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!

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.

Bipolar or Just Too Much Sugar & Caffeine?

I’ve wondered lately if I suffer from mild bipolar disorder or if I just have too much sugar and caffeine in my diet. I mean the effects of both are about the same (depending on the dosage of caffeine/sugar). One just requires medication. During the weekends, when I am away from the vending machine in our breakroom that bekons me to get the 20 ounce bottle of green joy that is Mountain Dew, I become quite down and depressed. I’m sure it’s due to the lack of caffeine in my system over the two days off, but sometimes I just wonder if it could just be that I’m a fast-cycle bipolar and I just happen to go through my ‘down slope’ on the weekends. Maybe I just get depressed because I know I should be out doing the lawn. Maybe I get depressed because I know Monday is coming. Meh… it’s gotta be the caffeine. Also… why doesn’t caffeine follow the ‘i after e’ rule? 

MOOD THIS POST:

Depends. Maybe I’m on a downward slope?