As games go, I don't recommend it. Type 2 diabetes sucks. And what angers me most is the constant criticism by the media that it's our fault. No. I don't think so. You have to have the genes for it and most people with weight problems do not become diabetic. Has it never entered anyone's head that the two things are linked? I've had a problem with my weight since I was a small (adopted) child, yet my parents and brother (also adopted) were thin. I didn't do that to myself. It was the early sixties, there was no fast food and I didn't have pocket money to go and buy sweeties. So how does a 2 year old end up overweight? My life has been a constant battle, trying to limit what I eat though nowadays, with the spiralling obesity crisis, I look pretty normal. But I'm still overweight. And now I have Type 2. Brilliant.
I was diagnosed on March 16th 2010, exactly 22 years to the day I passed my driving test. The fasting glucose test was inconclusive so the gp, determined I reckon to get a diagnosis, sent me for an oral glucose test. That was horrible. They wouldn't let me go and wait in my car so I sat and cried for 2 hours in their waiting room. And of course, I just hit the magic figure and my life was changed forever.
I have to add, at that time, I was having a horrible time with my boss at work. It started in January 2009 when a new person joined the team and suddenly I was the outsider. I'd been there for four years and enjoyed my job but then my boss started a campaign of being nasty to me and it took till March 2010 to realise that she was getting off on my distress. My husband and I coined a name for it. We called it "The Whipping Boy School of Management" and I had to realise that this wasn't about me; it was about her and her failings and her incompetence and she hated me because I was good at what I did and she (stupid woman, not fit to be a boss) was jealous. It was like living in a war zone and I no longer felt 'safe' at work. It lasted 15 months till I was diagnosed and decided my health had to come first so threw in the towel by resigning. At the end I did tell her about the diabetes as I wanted some annual leave at short notice to get my head around the situation, and to say she was non supportive would be putting it mildly. She said she didn't know anything about diabetes and I thought, my goodness woman, we work in a library, is it beyond your wit to pull a book off a shelf or put the word into a search engine? Obviously the answer was 'yes'. Next day, with me still struggling to function, she goaded me with a biscuit.... "Would you like one. Oh, no, of course, you can't, can you?" Hee Hee. And she did laugh. And then she proceeded to eat that biscuit in the most provocative manner, with a great deal of yum yumming and smacking of lips and I was stunned. I felt truly violent towards her. I remembered the UK schoolteacher who bashed the pupil over the head with a dumbell and thought, that could be me. I saw the gleeful smug look on her face and at that moment I realised. This is bullying and Audrey has advanced to the annihilation stage. It was time to get out.
So, for me, the diabetes and the bullying are inexorably linked. Whatever was my GP thinking of? He knew what was going on. I was having such a horrid time with Audrey that I'd been signed off with stress and anxiety, then depression, and still he went ahead with the diagnosis. Good news is, I have lost weight (no idea how much as I don't do scales; instruments of humiliation I call them. Anyway, you can tell all you need to from the size and tightness of your clothes) and my last HbA1c was 4.9. I've cut down on carbohydrates, I swim and I walk my dog and that's about it really. I know the carb thing isn't official advice but it doesn't make sense to eat them when I my body is struggling to metabolise blood sugars. The diabetic nurse does not agree but I can't see the point of sticking to the traditional food pyramid diet when that's what made me ill in the first place.
I was diagnosed on March 16th 2010, exactly 22 years to the day I passed my driving test. The fasting glucose test was inconclusive so the gp, determined I reckon to get a diagnosis, sent me for an oral glucose test. That was horrible. They wouldn't let me go and wait in my car so I sat and cried for 2 hours in their waiting room. And of course, I just hit the magic figure and my life was changed forever.
I have to add, at that time, I was having a horrible time with my boss at work. It started in January 2009 when a new person joined the team and suddenly I was the outsider. I'd been there for four years and enjoyed my job but then my boss started a campaign of being nasty to me and it took till March 2010 to realise that she was getting off on my distress. My husband and I coined a name for it. We called it "The Whipping Boy School of Management" and I had to realise that this wasn't about me; it was about her and her failings and her incompetence and she hated me because I was good at what I did and she (stupid woman, not fit to be a boss) was jealous. It was like living in a war zone and I no longer felt 'safe' at work. It lasted 15 months till I was diagnosed and decided my health had to come first so threw in the towel by resigning. At the end I did tell her about the diabetes as I wanted some annual leave at short notice to get my head around the situation, and to say she was non supportive would be putting it mildly. She said she didn't know anything about diabetes and I thought, my goodness woman, we work in a library, is it beyond your wit to pull a book off a shelf or put the word into a search engine? Obviously the answer was 'yes'. Next day, with me still struggling to function, she goaded me with a biscuit.... "Would you like one. Oh, no, of course, you can't, can you?" Hee Hee. And she did laugh. And then she proceeded to eat that biscuit in the most provocative manner, with a great deal of yum yumming and smacking of lips and I was stunned. I felt truly violent towards her. I remembered the UK schoolteacher who bashed the pupil over the head with a dumbell and thought, that could be me. I saw the gleeful smug look on her face and at that moment I realised. This is bullying and Audrey has advanced to the annihilation stage. It was time to get out.
So, for me, the diabetes and the bullying are inexorably linked. Whatever was my GP thinking of? He knew what was going on. I was having such a horrid time with Audrey that I'd been signed off with stress and anxiety, then depression, and still he went ahead with the diagnosis. Good news is, I have lost weight (no idea how much as I don't do scales; instruments of humiliation I call them. Anyway, you can tell all you need to from the size and tightness of your clothes) and my last HbA1c was 4.9. I've cut down on carbohydrates, I swim and I walk my dog and that's about it really. I know the carb thing isn't official advice but it doesn't make sense to eat them when I my body is struggling to metabolise blood sugars. The diabetic nurse does not agree but I can't see the point of sticking to the traditional food pyramid diet when that's what made me ill in the first place.
I enjoyed reading your post, I like your humor.
