An update on diabetes

Okay, so in January, I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. It's been a battle to get my blood sugar under control. Doing it mostly through diet and exercise but also using a pill called Metformin. Great stuff with the least side effects of all and the least dangerous of all the Diabetes drugs out there. Indeed, for the moment, it can be considered pretty harmless but it does good things for you without some of the dangerous side effects of some of the other drugs. It's an oral med too which makes it easy to live with.

The workouts are going well. I've lost 36 pounds since July of last year. 15 or so of that since the Diabetes was diagnosed in January.

Of course, the reality is, we as Americans consume about 5 bajillion times more sugar and carbohydrates than we need to live on. Carbs are less evil if you have a super duper active lifestyle but even that won't prevent Type II from settling in with you if you already have the genes for it. I only eat about 45 carbs a day on average and sometimes much much less than that. No ill effects so far but who knows? I could get blindsided with a problem later on down the road! The doc just did a urinalysis last week but we haven't talked about it. If there is a problem it would show up there. From what I can see, though, it isn't a problem.

One of the tests they do for diabetes is an HbA1C test. It seems that your red blood cells take an imprint of the maximum amount of blood sugar you have at a given time and they can test for it. I'm not explaining it very well but the bottom line is, every three months, your red blood cells are completely replaced. That means that every three months, they can test for the average imprint of blood sugar in the past three months and see how you've been dong for that period of time on average. Still necessary to test frequently on a daily basis too, though.

Anyhoo, back in January, I was tested with an A1C of 8.6. Last week, I was tested at 4.8. That's considered in a normal range, folks! What I'm doing appears to be working!

Let's celebrate with a tub of ice cream, a stack of waffles and a loaf of dark wheat bread with tons of butter and honey!

Just kidding about that last part. My feet would just about fall off on their own if I did that!

--Wag--