The Beaver is Ill - Newly Diagnosed Diabetic

Busy Beaver Lumber · June 01, 2015, 04:58:06 PM

Have not felt well for past two months. Lost almost 50 pounds since March and was having a thirst that just would not quit, not to mention blurred vision and and excessive confusion.

Being the stubborn fool I can be at times, I tried to convince myself things would get better, but they did not. Well Thursday I hit rock bottom and literally passed out in my doctors office. Off to the ER I went and into CCU unit for two days. Testing revealed I have Insulin dependent type II diabetes. My A1C was 15.8% and off the chart and my blood tested 420 on the meter.

They figure I had it for at least 6 months and that the stress of my wife's recent battle with cancer put me over the edge and kicked it into high gear.

This will be a life changer for me for sure :-[

Ianab · June 01, 2015, 05:27:41 PM

Been there, done that. Well not to the passing out stage, but what you describe is the classic symptoms. Mine's under control with better diet and oral medication. Yes, stress just make it worse.

Follow the Docs advice and get it under control. There is no "cure" as such, but it can be controlled so you eventually die "with" it, not FROM it.

BradMarks · June 01, 2015, 05:53:00 PM

Fred: Sorry to hear of your diagnosis, but Ianab is spot on, do what the Doc says. My mother had diabetes, I have a good freind with it and he's had it for a long time, still works in the woods. It may take awhile to get "it" under control (dosage variations) but you'll be around long enough to make another ten thousand signs ;D. (I get compliments on ours all the time)

thecfarm · June 01, 2015, 05:56:14 PM

That is sad news,but the diabetic diet is a good diet. Eat what you are supposed to,meaning 3 meals. Easy for me to say.

petefrom bearswamp · June 01, 2015, 06:00:06 PM

sorry to hear about your problem especially at such a young age.

Magicman · June 01, 2015, 10:56:43 PM

I am sorry to hear of your wows, but happy to hear that it is diagnosed. I am not really familiar with it, but surely you will closely follow the Dr's orders and control it. Please keep us updated.

luvmexfood · June 02, 2015, 06:10:17 PM

X 2 about what has been said about diet. My blood pressure got really high in February. Averageing 168/117. Did not go to Doc for medicine. Swore off sodium and cut back on my eating. Have lost 22 lbs. and now average BP is around 125/88.

It is amazing how much sodium is in processed foods. I now cook most all my meals. After a couple of weeks you get used to the taste of food with less salt. Even lunch meat is off the menu. Make my own out of turkey, chicken or roast beef.

Busy Beaver Lumber · June 02, 2015, 08:20:06 PM

Guys

Thanks for all the support and encouragement. One nice thing about being a stubborn German is that once i put my mind to something, nothing can stop me. I walked away from smoking overnight after being a smoker for 30 years and never turned back. I am smoke free for over 3 years now.

Now i am determined to take the 6 week diabetes nutrition course and learn the right way to eat. I keep busy and get enough exercise, but I will admit I have never given much thought to what I ate in 53 years. Although the insulin injections don't bother me in the least, my goal it to get of the needles and on the pills in 6 months.

Thanks for all your advice and good wishes

SLawyer Dave · June 17, 2015, 02:01:03 AM

I'm not a doctor, but was "cured" of diabetes 4 years ago when I had bariatric surgery. I had pre-diabetes for several years, but 2 weeks before I was scheduled to have the bariatric surgery, (to lose weight), I was diagnosed with diabetes during my pre-surgical work up. It was kind of funny, because the doctors and hospital were all worried about it, but my surgeon said it was no big deal. He indicated that bariatric surgery is the only "known cure" for type II diabetes, and correctly predicted that by having the surgery and losing over 100 pounds that my body would re-regulate my system. In fact, just 1 month post surgery, my blood sugar was back to normal. Four years later now, I am in the best physical and health shape I have been in since my late 20's. I no longer have to take any prescriptions, and feel great. So while it may not be the answer for everyone, if you have type II diabetes and are also obese, I encourage you to look into bariatric surgery.

Just to be clear, I worked for 3 years prior to surgery changing my life, diet, exercise, etc. and was able to lose 60lbs on my own, but just could not get down to the weight I needed to be at. The surgery, (I had the vertical sleeve gastrectomy), shrunk my stomach size and allowed me to feel full after only a very small amount of food. With a good balanced diet, I could for the first time lose weight, while not feeling like I was starving myself to death. The surgery, along with my better lifestyle allowed me to lose another 90 lbs, and I have kept it off. I have known others that have not had the great success I have, and pretty quickly started putting on weight again. Each of those, however, hoped and acted like the surgery would be a one-stop wonder. Its not, you still need to watch what you eat and get lots of exercise, but the point is, it gave me the ability to lose the weight and let my body heal itself. Every aspect of my life has been improved, ;) and that is why I encourage others to look into bariatric surgery if they think it might help them out.

One of the reasons I got back into cutting and splitting firewood was because I hated going to a gym, (and have always loved cutting and splitting firewood). This way I get a great full body work out and valuable firewood. Its a lot better that paying a personal trainer to punish me in the gym.

doctorb · June 17, 2015, 12:33:07 PM

Like the way you're attacking the problem with vigor! Go after it, Beaver!

nmericle53 · June 27, 2015, 12:15:39 PM

May God bless you and hope all is going well. My 2 brothers are diabetics but so far I haven't showed any signs. That is hard to have to change your eating habits but a long happy life is more important. Good luck.

clww · June 27, 2015, 01:28:01 PM

You get better and follow your doctor's orders. ;)
Keep us updated, please.

red · June 27, 2015, 01:36:45 PM

Stay Strong

I can remember when Tom Hanks announced he had Type II Diabetes
in Oct 2013 ... wonder how he is doing with it

Dave Shepard · September 05, 2015, 04:05:15 PM

Quote from: Ianab on June 01, 2015, 05:27:41 PM
Been there, done that. Well not to the passing out stage, but what you describe is the classic symptoms. Mine's under control with better diet and oral medication. Yes, stress just make it worse.

Follow the Docs advice and get it under control. There is no "cure" as such, but it can be controlled so you eventually die "with" it, not FROM it.

This is incorrect, and what the mainstream medical community wants you to believe. If you are a Type II that is controlling your numbers with medication, you will die from it, unless you are killed accidentally before it can take you out. I have been doing a lot of research into Type II for a while now, and have found a really good book that brings a lot of the information together so you don't have to go looking for it. It is "Eat to Live", by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Controlling diabetes with medication may keep your numbers where the doctors want it, but that doesn't mean that you are healthy. It just means that you just healthy enough to stay alive and keep taking meds. This may sound like a conspiracy theory, but that isn't what I'm trying to convey here. The real solution to eliminating Type II is to achieve and maintain an ideal weight and eat a diet that allows your body to function properly. From what I've read, the medical field has basically decided it's hopeless to get people to change, so they just prescribe the meds without counseling for weight loss. That's malpractice, if you ask me. As you put on weight, you need more meds, which cause you to put on more weight, which means you need more meds. I'm sure you get the picture here.

I'm currently fighting this scenario. I was prescribed meds for blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol in January 2014. I started going to a primary care doctor in April 2014 who added more bp and bs meds. I went from 298 (a 10 year low for me) to 342 pounds. I had no energy, and my bp and bs numbers started to climb. I tried to talk to my pcp about these issues, and some others that were on the medication package that said "Talk to your doctor immediately if...", and was told that I was on what I was supposed to be on that was the end of the discussion.

The big picture of eliminating Type II is diet, and it's a lifetime change. There are a lot of diets out there right now that will help you loose some weight, but most of them are not sustainable. The really restrictive one like Atkins or ketogenic, are actually potentially dangerous. Paleo isn't really what it's cracked up to be. Yes, you can live like a caveman eating mostly meat. And you can also die like a caveman at age 32. Cavemen didn't live to be 90 years. old. ;) :D The downside to diets that reduce or eliminate Type II, for some people, is that they are mostly vegetarian. Small amounts of meat or eggs are allowed, very small, but you are going to be eating mostly a lot of greens and beans. There are a lot of people who have made a lot of money selling diet books that give people a diet that lets them eat whatever they want. It reminds me of a comedian I heard once talking about the warning labels on cigarettes. He said he would just find one that suited him. "WARNING: May cause yellowing of the teeth!" Yeah, I can live with that, he said. :D :D

Ianab · September 05, 2015, 05:38:45 PM

You are still "controlling" it, not being cured. If you slip back into your old ways, the symptoms will come back.

If you can do this by a better diet / exercise / lifestyle change, that's great. This works for some people, if their weight and poor diet was aggravating the condition. But the underlying problem (your body's inability to regulate blood sugar levels) is still there. That's what I mean by not being "cured", it's controlled.

But in my situation I'm not overweight, I was eating sensibly, getting a reasonable amount of exercise. There weren't any significant changes that I could make.

Dr's first "go to" for diabetes (here at least) is diet and exercise. But if that isn't going to do it, then take the meds. It's the side effects of the uncontrolled blood sugar that kills you. (or loose feet, eyesight etc) So it is most important to control that.

I do agree with you, that if your diet and lifestyle are causing your health issues, then trying to magically fix that with drugs is fighting a loosing battle. But that's not always the case.

Dave Shepard · September 05, 2015, 07:47:17 PM

There is a big difference between controlling with meds, that is just making the numbers look good, and eliminating the root cause of the illness. Even when ones numbers are good with meds, there are a lot of things going on that are not right, and you are probably going to go downhill over time. When you change your lifestyle and diet, you can actually reverse many of the symptoms of Type II. Yes, you are still at risk if you fall off the wagon, but when you are managing your condition, you are back to where you were before you became diabetic. There is a really big difference between keeping your numbers where they need to be with meds, and actually changing your body to where it can handle your lifestyle on it's own.

I don't know what your sensible diet was, but if it was a diabetic diet like has been recommended to me by my doctor, then it won't work to reverse the effects of diabetes. Much of what has been recommended by the government agencies regarding food over the past many decades has been wrong, and it seems to me that the doctors have their hands tied when it comes to what they can recommend. The diet proposed by Dr. Fuhrman may not be what most people want to hear, it's basically 98% vegetarian, but when you have an illness that will slowly destroy your quality of life and a strict diet can be your way to a healthy life, then I think the choice is clear. One of the ideas behind this diet is nutrition per calorie, and greens and beans have way more nutrition per calorie than things like meats, eggs or dairy, and they do it without a lot of the baggage like fats and cholesterol. And before anybody says you can't have a balanced diet as a vegetarian, save it, you are wrong. ;)

When my father was diagnosed 20 years ago, he only had high blood sugar. His bp and cholesterol were excellent. Despite this, he was put on meds for all three. When confronted, his doctor just said "That's what I have to do, you are diabetic, and all diabetics need to be treated for bp and cholesterol". The medication he was given for cholesterol basically depleted his muscle mass, a hard thing to regain later in life. And all for what? Because of some one size fits all guideline? This was the beginning of my skepticism of the medical fields ability to do the right thing for the patient. My motto has become "There is nothing so bad for your health as the health care system!" (This includes all of what I consider criminal activity by insurance companys).

When I say that doctors are recommending things that are bogus, or that the industry is geared towards keeping people on meds, I don't mean that it's your personal doctor, or doctor's office. It's on a far grander scale than that. My out of pocket costs for medications would be over $400 per month. There are approximately 30 million people in the US with Type II and some of them are on more meds than I am. Those are some scary dollar figures, and I can't help but think the people selling the drugs want you to be on them. (OK, a little conspiracy theory going on there :D )