Ah, October
My favorite month is finally here. Thankfully I managed to skip September entirely...well, sort of. I'd love to be able to say that nothing is happening, that my life is going smoothly and worry free, but that isn't the case.
Hopefully this cut works...it's been a while. I've been holding this post back for a few weeks, just so I could get my head around it and not sound like a raving, complaining, angry lunatic. To make a long story short, I've had diabetes for over half of my life now, and the complications are finally starting to really catch up. I went to the eye doctor because of yet another eye infection, and it turns out that the capillaries in my retina are leaking blood. As of right now it's not too terribly bad and isn't affecting my sharp vision, but that's not too far behind. There's no way for them to "cure" this sort of affliction. If it gets bad enough it can lead to retinal detachment and partial blindness. What they can do is cauterize the edges of the retina to stop the blood from leaking, but that will erase my peripheral vision. Depending on how much they have to burn, I may not be allowed to drive.
So! The only thing for it is to try to get a handle on the diabetes as fast and as tight as possible. I can still currently not only stop this from happening, but actually undo a little of the damage. Getting a handle entails carbohydrate counting, portion control, testing my blood sugar six to eight times a day, and exercise. It means that a grilled cheese sandwich can raise my sugar as much as (or sometimes more than) an oreo cookie. It doesn't just mean no sugar, because honestly keeping away from sugar is not that difficult, it means no more or very little of everything that tastes good or will fill me up. It means living life the way I've been *supposed* to live, and haven't done since I was 16.
I've been attempting this for three weeks now. The first week I was absolutely starving, but the sugars were good - great, in fact. Even with the eye infection. Now, over the past three weeks, I've had three different infections - eye, throat and bladder - which have been wrecking havoc with my sugars. I have been charting every single thing I put in my mouth, doing everything I'm supposed to, and still having blood sugars WAY over the normal range. It's frustrating and almost impossible to figure out or get right, and on top of things I've got the constant threat of my slowly ruining vision to worry about.
I'm going back to the eye doctor on October 30th to see if there has been a change, either good or bad. At that point I'll make an appointment to see my endocrinologist and then a nutritionist, because if the past three weeks have shown me anything, it's that I don't know enough to do this on my own. John is being incredibly supportive, trying to help me eat correctly and gladly going along with it. He hasn't complained about the dinners with less fat, the appearance of tons more vegetables and salad, and me putting an end to our weekly eating out. My family of course hates that it had to go so far to get me in gear, but they're really happy that I'm trying to take better care of myself too. I guess I've had long enough to pretend that I was normal.
So that's what has been going down. Even with the completely erratic blood sugars of the past week, I have noticed definite health improvements already. If it happens that fast, I just can't even imagine how good I'll feel a few months from now.
It was opening weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival this past weekend, and we went on Saturday. Jennifer and her whole family went, plus my mom, Angie, John and myself. We had a terrific time. The weather was chilly and overcast, which is just perfect for a day spent outside. The food was great, it was my first time to really drink in over a month, and I was also able to convince John to dress up. We stayed until it started to get dark, which is a lot longer than we usually make it when it's swelteringly hot. I've decided to finally make myself a new outfit for next year. I think I'd like to go with a scottish theme, plus it'll be awesome to get John into a kilt!
This Thursday marks a year of us dating, and I can't really believe that a year has gone by already. We are celebrating by going to see Broken Lizard at the House of Blues on Thursday night, and then to Fogo De Chao on Saturday. I am very excited about both. We watched Beerfest a couple of weeks ago and I can't believe we're going to be in the same room as those guys. Sarah and Robert are going with us, so at least Sarah and I can fangirl together.
Hopefully this cut works...it's been a while. I've been holding this post back for a few weeks, just so I could get my head around it and not sound like a raving, complaining, angry lunatic. To make a long story short, I've had diabetes for over half of my life now, and the complications are finally starting to really catch up. I went to the eye doctor because of yet another eye infection, and it turns out that the capillaries in my retina are leaking blood. As of right now it's not too terribly bad and isn't affecting my sharp vision, but that's not too far behind. There's no way for them to "cure" this sort of affliction. If it gets bad enough it can lead to retinal detachment and partial blindness. What they can do is cauterize the edges of the retina to stop the blood from leaking, but that will erase my peripheral vision. Depending on how much they have to burn, I may not be allowed to drive.
So! The only thing for it is to try to get a handle on the diabetes as fast and as tight as possible. I can still currently not only stop this from happening, but actually undo a little of the damage. Getting a handle entails carbohydrate counting, portion control, testing my blood sugar six to eight times a day, and exercise. It means that a grilled cheese sandwich can raise my sugar as much as (or sometimes more than) an oreo cookie. It doesn't just mean no sugar, because honestly keeping away from sugar is not that difficult, it means no more or very little of everything that tastes good or will fill me up. It means living life the way I've been *supposed* to live, and haven't done since I was 16.
I've been attempting this for three weeks now. The first week I was absolutely starving, but the sugars were good - great, in fact. Even with the eye infection. Now, over the past three weeks, I've had three different infections - eye, throat and bladder - which have been wrecking havoc with my sugars. I have been charting every single thing I put in my mouth, doing everything I'm supposed to, and still having blood sugars WAY over the normal range. It's frustrating and almost impossible to figure out or get right, and on top of things I've got the constant threat of my slowly ruining vision to worry about.
I'm going back to the eye doctor on October 30th to see if there has been a change, either good or bad. At that point I'll make an appointment to see my endocrinologist and then a nutritionist, because if the past three weeks have shown me anything, it's that I don't know enough to do this on my own. John is being incredibly supportive, trying to help me eat correctly and gladly going along with it. He hasn't complained about the dinners with less fat, the appearance of tons more vegetables and salad, and me putting an end to our weekly eating out. My family of course hates that it had to go so far to get me in gear, but they're really happy that I'm trying to take better care of myself too. I guess I've had long enough to pretend that I was normal.
So that's what has been going down. Even with the completely erratic blood sugars of the past week, I have noticed definite health improvements already. If it happens that fast, I just can't even imagine how good I'll feel a few months from now.
It was opening weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival this past weekend, and we went on Saturday. Jennifer and her whole family went, plus my mom, Angie, John and myself. We had a terrific time. The weather was chilly and overcast, which is just perfect for a day spent outside. The food was great, it was my first time to really drink in over a month, and I was also able to convince John to dress up. We stayed until it started to get dark, which is a lot longer than we usually make it when it's swelteringly hot. I've decided to finally make myself a new outfit for next year. I think I'd like to go with a scottish theme, plus it'll be awesome to get John into a kilt!
This Thursday marks a year of us dating, and I can't really believe that a year has gone by already. We are celebrating by going to see Broken Lizard at the House of Blues on Thursday night, and then to Fogo De Chao on Saturday. I am very excited about both. We watched Beerfest a couple of weeks ago and I can't believe we're going to be in the same room as those guys. Sarah and Robert are going with us, so at least Sarah and I can fangirl together.