To many of you, this probably isn't very impressive. The definition of a "normal" fasting blood sugar is 83 mg/dl (4.6 mmol/L) or less,* so by that standard maybe I haven't achieved anything all that great.
But to me, it was a miracle.
I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2004. I was only 37 at the time of my diagnosis. Since that time, I have tried a variety of oral medications to try and get my blood sugar under control:
- Sulfonylureas: I took two different sulfonylureas over the course of the past 7 years: glipizide and glimepiride. They were effective at first, especially the glipizide since it was the first drug I ever used for my diabetes. My HbA1c actually got down into the normal range (5.9%) for a while there. Then my fasting blood sugars started to creep back up again. Then they exploded. But my doctor kept prescribing them, and because I let myself continue to trust her blindly and didn't bother to educate myself, I kept taking them. I am 100% certain this has led to the nearly total burn out of my beta cells.
- Actos: This drug did horrible things to my vision. I took it for about a year, and then my insurance plan changed and the montly cost of Actos tripled. That was rage-inducing at the time, but looking back on it, it was actually a very lucky break, because it made me refuse to use it any longer and thus hopefully helped me dodge the bullets associated with use of the TZDs. (Although this is still scary to me because I have a family history of CHF and I keep hearing about the link between Actos and bladder cancer, so I still don't consider myself to be fully out of the woods even though I stopped taking it five years ago.) I refused it on the basis of cost the next time I saw my doctor, and she replaced it with...
- Metformin: I have mixed feelings about metformin. It did help me for a while, especially in the beginning, and I had experienced a few hypos while on the sulfonylureas so I was glad to be on something where hypoglycemia wasn't an issue. However. I had horrible, horrible GI side effects from metformin. I'm talking about chronic diarrhea that lasted for as long as I was on the drug -- 18 months. It got to the point where I was afraid to leave the house. I was still being ruled by denial and did nothing to educate myself, so I had no idea this problem was connected to the metformin. I never did any research, and amazingly (or not), NONE of my doctors mentioned metformin could be the cause of the problem. I even went to a gastroenterologist, and he performed what I now consider to be a totally unnecessary colonoscopy on me, in which, of course, he found nothing. Finally, after 18 months of misery, my PCP said it might be related to the metformin. That's when I started taking the glimepiride. I was later prescribed metformin XR, which I can tolerate somewhat better; it "only" gives me diarrhea every 3-4 days rather than every single day.
That's a lot of background information, I know, and you have my thanks and admiration if you've actually continued to read this far. But I give it because I am trying to say I tried several different medications in order to get my blood sugar under control. I also tried some changes in diet and exercise, which I will go into in another post.
But by June of 2011, I felt completely defeated. My last A1c (taken nearly a year earlier) was 7.5%; this was actually an improvement over the whopping 9.5% I'd had 18 months earlier, but was still nothing to brag about. My insurance had changed again, to a plan with a $5,000 annual deductible I can't possibly meet and so most medical care (labwork, prescriptions, even doctor's visits) is pretty much out of my reach despite the hefty monthly premiums I am paying. I ran out of my metformin and glimepiride, with no refills left, and had an appointment with a new endo (I had fired the one whose scrip I threw away) a month or so later, so I decided I would just wait to see her rather than see my PCP and fork over the money for that visit when I'd just have to pay the endo again in a few weeks.
Here is a sampling from my blood sugar logs in July and August of this year:
July 1:
Fasting blood sugar: 264
2 hours after breakfast: 286
2 hours after dinner: 183
July 5:
Fasting: 301
2 hours after lunch: 269
2 hours after dinner: 238
July 18:
Fasting: 276
2 hours after lunch: 230
2 hours after dinner: 258
August 9:
Fasting: 275
2 hours after breakfast: 296
2 hours after dinner: 213
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Now, here are my blood sugar readings for yesterday.
Fasting: 101
2 hours after breakfast: 115
2 hours after after dinner: 81
And my fasting this morning was 98. This is the first time I've had a fasting blood sugar of less than 100 since 2004. So what if it isn't completely "normal"?
To me, it's a miracle.
That's why this blog exists. I will be using it to document my own journey with getting my diabetes under control. I will be also be discussing my opinions about the ridiculous and often harmful ways modern medicine treats diabetes. I have zero medical training, and I'm not trying to push this way of life on anyone else, because everyone is different and what works for me may not work for someone else. I'm here to talk about the steps I'm taking to change my own life and improve my own health.
I'm also angry that I wasted 7 years and a ton of money on treatment without getting a single benefit in return, and that's another issue I'm going to be talking about a lot. I hope other diabetics might get something of value out of this, as well.
Thanks for reading!
*This whole site, Blood Sugar 101, is absolutely fantastic, by the way.
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