor. When the blood test results came back I had a diagnosis. Type 2 diabetes. My blood glucose was 275 and my A1C was 9.3.
When I heard the news I freaked, but I started on meds, (Metformin and Glipizide), bought myself a blood glucose testing meter and all the supplies to go with it, registered for the Diabetic Education class my doctor referred me to, and starting researching and reading everything I could get my hands on that talked about Type 2 Diabetes. The best book I found, and one I bought for myself after the library needed it back, is by Gretchen Becker, The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. It's loaded with useful information, and it's written for a thinking adult that wants to know it all. Plus she's funny and engaging, and understands the journey I'm on, because she's on it too.
One strand in my family has Type 2 Diabetes running through it, and my Dad got diagnosed when he was about 50. (I'm 51.) That was back in the dark ages before home blood glucose testing meters existed. He never used insulin or had any major complications of the really scary kind -- like blindness or gangrene. But I'm sure it impacted his overall health and was a contributing factor to the heart disease that caused his death at 78. So I'm taking this seriously and trying to understand and take charge of my Type 2 so it doesn't take charge of me. As a result improving and controlling my diet -- (what and how I eat overall, now and forever) and exercise -- (finding ways to incorporate regular physical activity into my life) have moved up to the top of my list of things to do. The good news is when I eat and exercise in ways that keep my Type 2 under control (and my BG readings are in or near the normal range) I feel great, (better than I have in years actually), and I'm slowly drifting back to my proper weight. I need to drift down about 50 more pounds to be where I want to be.
As a child I tended towards being just a bit underweight. I picked up a few pounds in high school moving fully up into the normal range. The summer before college I worked third shift as a Number One Cleaner at the Indianapolis Ford Plant, and in the process lost about 20 pounds because it was so hot, and I never really wanted to eat. My work schedule meant I missed dinner 5 days a week, so I entered college weighing about what I'd weighed in 8th grade -- 113 pounds. By my sophomore year I had pretty much gained it back and was a healthy weight again --- 122-127, depending on the time of the month.
I started gaining weight after I got married. I put on a few pounds every year. Initially it was because I started eating the little dabs of left overs that weren't enough for another meal instead of throwing them out or saving them. Later the problem was infertility. I always had a weight swing of 5 pounds based on my monthly cycle. When we started hoping I was pregnant, and my cycle didn't come on time, my monthly weight gain would creep up, and up, from 5 pounds to maybe 6, or maybe little more. Then when we were disappointed I wouldn't lose the extra -- just the 5 that was in the swing. Over time that adds up. So I was about 170 but holding steady when Mom had heart surgery in 2002. I was her transportation and primary caregiver. She died in 2009, and that was a stressful year. I picked up an extra 10 pounds ---- I think because I was going out to eat a extra meal when I felt really stressed, just so I could sit and relax and have someone do something for me.
I stopped doing that after she died, but I still kept gaining. There was no plateau as in previous weight gains. I went from 185 to 190 to 195 to 200, to 205. The weird thing was I hadn't changed anything really. I was eating and exercising the same, but my body wasn't responding to it in the same way, and I was tired, so very, very tired most of the time. -- Now, I know that I had the classic symptoms of insulin resistence, but I was clueless then.
If this sounds like you, get your blood glucose readings checked, or better yet -- start reading about prediabetes and buy a meter and supplies so you can test yourself. -- Actually Gretchen Becker's book about Prediabetes is well worth reading, even if your blood sugar is fine. It's full of good stuff everyone can use.
It's been about six months since I was diagnosed with Type 2. I go back for my second checkup next week, so I'll get my new A1C reading. At my first check it had dropped to 7.1 and that was with BG readings still running pretty high for the first 8 weeks of the 90 days, so I'm hopeful this time will be better.
I've got a handle on the eating piece of controlling this disease. I still need to find ways to cook healthier food that my husband and I like that fits into the time constraints of my life. I've not done much yet with trying to remove the processed foods -- I've just been counting carbs. That alone has produced good results, but I'm intending to work my way into doing more.
Food is really important to me because it was a cultural value in our family. My Dad grew up cooking and was the chef in our household when I was growing up. As I was growing up, almost half of our family conversations -- both nuclear and extended -- were about food. Mom did the day to day cooking, but if we had company for dinner, or were carrying food to a pitch-in -- odds are Dad did the cooking. (Mom might do cranberries or maybe a fruit/jello salad.)
Cooking and eating is part of how I feel continuity with the past, so I'm not willing to step away from the food ways I know and into some other food culture or diet. So I'm not on the South Beach Diet, or Eat Well to Live Well, or anything else. Instead, I'm counting grams of carbs and aiming to eat no more than 150 grams of carbs a day while slowly evolving the way I cook and eat so it's based less on highly processed foods. And I'm always on the look out for quick and easy low carb recipes that don't involve artificial or highly processed ingredients.
Exercise is where I'm in more trouble. The week after I got diagnosed I got a gym membership. (There's a Gold's Gym about a block from my apartment.) I finally used my membership Wednesday night. It took me more than 6 months to get over there. Clearly, I'm conflicted here. At least I got there Wednesday night. I biked 2 miles, walked a half mile, and did like 10 reps on most of the weight machines in the women's gym, and felt pretty good afterwards. I wasn't really sore the next day, or even today -- though I can tell I worked out. I intend to go back -- for sure next Wednesday night, but hopefully sooner.
I'm trying to find ways to fit more exercise into my life. I've got trouble finding the time -- it feels like a big deal somehow -- a big production, instead of something simple. Reading is not a big deal. I can find hours and hours in my busy schedule to read, but working out feels like it demands a time block I don't have. For now I'm going with Wednesday night (the one night I have no evening meetings) as my gym night. It's not enough, but it's a start.