Learning To Live With Diabetes

Learning to live with a disease that has the potential to kill me has been a motivator in itself. Uncontrolled diabetics can end up with severe complications from the disease if they aren't careful.

Worldwide 285,000,000 of the population or 6% of the overall population has Diabetes.

The WHO (World Health Organization) calls Type 2 Diabetes a Global EPIDEMIC.

*In the United States 25.8 million have Diabetes.  8.3% of the population. Diabetes is 7th largest cause of Death in the United States.

*In 2007 approximately 231,404 had diabetes listed as cause of death.

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, heart disease and stroke.

This is what I could face if I allow the Type 2 Diabetes to go uncontrolled.

I want to apologize for the doom and gloom but in order to be completely honest about Diabetes, statistics is important.

What am I doing to control my glucose and minimize complications?

1.) Diet - I stopped eating sugar and starchy foods when I thought I might have diabetes. Even then my glucose was out of control. Once I was diagnosed , others online with Type 2 Diabetes told me about carbohydrates and how it will raise glucose levels in some individuals.  Sadly I'm in the group who should drastically limit carbohydrate consumption. And everything has carbohydrates.

2.) Medication- I take 500 mg of Metaforim twice a day.

3.) Weightloss- Even though I wasn't technically Obese, I was overweight by 15-20 lbs. Limiting carbohydrates , starchy foods and being sugarfree has greatly reduced my caloric intake. I've lost approximately 15 lbs since my diagnosis. Depending how my jeans are made I wear a size 6-8. A medium- large in shirts. I've lost 4 inches and a cup size in my bra, a 40d to 36c. My ring size dropped from a 8 1/2 to a 7. Some days I can wear my high school graduation ring and it's a 6.

I know, I know TMI (too much information).

4.) Glucose Monitoring- I test my glucose 2-3 times a day. Trying to keep my numbers between 80-120. And adjust my meals according to each reading.

5.) Reading Nutrition Labels-  Looking at labels is critical. I've learned the front of food packaging can be very misleading and quite different than the information found on the back. Because of reading food labels I've eliminated most processed foods.

6.) Blog and ADA Forum- Through my blog and others, I've learned valuable information from others who are living without complications from Type 2 diabetes. And have lived for years with the disease without major changes in medication or health.

I've gotten food ideas and recipes from Facebook, Blogspot and the ADA.

7.) Research- Even though I'm getting advice from multiple sources, I like to verify each bit of information.

8.) I stopped kicking myself for tiny mess ups in my diet that results in higher glucose readings. We all mess up , we just need to minimize our dietary mistakes.

This has been my journey so far and what I'm doing to help myself. It's about living with Type 2 diabetes not dying from it.

*(Figures come from CDC And us.gov website)