Happy 62nd Birthday-You Have Type 2 Diabetes

Yup, that was the news I heard from my doctor the day before my 62nd birthday. My blood sugar reading was 400! He handed me a prescription for Glucophage, test strips and lancets and a meter that I will have to return to him because my insurance would not cover the test strips for that one. He also wrote down what I could eat—unfortunately it was not enough for my body weight and for a day or so I was constantly dizzy. More about that later. He told me to come back in a week. I was in a semi state of shock and did not ask any questions. Additionally, probably because of the diabetes, my once too low blood pressure is now too high. The only good news is that I have lost 34 pounds. The bad news-I lost it in 1 ½ months. 1 ½ months ago I suffered extreme heat stroke when the fan in my car stopped working and I was stuck in traffic for 2 hours without air conditioning-the temp outside the car was about 101. My doctor will not rule this out as the trigger that set off the diabetes.

Once I finally got home and attempted to read the instructions for just how to use the meter and put it together etc-I knew I was in trouble!! I am not mechanical by any means of the imagination and the pics they used, for me at least were worthless!! I was going to work in NJ the next day and I knew there were at least two people there who could help me, so I stashed the meter and accessories in my pocketbook! No sense getting my blood pressure any higher then it already was! I called a couple of the people there to warn them—and to please do not buy me a birthday cake-but it was too late—I had let a group of friends in a private FB group know I was going to the doctor and they wanted to know how it went—so I told them. Help was being offered all over the place-websites to visit-offers to help me-what a great bunch of ladies! I asked then to please give me a day to let it sink into my head that I was diabetic and my life style was about to change literally overnight. This had happened once before-I have a bad gallbladder but control it by diet-I could do this again.

So I got to work on my birthday 9/13-my boss actually made it in before me-he was scared that I would end up in the hospital like a previous employee—the smile on his face when I walked in was priceless!! It took a while to get to my office-had to keep explaining along the hallway—then I unlocked my office door to a gigantic box on my desk—the accounting department had bought me a mini refrigerator-it was supposed to be for my apt but I have no room for it (they knew that my big refrig doesn’t work too well anymore). I looked at it and said—this will save me!! I had them set it up in my office and then I went shopping and stocked it with skim milk, yogurt and fresh fruit and a big box of Cheerios!! The refrig that is in the kitchen has to be cleaned out every Friday-this way I could keep things there over the weekend. Now all I have to worry about is Mondays and Wednesdays (and the weekends). I did manage to do a little shopping last night—bought some frozen veggies, a can of tuna and some Wasa bread (which the doctor said I could eat.)—So last night I shared the can of tuna with Baby and ate a box of brussel sprouts-it was almost too much for me—but I was very happy when I took my blood sugar 2 hours later and it really hadn’t gone up (still can’t convince myself to record anything)—Then this morning-before I ate—297!!!

(she dint offer--I had to hep meself)

For my next post in this continuing saga I will tell you what I learned about body weight and the amount of carbs AND calories you should be consuming if diabetic. Turns out I was eating too little!!

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