Changing the status quo

Wasting time

Except for the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl (Hooray!), life has been status quo.  In other words, I’m still fat and haven’t done anything about it.  I haven’t done anything about it that matters or has made a difference.  I think about my weight and health every day, practically all day.  Unable or unwilling to do anything about it, I watch another day go by.  Thinking without action is about the sum of it.

New High

Recently, I set a new personal high weight at 396 lbs.  After having weighed in the high 380’s for some time, I had become somewhat accustomed to carrying around the weight.  It never ceases to amaze me how adding just five to ten more pounds can seem crippling.  Standing hurts.  Walking more than thirty to fifty feet at a time really hurts.  Forget the gasping for air, my back screams for me to sit or lean against something immediately or suffer the consequence of dropping to the ground if I take one more step.  This new high is really a new low.  

Diabetes Specialist

My primary physician referred me to an Endocrinologist aka Diabetes Specialist.  When I heard the news I was skeptical, but went along with it.  My appointment was last week. Basically, I told him I knew what to do, but it’s the “doing it” that is the hard part.  He was nice, understanding, but firm.  We both agreed that if I ate better, my blood sugars would be lower.  We also agreed that if I cooked or ate at home, it would be better that eating out or living off of take-out.  This goes along with what I said about knowing what to do, just not doing it.  He took me off of a couple of medications (Actos and Glyburide), left me on others and prescribed fast acting insulin.  I had previously been instructed to take the slow acting insulin (Lantus) at night and keep increasing the dosage by 2 units every three days if my morning blood sugar readings were not lower than 120.  I was up to 44 units (should have been higher, but I didn’t always raise it on time).  He told me to only take 35 units at night from now on.  In addition, I am to take 8 units of the fast acting insulin before each meal whenever I dine out.  If I eat at home, I am not to take any insulin. This assumes that if I cook, my meals are lower in fat and carbs than if I were to eat McDonalds. We’ll know after a couple of weeks of readings, if this is the case.  I am still waiting for the mail order pharmacy to send the new insulin, so I haven’t started following these instructions yet.  The doctor understood that it was not realistic that I would walk out of his office and immediately start cooking and eating at home for all meals.  I want to; I wish I would, but …..   Anyhow, he asked me (actually wrote in the patient instructions) to just start with my lunches.  He wants me to make my own lunch most days of the week and then we can work on dinners.  I am supposed to send him my readings after a couple of weeks and he’ll adjust the prescriptions and/or instructions if necessary and then a follow-up appointment in three months.

Colonoscopy

No, I am not having colonoscopy, my husband is.  He goes in this Wednesday, and has started doing a two day prep.  This means that starting this morning, he is only allowed to have liquids.  He had a colonoscopy last month.  They found a couple of benign polyps but determined a better prep was needed in order for a better view (last time, he was only off foods for one day).  For close to a year now (after he returned from India), he has been having some intestinal problems of which the cause is yet to be determined.  I won’t describe the symptoms of which there are a few.  I will say that he has been very uncomfortable for quite some time.  The colonoscopy is more to rule out things rather than find the cause.  Not sure what the next steps will be, but hopefully something can be done soon.  While he is basically fasting for the next two and half days, I need to fend for myself.  

Another Attempt

I hate to say I am making a new start, because when am I not trying to start or make a change that will hopefully snowball to where I am eating and living a healthier lifestyle day by day?  However, I have hopes that this week will be different than last week or the week before that.  This week, I have a rough meal plan put together for this week.  I have the meal plan; the food is in the house, now I have to follow through.  I suck at the follow-through.  I really do.  That being said, I am somewhat optimistic.  

Have a great week.  Talk with you soon.