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! Today: WHY CAN’T I EAT THE WAY I KNOW I SHOULD?????
Sorry for the excessive punctuation marks, but I am so FRUSTRATED!
For example, even when I think I’m “eating right”, when I take my blood sugars in the morning, they STILL show RED!
The only time I get blood sugars where they’re supposed to be is when I fast all day long – like when I KNOW I’m going to Red Robin for supper with one of my oldest friends. Then I have coffee without creamer or Half-and-Half in the morning, just Splenda, and then not eat breakfast and lunch. The last day I did that, my BS (do you experience the same subtle, “I can just ignore my blood sugars because they’re BS” moment that I do? MAN! It’s easy to think that! See, I don’t take insulin yet, and my daily pill regimen is 1 blood pressure pill in the morning, then my cholesterol and my Metformin with supper. My pill box is a little purple thing (with 8 days…don’t try and tell me THAT’S not confusing!) Two of the pills are tiny, of course, the Metformin is the monstrously huge one!)
Anyway, all of the horrific stuff that happens because of Type 2 diabetes – “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…” these are all practically invisible to me. I haven’t lost a lower limb – though the fact is that I HAVE seen it. I used to be a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a young man, had no trouble getting a job in a nursing home – because there are a FEW old men in there and they usually deal with female caregivers. They LOVED having me and I learned to keep up enough with sports, hunting, and politics to carry on a reasonably coherent conversation with them. They just liked having a young man around to chat with…One of the men, who was himself still completely “there”, but whose wife had severe dementia, was intelligent, and INCREDIBLY FUNNY. I loved working with him. But once we started to get to know each other, he told my about his wife. He’d chosen to move into the nursing home with her when her medical and health needs got so severe, he simply couldn’t cope with them anymore.
She’d been diabetic most of her life, and eventually had to have both legs amputated below the knees.
So, I KNOW one of the effects. But the others? “stress on the pancreas, damaging it (If it doesn’t hurt, it’s not real, right?)…may cause of blindness (really? In the 21st Century????), kidney failure (I can get one of my kids to donate a kidney!), heart attacks (my Dad had a quintuple bypass when he was like 70 and lived another eighteen years! I’ll just get open heart surgery); stroke – OK, THAT one scares me. Brain stroke can erase a person, creating a true zombie – walking, talking, but the person who used to be in the body is gone…; and lower limb amputation… (“Got it.”). Diabetes and kidney disease due to diabetes cause an estimated 2 million deaths…(and of course, that perennial favorite, “Everybody’s gonna die someday!”)
So, I don’t pay attention because there’s no IMMEDIATE effect on me. I can’t TELL if my pancreas is being damaged, or my eyesight is failing (I’ve had glasses since I was in sixth grade – my eyesight has ALWAYS been failing!), or my kidneys are failing, or I “might” have a heart attack…not of it is immediate.
And I’m not the only one: “Participants’ responses indicated that using healthy eating to control diabetes does not provide immediate, tangible results. Thus, these participants followed their own common sense to guide their diabetes management and improve their health. Clinicians may be better able to help patients eat healthfully if they consider these factors during medical visits.”
So, their common sense is likely as good as mine… “It won’t kill me to eat this one doughnut!” or “If I get a MEDIUM DQ Blizzard, it’s better than getting a large!”
I need to get serious. I mean, ACTUALLY serious. I need to do more than write on this blog. I need to change my life. (“But, I don’t WANT to change my life! I like my life!” to which I will now reply: “You’re gonna get LESS life if you don’t start taking care of yourself NOW!” (Add a foot stomp there at the end. It’s time, Guy, to get serious…)
Resources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3781525/
Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg
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