Over forty, Type 2 diabetic, BMI 41. Doesn't sound like a description of me, but it seems to be the most important information everyone is asking me now. I would have said spunky, supportive, lively and creative mom. But since I was diagnosed with diabetes over a year ago, it has played a huge part in my life. When I was diagnosed my Hemaglobin A1C was 13.4 - that's a three month measurement of your blood sugar, and normal is 7.0 or lower. I was a pretty sick girl. I listened, learned, read, and came up with my plan to get my blood sugar under control. And now 14 months later my HgA1C is 6.8! Great, right? My doctors sure think so, and I've worked hard to get it there, but it's not enough. My weight has gone up (common with the diabetic medication I'm taking) and that makes my blood sugar highs and lows more erratic. So while I'm good at keeping them from getting too high, I occasionally "bottom out". Most of the time that means I get very tired, sweaty, and irritable. If it's a bad one I also get shaky, confused, and feel all over awful. The lighter version happens once or twice a week. Usually after a lot of physical activity or about 2 hours after I get majorly stressed. Stress elevates blood sugar all on it's own - and the first thing diabetics learn is that the higher yours goes up, the further it's going to go down.
So after being overweight most of my life, I'm considering bariatric surgery. Because apparently you can reverse Type II diabetes almost instantly when you get a gastric bypass, which I desperately want to do - and it will help me lose weight. And I'm going to blog about it, because I didn't see a lot of books or blogs out there about people going through this process. Maybe it will just keep me sane during what seems to be a crazy process. Or maybe somebody else will read this someday and it will help them in some way.
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