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