This week I have been diagnosed as type 2 diabetic. This wasn’t altogether a surprise as I’ll explain in a moment but was something of a slap all the same.
About four years ago I went to my GP for an MOT. I’d not been feeling wonderful so went in to get a checkover. The results came back that my “blood sugars” were too high. Fast forward three months for another check and they’d shot up to the point where I was borderline diabetic. Being proactive the GP referred me to our excellent diabetic team (as clearly something wasn’t working as it should) and I was put on 1000mg metformin then and there, to stave off what seem to be the inevitable, for a while at least.
I’ve been classed as pre-diabetic ever since. The meformin did reduce my levels and I’ve bounced along that way ever since.
Back in July my review came back with a significantly higher result than hoped for. My levels had jumped up. My HbA1c levels, for those in the know, had jumped from 45mmol/mol to 55 mmol/mol. Where 42 mmol/mol and under is considered normal and 42-47 mmol/mol is pre-diabetic, 48 mmol/mol is classed as diabetic. 55 mmol/mol is considered diabetic and not good.
Three months on I was retested and yesterday went to see my diabetic nurse who confirmed that while my levels had dropped to 51 mmol/mol from 55 mmol/mol I was now classed as type 2 and so additional management and support was put in place.
I was a bit upset to be honest! I eat incredibly healthily, am active and take care of myself. Despite this, my body has decided to rebel. It was always something that could happen; there’s a family history of diabetes, I have PCOS and had wildly unmanageable, despite frequent testing and injecting gestational diabetes during my last pregnancy. Still, a kick in the pants.
I’m not being maudlin about it, it is what it is and I knew it was coming. My health team are quite frankly awesome, and know the lifestyle I lead is (or should be) helping so at least I’m already doing the right things. So for now it’s in for a battery of check-ups and additional testing then hope my new regime helps to manage the diabetes better. Injections are “coming” at some point apparently however for now I’m hoping that the new medication levels and what not, when tweaked, will do the job.
It’s not ideal. It’s not great. I’d rather I hadn’t tipped over however I have and now that I’ve stomped around, called my pancreas an arsehole a few times and bemoaned the fact that despite my best efforts my body has other plans I’m now ready to forge on, do what needs to be done and get on with things.
My body really can be an arsehole sometimes……
For years I’ve been waffling on about needing to exercise me. I’ve power walked, done step aerobics, water aerobics (that nearly finished me off) and followed fitness DVDs from Spice Girl get fit to a very cheesy Zumba video. Predictably it didn’t take me long to fall off the wagon.