Thursday 11 December 2014

Diabeatnik or not?

I'm quite open about my medical stuff and have even blogged about a small jar of wee I had to take to the doctor's while still warm (I included a photo!). I've felt very gratified when people have left comments thanking me for sharing experiences that they're experiencing or about to experience. I blogged extensively when I discovered by accident that I was diabetic (or diabeatnik as I prefer) in 2006.

This year has been quite awful but I've kept quiet until I knew what was happening. For five months I lived under the cloud of possibly having a brain tumour and went along to the hospital for MRI scans and found out a few weeks ago that I don't have a tumour. Phew!

But today was rather momentous.

Because I live in a country with an excellent health service then I get six monthly consultations with my doctors about my diabetes. I get blood tests and they analyse them and adjust my medication accordingly. I went along this morning expecting to be told off for being bad as usual. That always happens and I brace myself for it. But it didn't happen today. O no.

My latest blood tests indicate that my blood glucose level is 39 in international parlance or 5.7 in UK measurement. The threshold for being diabetic is 6 - if you're 6 you're at risk and if you're 7 you're diabetic and I am 5.7. On that basis, I'm not a diabeatnik! As a result the doctor has reduced my medication which is a good thing.

Of course, the reality is that I am still diabetic - I'll probably need a few readings under 6 before I can really be considered as having controlled my diabetes but it's incredibly positive and shows that it can be done. I need to make sure that my next blood tests keep me under the 6 mark and that's going to be a challenge over Christmas and the winter but I'm going to try.

The message I take from this is that it's possible to control diabetes by diet and exercise and I seem to have done that, at least for this set of blood tests. I'm astonished, but it's happened to me so it might happen to you. Give it a go.

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