One Year With Diabetes

About a week ago I had a doctor appointment.  It was my routine diabetes checkup.

My weight wasn't quite as low as I would have liked.  During the months of November and December I took somewhat of a break from dieting and consumed all sorts of holiday treats.  The net result of that was that I was only down 8 pounds from the last time I was at the doctor six months ago.

However, weight is only one way to measure success, and frankly it's the least important.  The most important test for a diabetic is A1C.  It's a measure of how saturated your blood cells are with sugar.  You are considered diabetic at 7%.  Pre-diabetic is 5.7%.  When I was diagnosed a year ago I was at 10.6%.

One year later, at my doctor appointment, my A1C came in at 5.4%.  Booya!

Just bask in that number for a moment.

That means my blood sugar is now in the normal range.  My new goal is 5.3%.  Not that I need to get any lower, but it would be cool to be half of where I was diagnosed at.

After seeing my A1C, my doctor asked if my blood sugar had ever gone too low.  I said there were a few times after exercise that I had felt lightheaded and when I tested my blood sugar it was in the 80s.  (The normal range is 90-120).  The 80s are not dangerously low, but the 70s are, so he was concerned that my blood sugar could potentially get too low, especially as I continue to lose weight.

Therefore, he instructed me to stop taking my medication.  My medication is designed to lower my blood sugar, but if it doesn't need lowering, then it can push me too low.

Of course, with that instruction came a speech.  He told me that this doesn't mean I'm cured.  It means that I'm controlling diabetes through diet and exercise.  He also said that without medication, the only thing controlling diabetes is diet and exercise.  So he just wanted to make sure I didn't quit, because that could be dangerous.

He also said that he's never had a patient turn diabetes around as quickly as I have.  Booya!  My health has never been about competing with anyone else.  But as soon as I knew I was winning the competition, then it was all about competing.

It's been a crazy year, but I've learned a few things.  I might share some other things I've learned later, but here's a big lesson I've come to know.

Nothing Is Impossible.

I know that's really cliche.  People like to say that nothing is impossible while secretly acknowledging that lots of things are impossible.  I too will acknowledge that you're bound by the laws of physics as well as the laws of the land you live in.  But what I'm trying to say is that there are things that you perceive as impossible, but they're not.

I want to show you what can happen in a year.

This picture was taken February 24, 2013.  Less than a year ago.

This picture was taken this morning, on my morning walk.

You'll notice a few things.  One, my head is less spherical.  Also, I'm wearing a hat.  It turns out I get cold sometimes now.  I'm missing 65 pounds of insulation.  But changing what I look like isn't what's impossible.

One year ago, I started walking on the treadmill and I would put it on 2 mph, with zero incline.  If I really wanted a workout, I'd put it on 3 mph, but I couldn't handle it for more than 2 or 3 minutes.  This morning, I did 3.5 miles in about an hour.  I didn't ever stop to rest, and along the way I saw this.

Of course, I saw it at the top of the hill after I had climbed it.

One year ago, climbing to the top of an 18% grade, would have been completely impossible.  For many of you, that's probably not a big deal.  But for me, I'm not exaggerating when I say it was completely impossible a year ago.

In 2014, I plan to do a number of things that were impossible a year ago.  I plan to hike to the summit of Mount Timpanogos at 11,000 feet.  I plan to hike to Havasu Falls (10 miles one way with a 2,000 foot elevation change) and I plan to go Scuba diving in Honduras.  I also want to ride a bike to my work (about 15 miles away) at least once, but hopefully more often if I actually enjoy it.

All of those things were impossible a year ago.  But now, they're not even going to be a big deal.  What was once impossible is reality today.

What impossible things will you do in your future?

I should be clear.  I'm not saying that things that you see as impossible will come easily to you, if you just decide they're not impossible.  There's a reason you think they're impossible.  It's because they're probably REALLY HARD.  But really hard is different from impossible.

It's been really hard to dramatically alter my body chemistry in one year.  It's been really hard to completely alter my eating habits.  It's been really hard to walk over 500 miles in the past year, and go to the gym 3 times a week.

But really hard is not impossible.  It just seems that way.  Whatever it is, you can do it.

Sometimes I Dominate Diabetes

I went to the Dr. this past week, to get my diabetes checkup.  I was really excited to have my A1C tested.

If you don't what what A1C is, it's the percentage of hemoglobin cells that are saturated with sugar.  It's the most important diabetes test, because it shows how well managed your blood sugar is.  5.7% is considered pre-diabetic.  7% is considered diabetic.  When I was diagnosed, mine was at 10.6%.

My goal was to be at 5.6, so that I could be a normal person.  I had my family make guesses as to what my A1C would actually be at.

As you can see, my sister, Jen and myself were the only ones who thought I would make my goal.  Also, I explained to my brother, Zack, that it is measured in tenths of a percent, so his guess was guaranteed to be wrong.  But he insisted on 5.92.

As it turns out, I didn't make my goal.  My A1C came in at 5.7.  So my sister, Mellen, wins.  I think this kind of guessing game is sort of like The Price is Right.  You want to get the closest without going over.  Because Jen can at least say that she believed in me too much.  The others went over, so they're not nearly as awesome.

I was disappointed that I didn't hit my goal.  But the Dr. thought I did fantastic.  In fact, he told me he thinks we should lower my medication.  I was way scared.  Doesn't he know that I'm managing diabetes so well partly because of my medication?  But, ultimately the goal is to get off the medication completely.  So, I agreed to lower it.  We dropped my Metformin from 2000 mg/day to 1000 mg/day.

He also said that since it's so well handled, we probably only need to get together once every 6 months.  My goal for my February appointment is an A1C of 5.6 or lower, basically stay where I'm at even though I'm on the lower dosage of medication.

Wish me luck!

Getting Healthy By the Numbers

Recently, I've posted a lot about my weight loss.  I've been working really hard to get myself healthier.  Trying to be healthy is a funny thing.  How do you measure health?  It's like trying to measure happiness.  If my body feels good right now, is that not health?  If I feel content and at peace right now is that not happiness?

I won't try to delve any deeper than that on the subject of happiness, because that's way too philosophical for me right now, and it's not really the subject I want to discuss.

What I really want to discuss is measuring health.  It's really such an intangible thing.  I've focused a lot on my weight, simply because that is very easy to measure.  But I fully recognize that is not necessarily the best measure of health.  There are plenty of very skinny people that would not describe themselves as healthy.

There are many numbers that can measure health.  There is no 1 metric that really measures it by itself, but there are plenty that go in conjunction together, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

I am a numbers person.  I love numbers.  I love crunching and extrapolating data.  Naturally, I record data any time I can.  The following is a story about me trying to improve my health.  It's also a story with some numbers.  Doesn't that make you glad?

Three months ago, I went to the Doctor for a checkup so that he could approve us for adoption.  While I was there, he asked me some questions about diabetes symptoms.  I had enough symptoms that he wanted to do a blood test to test for diabetes.  The test for diabetes is the A1C.  It tests how saturated your red blood cells are with glucose.  My test came back at a 10.7.  Normal people are usually less than 5.  6.5 is considered diabetic.

Since then, I have completely changed my lifestyle.  I watch what I eat, especially carbs.  I try to walk or run daily and I work out with weights 3 times per week.  My change in lifestyle has caused some changes in my body.  Here are some changes that have occurred over the past 3 months.

My belly has shrunk by 2.5 inches.
My neck has shrunk by 1 inch.
My thighs have shrunk by 2.5 inches.
I have lost 34 pounds.

But there is one number, that right now is the most important to me.
Here is that number.

You're probably thinking, "What the heck is 6.3?"  Well, I went to the Doctor again yesterday.  I had my A1C tested, and it was 6.3.  Remember how I said that 6.5 is considered diabetic?  That means that technically, my blood agrees that I'm no longer diabetic.

Now, I fully recognize that the disease still exists, I've just been able to handle the symptoms.  But this was a huge victory for me.  I asked my doctor where my A1C needs to be to avoid diabetes complications.  He said, "It needs to be under 7.  You're there, just make sure you stay there."

It told my wife that my goal for 3 months from now is 5.6, because 5.7 is considered pre-diabetic.  She was skeptical, but I told her that her job is to say, "I know you can do it!"  Naturally, she did her job.


Here some more numbers that I'm excited about:
Number of migraines in the past 2 months: 0 (used to be 1-2 per week)
Number of times in the past 2 months I've had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom: 0 (it used to be 1-2 per night, so my body could dump out sugar)
Number of times my shorts have fallen off in the front yard: 1 (used to be zero.  I guess not all of the new numbers are good.)


I'm excited for the future.  I'm excited that this disease has motivated me to become more healthy all around. I'm excited for the experiences that greater health will bring me.  I'm also excited to record lots more numbers.