Friday, January 11, 2008

Cheating Death Left and Right

Earlier this week my guardian angel managed to keep me from getting bashed in the face by a skateboard. Yay guardian angel!

Today I had a followup visit with my doctor about my diabetes. I was diagnosed in September and my blood sugar numbers were astronomical: Fasting blood sugar was 270 and my A1C, which is a measure of blood sugar over a three-month period, was 10.8. At the time I saw her in October when she gave me these results, she told me the scale only went to 11. In my classes, I think they said the scale went to 13. In any event, 10.8 is like, right up there in the deadly range. You never, ever want to be told you have a 10.8 A1C score.

And just for grins, my cholesterol was 268, HDL was 49, LDL was 189, triglycerides were 151. I also had some wacked-out liver enzyme numbers.

Doctor had told me that I needed to get serious because "death is grabbing for you, girl." We started aggressive therapies and I took a series of diabetes education classes. I swore off sweets and radically monitored all my carbohydrate intake. I started some power walking on my lunch hour and some other things. I did what I had to do.

And today, I got the TA-DA Gold Star Award (well, she said I deserved a gold star. She really didn't give me one, but wouldn't that have been cool?)

Forgive me, but I don't have the sheet in front of me with all the numbers. I was busy showing it off at work and left it there this afternoon. I'll tell you what I know for sure.

Fasting blood sugar dropped from 270 to 170. Yay me!
My A1C level dropped from 10.8 to 7.0!!!! YAYAYAYAYA ME! (Normal is about 6. I'm almost normal!!! I'm certainly in a good range for someone with diabetes.)
Cholesterol dropped to 184. YES. Rarely in my life have I gotten it below 200. This is amazing. Good cholesterol is up. Bad is down. Triglycerides are down. All are in a very good range right now. YAY me!

Blood pressure? Oh, you want to know about my blood pressure too? Well, lissen up my friends! I had a blood pressure of 222/121. Yes, I did. How I didn't have a stroke - I can only credit my guardian angel and good luck for that.

TODAY my blood pressure was 124/68.

I can live with that. Thanks, Doc.

YAY ME!

8 comments:

Erudite Redneck said...

Yay! Yippy! Woo hoo!

Now, go celebrate with a chicken-fried steak as big as a hubcap!

My bad!

I'm really happy for you. I could tell you was ascairt even through this here computer screen when you first blogged about it.

Trixie said...

I really was. And as skeered as I was then, that's how jubilant I am today, knowing that I was able to do something about it. WHEW!

Sarabeth said...

Wow! What a turnaround. Keep it up, Trixie. Keep it up.

SBB said...

That is so wonderful, Trixie! Keep on doing what you're doing. You're my hero!

Anonymous said...

Waaaaahooooooooo!

Great news, Trixie!!! :)

Teditor said...

I'm glad you lived to tell about it. Keep up the good work.

A diabetic friend had an attack over the Christmas break -- he teaches at the best university in this here land -- and was hospitalized in ICU because his blood-sugar was more than 700. Diabetic somethingorother, he called it. Was in ICU for two days, then in a regular hospital bed for three more.

His got bad when he came down with the flu and tossed his lunch -- and whetever else was in his belly -- a few times. Anymore, if he throws up three times in a 24-hour span, they head to the ER (Emergency Room, not the Erudite Redneck we all know and love).

My wife's been diagnosed as prediabetic, so we're desperately trying to keep an eye on that, and that includes me keeping an eye on that for myself. I'm not too good at it yet (I say as I eat a nice sub sammich from Mr. Goodscents) but I'm better than I was.

Keep up the good work, Trix.

Teditor said...

FYI, as my wife puts it, "I feel naughty; I'm dating a college boy."

I'm taking a three-hour tour (class) through the virtual college at the best university in this here land to learn Web design. I kinda need it for my business in promoting rodeo cowboys, rodeos, etc., and I "hired" said diabetic friend to design the sites for me.

He offered, I said, "groovy," and payment was going to come in the form of an IOU, since, really, I don't have much extra cash roaming around. But after months of waiting, and him unable to say "no" to so many things -- thusly, his schedule is more hectic than anyone I know -- we decided that wasn't going to work.

I checked out some places that would do the sites, but even at discounted rates, I couldn't afford them. So I talked to my beautiful bride about it, and we came to the conclusion that I could spend that money to take the class and have another marketable skill in my hip pocket.

So ... I'm a college boy.

drlobojo said...

My Mamma lived until 92 with type 2diebetes. She damn near outlived everybody who worried about her.
But she did give it to me. Parents are generous aren't they.

You can do good with what they have available. It is normal to have all three diebetes-BP-cholesterol doing bad at the same time. Trouble is every single one of the pills they give you to take for each of those causes weight gain and are cumulative. But better to be fat and happy than skinny and dead. So if the skinny little doctor gets on to you about weight don't worry too much. It is not as simple as a moral failure its it a phrmacuetical side effect.

Live long, and propser!