Where I am now... (or you could ask, "Where the heck have you been?!!")

Okay, a lot has happened since I last found time to write here. Things got crazy at work, I went to MACE, Thanksgiving happened, and it's just been hard to focus much on anything that wasn't absoutely necessary in my life. But it's also been a very good time, even for my diabetes...

The Good News

I had blood drawn at the end of October here at work, and my results were pretty incredible...

My Hemoglobin A1c is 5.1%.

Just to remind everybody, at my diagnosis it was 11.8%. And the reference range for "normal" A1c's is 4.8-6.0%. So from a consistent blood sugar standpoint, my diabetes is totally under control. I was hoping for something at or anywhere less than 6%, and my doctor told me that he would have been happy with anything less than 7%, but we were both blown away by 5.1%.

Personally, I totally attribute this dramatic improvement to using Lantus insulin. I know that a lot of people with diabetes are very scared by the idea of having to take insulin, but I just don't know how you can argue with my results. Lantus is a once-daily injection, and most of the time I barely even feel it. If my doctor had decided to try oral meds only and lifestyle improvement, I bet that we'd still be ironing out the right dosages, I'd still be struggling with losing enough weight to make a difference, and my A1c would still suck. But with the way that Lantus has helped to take some of the strain off of my pancreas, there are actually days when I forget my insulin (which happens more than I'd care to admit) and my blood suger still doesn't get above my average numbers. It's incredible, and I would recommend it to any diabetic that has trouble using other treatments. But that's enough with the Lantus commercial...

Second good lab news; my cholesterol dropped from about 175 down to 150, and my triglycerides fell from being over 200 down to 120. It is such a crime that the media and conventional medical thought blame cholesterol on fat intake, when some significant research (and obvously my personal experience) points to how important carb intake is to the whole picture.

More Good News

Just after my last post, I started having some dizzy spells, especially when exerting myself and standing up. My blood pressure was dropping into the low 90's/50's, and I ended up coming off of one of my medicines (Norvasc). More recently, I've had some more periods of hypotension, and at my physician appointment this week, we cut my other BP med in half. If I continue to lost weight and do well, maybe I can get off of my BP meds altogether!

Speaking of weight, for the first time since being newly married, I'm at or slightly below 300 lbs. That makes my current weight loss about 25 lbs since diagnosis, and I'm about 60 lbs below my all-time high.

But I've Still Got More to Work On

There are still two areas that I need to really refocus some attention on. First, I'm afraid that getting my blood sugars under control so quickly and easily may have been a bit of a detriment to my eating. Because it's so solidly under control, I can eat a lot of stuff that isn't really good for me and still not have my sugar bump up very much at all. I can see how this has undermined the sense of importance and vigilance that I was starting to cultivate about my diet, and I know that I need to do a lot better to build long-term habits that will support me staying in control of my diabetes and losing the weight that I still need to shed (since my goal is still to lose another 75 lbs).

The other thing that has been a thorn in my side is finding time to exercise. Since I bring Samantha with me to the hospital daycare center, I'm very constrained in options for staying late or coming in early. And even within the time limits set by daycare opening and closing times, I just don't want to leave Samantha there any longer than I have to (which is uaually between 9 and 10 hours a day already).

Before she was born, I went through spells where I was pretty active in the local Gold's Gym. But I'd usually spend an hour or two there each time I went. Now, I'm trying to figure out some way to come in early, take short lunches, and then maybe fit in a 20-30 minutes workout after work at the fitness center here in the hospital. We'll see how that works out, and I'll try to keep y'all updated.

Well, I think that's pretty much it for now. Stay tuned, and I'll try my best to give this site and my diabetes the attention they deserve!