How Diabetes Changed -And Continues to Change- My Life

Seven years ago August, I went into my doctors office with no major health issues. I walked out with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. My risk factors were these: heredity, with diabetes on both sides of the family, being overweight with a BMI of 26 (healthy BMI <24.9), and a sedentary lifestyle. The first immediate change was to MOVE. I began walking 5k a day. I started the Jeff Galloway Walk/Run program, and worked my way up to a steady pace. Since diagnosis, I’ve run 20 half marathons, 2 15k’s, the Glass Slipper Challenge (10k one day, and a half marathon the next), and countless 10k and 5k’s in 3 states. Was it easy? Nope. As a nurse, though, I’ve seen the long term effects of diabetes, and I didn’t want to accept them. This remains my driving force. The second part of my transformation was -and is - much harder. Changing my diet. I spent most of my life eating terribly. As a child I was fed healthy meals, and for this I am grateful - outside of liver and frozen Brussels sprouts. I have no food aversions. I do have a wicked sweet tooth, and a penchant for emotional eating. I drank soda by the gallons, and pastry was my friend when times got rough. All this had to change. I learned about carb ratios, and protein, and keeping fat in moderation. I learned to drink water as my primary beverage. I went from eating a couple hundred carbs a day to consuming less than a hundred. This is a big change. I don’t really miss bread. It was the first to go. Pizza I miss passionately, but I am determined to find a flour alternative that will make a suitable substitution. Sweets are still my nemesis, although now I use them for an entirely different reason. I keep small candies around to treat hypoglycemic episodes. Seven years after my type 2 diagnosis, I walked out of my doctors office with a new, more ominous and irreversible diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Actually, I have LADA - latent autoimmune diabetes of adults. This was conclusively determined though labwork. My type 2 was never type 2 - I just had some pancreatic function 7 years ago, and may have extended it a bit through my healthier habits. Type 1 diabetes is a whole new beast. As I type this I am wearing an insulin pump with a carb ratio that has gone from 1:10 to 1:7 in just 4 months. I now need insulin to survive. I wear a CGM - continuous glucose monitor, to keep my sugars as tightly controlled as possible. I hate this disease. I have chosen to endeavor to follow “The Diabetes Solution” by Dr Bernstein. I’m slowly eliminating the remaining empty carbs from my life. He advocates 30 carbs a day. Hard core? Sure. He’s had diabetes since he was a child, and he’s in his 80’s now. With no long term ill effects of diabetes. It’s not an easy path...but neither is kidney failure, blindness, amputations, or heart disease. I learned a lot when I thought I was type 2 - in my studies, the effects of that disease and the comorbidities were not what I wanted to deal with. When you have a disease that is reversible, why on earth wouldn’t you try and reverse it? Now I am told I can eat what I want and just dose myself with insulin, but this is a game I am unwilling to play. More insulin use leads to increased weight. It also can lead to hyper or hypoglycemia if I gamble wrong on the insulin dose. So the most sensible thing is to eat healthy, and in moderation. I have a back injury that I’m a month into that has prevented me from exercising, but I’m eating even more mindfully. I refuse to let this disease have the upper hand if I have anything to do with it. What have I leaned over the last seven years? That misdiagnosis gave me time to learn to take better care of myself. To be a good steward of the body God gave me. To face head on the deadly sin that no one wants to address - gluttony. If it wasn’t a big issue, it wouldn’t be mentioned so much in the Bible. As a Christian, I had to repent of my sloth and gluttony. As a nurse, I’m determined to educate educate educate. Obesity is the last frontier - no one wants to offend anyone, and obesity and its comorbidities, according to the NIH, are the SECOND leading cause of preventable death in the US. Only tobacco use is before it. Obesity is an epidemic that is currently responsible for 300,000 PREVENTABLE deaths a year. It’s a national disgrace. Type 1 diabetes is not preventable, but type 2 is both preventable and reversible. It takes determination. My Christmas wish is a cure for type 1 diabetes. It’s a disease that consumes every aspect of my life. It factors in to so many daily decisions I make. My Christmas wish for everyone else is that they would be the best steward of their body as they can be, mentally, spiritually, and physically. Health is a gift. Once gone, it then becomes a choice. Choose it. e b e r