Future Legend
March 27, 2008
My story.. wow.. I've done this before and I don't know if I'll put it as succinctly as I did the last time...
Just get some black coffee going on in an I.V. drip and make yourself comfy! LOL.
Here's the deal....
I haven't always been this big... I was pretty solid as a teenager.. not skinny, very muscular. I was involved in athletics.. softball, basketball and on the gymnastics team. I also worked since I was 12, so I stayed pretty active.
I knew diabetes ran in my family, but I didn't understand the implications of pancreatic disorders. I just figured that if I wasn't a Type I like my father and uncles, that I was good to go. In 1986 I had my daughter. I did veal parm my way through the entire pregnancy and ended up about 212 lbs. I did a liquid fast and lost it all and then some..... but as soon as I stopped, I began to put it all on and then some. I repeated this several times. <-- isn't this the definition of insanity? I was diagnosed with Type II .. ooh.. I'm guessing around 10 years ago and remained uncontrolled until recently.. yes.. I got the whole bag of horrors that goes along with being uncontrolled for so long so if you happen to be a newly diagnosed diabetic... I won't ask.. I'm tellin' ya.. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT NOW! Don't wait until your eyesight is failing, your kidneys want to ring your neck and every little opportunistic infection that wants to grab hold of you just walks in and takes you over. Change it now! Put your foot down!
Throughout all of this.. I kept working out. Even at my worst weight I was still doing back summies off the edge of the pool... it was really good to stay flexible. Unfortunately, my joints and lungs did not care how flexible my muscles were until finally... making the 15 step trip down the hall to the bathroom seemed like 10 miles. I needed help to get up and down on the couch.. and literally would cry rather than get up and get a glass of water.. Everything just hurt.... and.. when the going gets tough.. the tough take drugs! Pain killers, benzodiazapines... plus amatryptline and neurontin for the neuropathy. Drugs for hyperlipidemia.. anxiety.. pain.. diabetes.... rx's over and over for lung infections.. skin infections.. and for the nasty little infections that the antibiotics give ya. Talk about confusion....
For the life of me.. I couldn't figure out why I kept gaining. I would go into my doctor's office... still starved from eating nothing but salad for two weeks, and see I only lost one pound! My sugars were running between 250 - 500.. and I couldn't get a decent A1c if my life depended on it (which it did). I tried eating just veggies.. fruits.. all the "sensible" stuff I was taught. I was totally freaking.. and ps.... uncontrolled sugars messes with your ability to control emotion as well! My doc really did believe me.. he knows I have no reason to lie. Hell.. he could hear my stomache grumbling in hunger. He was just as stumped as I was and just kept upping the glucophage and avandia until finally he told me I had no choice but to see the endocrinologist because I was just a heart attack waiting to happen. The endo put me on insulin. He started me with Novolog and Lantus then added Symlin. Rediculous... I gained another 40 lbs without blinking.
In the interim, I had given up a lucrative business that I had built with my bare hands over 10 years. So let's add the guilt of telling employees that I was shutting down and they were out of jobs to all of this other nonsense and scrambling to find jobs with my competitors (who didn't pay as well unfortunately).. This is the saddest thing of all. Everyone who ever worked for me was like my own child........ 
We had fun.. but we got the job done and we all reaped the benefits. Very sad..
Ok... so I moved to SC to the closest thing to heaven on earth I've ever seen. I live in the middle of 5 wooded acres and it's just.. peaceful. In the morning I would struggle to get out to the front porch so I could hear the sounds of the animals in nearby fields, but could never get down the 500' driveway to see them. I really wanted to... I really wanted to walk through the woods, and cut firewood.. and stroll down the sunny, country road... but instead all I could do was sit on the couch and wait to die.
Well... I think that sometimes.. the only way to come up is if you hit bottom.. and baby, I was at my bottom.. and my BOTTOM was holding me down big time!
I started researching WLS while checking out pancreatic disorders, insulin resistance. etc. All of the "sensible" things didn't make sense anymore.. at ALL!
I checked out NutriSystem for diabetics and did that for 2 weeks. I gained 11 lbs. So then I went low fat. I took off 28 lbs, was starving all the time.. my blood sugar was still out of control and by the end of September I had started to gain again.
I don't know what got into me.... but on October 1, 2007, I decided I wasn't going to take another shot of insulin, but I was also not going to eat another food which would cause an insulin response. I had my daughter go pick me up an Atkins book.. and combined with other information.... I started doing the do.
Today I'm down 85 lbs from where I started in August... 100 from my worst weight.. but here's the fun part.... My A1c has been better and better for the last 2 checks. Last time it was within target for a diabetic. 6.7! NO MEDS! My doctor says my lungs sound better and although my lung capacity was at 72% when I had it checked in July.. it HAS to be better now. I MOVE.. I take in AIR. The nerve damage.. well.. that's not going to go away, but the pain is nothing like it was. The joints still ache, but I imagine that carrying all that weight on it for so long has taking it's toll. Bayer aspirin is my best friend.. not the pharmacist.
I work out 5 - 6 days a week at the gym. I have a trainer 3 x a week. I walk down my driveway to watch the baby goats play in the field whenever my little heart (and I hope it's smaller now) desires! I walk through the woods, and jog down the steps to get to the wood pile and start by swinging the axe.. then carrying .. CARRYING wood to the garage and using the splitter.... then CARRYING the huge baskets of wood around the house and UP the steps to the wood ring on the porch. I know this may not seem like a lot.. .but to me... .it's FREEDOM! I might decide to go through the property with the leaf blower.. or till out a new patch.. or plant some tulips.. whatever it is.. it's up to ME now!
I not only look out into my yard.. but I drop to my knees in the dirt to plant.. and while I'm there it's always a good idea to give thanks to the one who made this all possible... Our Lord.. Amen! He has never left me.... I guess I just wasn't listening as usual!
It's possible folks..... I never thought I'd be this free.. and I'm not where I want to be yet, but I'll get there
WE CAN ALL GET THERE! Especially when we pull each other up that hill and I do thank God for leading me here to OH and the people that frequent the non-surgical forum. (Shout out: HEY GUYS!)
God bless you all!
