09.24.12

Well, by way of follow-up from the post below on 9.20.12:

My A1c was 5.8 ... well in the satisfactory range. Whew! I feel like I dodged a bullet.

Meanwhile, while was at the doctor's office ... I got a flu shot.

EVERYONE NEEDS A FLU SHOT!

However, even though I know you cannot and will not get influenza from the flu shot (since the vaccine is created with dead virii) ... every freakin' time I get a flu shot, a couple days later I get "sick": a bit of a sore throat, muscle weakness, raging headache, a low grade fever and general malaise.

I did a bit of Googling this morning and learned that 1%-3% of persons who receive a flu shot may develop those symptoms.

Typical.

Why can't I fall into that wee minority percentage of folks who win the gazillion dollar lottery!?

[08:20am PST] [Permalink]

09.20.12

Back in November of 2001 (specifically 11-24-01 ... before I had "Permalinks") ... I wrote about a family "secret".

The secret: I come from a family of diabetics. The history of diabetes in our family goes back many generations and apparently ... ironically ... was in the families of both my Mother and my Father.

I have spent most of my adult life avoiding sugary foods ... especially sodas, desserts, and candy ... in an effort to prevent diabetes from presenting itself in my life.

But what is genetic and preordained apparently is going to happen nonetheless.

In February 2011, I began to notice that my vision would intermittently become blurred but clear up. I was going through lots of ice because I just could not get enough to drink (Crystal Light, diet soda, water, etc.). And everytime I ate ... regardless what I ate ... I felt "icky" for hours.

As a former diabetes educator, I put all these symptoms together. I fasted for 12 hours and went to the drugstore and bought a new glucose meter.

There in the Walgreens parking lot I learned my fate: yes, I am diabetic. My glucose was 248 ... and it should have been 70-110.

I immediately found an endocrinologist and made an appointment. He confirmed my diagnosis with an A1c blood test ... an A1c of 8.9, I was diabetic: Type II ... adult onset.

[An A1c of 6.0 or higher is the basic determination]

Right then and there I plotted how to end my life. Even though I had seen relatives live "just fine" with the disease and I had educated others about living successfully with the disease, I simply did not want yet another health hurdle in my life.

After many hours of tears and prayer, I came to the realization that I needed to address diabetes with the same "attention to detail" that I do other areas of my life. It became my personal goal and challenge to become the poster girl for living well as a Type II Diabetic.

I saw the endocrinologist every two weeks for a few months until my A1c went below 6.0.

It has remained below 6.0 with the help of meds and watching my food intake. Desserts and sugary foods had been eliminated for so long anyway that it was not an effort to avoid those foods ... but your basic every day carbs is another matter altogether.

I love carbs. Mainly the things you find in Mexican, Chinese and Italian foods. Those are my achilles heel. Even though I avoid these foods too and try to eat low carb ... an occassional Papa John's pizza or trip to Panda Express has crept into my life.

With daily glucose monitoring you can "hide" the results of carb ingestion by doing a bit more exercise and medicating. But with the A1c ... you cannot hide the spikes created by too many tortilla chips or a slice of gooey pizza.

Tomorrow I have to go to the doc for my 90-day A1c and I feel like a high school kid before a calculus exam ... worried that my numbers just won't add up.

I never quite understood why so many people avoid going to the doctor because they do not want to hear their test results ... or the doctor's lecture.

Now I get it.

[09:20am PST] [Permalink]