My wife has Type 1 diabetes ad never had Type 2. She was taken seriously ill 14 years ago aged 47 and was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with Type 1 and straight on to insulin. Living with and sharing my life with wife and her diabetes I found it very annoying to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 3 years ago having followed her good diet and a regular exercise routine.
I've brought this up here before, as far as I'm concerned I have diabetes I am not a diabetic.
I was annoyed and angry to be diagnosed with type 2, as I live with my wifes diabetes regime I was completely P------ off. I was even more angry with my doctors and diabetes nurses who suggested trying diet control for a month and then going back for tablet prescription.
Diabetes can have extreme affects on us all, I refused to accept medication. This may sound dangerous to some, but my choice was to take EXTREME action myself. All though I was already on a low sugar diet, I removed all sweet things from my diet. All Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate etc were instantly removed from my eating regime. Bread intake cut to a minimal amount along with tiny amounts of rice and pasta with meals. I went on to a small unsweetened cereal breakfast with skimmed milk and only one coffee a day, totally vegetarian salad lunches with a little dressing with chilli, my evening meals went to very minimal carbs, minimal amounts of meat and plenty of chilli/curry with mainly vegetables. I never went back to the doctors for some months, I cut out as much as possible that could send sugar levels soaring and upped my exercise routine a bit.
Back with the docs after a few months, my blood glucose tests came back just a tad above borderline normal and my BMI had gone from 28/29 to 25 and now around 23, although a little annoyed with me the medico's gave me a few more months on my own EXTREME action, which the doctor judged as a healthy diet. My blood tests then came back as normal. I have a blood glucose monitor and have been advised to test now and again and still I have normal non diabetes results.
The medico's tell me that tests confirmed me as having diabetes and that diagnosis stands for ever. Home made curry's and chilli laced meals without the fats and gee stem my appetite. My food intake is minimal but enough to keep me healthy. Green Teas and the one Coffee with milk a day and lots of water to drink have worked for me.
At first in the first few weeks my stomach screamed with hunger and what I did was extreme but controlled and carefully researched, I don't need type 2 tablets and I'm fit and healthy, I get offered the odd biscuit or piece of cake and even the odd sweet and I never eat them. My intake of those sort of foods was mot much before. It may be extreme to cut them out all together, but I'm not taking medication and my blood glucose level reads normal again today. I'm lighter than I was aged 16 and no longer have knee and leg problems.
I look at Diabetes as something that could have an extreme affect on my life, so far I've taken extreme action against it and 3 years on and I'm ok. Sitting in our local hospital whilst my wife has her routine eye checks and a string of diabetes patients are laughing as they buy chocolate bars and crisps from the trolley with little laughs and chuckles and a bunch of "we're not mean to eat these, ho ho, ha ha, hee hee" comments leaves me wondering, Seeing an overweight new amputee tucking in to a large Mars bar with her poor daughter giving a helpless look and a shake of her head as her mum devours her "only treat" as she waits for retinopathy treatment makes me shudder.
I may still end up on type 2 tablets or insulin in time, but Diabetes has a FIGHT on its hands all the way in this corner. And I'll continue too treat the extreme possibilities with extreme.
DKA for 3 days - but I learned a big lesson there - that you can't play around with your health.
