GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #2: Actually UNDERSTANDING Diabetes and What It Means for Me…

For the first time since I started this column eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1 diabetes. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome (???) to join me!

The hardest thing for me is the new routines…

Take your blood sugars. Take your pills (only one of which is currently for diabetes – the METFORMIN). Watch your diet…my past efforts to watch my diet were (more or less) to watch the fork lift the food to my mouth or aim whatever hand food I was eating into my mouth (something of a challenge when we’re at the Minnesota State Fair as most of the hand food is eaten while walking through huge crowds of people doing what you’re doing…eating!)

Even things like counting calories, which ISN’T as important in diabetes as is counting carbs, but it’s a hard shift.

The main reason? I’m not used to CARING about what I eat, how I exercise, and if my body is working correctly…OK – that’s not entirely true, I care. BUT, I haven’t cared enough. So, I do care – but I DON’T UNDERSTAND THINGS RIGHT NOW!

For example, I’ve got my finger-pricker, the blood sugar reader gizmo, and the sterile lances. I know, more or less what it’s reading: 185 mg/dL literally means 189 milligrams of sugar per deciliter of blood. As a science teacher, I can actually envision a deciliter – but it’s not easy. We used ml (or milliliters) when I was in the lab for most of my 45 years of going to college and teaching science classes. This might help you visualize it:

https://o.quizlet.com/Jj2S4QGmAClR-hUZGa1ZGg_b.png

So, now I have a better idea of what I’m measuring. My blood sugar has been between 110-209 (at various times of day – I STILL don’t understand that. That low was after I fasted from about 9pm to 5pm (I was going to Red Robin with a buddy of mine and KNEW I was going to be eating French fries!) But at 10pm after I was done eating, my blood sugars were 115, 101, and 110. How is that? The following morning, it was 175 at 8:15 am. One morning, it was 152 at 12:40 am and the device said that was GOOD…CLEARLY a subject for my next post!)

You can tell I have a lot of reading to do. I can’t work at controlling my blood sugars unless I understand my blood sugars! And I don’t mean saying, “Doctor, doctor, whatever shall I do???”

I am me, and I need to UNDERSTAND what’s going on in my body. I have a bunch of books – TYPE 2 Diabetes BASICS; THE FIRST YEAR: TYPE 2 DIABETES; REVERSING DIABETES, and a whole bunch of other ones my wife bought when she was first diagnosed. Right now, I’m basically in the dark, the tips of my fingers hurt (why do I have to prick the TIPS of my fingers? Why not my ankle? Why not my elbow? Why not my butt cheek? I DON’T KNOW!

And THAT’S what I’m doing here. I’m exploring this whole thing and writing about it – only this time, instead of my WIFE’S breast cancer or DAD’S Alzheimer’s, I’m looking at MY OWN diabetes.

Humbling. That’s what it is. Humbling…

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg; https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/glucose-levels-blood-diagram-hyperglycemia-hypoglycemia-diabetes-142482790.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…DIABETES #1 The Diagnosis

For the first time since I started this column eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. 

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1 diabetes. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all.

But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome (???) to join me!

When I sat down with the Diabetes Education counselor, it was no surprise that I was there.

I’ve been pre-diabetic for a few years. I knew I could change my diagnosis if I just followed a few simple steps. I needed to lose weight, exercise more, and eat right. My response to that knowledge was, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll get to it! Besides I eat pretty good. I ride my bike! I sometimes lose weight!”

Well, the jig is up. I’ve been caught with my proverbial pants down (sorta like the scene in SPIDER-MAN: A Long Way From Home. Nothing evil going down, but he got caught getting ready to put on the black suit that ultimately inspired Ned to call him Night Monkey.) I’m now officially diabetic.

What’s that mean? (TOTALLY UN)Funny you should ask!

I now have a blood sugar monitor kit of my very own. I used it for the first time this morning. My blood sugar level was 173, which my phone tells me is “high”.

And that means, what? Yeah, here’s where the educating myself well enough to understand comes in, plus a little bit of Translating the Doctors.

First a BRIEF history of diabetes (HIGHLY condensed from the Wikipedia article: Diabetes was one of the first diseases described by Human medicine. The term “diabetes” or “to pass through” was first used in 230 BCE by the Greek Apollonius of Memphis

Two types of diabetes were identified as separate conditions for the first time by the Indian physicians Sushruta and Charaka in 400–500 CE with one type being associated with youth and another type with being overweight. It took a long time to create an effective treatment. The early part of the 20th century for Canadians Banting and Best who finally isolated and purified insulin. We’ve known for a fact what causes diabetes FOR A HUNDRED YEARS…

What is blood sugar? It’s pretty simple: “Blood sugar, or glucose, is the main sugar found in your blood. It comes from the food you eat, and is your body's main source of energy. Your blood carries glucose to all of your body's cells to use for energy.”

And what does that have to do with diabetes? “Diabetes is a disease in which your blood sugar levels are too high. Over time, having too much glucose in your blood can cause serious problems…Himsworth published research that differentiated between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. He theorized that many people had insulin resistance rather than insulin deficiency. Insulin resistance is one factor that leads to type 2 diabetes. When a person has insulin resistance, their body cells lose their sensitivity to insulin and are not able to take in glucose. In response, the pancreas increases its output of insulin.”

What’s a NORMAL blood sugar? “Fasting normal blood sugar for a person without diabetes: 70–99 mg/dl (This is what my monitor shows. The funny letters after mean “milligrams per deciliter” or how much glucose (in milligrams – like what most of you antibiotics and Tylenol/Advil/Aleve is measured in) there is in a deciliter (which is one tenth of a liter or about the bottom of a two liter bottle of pop).” Official ADA recommendation for someone with diabetes: 80–130 mg/dl (4.4–7.2 mmol/L) when you get up in the morning (fasting level) and less than 180 mg/dl after you’ve had a meal.”

What KIND of serious problems can insulin resistance (Type 2 diabetes) cause? “stresses the pancreas (where insulin is made) damaging it. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes caused an estimated 2 million deaths.

And WHAT THE @#$&!* can I do about it? A healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. How much am I SUPPOSED to weigh? (If you want to know about yourself, click here, supply the numbers and it will tell you! ( https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323446#body-mass-index-bmi ) I weigh 255 pounds. I should be between 136-172 pounds. So…to be safe, I need to lose 150 pounds…

“Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications.”

No other sentence I have ever typed sounded so incredibly SIMPLE and terrifyingly DIFFICULT...I have my work cut out for me and it’s (finally) time to get serious.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317484#non-insulin-treatment, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes,
For MORE details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_diabetes
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg