Stick Me and Poke Me and Everything is Fine

This month was major health check up month for me. On October 1, I went to get all my major blood tests done and a couple weeks later I had my second diabetic eye exam. Several days after that, I went back for a diabetic foot exam.

Good news on the A1c front.
I get the test done every three months. And over the past year, I’ve been watching it creep slowly up and up and up until I put the breaks on when I reached 6.8. That’s when I said ok…enough is enough. Time to do what’s right and this number back where it belonged.

So beginning in July, I really began watching what I put in my mouth again, and I stepped up my testing, because I was bound and determined to see this number do an about face. I cut down on the fried and starchy foods and vegetables. And that wasn’t easy cause it was hard to give up my french fries and fried chicken, and breaded shrimp and specialty breads. I upped my portions of all kinds of green vegetables. And I started eating more fruit.

I was so diligent, that when my October appointment rolled around, I was kinda excited to go and see what my A1c would be and thank goodness they can give you immediate results. The good news is that it did go down. The sobering news is that it didn’t go down as much as I would have liked, but I got it down to 6.6%. And that’s still good since the American Diabetes Association recommends an A1C of less than 7%. Another group of experts, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), recommends an even lower A1C of 6.5% or less.

So although I’m only .5% away from the AACE recommendation, I’ve been much lower and if I remain diligent, I know I can get it back under 6%. 

Wow...if we all posted this on our refrigerator door...would the mere sight of what fatty food are doing to us be enough to rethink our food choices?

Other blood tests came back normal as well.

Along with my A1C, he also ordered a creatine test to check my kidney functionality. In addition, he did blood tests to check all the stuff that goes along with cholesterol levels. They all came back as vastly improved and except for my triglycerides which was only 6 points above where it should be, everything came back normal.

Whoo hoo!

When it came to my eyes, everything checked out A-OK.
That was good news because one of the biggest threats to a diabetic’s eye sight is diabetic retinopathy. If you don’t take care of your blood sugar levels, it can damage the blood vessels of light sensative tissue at the back of the eye — your retina. According to the National Eye Institute, up to 45% of adults with diabetes have some degree of retinopathy, which is the leading cause of blindess in the U.S.

Well I had good news on this front too. Absolutely no diabetic damage. The doctor is concerned about some thinning that he’s seen in my retina. However, he first said that two years ago and so far, he says, it hasn’t gotten any worse. But if I start seeing floaters or blind spots, that could be cause for concern, I’m supposed to contact him immediately if that ever happens. Other than that, see him next year for my annual diabetic eye exam.

I need somebody to high five cause I got yet another clean bill of diabetic health.

No they're not mine!

A few days later, my foot examine turned up no diabetic problems either.

 However, this summer I almost did myself in cause I’ve gained so much weight, I could not comfortably fit not one shoe in my closet. Then for some reason, my right foot started swelling up and that just made my shoe situation worse. So I started wearing thong sandals to work cause it’s the only thing in my closet that I could get my foot in. One day, I tried to squeeze my foot into a shoe and ended up at Kohl’s department store on my lunch hour looking for a pair of shoes to buy. All they had were mediums, so I ended up in high-heeled thong sandals that I wore for about six weeks before both of my big toes went numb. Then I went and found some opened-toe sandals at Walgreens for $5 that I wore for the rest of the summer. But my toes were still giving me all kinds of problems…so much so that I thought maybe I was starting to show the first signs of neuropathy.

Bummer.

But by the time I went to the doctor for my normal checkup, all the feeling had returned to my toes and all seemed back to normal with my feet. I told him about my toe woes and as he poked around, he also put his stethoscope on my feet and listened to my pulse. He decided that I still had very good circulation in my feet but was all to quick to think I had the start of neuropathy in my toes.

Now, I’ma tell you I’m not willing to concede that yet. Don’t care what he says. Why? Because although I’ve been diabetic for about seven years, my blood sugar levels have never been wildly out of control for prolonged periods of time. In fact, only once within a six- month period have I ever seen it crazy high and once I knew that, I got my A1C down from 10% to 5.2% in only three months, and its taken me five years to let it get as high as 6.8% and now back down to 6.6%

Plus, the numbness in my toes didn’t start until I put on those dang HIGH-HEELED thong sandals. And after I stopped wearing them for a while, all the feeling came back. So while 80% of people who’ve had diabetes as long as I have may have neuropathy in their feet to some degree, I just don’t think I’m one of them…yet.

However, I did schedule an appointment to have a diabetic foot exam to be administered by a qualified podiatrist later in the month. He also did quite a quite a bit of squeezing, poking and prodding and decided that I had “tight feet,” and needed $30 arch supports, which he wrote a prescription for. He also took his thumbs and pressed them really hard into a spot right behind my ankles. He wanted to know if the pain was localized or radiated up into my legs and down into my feet. Nope. That was good he said.

When I asked him about possible neuropathy as my primary care physician had suggested, he too decided that was a possiblity. However, he never gave a definitive answer. So from that, since I don’t have any overt signs, I’m still convinced I don’t have it yet. Tight feet? OK. Falling arches? Sure. A big ole bunion on the top of the big toe on my right foot? Yep I do. But Neuropathy? Nope.

But from here on out, believe you me, I’m definitely going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t EVER become a diabetic complications statistic. And if it does happen, it sure won’t be because I did something to contribute to making it happen. Not if I can help it…that’s for sure. Because as my doctor said, “Every day counts,” and I know I can make it so.