For the first time since I started this blog 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. 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!
I’ve been taking Ozempic to manage my TYPE 2 DIABETES BLOOD SUGAR. Some people have said, “YOU’RE SO LUCKY!!! You don’t have to worry about what you eat anymore!”
Reality, as usual, is just as much of a punch in the face as it can be about everything else: “‘This isn’t a magic bullet or pill,’ said Edward Matias, 45, a Connecticut resident who works in IT. ‘It’s not the fountain of youth. It takes work and commitment. If people are asking for this med because they want to lose weight and think they can eat anything at all, they’re in for a rude awakening.’”
I started taking Ozempic a year or so ago when my A1c kept climbing until it hit 8.2. It SHOULD be less than 6.1, so I had moved from “Hmmm…” to dangerous.
What’s it mean and why’s it important? First thing I found out it’s an average blood sugar level over the past two to three months. It’s figured out by determining how much of the hemoglobin (which hauls oxygen in your blood) is being screwed up by TOO MUCH sugar. The A1c is a measurement of how badly the hemoglobin is coated with sugar. The more the sugar coats the oxygen, the LESS oxygen your blood carries…the less energy you have. If your energy level drops too far, you die.
Pretty simple, huh?
So, Ozempic works by prodding the pancreas to release insulin to get the sugar to your muscles rather than storing it as fat and lowers glucose production in the liver, improving blood sugar control. For weight loss, it acts on the brain to reduce hunger and slows stomach emptying, which helps me feel full longer so I eat less, leading to weight loss. So, I NEED it to lower the sugar floating around in my blood – and I lose a few pounds on the side.
Who cares if there’s too much free sugar floating around my blood? Well, remember when you were a little kid and ate an entire box of your FAVORITE sugar0coated breakfast cereal WITH NO MILK? Sick to your stomach? Your head spinning, ears ringing.
Mom probably muttered, “If you do that again, you’re probably going into a sugar coma!” We all knew what a coma was – we’d been watching MASH or Marcus Welby, MD, or whatever other hospital soap opera Dad was watching while he was typing up his reports. It’s when someone is alive but pretty much looks dead.
It wasn’t a good thing. That’s what happens when your body can’t even control the amount of sugar (GLUCOSE, not like…table sugar!) in your bloodstream. Besides feeling crappy, it also does a number of your internal organs. You can be really thirsty or hungry; frequent peeing, headaches, blurred vision, constantly feeling worn out, (weirdly) pre-diabetics can experience weight loss, vaginal yeast, worse than normal infections, and infections ON your skin, and finally, you heal much slower from cuts, and cuts can turn into oozing sores. That’s only the beginning, diabetes can become MORE serious maybe even drifting into something called ketoacidosis: your blood to become acidic. DKA can also affect people who have undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes like vomiting, dehydration, abdominal pain, labored breathing or hyperventilation, rapid heartbeat, confusion and disorientation, and you can pass out.
LONG term: liver failure, kidney failure, vision failure, nerve damage, paralysis of your STOMACH!!!, heart disease, and stroke.
Continuing to take Ozempic, Mounjarno, and Wegovy are just brand names of semaglutide – which you can’t get as a generic yet. But maybe someday.
Because as far as I can tell, I’ll be taking this stuff until I die…
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/ozempic-what-its-like-to-take-for-years-rcna93921
A NEWLY DIAGNOSED T2 DIABETIC, breast cancer husband's observations mixed up with an Alzheimer's son's musings
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Sunday, August 10, 2025
DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #31: A VERY Brief History of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes and What They Mean To Me, Today, Now
YES: THIS IS A REAL, HEALTHY PANCREAS...
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have similar names, but their causes, development, and treatment approaches are WILDLY different. “We don’t know when diabetes was first discovered but it was mentioned in Egyptian medical papyri dating back to 1500 BCE. These ancient documents describe a malady characterized by frequent urination, a symptom that is now associated with diabetes mellitus. However, the term ‘diabetes’ itself did not exist until around 250 BCE, when a Greek physician, Apollonius of Memphis, coined it.”
Type 1 diabetes wasn’t treatable. In the olden days, people DIED FROM IT. (In these days people DIE FROM IT as well…) “Canadian doctor Banting and his assistant Best discovered how to treat Type 1. Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy, became the first patient to receive an insulin injection, significantly improving his health. Banting and Macleod won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1923 for their important discovery.” Scientists eventually discovered that the cause of Type 1 diabetes comes from a Human body attacking itself. “Type 1 is a condition that starts in childhood. It happens when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that make insulin.” It was this form of diabetes that my best male friend at the time, who was best man in our wedding, died a truly ugly death in direct result (one might even say direct DEFIANCE) of his Type 1 diagnosis…
My Type 2 is treatable. In fact, I just got a shipment of a brand-name semaglutide an hour or so ago…but what it comes down to is this. My best man had NO CHOICE in developing Type 1 diabetes. Unlike HIM, “Type 2 diabetes is largely a disease of lifestyle and usually develops later in life. Type 2 diabetes was first described in the 1930s, although its history is not as well-documented as Type 1 diabetes. It was recognized as a distinct condition, different from Type 1 diabetes, that generally affected adults and wasn’t dependent on insulin. The disease likely existed long before but was not distinguished from other forms of diabetes.”
They start differently and are treated differently…but could they be CURED the same way?
The key is an organ in your belly called a really WEIRD looking thing called a pancreas.
What IS this thing? Something oogy. Gag-inducing. Ugly. (You probably noticed it when you followed my link…)
But so important that last year, treating the main malady of this tiny organ cost the world over a trillion dollars. Yes, that’s right: treating everyone who had diabetes (Type 1 and 2 together) in 2024 cost $1,000,000,000,000. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241831/health-care-costs-due-to-diabetes-worldwide-by-region/#:~:text=Health%20care%20expenditure%20due%20to,433%20thousand%20diabetes%2Drelated%20deaths.
The emotional cost is far beyond that. In 2024, diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, was responsible for 3.4 million deaths globally; at least one person loved every one of those people who died. This equates to one death every nine seconds. The Western Pacific region had the highest number of diabetes-related deaths, with approximately 1.2 million.” https://diabetesatlas.org/#:~:text=to%20tackle%20it.-,589%20million%20adults,3
This is serious stuff people. VERY serious. And I am one of a very small group of people who can afford to treat something I brought on myself (with a little help from my genetics…) But I DO have resources…
I’ve probably depressed you by now, so I’ll stop for here. But I’m not done. One last thing – I’m not pointing a finger or making accusations at YOU: I’m reflecting on the choices I MADE MYSELF. You can make your own choices…up to you.
And while I’m only RESPONSIBLE to myself, my choices affect the lives of many other people…and so do yours…
Links: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5278808/
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