In my "I'm diabetic" post, I spoke about the diagnosis and some new accommodations that I've had to make. I said that I did some bloodwork that wasn't because of concerns about diabetes, although it did reveal it. I didn't talk about the circumstances that brought me to that point, so I will now.
I mentioned in a post earlier this year that I've been re-diagnosed with ADHD. Before that, because I'd been struggling to stay on top of some of the responsibilities of my new position after being promoted, I connected with a therapist who specializes in ADHD. He connected me with an agency that does assessments for the disorder. I was assessed, diagnosed, and given a blood pressure monitor to see if I was eligible to take stimulant medication.
My blood pressure was in an allowable range to take the stimulants, so I got a prescription. I was on them for six days. I was really paranoid about my blood pressure so I brought my monitor to work with me. I tested myself at work, it said I had an irregular heartbeat, I panicked and had my coworker drive me to the ER.
I had an ECG done at the ER and talked to a doctor who said that my heart wasn't irregular, but it was beating extremely fast.
They let me go home. I counted my ADHD meds, found I was one less than I should have. What probably happened was, I got up, took a pill, went back to bed, woke up again and forgetting that I'd taken one, took another, accidentally double-dosing.
So now I'm worried about my heart, which led me to contact my family doctor, which led me to getting my bloodwork done, which got me diagnosed with diabetes.
In my "Johnny Barnes" post, I mentioned that I was in Guelph for a doctor's appointment, which is standard to do every three months for diabetics. I didn't mention how my meeting went though.
Three months since starting diabetic meds and my new diet, my blood sugar dropped from 10.5 to 6.9. If I recall correctly, anything over 7 is considered diabetic. The range from 6-7 is considered "pre-diabetic", and between 4 and 6 is standard. So my blood sugar levels have entered the "pre-diabetic" range, meaning that my organs are not presently taking damage.
Even though I'm in the pre-diabetic range, that doesn't mean I am pre-diabetic, as I'm only maintaining that status with the aid of medication. To properly go into remission, I would have to drop below an average of 6 and maintain it without the aid of medication.
Going into remission is possible, but generally diabetes is considered a progressive disease that gets worse over time. This is because people who have it often struggle with lifestyle habits that make it worse, and unfortunately, because they've gotten to this point they require better lifestyle habits than those that don't have it just to maintain their current status. Even if I go into remission, the lifestyle changes that I've made need to be commitments forever, because at this point my body is more susceptible to regression.
Also, medication for diabetes prevents the organs from taking damage, but it often makes it harder to lose weight as well, which is a big part of recovery. So the odds seem stacked against the person with diabetes.
All this being said, my decreased blood sugar level is considered a resounding success. I had a bunch of other numbers too, which I don't remember but were a lot better than they were before. My doctor told me to "keep up the great work" and seemed more positive than I'd ever seen her. I'd been connected with a dietician, and in my second session, on looking at my numbers she broke down laughing because of how much better they'd gotten. Apparently I'd improved enough that I no longer qualified for a dietician, and she said that I'd "graduated from the school of diabetes"
I mentioned to my dietician that I could have developed diabetes at any time in the decade that I hadn't seen my family doctor, but she said that it could have happened sooner than I thought, as apparently there was a huge influx of diagnoses post-COVID, due to all the change in lifestyle and the increase in stress.
She said that success for type 2 diabetics is considered staying within target range (4-10) on a glucose monitor 70% of the time. When I was talking to her, I'd been in range 96% of the time.
I'll list the things that have spiked my blood sugars into an unhealthy range:
-Charcuterie board. This was a provided lunch from my agency for a team-building day. I ordered one of the few things that didn't have carbs but something in it still got to me
-Waffle with jam. I got this at a hotel breakfast. There was someone in charge of meal prep instead of it being buffet-style. There wasn't much of a menu and I felt put on the spot so I wound up going with this. I got the jam instead of the maple syrup because I thought maybe the berries would offset some of the sugar, which of course it didn't
-Qdoba burrito. I got this because of a lunch-provided training at work. I made sure to get the whole wheat tortilla and the brown rice, but of course restaurants are only concerned with your enjoyment, and if you try to order something healthy, they offer only the illusion of a nutritional value
-Potluck. This was for a work holiday party. There appears to be a theme here of me violating my diet because of work provisions
My dietician said that she would rather hear that I was allowing myself the occasional indulgence, as that reduces my chance of having a relapse.
At the time I hadn't lost any weight, but she said that of the five key factors, weight was likely the least concerning and I should still be proud. She said that I shouldn't use weight as my measurement for determining health, but that if I followed my diet and lifestyle guidelines, eventually weight loss would follow.
Since my last session I finally saw a decrease in weight by ten pounds. Overall, I'm down 23 from last year.
No comments:
Post a Comment