I saw my doc yesterday and we had a pretty good conversation. When I had gone in for my physical my blood pressure was up a bit, but yesterday it was back to normal – 120 over 80. Almost textbook perfect.
I asked the nurse for a copy of my lab results from the previous test as I still didn’t know what my readings were for glucose, etc. She got me a copy of them and I had plenty of time to review them before the doc came in. It was not a good sign.
For starters, they had run an A1C test. I didn’t know they ran that one, and I was going to request it. An A1C test is a measurement of your hemoglobin and it’s relation to blood sugar (glucose). It’s not a direct measurement of your glucose but of your bloods ability to carry glucose. A normal reading is less than 5.7. Anything between 5.7 and 6.4 is increased risk of diabetes and anything over 7 is diabetes. Mine was 11.4!!!!
Also, my glucose level was 213 – it’s supposed to be under 105. And, they had found glucose in my urine. There isn’t supposed to be any in your urine.
The doc was real nice, but the bottom line is that even with a severe infection it shouldn’t elevate your glucose numbers to that extent and the A1C test wouldn’t have been affected by it. I still asked for another round of tests just to be sure, and prior to starting treatment. The doc agreed, but unless there is some bizarre fluke it certainly looks like I have diabetes.
So….the good news. The doc said I’m not as bad off as it seems, though I will need to start treatment as soon as the next round of tests are confirmed. As he put it, he has fat-bastards coming in with glucose levels well above 300 or 400. He said he even had guy that ran marathons that developed diabetes. That guy got lucky because he came in because he was urinating all the time (sign of diabetes). They tested his glucose level and it was almost 700!! He had a race to run in a week. Doc said if he had ran the race he probably would have died due to dehydration. Lucky guy.
The doc also thinks I am producing insulin – which means that my cell receptors are probably having problems. This is controllable via oral medication, diet and exercise. Unless my body is unresponsive to all the types of oral medication I shouldn’t have to take insulin. At least I don’t have to lose 200lbs or something and the doc is putting me in his handful of “skinny diabetics” category. I wouldn’t say I am skinny, but I’m not huge – I weighed in at 153.4lbs fully dressed @ 5’6”.
So what does all that mean? Well, it means I am going to have to watch my diet, exercise, take pills, and get stuck by needles every 3~6 mos. for the rest of my life. As long as I respond positively to the medication it shouldn’t be that bad.
As for diet - I don’t eat huge gluttonous meals too often, but I will have to curb starches and carbohydrates a little bit, which will be a bit difficult for me since I love pasta, rice, Asian and Italian foods, etc. I’ll have to stop eating chips for a snack and switch over to low-fat popcorn. I eat popcorn as a snack, but now I’ll have to eat more of it. Less on the fruit, more on the veggies, and anything with fiber is good. The Dr. Pepper is going to be really hard for me, though. I don’t drink coffee, but I like my morning DP to get me going. I need to try diet again, but I’ve never liked diet drinks – can’t stand the artificial sweeteners, but maybe I’ll grow to like one of them. And I can still have a drink with my friends, but I can’t get hammered.
It’s still a bit frightening because diabetes increases your risk for heart disease and other cardiovascular issues as well as an increased risk for all kinds of other health problems. Fortunately, and again, if you can get it under control those risks all drop to the same levels as people without the disease. Right now, I am in the paranoid stage (and perhaps still shock and denial) and every minor feeling of numbness or twitching muscle puts me on edge (all signs of nerve damage, or no problem at all!).
It also profoundly reminds me of my mortality. I never liked the idea of taking pills or medication to fix things. I always see “old” people as people having to take a bunch of pills every day, and that in itself can be problematic. Some people get to taking so many pills they actually cause more problems that they fix. Despite trying to take care of myself and staying in some semblance of shape I get to join that club.
It makes me wonder, though, if even 50 years ago a lot of people probably died from complications related to diabetes, but were often diagnosed with something else.
Right now, the first step is to confirm the diagnosis and then get things under control. We’ll see what happens after that.
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