What I am doing about diabetes...

If I could design a medical practice that would be perfect for me, it would combine traditional medicine and alternative medicine. I believe we need both viewpoints and areas of knowledge to have the best healthcare. I had been to my medical doctor and had blood work done and a diagnosis made. Now it was time to talk to my chiropractor.

Dr. Kloor had two sheets of information ready for me, and he assured me that he has been using this system for years and that it works very well if it is followed (as he eyed me questioningly!) This would be a one-month program to start with. One sheet had my allowable foods: basically as much as I wanted of vegetables and meat, fish, fowl, and eggs. I also could have a few other things like pickles, olive oil, butter, all nuts except peanuts. No processed grains, white flour, sugar or sugar substitutes. No rice, no bread, no potatoes, no sugar, no fruit. Just for one month. The vegetables were arranged in three columns according to carb content. All my carbs had to come from vegetables. And there was this important instruction: Each of your meals must include some protein.

The second sheet outlined the four supplements he wanted me to take at very specific times of day - Diaplex, Cataplex GTF, Inosotol, and Pancreatrophin PMG.

"And exercise," he said to me sternly. "I can't do that for you. You have to do it yourself." Oh, dear, I thought to myself shrinkingly...

So home I came with my two sheets of paper and my bottles of supplements...and I began. My blood sugars that day were:

192, 222, and 157.

Only vegetables and meats. Almonds for snacks. Homemade olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing. Most days I have had 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast with a sliced tomato. Delicious leafy salads for lunches -- mixed dark greens, mushrooms, cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes, and chicken or beef with my dressing. (I have really developed a liking for that tangy vinegar.) Supper has been chicken, beef, or pork with a vegetable or two, and I have left the potatoes or rice or macaroni or whatever for the others. The cookies I baked for the church potluck beckoned me from the Ziploc bag on the counter, but I ate nary a one!

I have been pretty slow in adding in the exercise. The weather has worked against me some of the time, but I have just had a struggle to get all of the pieces of the puzzle to fit, especially when at the beginning I was so draggy and tired. But for the past two weeks now I have been walking briskly for 20 to 30 minutes several times a week.

My friend Cheryl has a good handheld laser unit which she has been using for various health issues, and she offered to lend that to me. Her doctor's office told her the proper settings to use to assist with pancreas function, and so I was able to add two of those treatments to the diet and supplements. (I was very interested to see that using the laser gave me a permanent drop of about 25 points in my blood sugars.)

Today I went back to see Dr. Kloor. After catching up on my progress, he cut my supplements in half. Since we have encouraged the pancreas to work better by reducing its stress (less sugar and bad stuff to deal with) and by supporting it nutritionally (better food choices and supplements), it is now time to see if we can taper off the supplements and still maintain these better blood sugar numbers. The diet continues the same for 10 more days, and then I will do a phone consult with him. If my blood sugars are doing fine, we will start adding in a little fruit. Oh, that will be wonderful!

So...where am I now?? I've lost over 10 pounds (still more improvement to come on that). My energy is much, much better! And here are my blood sugar numbers for today:

124, 116, 118.

Still some work to be done, but

a drastic change in 5 weeks!

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Unrestricted Diet

Unrestricted = unlimited, free of restrictions

Diet = what I eat


I've typed "unrestricted diet" more times than I care to remember, as in "He is eating a totally unrestricted diet, I'm afraid!" (What the doctor says about patients who aren't listening to his warnings!) And up until about a month ago, that would have described me, too!

After all these years of typing medical reports, I know the good blood sugar numbers and the bad, what the HDL and LDL cholesterol should be, hundreds of meds and dosages. I know the serious symptoms and the ones the doctors call "of no concern."

Tuesday, February 15 -- I went to my doctor's office to get blood drawn for routine tests.
Thursday, February 17 -- I went in for a little checkup, years and years overdue, glad to know that all the blood work results would be waiting for us to discuss.

After a comfortable chat with the nurse who checked my blood pressure (perfect numbers) and took a little history, I sat on the cold table in my flimsy paper robe and even flimsier paper sheet with my legs dangling over the edge like a preschooler.

In bustled my no-nonsense doctor (whom I like very much) with a few pages in her hand. "Well," she said, "I have all your lab tests here with me. Let's take a look. Hmmm... your cholesterol numbers are great, thyroid function is normal, renal function is right where we want it... In fact, your numbers look pretty good, except for one thing. It looks like you have diabetes!" Wait! Numbers! I want exact numbers! But as soon as I heard what they were, I knew I had to get very serious about this. "Your blood sugar was 308. You were fasting that day, right?" Yes, I had been. "Your A1c is like an average of your blood sugars over the last 3 months, and that is quite high at 10.4." Wow! (I knew the doctors I type for want that to be below 6 if at all possible.) This was not borderline anything. This was full-blown diabetes.

Finally, an explanation for how terribly fatigued I had been feeling, the REAL reason (not snoring!) why I had been waking up with a very dry mouth. This also explained my recent tendency toward yeast infections and the little spots on my skin that responded to antifungal cream...

I left the office clutching a glucometer and chem strips, a sheaf of papers with info about diabetes, and a prescription for metformin. And a return appointment for the end of April. I asked about trying diet and exercise first before starting a medication, but my doc said she wanted me to take the med, and then later if I don't need it any more, I can stop it... "Our goal," she told me, "is to have fasting blood sugars in the morning of less than 120, and 2 hours after a meal they should be below 140." And she told me to check my blood sugars fasting in the morning and 2 hours after both lunch and supper.

On the way home, I decided to give myself one week. No metformin for a week. One week of a total change. No more unrestricted diet. Check blood sugars, keep a log of them, and see what a week could do.

I went into the kitchen and was afraid to eat anything! But slowly I was able to get my feet on the ground, and my one-week test began. I started checking blood sugars that Sunday. The first one, taken fasting first thing in the morning, was 260. 140 points above the goal. (Blah! I'm not sure what I had been hoping for.) One week went by, and on the last day, my 3 blood sugars were 144, 147, and 140. That last one was at the doctor's goal! Woo hoo! So my one week test was over, and I decided NOT to fill the metformin prescription.

Now it is the end of the 5th week. I have been brutal with my "unrestricted diet." It is gone. I have been walking briskly several days a week as a start in the exercise department. I am almost 10 pounds lighter.

Today my blood sugars were 118 and 113 and 117 -- without any medication! The doc would consider this success. But I am harder to please!





And there are definitely some things I would like to avoid!





(Next post: I will tell more about my current "restricted diet" and the other helpful things I have been doing.)


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Birthdays and Memories

February is a good month for our family. My brother and I were both born in it. Three years apart. So you know that both of us had a birthday last month, and as usual we gave each other funny cards about getting older and creakier, the you'll-always-be-older-than-me kind of card!

It doesn't take much to transport me back in time, back to where we were born and where we grew up. It can be the little jar of stones that I have sitting on my Memories Shelf, little pebbles scooped up from outside our home near Charlibli, Liberia. Mixed in with them is a dried palm nut. Its shape and the little holes in the end are like childhood friends. Sometimes it is the kerosene lamp sitting on that same shelf, a certain haze in the sky, the sudden sight of a snake in the grass. Once in a while, I open my little bottle of 4711 perfume and take a good whiff, and I am once again a little girl with the German ladies who smelled like that! Every now and then I cook collard greens and rice, just because I love them, and the house is filled with an aroma from long ago. No, it doesn't take much...

So when I came home one day around my birthday and found this from Gord on my dining room table, no words were needed. He knew it would take me back.

Hibiscus

It is blooming, day after day,
and each time, I am a little girl again.
The blooms last a day, close up, and fall onto the table.
I pick them up carefully
because even those closed up flowers
are so familiar...
so much a part of me.

A Christmas Miracle!

You're probably thinking "Christmas miracle" as in the star and the angels and especially Baby Jesus. Well, you would be right, of course! But today I am talking about another lesser miracle, one that happened to our family just before Christmas.

Our friend Curt called one evening in early December 2010 and said, "I've just been looking in one of the fliers I get about farm auctions." I was not too surprised, since I know he keeps up on all that and over the years has gotten some wonderful bargains. But he went on to say, "I don't know why I noticed this item, and I can't remember ever seeing one at a farm auction before, but...they are selling a van with a wheelchair lift already in it." Now I was definitely surprised! "Are you interested in taking a look at it?" he asked. I don't believe these things happen by chance, and I said we should most certainly check it out. Cautiously optimistic. Sort of afraid to hope too much, but really hoping in spite of myself!

We had looked into the price of a new(er) van and realized that without a miracle we could not afford it. Goodness! The price of a van customized with a wheelchair lift is pretty close to -- well, a fortune, let's just say, at least to us. Even the good secondhand ones we saw were priced like new. So we said we would try to squeak every last creaky mile out of the one we have.

And then Curt called...

So a few days before the auction, Barry, Curt, and two mechanic friends went to check it out.

The Red Van

A 2000 Dodge van, raised roof, only 43,000 miles. Good outside, nice and clean inside, MUCH better lift than the old van, everything in order under the hood. It took a few tries to start it, but it had been sitting a long time in a farm shed.

The lift, fully automatic

See how it folds up on itself so you can use the door when the lift is not in use?
(This picture was taken from the driver's seat looking out the middle side door.)

So Barry and I talked and prayed about it and decided what we thought our spending limit should be, and the plan was made. To be honest, we are auction illiterates! But we would bid on the van and see what happened! The auction day was very cold, so Coral and I stayed home, and Barry, Trent, and Curt went to do their best. At the auction, they met Gary, a friend of Curt's, and what a wonderful friend he turned out to be! He knows all about auctions, knew the auctioneers, and was right at home.

My phone rang, and it was Barry. "Gary looked at the van, too, and he thinks it might go for more than what we decided we should spend. What do you think?" Well, I thought Gary was right; it really could go for way more than that and still be cheaper than other vans we had seen. So I said, "I really hate to change the amount that seemed right... but do what you think is best."

Waiting, waiting...then Trent sent me a text: The van is coming up for bid. Unknown to me, Gary had offered to do the bidding for us, and I can just imagine what a relief that was for Barry! Meanwhile back home, I was praying... Lord, you know how much we need a van and how limited we are on how much we can pay. We have asked You to supply for us, so if you want us to have the van, please make everyone else stop bidding!

Another text from Trent: WE GOT THE VAN!! I admit it. I burst into tears, right in my office! Thank you, God! Then I texted Trent: How much did we have to pay? And he said: $7500! Wow! Under our limit! It was such a miracle! When I was sure the van was ours and that they were almost home, I told Coral, "Guess what? Dad and Trent went today and they got us a new van!" Understanding grew slowly in her face, and then she nearly popped her wheelchair seatbelt with excitement. Up they drove in the dark, and Coral and I rushed out to take our first look!

When we could settle down, Barry told me about how amazing it had been to have Gary's help and expertise on the bidding, and I believe God used him to bless us! Just like He used Curt to start the blessing going and to help us all the way along.

The next day, Barry called the lift company that had installed it in the van in 2006 and asked what it would be worth. Guess what they said! "If we were to install that same lift in your van today, it would cost $7600." So, if you boil it all down, we bought the lift and got paid $100 to take the van along with it!

And this is our Christmas miracle!

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One year later...

I decided that, in honor of Barry's surgery, I should post a one-year follow-up. So here goes...

• The Workers Comp doctor (bless him!) had had surgery himself with excellent results, and so he referred Barry to that very same orthopedic surgeon (bless him, too!)
• "You are getting the surgery for all the right reasons." (What the doc said when he found out that Barry wanted to have his shoulder fixed so he would be able to help me again with Coral's care.)
• One of our friends spent a year rehabbing his shoulder, so we were dreading this. But the surgeon told Barry that if he fixed the shoulder and Barry was not back to normal in less than 6 months, he would retire.
• Bright and early one morning, off we went to the beautiful surgery center across the street from the hospital (good location, just in case!)

• It is hard to settle your thoughts down while your husband is in surgery.
• What you don't want to hear after you have spent hours in the waiting room: "Your husband is not coming out of the anesthetic as quickly as we had expected."
• Thank God for the wonderful recovery room nurse who knew everything would be okay!
  

And then:

• Home again. Hubby is a very good patient. The minute he could do things for himself, he did them. He even quickly figured out how to get out of the recliner (which normally needs his right hand to operate the lever) so that he would not need to get me to do it.
• It is a strange sensation to pull and pull and pull on the long tube inside the surgery site in order to remove the empty pain pump. It feels like you are pulling out a long worm...
• The most amazing thing! After the pain pump ran out of juice, no pain! The surgery nurse, who had lots of experience behind her, had told us, "This will be 10 out of 10 pain!" Never had to use the narcotic prescription or any over-the counters, either!
• Weeks of therapy -- very successful because Barry did everything his therapists told him to do and worked hard.
  

SO...
If you go over to that surgeon's office today, you will see that he is still in business! His office walls are covered with pictures and letters from very grateful patients. And we know why! In less than 6 months, Barry's shoulder was truly back to normal, and he was back at work with no limitations.

I had to laugh one day after Barry's right shoulder was all healed up. I saw him moving his left arm all around with a very dissatisfied look on his face. I was a little worried until he said, "Now this other shoulder doesn't feel right! Something in there is popping when I move it!" Nothing like comparing the good with the better to make the good feel bad!

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