Diabetes Awareness Month

Carla at Mizfit made me aware that it was Diabetes Awareness Month. I wanted to share my personal story relating to Diabetes in hopes that it may help someone.

I was diagnosed with Diabetes in 1997 at the age of 31. I was actually diagnosed by a dermatologist who knew right away based on the fact that I have a skin disease called NLD. He sent me in for glucose testing and it was confirmed. Since I am adopted, I am not sure if there is any family history of it. Initially I was put on medication (Metformin) which was supposed to help with blood sugars and weight loss. All it did was make me sick and so I ended up stopping it and told my doctor at the time that I would try to lose weight and increase exercise. I did lose about 40 lbs. by cutting out junk food. I maintained the loss for awhile but eventually gained it back and then some. Eventually it started to affect my health considerably and my doctor suggested I start doing insulin. My initial reaction was no freakin way!! There was NO WAY I was going to inject myself with a needle every day. I held off for as long as possible and eventually was feeling so poorly that I finally (more then a year later!) agreed to insulin shots. When I first started I was doing 2 shots a day of 60ccs. I eventually needed 2 shots of 100ccs. That is the most that can fit in a syringe. It was at that point that I knew I had to do something. I could not face doing more then 2 shots per day. Well fast forward to a year and a half later and I have been able to reduce my shots to 1 shot per day of 60ccs and my goal is to get completely off the insulin by next summer. I am due to go in to get an Hba1c test which is the test that provides a snapshot of what blood sugars are over a period of time. The last time I had it tested it was 6.8% and it should be 7 or below. One thing I do struggle with suprisingly is the testing. It actually hurts more to me then the shots. I should be doing it at least once a day but I don't. I really need to work on that.

If you think you are at risk for Diabetes you may want to take this handy test: Diabetes Risk Test It is a manageable disease and it you can take steps to avoid getting it. Statistics show that 4,320 people will be diagnosed with Diabetes today. That is one person every 20 seconds. That means that within the first week of this movement that started on October 29, 2009, over 120,000 friends, family members and colleagues will be told they have the disease. In the next 24 hours, diabetes will claim the lives of 200 people. That’s more than 5,887 friends, neighbors, co-workers or family members every week. We need to Stop Diabetes Now.



P.S. My calorie deficit for Wednesday was 834 cals.