I was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2010 after a shoulder injury. I spent several months getting steroid injections in a failed attempt to heal it. I'd just spent 4 years as an over the road trucker so I wasn't in the best of shape either, sprinkle in some bad genetics, and the combo lead to the disease.
I discovered when getting a screening to go back to work from the injury. My sugar was (as I found out later) so high that my resting pulse was over 110. They checked my sugar after a few questions, and the Glucometer just read "Hi". They only go to 699 generally. I was sent to the ER, where I ended up with severe muscle contraction issues, and had to be given Ativan to relax them. During that attack I ended up with an altered state of consciousness and don't remember much of the next 12 hours.
It took 24 hours of insulin injections to get my sugar low enough to read with a glucometer. Once my sugar was under 400, I was given a couple of prescriptions and discharged with the only instruction of following up with my PCP. In about a week, I got my sugar down to where it needed to be to pass my DOT physical and go back to work. And other than a few half hearted attempts at dieting, I pretty much stopped caring. My meds made me sick, working out sucked, and dieting sucked. I'd take them sometimes, but pretty much the only real effort I made was no more real cokes. I actually lost 24 lbs from just that. I was 365 pounds, so it wasn't a real improvement.
So for just over 2 years, I basically didn't care. A few weeks ago, I got sick. I felt like hell, I wasn't sure what was going on, though I figured it was likely my sugar. I'd had a dentist appointment, and they neglected to tell me that the local they used, had epi in it. My sugar was over 400 and my BP was trying to match it.
Something clicked. I don't know what it was, but if I could bottle it, I'd be a millionaire. I no longer had some weak desire to get everything right. In my mind, getting healthy was a foregone conclusion. I was on the path, and nothing was going to stop me from walking it. It's probably the realization that I was killing myself with sugar. Here's the problem with that. I LOVE life. I love waking up every day, I charge into each day with an unquenchable desire to go do things. I want to experience just about everything, I want to see the world, I want to find all forms of perfection and witness them. I want to shake the hands of all people that don't take 2nd as an option and live their lives as though the only thing that matters is that pursuit of perfection. (Reading Rand's thoughts on this will tell you more about me.)
So, as it turns out, I don't have time to die. That switch flipped and bam. I was eating right, I'm spending several hours a day at least two days a week cutting a chopping firewood, and I've joined a gym. I went back to the doc, got on my meds again, and I'm cutting weight. My sugars are damn near perfect, but not quite. I'm absolutely on the right path.
This blog is your way to walk that path with me. Type 2 diabetes is a disease that can be beaten. It is NOT a disease that can be ignored. It will kill you, and you'll die blind, and in a wheelchair because your feet will have been amputated. Your kidneys will fail, and all sorts of other things that you really don't want to experience. Trust me on this. I've been in Fire and EMS my entire adult life. Diabetes is rampant in my family. Denial is a bastard.
The Plan:
Simple. Diet and Exercise. Duh.
The Diet. Atkins. It works, and it'll likely control your sugar within 48 hours of starting it. It's also how I've lost almost all of the weight I've lost. From 365 to 298. It's easily the most misunderstood diet ever. Without getting into it, I'll just say that if you haven't read the book cover to cover, you probably don't know what Atkins is.
Atkins alone probably will NOT control your diabetes completely. Keeping it simple, Atkins put you into Ketosis (NOT DKA, Diabetic KetoAcidosis, they are two very different things, Ketosis is safe, DKA can kill you). Ketosis, quite simply, is your liver converting fat to glucose. Glucose is the body's source for energy. You need it, you're going to get it. Your body will make it if you don't feed it. So some people experience slightly high sugars. I personally run in the 150 range steadily, if I don't exercise.
The Exercise. Two things. First, chopping firewood. I heat my home, my shop, and my aunt's home with wood. I say "I" because I'm the work horse out there with a maul, a few wedges, and axe, and a sledge. I usually spend several hours a day 2 days a week chopping firewood. I don't care who you are, I don't care how tough you are. Swinging a maul and hauling firewood is one of the best work outs you can get. It's cardio, it works the hell out of your core, and obviously your arms and shoulders. Between that and the lifting of full logs onto the block and stacking the chopped wood, you're basically working every muscle you have. And you're distressing. Which is also important to gaining control.
The second, I joined a gym (10 fitness for you locals). It's a very complete set up. I highly recommend it. Gyms are tools. There are proper ways to use them, there are improper ways to use them. Don't just join and go play on the machines. I suggest finding a friend that knows what they're doing or a personal trainer to help you out. Bad form on many work outs can really increase your risk of injury. Whether it's cardio or slinging plate, the important thing for fighting diabetes is to get your muscles to work. When your muscles need energy, they pull sugar out of your bloodstream and burn it up. The harder you work, the more you burn.
You should be aware, that in some people, if your sugar is too high, you may actually increase your blood glucose by working out. From my research, that threshold is around 200 mg/dl.
That's about it for an intro. I had blood work done last week at the start of this trip. My A1C was 12.8. I'll post the rest of my numbers later, and update as I get new blood work periodically. Those people not familiar with Atkins will be pretty surprised at the things like Cholesterol.
So here I am, at step 1 on this journey. I hope I can inspire some of you to walk down this path as well. Lace up your Nikes and follow me. . .
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