First, a little background. I've never been a gym rat kind of guy, even back when I was playing sports in school and college. The only times I've ever exercised regularly was when someone was yelling at me.
A number of years ago, I was on some medications for a few years that had among the primary side effects increased appetite, weight gain, and increased appetite plus weight gain. Yes, they doubled it up on me! Well, combined with my already not-so-healthy lifestyle, I ended up gaining quite a bit of weight. Even after changing medications, my weight kept slowly creeping up. Throughout this time, though, my physicals and blood work always came back great. Despite my weight - which every physician repeatedly stated I needed to address - I was surprisingly healthy. And I kept on kicking that can down the road, thinking I had plenty of time to get back into shape someday down the road...
In January, though, that changed.
During a routine visit - less than a year after my previous physical where everything was okay - I must have mentioned something that caught my primary care physician's attention and he asked to do some blood work just to double-check some things. And, as it turned out, my A1C was over 10% and I was a full-blown diabetic. I was prescribed some medications and advised to make some changes in my diet. And, for the first time in years, I had no choice but to get my posterior in motion on this matter...
Today, I had my follow-up appointment.
I was excited - because I knew I had made some good strides - but also apprehensive, of course. I already knew that my weight had dropped to lower than it had been in quite some time. Today, the nurse informed me that my weight was lower than it had ever been measured by them - which is over a decade!
Additionally, my A1C has dropped to only 5.4%!!!
My prognostication has gone from having full-blown diabetes, needing to make drastic changes, and it being something we're very concerned about to, "I'm never going to say that you no longer have diabetes but you just need to keep doing what you're doing and it won't be something we have to worry about"...
A number of years ago, I was on some medications for a few years that had among the primary side effects increased appetite, weight gain, and increased appetite plus weight gain. Yes, they doubled it up on me!
Well, combined with my already not-so-healthy lifestyle, I ended up gaining quite a bit of weight. Even after changing medications, my weight kept slowly creeping up. Throughout this time, though, my physicals and blood work always came back great. Despite my weight - which every physician repeatedly stated I needed to address - I was surprisingly healthy. And I kept on kicking that can down the road, thinking I had plenty of time to get back into shape someday down the road...In January, though, that changed.
During a routine visit - less than a year after my previous physical where everything was okay - I must have mentioned something that caught my primary care physician's attention and he asked to do some blood work just to double-check some things. And, as it turned out, my A1C was over 10% and I was a full-blown diabetic. I was prescribed some medications and advised to make some changes in my diet. And, for the first time in years, I had no choice but to get my posterior in motion on this matter...
Today, I had my follow-up appointment.
I was excited - because I knew I had made some good strides - but also apprehensive, of course. I already knew that my weight had dropped to lower than it had been in quite some time. Today, the nurse informed me that my weight was lower than it had ever been measured by them - which is over a decade!
Additionally, my A1C has dropped to only 5.4%!!!
My prognostication has gone from having full-blown diabetes, needing to make drastic changes, and it being something we're very concerned about to, "I'm never going to say that you no longer have diabetes but you just need to keep doing what you're doing and it won't be something we have to worry about"...
