It was the best of times…

First, an update on my quest to join every possible online social networking site in existence. I’ve now joined Pownce, the new site from the creator of Digg, Kevin Rose. I have a few invites, which I will give to friends and family first.

Now down to the real reason for this post. I received a bit of news this week which I’m not entirely sure how to grok. Although it’s not official yet, it is almost certain that I have diabetes. I guess I’ve been taking it pretty well. I’ve tried to reassure everyone that it’s all going to okay. I’ve told them that I’m not surprised, that I was told I was pre-diabetic in college, that it runs in the family, etc. That’s what I’ve been telling myself as well. I hope it’s the truth and not that I just haven’t had time to really stop and consider what this really means.

Diabetes certainly runs in my family. My grandmother on my mother’s side hid her diagnosis and refused treatment because she spent so many years taking care of her sister with Diabetes and she died before anyone even knew she was diabetic. My grandmother on my father’s side did okay with her condition, but it ultimately caused kidney failure. In the end, she couldn’t do the dialysis anymore and because of her many other health conditions refused treatment and also went on her own terms. However, while this sounds bad, both of them were diagnosed fairly late in life and most of the complications from Diabetes are caused by uncontrolled blood sugar.

The good news is that I’m only 33 and with proper treatment, medication, monitoring, and a few lifestyle changes I should have no trouble living a good long time with this disease. My only concern is how much damage has been done already since I’m afraid I may have ignored the symptoms (even though I knew better) for a long time. What finally made me wake up and smell the artificial sweetener?

I remember sometime between high school and college that I was working two jobs trying to earn money for college and I had a dizzy spell for which my dad had to come and get me because I couldn’t drive. My dad made me see a doctor who sent me for a glucose tolerance test. The test consisted of drinking a sugary drink after fasting and testing blood sugar levels every hour for 5 hours. The test was pretty difficult due to the number of times they had to take blood. The result was that I was that I was pre-diabetic, but I can’t remember ever following up or if there was even anything I could done.

I sort of figured out on my own how to tell when I was going to have a dizzy spell (headache and sweating too) and I would eat something to counteract it before it got bad. I now know this is a symptom of my blood sugar dropping too fast. At the time I had my first spell, I had eaten only a candy bar and drank a coke for my one and only meal of the day. My blood sugar spiked and dropped quickly since I hadn’t eaten any protein to sustain me past the initial quick energy.

Fast forward to just a few years ago when I had a different physician who was actually diabetic. He gave me quite a lecture after a routine checkup where he did tests for blood lipids and cholesterol. He also told me that there were several signs of pre-diabetes. He put me on a low-carb diet, which I did for almost a year and lost 60 lbs. However, it was easier to avoid going to the doctor than realistically sustain a low-carb diet. Even once I regained the weight and was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I avoided the doctor and their blood tests. The reason wasn’t so much that I didn’t want bad news since that would have actually kept me motivated and doing the right thing. It was actually that it is difficult to draw blood for whatever reason. I end up getting stuck 5 or 6 times (yes, I know I’m making excuses).

For the past several weeks I noticed that I was thirsty all of the time. Not just, “oh, I have a parched throat and need a drink of water”, but “I need a drink of water NOW!”. At one point, I was ready to strangle a waitress at a restaurant because she was taking too long to bring my water. Just this past weekend, I had told my wife about the problem and that I should go see the doctor.

I guess I wasn’t taking it seriously enough because on Monday night, I started having chest pains as soon as I sat down to dinner. I’ve had similar pains before, but they always went away within a few seconds. These lasted more than 10 minutes and would not go away. So, I decided it was time to go to the Emergency Room where they did the standard “chest pain protocol”. As a result, the nurse stabbed me four times trying to put in an IV and when he couldn’t get it, brought in another nurse who was not very gentle with shoving an 18 gauge needle into a vein on my wrist.

So, over the course of four hours or so I get two EKGs, two heart enzyme tests, and two shots (and a pill) of blood pressure medicine. The end result is that whatever caused my chest pains (which went away 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital) was not heart-related. However, they told me that my blood sugar was 260. He didn’t say it was high, but when I heard that and remembered the symptoms of diabetes I was having, I looked it up when I got home. The test was done several hours after I last ate and my blood sugar should have been 120 or less. So, it was high.

The next morning (Tuesday) I immediately scheduled a doctor’s appointment to follow up and, of course, by now I’m mostly concerned about the blood sugar. Another test in the doctor’s office shows my blood sugar is 330. A urine test also shows a lot of sugar as well. So, the doctor comes back into the room after all of this with a new glucose meter and medication samples. I would need to come back for a fasting blood test, but the diagnosis is pretty clear. We’re expecting the hospital to call and schedule us for a diabetes information class.

I went back this morning for the fasting blood test which consists of a Hemoglobin A1c test to determine my average blood sugar over the past 90 days in addition to blood lipids and cholesterol. The results of this test will determine the official diagnosis.

At this point, it’s probable that the chest pains were caused by high blood pressure. I’m now taking Altase for that which has the added benefit of protecting my kidneys from high blood sugar (kidney failure is a complication of Diabetes). I’m also taking Metformin to help bring my blood sugar under control. Since then, I’ve taken my blood sugar several times and it’s been doing down.. 327, 220, 202, 179. The target is 70 fasting and 120 two hours after eating.

The best part is that my wife has now become the food Nazi. She’s done a ton of reading and talked to her diabetic grandmother to determine what I can and can’t eat. Not that she’s justified, but it makes me sad that I can no longer eat what I want.