long form of "My Diabetics Story"

Here is the second version of "My Diabetics Story", which had to be shrunk to under 300 words to fit on a web site. My original was nearly 600 words...

I was diagnosed T2 on Friday, 7 May 2004. The clinic had bled me for blood work about 8:35 am. The results were not back when my annual physical came about 1 pm. My MD did not expect anything untoward and went ahead with the physical. About 4:30 pm, I was at work when my MD called and basically blurted out "You're a diabetic!" Neither of us were expecting that and he scheduled me to come in the following Monday. He had me pay $84 for a blood meter and told his nurse to teach me how to use the lanclet to take a blood sample. 

Neither the nurse or I knew how to do this and we didn't know how to adjust the penetration depth. I had poked my forearm maybe 17 times before my MD came in and told us how to use the lancet. Apparently, this clinic did not get 
very many folks who needed instruction in using lancets.

My Father, a T1, had died from congestive heart failure ten years before. My youngest brother, a juvenile onset T1, was defiant and tired of being diabetic(and died of congestive heart failure on 10 December 2009). I freaked out when I saw my MD and said "I don't want to lose my feet!" He told me to settle down; I did. My feet are fine; my heart, not so great. 

I had a heart cath mid-January 2010 and this was fine. 

In January 2015, the VA Clinic Doc was concerned that I had not had a heart check since 2010. So, I was sent to the VA Hospital heart section in early February 2015. There, I walked on a treadmill while wearing EKG electrodes. 
Something felt strange and the nurse reading the EKG stripe looked concerned. (My heartbeat trace looked abnormal even to an amateur: me.) She disconnected me and had me sit down while she took this strip to my Heart Surgeon. When the nurse returned to me, she hustled me directly to the Heart Cath operating room. My heart surgeon and a second heart surgeon plus two operating room nurses, scrubbed in, were waiting for me. The heart cath reveals a 90%+ blockage of one heart artery and I was immediately given two stents. My subsequent checkup in 2016 was fine and I have a checkup on 24 May. 

So, I am familiar with heart problems. 

In self defense, I have walked on the treadmill at the local Y, tried to watch what I eat and keep track of my carbs, kept a food log, cut down on the drinking - almost on the wagon - and almost cut out the diet sodas and 
sweets. 

I live in a small town and this has been a solitary trip for me.

I have been in five support groups and they always fail. The fourth one I was in acted like a private club at the one meeting I attended; the next month, the RN sponsor told me the group had dissolved. I was in my late 50s and they in their 20s so I think they did not want a "father figure" in their meeting. The fifth group simply lost its members. The sixth group never made it past the "is anyone interested?" stage on facebook.

I have to admit I have been in denial a number of times and one summer I found myself eating ice creamme several  times a week. Then, my A1C got too high and I was threatened with "the needle". I got my shit together a bit  better after that.