It has been a rough couple of weeks in Diabetes land...
The first thing that happened was my check up with my endocrinologist. For those of you new to "Diabetes land," that is the special term for my Diabetic doctor. Endocrinologists study the endocrine system in your body, which has to do glands that produce your hormones, and any problems having to do with those systems. The pancreas creates the hormone insulin in normal folks. For me, not so much...
My doc said at my last appointment that she wanted to see me sooner than normal because my blood sugars were a little crazy, I wasn't eating well, my thyroid (another hormone I have issues with) was all off too, and I had gained weight mysteriously. So, I came back to see her in January...probably the worst time of year to see someone who is checking in on all those things I just mentioned, right after the holidays. Now, in my case, I was home alone (okay, with my baby) while Daddy was off on a rig (for 3 whole weeks! I missed him like crazy! Our first new year's without each other since we met 10 years ago!!!) and didn't even really celebrate anything with any fancy food or parties. Nothing like that. I had a couple of friends over and we ate some homemade pizza. Whoop-tee-do. Not a ton of calories there... But blame holiday eating, I did, at my appointment.
My blood sugars are/were still crazy, I wasn't keeping my food log in MyFitnessPal like I had promised, hadn't been wearing my CGM for a week because I forgot to reorder sensors, and...I was still fat and hadn't exercised like I had promised either. Sigh. I think my doc was pretty annoyed with me...
Well....(now here come my excuses!) I blame my Hubby. Yes, that's right. While he is away, I often get into a kind of funk where I'm just like, "Blah. Who cares what I eat or when?! No one is here to make dinner for, so I will just eat more of those cookies I made... and make something like frozen veggies for baby." It isn't a pretty picture. And, really, I can't blame the Hubby--he's making the money that gives me the life I got; I'm the one making the choice to eat cookies... But I need a scapegoat! So blame the Hubby!
The first thing that happened was my check up with my endocrinologist. For those of you new to "Diabetes land," that is the special term for my Diabetic doctor. Endocrinologists study the endocrine system in your body, which has to do glands that produce your hormones, and any problems having to do with those systems. The pancreas creates the hormone insulin in normal folks. For me, not so much...
My doc said at my last appointment that she wanted to see me sooner than normal because my blood sugars were a little crazy, I wasn't eating well, my thyroid (another hormone I have issues with) was all off too, and I had gained weight mysteriously. So, I came back to see her in January...probably the worst time of year to see someone who is checking in on all those things I just mentioned, right after the holidays. Now, in my case, I was home alone (okay, with my baby) while Daddy was off on a rig (for 3 whole weeks! I missed him like crazy! Our first new year's without each other since we met 10 years ago!!!) and didn't even really celebrate anything with any fancy food or parties. Nothing like that. I had a couple of friends over and we ate some homemade pizza. Whoop-tee-do. Not a ton of calories there... But blame holiday eating, I did, at my appointment.
My blood sugars are/were still crazy, I wasn't keeping my food log in MyFitnessPal like I had promised, hadn't been wearing my CGM for a week because I forgot to reorder sensors, and...I was still fat and hadn't exercised like I had promised either. Sigh. I think my doc was pretty annoyed with me...
Well....(now here come my excuses!) I blame my Hubby. Yes, that's right. While he is away, I often get into a kind of funk where I'm just like, "Blah. Who cares what I eat or when?! No one is here to make dinner for, so I will just eat more of those cookies I made... and make something like frozen veggies for baby." It isn't a pretty picture. And, really, I can't blame the Hubby--he's making the money that gives me the life I got; I'm the one making the choice to eat cookies... But I need a scapegoat! So blame the Hubby!
Here's the bad news--my A1C (or the average measure of blood sugar over the previous 3 months) went up from a 7.0 to a 7.5. Now, it isn't a huge jump or anything, but it is creeping up into not good territory! A 7.0 is considered okay these days. It used to be the goal. But not any more...especially not if you want to have a baby (which isn't on the immediate radar, but a future goal nonetheless). In that case, you want to be around a 6.0! Here's the background on A1Cs: Each number on the scale corresponds to a different average blood sugar. A 7.0 corresponds to an average blood sugar of about 154, while a 7.5 corresponds to a average of 169. If you are not a diabetic, your blood sugar should be under 100, like 90 or less while fasting. For diabetics, this is not how things normally are, unless they are in great control and have an A1C level of like...you guessed it, 6.0 which corresponds to an average blood sugar of 126.
It may not seem like a big deal, going from 7.0 to 7.5, but it is for several reasons: first of all, since it went up at all, it means I am in worse control than I was before. Second, an average blood sugar of 169 means that I am having blood sugars that are above that for a significant amount of time. I'm not sure what science is saying these days, but I remember reading a long time ago that if your blood sugar is over 160, damage is being done to your kidneys! So imagine what my poor kidneys are going through.... Ugh, reality check...
So that was round #1. And it wasn't good news. Time to get real about being a good diabetic. Taking care to eat better foods, check my blood sugar regularly, exercise (which helps keep my blood sugar down for like 2 days in a row!), and not eat cookies for dinner! Then I got to round #2...
I had surgery on my right eye last week for a hole in my retina. This is not a diabetic complication, this is a nearsighted complication. I am so nearsighted, meaning my eye is super weirdly shaped, that my retina has stretched as much as it can, has started to thin, and has gotten a little hole in a very thinned out area. (For comparison out there, if you wear contacts you'll know what I mean when I say I wear a -8 soft contact in both eyes. Yeah, that's how near-sighted I am!). I was not too upset about the surgery (they shoot a laser in your eye and basically use it to "staple" the area around the hole closed so that the retina can't just peel away from the back of the eye, requiring a much more serious surgery to repair) because there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. It was bound to happen to me sooner or later because of my nearsightedness and genes, and nothing else. What shocked and scared me was what a close look in my eye revealed...the starts of diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy is when the blood vessels in your eyes are damaged by sugar molecules pushing their way through and begin to actually leak blood into your eye. This doesn't sound good, and it isn't. You can eventually lose your sight if you don't correct the problem with laser or other more intense surgeries. The good news is that tiny little aneurysms (pronounced: ANN-YOUR-ISM) are reversible. An aneurysm is what they call the dilating of the blood vessels in any part of your body (you may have heard of brain or aortic aneurysms which can lead to death if not found and treated before they burst. Tangent--I have a friend who found out she had an aortic aneurysm pretty much by some weird coincidental luck, had surgery, and is alive and well thanks to a positive tuberculosis test!) Now, aneurysms in your eye won't lead to death, but if you're like me, being blind is a close second.
The eye doctor is going to monitor me (I have another check up in April) and see if they are going away. She was shocked to hear I'd been a Diabetic for almost 30 years (okay, I exaggerate, only 28 years...) and that this was my first sign of retinopathy. But I have taken pretty good care of myself for most of that time. Just lately, I've been a slacker, and now I am paying real consequences. Scares me to death.
Every time I think about diabetic complications, my grandmother creeps into my mind. She was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic when she was in her fifties. She lived into her 80s, but died without her feet. She didn't take good care of herself and had all of the complications you could think of--but the nerve damage in her feet was the worst, causing her to not feel something stabbing her in the foot, leading to gangrene after a while, and the eventual amputation of her foot. I don't recall the story of her other foot... I do remember her not being happy in her last years though. Having trouble walking and all kinds of other issues. I don't want to go that way...
So, here's to a new year, and new diabetic goals that I MUST stick to so that I keep my feet! And my eyes! And my kidneys! And feeling in my extremities!!!
It may not seem like a big deal, going from 7.0 to 7.5, but it is for several reasons: first of all, since it went up at all, it means I am in worse control than I was before. Second, an average blood sugar of 169 means that I am having blood sugars that are above that for a significant amount of time. I'm not sure what science is saying these days, but I remember reading a long time ago that if your blood sugar is over 160, damage is being done to your kidneys! So imagine what my poor kidneys are going through.... Ugh, reality check...
So that was round #1. And it wasn't good news. Time to get real about being a good diabetic. Taking care to eat better foods, check my blood sugar regularly, exercise (which helps keep my blood sugar down for like 2 days in a row!), and not eat cookies for dinner! Then I got to round #2...
I had surgery on my right eye last week for a hole in my retina. This is not a diabetic complication, this is a nearsighted complication. I am so nearsighted, meaning my eye is super weirdly shaped, that my retina has stretched as much as it can, has started to thin, and has gotten a little hole in a very thinned out area. (For comparison out there, if you wear contacts you'll know what I mean when I say I wear a -8 soft contact in both eyes. Yeah, that's how near-sighted I am!). I was not too upset about the surgery (they shoot a laser in your eye and basically use it to "staple" the area around the hole closed so that the retina can't just peel away from the back of the eye, requiring a much more serious surgery to repair) because there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. It was bound to happen to me sooner or later because of my nearsightedness and genes, and nothing else. What shocked and scared me was what a close look in my eye revealed...the starts of diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy is when the blood vessels in your eyes are damaged by sugar molecules pushing their way through and begin to actually leak blood into your eye. This doesn't sound good, and it isn't. You can eventually lose your sight if you don't correct the problem with laser or other more intense surgeries. The good news is that tiny little aneurysms (pronounced: ANN-YOUR-ISM) are reversible. An aneurysm is what they call the dilating of the blood vessels in any part of your body (you may have heard of brain or aortic aneurysms which can lead to death if not found and treated before they burst. Tangent--I have a friend who found out she had an aortic aneurysm pretty much by some weird coincidental luck, had surgery, and is alive and well thanks to a positive tuberculosis test!) Now, aneurysms in your eye won't lead to death, but if you're like me, being blind is a close second.
The eye doctor is going to monitor me (I have another check up in April) and see if they are going away. She was shocked to hear I'd been a Diabetic for almost 30 years (okay, I exaggerate, only 28 years...) and that this was my first sign of retinopathy. But I have taken pretty good care of myself for most of that time. Just lately, I've been a slacker, and now I am paying real consequences. Scares me to death.
Every time I think about diabetic complications, my grandmother creeps into my mind. She was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic when she was in her fifties. She lived into her 80s, but died without her feet. She didn't take good care of herself and had all of the complications you could think of--but the nerve damage in her feet was the worst, causing her to not feel something stabbing her in the foot, leading to gangrene after a while, and the eventual amputation of her foot. I don't recall the story of her other foot... I do remember her not being happy in her last years though. Having trouble walking and all kinds of other issues. I don't want to go that way...
So, here's to a new year, and new diabetic goals that I MUST stick to so that I keep my feet! And my eyes! And my kidneys! And feeling in my extremities!!!