My first dr visit as a diabetic

With my blood results in, I found myself again in front of my doctor (2 or 3 days after going to the ER and starting Metformin twice a day from that). I was in the proper mindset to receive direction. I thought I had begun taking steps and doing what I needed to do. My doctor however quickly made me see that the changes I would need to do were deeper and more definitive than I previously thought.

Healthy diet and lots of exercise meant different things to him than they meant to me. He also taught me this was a lifestyle change, not a diet or exercise period - this was to be my new life or I would see the consequences. Diabetes doesn't get cured - you adjust to it so it doesn't damage your body so quickly.

His first statement was that now I would avoid carbs like the plague. This means no bread, no rice, no pasta. No sugary kid's cereal, no candy, no sodas, no sugary drinks at all. White meat and vegetables - avoid red meat as much as possible because of my triglycerides. I almost fell out of the chair. Immediately I had questions. Well, what carbs can I eat?

Here is where I learned that there are foods that we can call diabetic friendly. In normal life, you may not think they are very different, but in terms of carb content and glucose, they are very different.

Hey also explained there were no shortcuts or miracle workarounds - no matter how good the food, if you have several servings, it won't be good for you. You have to embrace portion control! And you have to read the nutritional label and be responsible for everything you put in your mouth.

After this quick talk with my doctor i saw that my meals would have to change dramatically. I had to rebase my meals to be mostly leafy or meaty (but not starchy) vegetables and lean protein from poultry and white fishes. The things I bought in the supermarket would need to change, the things I ordered when eating out would have to change, my wife, who is not diabetic, will also have to change - or we will have to eat different things!

The other thing that took me by surprise was what he said was even more important: exercise. Hopefully everyday. At least 30 minutes, but hopefully one hour. Exercise is the only way to decrease blood sugar in a natural manner. You have to spend what you eat!

Wow. For someone that didn't exercise at all that was suddenly a tall order. I don't know how i'm going to do this, but the fact is I have to do it! I had already resolved I would tackle this head on like a man, I would have to learn and adapt!

I left the doctor's office with my head in a whirlwind, but with my mindset that I could tackle on this problem, I opened up google and started reading and investigating. I immediately bought a couple books in amazon and started reading diabetes related material on the internet - which gladly there is a lot of. It is a very widespread disease :'(

The day I got diagnosed with diabetes type 2 - ER visit

In this post I detailed some of the warning signs of diabetes that I had ignored for the longest time. After returning from back to back trips of excess, my wife urged me to get a general checkup again. Since we had just arrived to NYC some months before, she found me a good internal medicine doctor that was in my network healthcare-wise and I scheduled an appointment.

I specifically remember the day of my appointment I had my normal huge breakfast and picked up a big Arizona iced tea can as I got on my uber. The doctor was perfectly nice. The first thing he pointed out was that I was overweight, and he probably figured out this wasn't good when I told him I had started losing weight since I moved to New York. He allowed me to detail the little things I had experienced, asked me about my typical diet and after looking at my skin he did tell me he was suspecting I had symptoms of diabetes and he would run some tests. I gave my blood and urine and proceeded to head out to my new favorite pizza place nearby.

The next day I was in a conference call and a number that was not in my address book called. I ignored it, as I normally did with such calls. Some minutes later my wife called. She was almost in tears. She told me I needed to stop working and get to an emergency room immediately. I asked what's wrong, I didn't understand.

She explained the doctor's office had tried calling me but they weren't able to reach me, so they called her (I had left her as emergency contact). My glucose had come at 600, my triglycerides had come at 600, and my A1C was 11.8. "So?" I asked - "what's the normal range?"

I'll put three simple screenshots so you can see how bad my numbers were. 

For blood glucose levels I've captured a screenshot from virginiamason.org

For triglycerides I've captured a screenshot from clevelandclinic.org

And for A1C I've captured a screenshot from nih.gov

So you can see my numbers were terrible - multiples of what is considered bad. I told my wife I didn't feel bad at all and to calm down - but she would not have it. She told me stop being stubborn as usual and please listen to her. Her broken voice on the verge of tears finally broke me and I agreed to comply.

I hung up and called my boss, who totally understood and wished me the best. I set my ooto since I didn't know if this would be a multi-day deal. I heard the voicemail and called my dr back, and he advised me on what hospitals to go to, and stated that once my numbers were normalized he wanted to see me again to start treatment.

When I arrived to the ER and my blood was taken with a finger tester (didn't like that at all...) it came out at 330. Not as bad (I still think that Arizona iced tea did not help me at all) but still very high as you can see from the table above. Some hours later, my sugar had come down enough and I was started on Metformin twice a day - and I was now officially a diabetic.

Next post I'll talk about my thoughts and attitude after learning I was diabetic.