My Six Weeks Diabetes Followup

I went for my six week followup appointment this morning. My labs were back and after six weeks on my meds the results are:

Blood Pressure: 114/74 down from 121/80 ~ must be the meds because I haven’t started my exercising yet. That starts next week LOL.

Triglycerides: 274 (down from 643) ~ still too high but coming down

Cholesterol: 129 (down from 268) ~ in normal range
HDL: 36 (down from 37) ~ just under normal range
LDL: 38 (unable to test last time) ~ in normal range for diabetes

Glucose: 149 (down from 277) ~ still too high, but coming down nicely

Hemoglobin A1c: 10.1 (down from 14.4) ~ on target. It’s a 90 day average so it should be fine on my next visit. Target is 7.0

Liver/Kidney Function: All great! Not being hurt by the diabetes at all!

So Doc is very pleased! He said I don’t have to come back for 3 months which is great news! I also do not have to check my blood yet! He said I can if I really want to, but he wants me to ‘learn’ my body and go by how I’m feeling. He said just watch for lows and highs… which is usually strange bouts of fatigue.

He said just keep reading up and he will send me to a 10 hour diabetes education class which will really help. He just doesn’t want to overload me while I’m still getting leveled out.

He wants me to exercise daily and to keep my caloric intake at around 1800-2000 calories/day. I’m at around 1500 right now.

So all in all I’m very happy! Things are on track and I’m slowly learning to live with this disease. I just need to keep dropping weight, start exercising and focus on staying within my levels.

I’ll update after my next visit!

Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog…

…and he was in our bedroom at 11:30 PM!

Ok this just shows how weird our life is sometimes. About ten years ago Becky was walking to the kitchen in our previous house. She stepped into the living room and felt something warm and fuzzy. At first she thought it might be the cat but it wasn’t. She turns on the light and it was a MOLE! Blind & black with giant front claws and a starburst shaped snout. So weird! So we boxed him up and let him go in a neighbor’s yard down the street. What! I wasn’t going to let him loose in MY yard.

So tonight I’m out front in the storm walking the dog (for all the good it does). Suddenly Becky comes to the front door screaming “Scott you have to come in and get this frog in our bedroom! He’s huge! Giant!”

Now being the good husband I of course believed her, thinking it was just a big tree frog. She kept insisting it was a giant bullfrog. I was like no way… it’s just a tree frog… maybe a Cuban tree frog. They get pretty big. So I head to the bedroom. “It’s behind my nightstand!”, Becky shouts. So I take a look.

“HOLY CRAP!”, I shout. “That thing is freakin’ huge!” It was an honest to God Mark Twain Croaker! I grabbed a garbage bag and tried to manuver it out without hurting it. It spooked and jumped three feet up the wall! Peeing the whole time too. And did this thing stink! That rotten sweet sewer smell. Ugh! I thought the dog was eating out of the cat box again, but it was the frog. So I got him in the bag and took him over to the pond across the street. He booked it outta there and was gone. Not even a thank you. We have NO idea how he got in our house let alone back behind Becky’s night stand. Our cat alerted Becky to ‘something’ behind it. She thought it might have been the hamster.

Now you are thinking, how big could it have been… really? Well feast your eyes on Jeremiah…

The penny is for size reference. Click to enlarge.

My Poetry from 1984-86 ~ “Friend”

Friend

Hello again, oh dear sweet friend. How have you been so far?
You’ve lifted me out of my dark pits when I wasn’t up to par.
I thank you for your caring heart, the love you’ve shown to me.
And when my eyes were closed to things, you opened them so I could see.
I care for you, oh friend of mine, with a love so deep and tender.
You’ve helped me through the real hard times and the wounds that they did render.
So now, dear friend, let me say again, I’ll love you till the end.
You are right now and will always be my closest, dearest friend.

My Poetry from 1984-86 ~ “Live”

I was looking through some old paperwork and I happened upon three poems I had written back in like 1984-86. I thought I’d share. Keep in mind I’m no Shakespeare and how much life experience can one really have at 17-18 years old? LOL

Live

Live for the Lord Almighty, be just and right and true.
Test not His mighty power for great harm may come to you.
Just trust in Him with all your heart, give all to Him within.
He is all you need in life, yes all you need is Him.

* Maybe not the most theologically sound, but it was what I felt back then LOL *

A Spoonful of Sugar… Makes Me Have To Pee

Ok now that I’m on a new routine and things have had a chance to sink in I thought I’d talk a bit about what’s going on with me.

About two weeks ago I was officially diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Now this was not really a shock to me considering my symptoms and family history. I spent most of Easter weekend sleeping on couches even though I had more than a full nights’ sleep. That and peeing a full bladder every 40 minutes. I also had lost weight without trying. There were other symptoms as well. I did an online risk test from the ADA site and it came up bright red and basically said I needed to get to my doctor immediately. So I went…

Doc said it sounded like I had it but of course I needed a full blood panel to confirm. So off to the lab I went. Now I had fasted for 12 hours before I went. I got stabbed and waited for my results. I was told in come in immediately for a follow-up. The results were as follows:

Triglycerides: 643 (>125 = diabetic)

Glucose: 277 (should be 65-99)

A1C: 14.4% (<6% is normal)

Now remember that was AFTER no food for 12 hours. Not good at all. So now I’m on 1000mg of Metformin daily. Doc said that is may take 4-6 months to get things leveled out and see if the meds are working correctly. I have to drop a bunch of weight and start exercising as well. Of course no simple sugars (soda, jelly, syrups, etc) and no simple carbs.

Now that is not an easy thing for me considering I drank 60 ounces of Mtn Dew daily. But I’ve been doing well. I’m off caffeine and I’ve really cut out most of my sugars. It’s not easy though. The Oreo’s call to me in the middle of the night.

I also got a free glucose meter from LifeScan (http://www.onetouchoffer.com). I don’t have to check my glucose just yet, but Doc did say eventually I’ll need to just to make sure I’m in the correct range. He said at this point he doesn’t want me focusing on my levels since they are going to be all over the place for a few months.

So to date I’ve lost about 30 pounds in the last 2.5 months. I have about 80 more to go but it will happen slowly and correctly over the next few months.

That’s it for this installment. I’ll post more as time passes and things progress.