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I run into more and more folks who, like myself, are diabetic. And to me, it sure seems that this disease is affecting more people than I can ever remember as I look back at my youth (I'm currently 63).
The thing that often moves my heart to the brink of envy, is when I find someone who is diabetic, and only using Metformin.
And, what's even more mind blowing to me is that these folks don't follow a tight, or, even close to tight diet. They don't exercise. They eat everything they want and crave, while I've either had to give those things up, completely, or, eat in moderation. Some even continue to use alcohol. "Lucky !!!"
And here stands I... a person diagnosed in 1995 with T-2. I went to the classes. Took out subscriptions to Diabetic magazines. Followed the diet quite closely. I never drank, so I didn't have to give that up. And, due to an injury and the rapid progression of degenerative disc disease, I need an emergency Decompression and Laminectomy surgery in 1991, with a fusion of L-2 through S-1, and hardware attached and still in place. Because of my DDD and surgery, I was already exercising 3 to 4 days a week, for about 90 minutes a day. And my diagnoses with diabetes, caused me to add 2 more days a week to my exercise regimen.
Like those who I run into with diabetes, I too, started out on Metformin, added Glypizide, and in 1999, insulin was added. Today, I remain on a smaller dose of Metformin, regular doses of Novolog (prior to meals) and Lantus at bedtime. I exercise no less than 50 minutes a day, 6 days a week.
The problem is, I also have neuropathy, which was diagnosed in
1998, and it is rapidly progressing from my feet, ankles and calves to my hands.
For the last five years, my kidneys have regressed to stage 3 renal failure, and I fight blood pressure, triglycerides, etc.
So, when I run into these folks who "take only Metformin" and eat what they want, and the only exercise they get is walking to the kitchen numerous times each night for snacks, and going to restaurants and eating whatsoever their little hearts desire, drives me crazy, pushing me toward the brink of medical envy.
You don't know how many times a week I run into these people and just wish I could have their body.
You'll never know how many times I cry out to God, telling Him that this just isn't fair, but, it is, what it is, and there's nothing I can do to change the hand I've been dealt in life.
This disease is much like a tornado that bears down with every bit of power it can muster up, destroying almost everything in its path.
Having spent 6 years in the mid-West, I became a student of tornadoes out of necessity and the drive to survive when those sirens went off. There was one thing that never ceased to amaze me when I surveyed the destruction of a tornado, and it was how that twister could touch down here and not there. With its indiscriminate funnel, I was amazed to see how that twister would take a house over there, but, leave one untouched right next to it. The ability of a tornado to hit, skip and miss was an anomaly of nature.
In a way, Diabetes is something like a tornado. It comes into our lives, bearing down and delivering to some of us more medical issues and problems than it does others, who have the same disease.
I guess this is the nature of this monstrous disease. And while it would be easy to be angry and filled with envy when I come across someone who is only taking Metformin, sometimes for 10 to 20 years, I must remain thankful for the fact that as bad as my diabetes is, and the subsequent physical consequences are, there are others worse off than me. And, for that, I remain thankful.
This disease, like any other disease to our human bodies, are subject to the indiscriminate impact it has one each individual. For instance, Cancer will kill one, and another can be healed from the very same cancer.
Diabetes is going to have a more devastating impact on some us, than it has on others. As my wife says to me when I dwell too long on a negative thought, or, issue, "Get over it, and move on!"
Shalom,
Pastor Paul
The thing that often moves my heart to the brink of envy, is when I find someone who is diabetic, and only using Metformin.
And, what's even more mind blowing to me is that these folks don't follow a tight, or, even close to tight diet. They don't exercise. They eat everything they want and crave, while I've either had to give those things up, completely, or, eat in moderation. Some even continue to use alcohol. "Lucky !!!"
And here stands I... a person diagnosed in 1995 with T-2. I went to the classes. Took out subscriptions to Diabetic magazines. Followed the diet quite closely. I never drank, so I didn't have to give that up. And, due to an injury and the rapid progression of degenerative disc disease, I need an emergency Decompression and Laminectomy surgery in 1991, with a fusion of L-2 through S-1, and hardware attached and still in place. Because of my DDD and surgery, I was already exercising 3 to 4 days a week, for about 90 minutes a day. And my diagnoses with diabetes, caused me to add 2 more days a week to my exercise regimen.
Like those who I run into with diabetes, I too, started out on Metformin, added Glypizide, and in 1999, insulin was added. Today, I remain on a smaller dose of Metformin, regular doses of Novolog (prior to meals) and Lantus at bedtime. I exercise no less than 50 minutes a day, 6 days a week.
The problem is, I also have neuropathy, which was diagnosed in
1998, and it is rapidly progressing from my feet, ankles and calves to my hands.
For the last five years, my kidneys have regressed to stage 3 renal failure, and I fight blood pressure, triglycerides, etc.
So, when I run into these folks who "take only Metformin" and eat what they want, and the only exercise they get is walking to the kitchen numerous times each night for snacks, and going to restaurants and eating whatsoever their little hearts desire, drives me crazy, pushing me toward the brink of medical envy.
You don't know how many times a week I run into these people and just wish I could have their body.
You'll never know how many times I cry out to God, telling Him that this just isn't fair, but, it is, what it is, and there's nothing I can do to change the hand I've been dealt in life.
This disease is much like a tornado that bears down with every bit of power it can muster up, destroying almost everything in its path.
Having spent 6 years in the mid-West, I became a student of tornadoes out of necessity and the drive to survive when those sirens went off. There was one thing that never ceased to amaze me when I surveyed the destruction of a tornado, and it was how that twister could touch down here and not there. With its indiscriminate funnel, I was amazed to see how that twister would take a house over there, but, leave one untouched right next to it. The ability of a tornado to hit, skip and miss was an anomaly of nature.
In a way, Diabetes is something like a tornado. It comes into our lives, bearing down and delivering to some of us more medical issues and problems than it does others, who have the same disease.
I guess this is the nature of this monstrous disease. And while it would be easy to be angry and filled with envy when I come across someone who is only taking Metformin, sometimes for 10 to 20 years, I must remain thankful for the fact that as bad as my diabetes is, and the subsequent physical consequences are, there are others worse off than me. And, for that, I remain thankful.
This disease, like any other disease to our human bodies, are subject to the indiscriminate impact it has one each individual. For instance, Cancer will kill one, and another can be healed from the very same cancer.
Diabetes is going to have a more devastating impact on some us, than it has on others. As my wife says to me when I dwell too long on a negative thought, or, issue, "Get over it, and move on!"
Shalom,
Pastor Paul