Diabetes: Part Two.

I want to thank all of you who left comments on my last post. The facts are frightening and cannot be any clearer: Our quality of life is directly related to the food we ingest, the stress we face, and the amount of exercise we engage in.

Some genetics is involved as well; but we are still in charge of what we do everyday. My ancestors lived simpler lives, some past their eighties and with all their faculties intact, but they had opposite problems: lack of food, too much physical exercise, no chance of relief in their work situation. Those good old days were not so good.

Now we have an abundance of food, availability of work with little or no physical stress, and opportunities for recreation and pharmaceuticals that cure many diseases that used to kill us in childhood.

With all this, we make strange choices. We are smart and well read, and can definitely beat the odds if we realized the consequences of our choices. Remember when we all began to do self breast analysis? That small change, understanding that we are in charge of our own health, has saved us possible problems. If I feel anything unusual, I'm telling.

Medical education is not part of school curricula. We offer a semester or two of general health information squeezed with the physical education curriculum. We can't afford to offer anatomy, physiology and other medical primers.

I am part of the local school board that creates policies and curriculum offerings. We have begun to cut programs to manage our budget. We are not expending moneys we don't have. Yet, more than ever before, we need broad-based and iron-clad policies for all disease control , policies that should be funded at state and national levels, and that reach down and are part of the curriculum at all grade levels.

And for you men reading this, diabetes causes many physiological changes, among which is e.d. We don't need pills to fight the effect of diseases. We need education and pharmaceuticals to fight the occurrence in the first place.

Accommodations.

When we last visited our doctor, yes, hubby and I have the same primary physician, he gave us his diagnosis straight up. Then, he added, "There are millions of Americans walking around with the same disease, and don't know it."
Thanks, that made us feel so much better.

He was talking about Type 2 Diabetes. Elevated blood sugar seems to be a morbid condition that affects many people and they don't know they have it. Once we have this disease, it will slowly get worse. What we can do is to make various changes in our diet and lifestyle to slow down the damage that has already begun. It seems that all organs are now unionized against and no amount of mediation will change their course of action.

The pharmacist was a bit more upbeat, telling us that he too had the disease, but hey, ten years after the initial diagnosis and he still does not have to inject insulin. I gulped, twice. Injections? Oh no! I faint at the sight of needles. When my children had needed shots someone else had to take them to the doctor. When I needed shots, they had to cover my eyes, and then get me supine for an hour or so before I could walk normally again.

We went to classes. We learned about dieting, measuring and reading labels for every spoonful of food we ingest. No more runs to Dairy Queen for a Milk-Shake-Delux. No more pasta, pizza and other steaks to celebrate our golden years. Hubby learned about measuring his blood glucose. My turn will come soon enough, I was told.

So, I cleaned up an entire bathroom for hubby's comfort. We used to brush our teeth together at the end of the day. No more. He has to be alone to do his needling. I moved my make-up and tooth-cleaning components into my bathroom. His bathroom is bigger and has better lighting, and longer counters for all the paraphernalia. I do need to learn about needles though; I'm right behind him, the doctor had said, suggesting I could very well hit the mark as I write this. Then, with all that fainting I'd have to give up blogging.

There is one good part about all this. We are finally on the same page regarding diet and exercise. I don't have to cook two different meals. One can be split and eaten by two. And we need to maintain our muscle tone and expand energy, daily, rain or shine. That treadmill has to come out of the garage and face the television with the rest of the family, and we can save some money and do our own tree and lawn maintenance.

Thank God I still enjoy cooking, or this new accommodation could send me over that watery ramp.