Week Ending 6/14

Hey, it's me...

Another week gone by. A week of good days and bad days. A week of learning new things. Let's talk about that...

I've mentioned before that I have type-2 diabetes. My blood sugar hovers just over the line of what is called "pre-diabetes" which means it's higher than my doctors, or I, would like but it's not dangerously high. I've managed to keep it there by doing the "small" things like cutting out candy and soda and sugary good, managing the size of my meals, etc. That's kept it steady, but not brought it down. I finally decided that I wanted to try out some medication for it. Partly, to improve my blood sugar and partly, I must admit, to allow myself to feel that I could maybe eat the occasional donut or slice of cake without guilt. 

The new medication takes some time for my body to adjust to. The initial side effects were not fun, including basically knocking me out within an hour of taking the pills. However, after a couple of days, my body did adjust and I was able to take it and feel ok. The side effects are now minimal (knock on wood). At the doctors recommendation, I am slowly building up the dosage to the minimal recommended levels. 

As part of this whole journey, the doctor got me a prescription for the means to test my blood sugar. I'm not testing after every meal, because I don't actually need to monitor it that closely. It's really just for my own curiosity and reference at this point. So, me being me, for the past two weeks I've been testing every day in the morning before I eat and recording the results. 

At first, I felt encouraged but as things remain stable just above that pre-diabetes line, I've found myself getting frustrated. It wasn't improving. The numbers would dip down for a day and then shoot back up and stay up for days. I found myself wondering what the point was... which was when I realized that this is like trying to lose weight. If you monitor your weight every day, you're going to get frustrated. You're going to lose 3 pounds on Monday and then gain 6 on Wednesday. You're going to wonder why you bother putting yourself through all this and you're going to want to give up.

The solution is not to give up. The solution is to stop obsessively watching the numbers. Big changes in complex systems take time. Just do the work. Setbacks happen. Just keep going, doing your best... because that's all you can do.

... and this turned into a life lesson about all kinds of things without me intending it to. 

So, I'm going to end on a note that makes me look smart. :)

Onward