Diaversary: Celebrating the Best Bad News of My Life

Yesterday was my one-year diaversary, and how did I celebrate?  With cake!  Yummy, sugary, properly-bolused cake!

Chad was awesome.  I was feeling crumby from an earlier low BG and I tried extra hard to look all pathetic and tired and pregnant on the couch while I said I should eat cake for my diaversary.  So Chad went to the nearest market with a bakery and brought back both red velvet and carrot cake!

They're individual slices of cake, but still just huge!  I bolused (generously!), made marks in the icing to indicate how much I would eat so I wouldn't get carried away, and thoroughly enjoyed my treat.  Chad had some of what I didn't eat and we still had plenty of cake leftover.  That's how big these stupid (but tasty) slices of cake were!  Supposedly two servings, but really more like 4.

And this was a little celebration, as far as I'm concerned.  We weren't celebrating diabetes, we were celebrating the diagnosis and the fact that the disease is about as under control now as it could possibly be.  (But let's not fool ourselves. There's no such thing as 100% control when it comes the the big D.)  One year ago, I got the best bad news of my entire life.

My blood sugar behaved with the cake, and I went to bed feeling pretty much OK about life.  Yeah.  Life is pretty good.

Victory!

Less than six months after diagnosis, I had another appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday…  And it was full of awesome!

It addressed a lot of things that have been frustrating me since my diagnosis.  The most obvious issue is wanting to be healthy and have my blood glucose under good control, and I found out that my A1c has come down to 6.1!!!  That’s down from 13.4 when I was diagnosed!!!

*happy A1c dance*

Another huge issue for me is being in control of my own health... and I don’t necessarily mean “in control of my health despite diabetes.”  I mean something more along the lines of, “In control despite the fact that my life now contains a menagerie of medical professionals telling me what to do.”  I am so glad those medical professionals are there, and I know I could not have gotten so under control so quickly as I did if I hadn’t followed their instructions to the letter, but I couldn’t help but feel that they were in control of my health... and sometimes, I was waiting and waiting for confirmation on a change that I already knew I needed.  So I thought, once and for all, that I was going to ask my endo for official sanction to make adjustments to my treatment myself.  I went armed with a bookmarked copy of Pumping Insulin and lots of explanation as to why I could safely and effectively make my own decisions.  When she asked if I was still working with my CDE, this gave me the opportunity to explain that I was still working with her, but I wanted some more freedom to make my own changes.

“Oh yes, absolutely!”

Oh.  OK.  That was easy!

She gave me some guidelines for making decisions, told me I can fax her numbers anytime I need help, and said she was completely comfortable with me making these decisions.

*happy victory dance*

And another biggie…  Something I was sure I wouldn’t hear her say considering the numbers I was showing her included two highs over 200 and one bad low of 43 this past week…  She told me that it’s safe enough for me to go ahead and start trying for a baby whenever my husband and I decide to!!!  (She understood that last week was a weird one for me, and said, "With type 1, it's never going to be perfect.")

*happy baby dance*

I feel like I’ve reached important goals and blown hurdles right out of my path.  Life is good, and I believe I have the ability to shape my future the way I see fit instead of around my disease.

Things can't be all doom and gloom!

I have in my hands a wonderful, wonderful thing.


Lab results... Showing my cholesterol significantly improved!

You can't imagine the relief this brings... And the motivation to start taking an active roll in improving my cholesterol!  When my results were so terrible and my GP doctor was telling me that she's never known a diabetic who could get their cholesterol to the levels where they really needed to be on their own, I felt helpless.  Fine, nothing I can do will fix this.  Just give me more medicine, and then more medicine (hormonal birth control) because of that medicine, and then I'll take more insulin because of that medicine!!!  Just whip up a medical cocktail in my bloodstream and kill every delusion I have about control over my body and fate...

But not now!  Bringing down my blood sugar alone brought me to an "OK" level, according to my endo: 170 (down from 238) overall.  My lab results say that below 100 is desirable for diabetics.  I don't know a whole lot about cholesterol, but it doesn't seem unreasonable that I might be able to achieve that through improved diet and exercise.  My GP also said that she wants my HDL ("good" cholesterol) up to at least 70, and it's already improved from 36 to 60.  Again, by replacing bad fats with good fats and getting my self-pitying butt off the couch?  I think I might be able to get to 70!!!

Maybe I'll need cholesterol meds some day, but I don't think today is that day.  Now that my numbers are "OK," I don't feel like my heart is a ticking time bomb anymore.  I just feel like someone who needs to eat better and exercise... which was true before any of this ever came to light.

My current plan:

• Exercise at least 2 times a week, preferably 3... Even if it's just a walk around the block, DO IT!
• Do a better job of avoiding trans fats and excess saturated fat. (Please ignore the Burger King chicken sandwich wrapper on the coffee table!  That... that was for my cat!  I swear!)
• Lose 10 pounds.  Not only does weight loss improve cholesterol, but 10 pounds would put me back into the range where I just feel better!

Now, I'm going to go get dressed for yoga class!!!