My Battle with Diabetes

My battle with Diabetes started many years ago. I was 33 when I found out. The signs were there:

• Always thirsty
• Warm Blooded
• Frequent Bathroom Breaks
• Headaches
• Would get hung-over feeling after just one drink (and I never drank that often)

It was my constant headaches that drove me to talk to my doctor (call him Dr. V). Dr. V had me run several tests and sent me for a CT Scan. The results came back, yes you have a brain (woohoo, I have a brain, I will take some comfort in that fact), CT Scan all normal. But, and buts from doctors are never good...you are a Diabetic.

That was so not what I expected. Wow. "Are you sure?" I asked. Dr. V confirmed it, my A1C (a three month average of the sugars in the blood) was 14. My fasting spot check was 22. Normal levels are 6.5 for nondiabetics and seven for diabetics. I was twice the safe average.

Note: A1C is the best check to determine Diabetes. A spot check may come back low but the A1C always tells the real story.

It was an eye opener. The irony is, I love chocolate (yes I admit it, addicted).

"Hi, my name is Chris."

"Hello, Chris and welcome to Chocoholics Anonymous."

I love pastas (carbonara sauce is my fav), warm bread and butter, cookies (I once scientifically proved one can never have too much chocolate chips per cookie), and sweets. At one point I earned the nickname "Doughnut Killer." Well, that had to stop, and the drinking pop for fuel at work (so bad for you).

Note: I had a relative who drank over four liters of Pepsi a day. After 15 years his body started breaking down. He could not walk barely, his knees and legs were giving out and swollen. His job was mainly physical in nature and he could not work or earn a living. Doctors had no idea what was wrong and could only offer ideas (and a ton of various meds). Not wanting to introduce foreign meds into his system he decided to look to his life, what may be causing this. He stopped Pepsi, went cold turkey. It was hard but in days his body bounced back and he could walk again. In days he was able to go back to work. Couple the no-Pepsi with large amounts of Omega-3 (fish oil pills, about nine a day) and all his issues went away and never came back. Something to learn from this, drink water not pop, fish oil is good for joints, and look to your lifestyle and how you eat/exercise as possible causes for health issues.

I immediately stopped all liquid sugars. No chocolate milk, no slurpees, and no juices. After two weeks, ran Diabetic tests again. I was good, no liquid sugar, but my levels did not change. Twenty-six for my spot check, that is nearly a diabetic coma. Dr. V started me on Metformin; this is a standard medicine given to all Diabetics. Two weeks later, still no change. By this time I purchased a glucose monitoring device. I watched my sugar levels, day after day, consistently well over the safe blood-sugar levels. I even registered a 29, a seriously bad sugar level.

The Metformin dosage was upped, near max dosage per day. Two weeks later and no significant change in blood-sugar levels. Glyburide was added to my med list and the Metformin was maxed. Still no real changes. The issue was me, I refused to change my eating habits.

• Only certain fruits, pears and apples basically.
• Limit pasta, it can accompany a meal but not as the whole meal itself.
• Limit potatoes and rice.

The tests were in, still not much of a change. I was getting discouraged. The foods I love were limited, less fruit and potatoes. I was not seeing the results I wanted. It felt like I had given up so much in my life (from a food perspective). More changes were needed...ouch.

Dr. V, on one of our regularly scheduled sessions, told me about a new drug (at least for Canada) Avandia. Steadily, for the next few days, my levels started to drop. Not into normal healthy level but better...and finally some good news. Avandia was expensive so Dr. V was good to get me months of samples. Very kind.

After about six months and slowly but steady gains, I went for a visit to Dr. V. Nurse takes my blood pressure. She could not believe the results so she re-did it again. Slightly higher. Something was up.

More to follow...