my diabetic history to date

Today is the 14^th Anniversary of when my MD called me and said “Mr. Bell, you are a diabetic!”

(I knew there was a reason I bought some strawberries last week and didn’t break them out, from the refrigerator, until earlier this evening. I also was just a bit puzzled why I had to buy some dark chocolate chips this afternoon.)

My MD sounded a bit shocked when he told me. You see, I had my fasting blood work done that morning and the lab results were not back. So, we waltzed through the annual physical starting with “there probably are no problems in your blood work”.  He was happy with my having lost weight, was walking on the treadmill and “eating better”.

I left and went to work that afternoon. At work, I got that phone call and he said “Mr. Bell, you are a diabetic”!

I freaked out a bit.

My Father, a type 1, had died of congestive heart failure. He was also missing his left from the knee down and his surgeons were whideling on his right foot. My then youngest brother was a juvenile onset type 1. He was working on losing his left leg as well.

I went back to my MD’s office the  coming Monday (10 May 2004) and rolled into our second medicalsession.

“I don’t want to lose my legs!” I don’t think I sounded hysterical…

“You’re not going to lose your legs!”  That calmed me down.

I then got a prescription for a morning 500 mg metformin pill and a prescription for a blood test meter ($85 for the meter) and about $10 for 50 test stripes.

Neither his nurse or I had any experience at using blood sugar meters. We kept adjusting the needle depth and I stabbed myself  16 times before my MD walked in and showed us how to set the lancelet.

Beyond that, my “diabetic experience” has not be much fun.

There have been times when I just blew the measures I was initially taking to control my blood sugar. It is strange gto look back and wonder why I had gotten so tired and had quit. Right now, I hope I am in a hopeful phase of trying to save my ass.

Maybe I need to circle back around to getting dietary information and trying again to do better eating. What have I to lose?