I'm a diabetic?

I'm a 52-year-old single mother of three adult sons.  I work as an editor, spending most of my day attached to a computer keyboard in my home office.  Lately, I've been experiencing some rather strange symptoms.  My eyesight was changing (surely that's normal for my age, right?)  I was having issues with my legs, such as cramping and a restless feeling, among other things.  I didn't know whether to attribute everything to just age.  

I come from a long line of Type II diabetics.  My mother and all of her siblings are diabetic.  I had a sinking feeling that my symptoms might be the beginning of a pre-diabetic condition.  Was I ever wrong.  I had my mother test my fasting blood sugar with her supplies.  Nothing could have prepared me for the result:  450.  If you're not familiar with blood sugar numbers, normal is below 100.  Pre-diabetes is up to 125.  Seriously.

I went to my doctor and she sent me for labs.  My A1C numbers (an overall long-range predictor of diabetes) came back as a 14.  One is categorized as a pre-diabetic at 6.  My doctor had never seen a 14 in her entire career.  My lipids and cholesterol numbers were crazy out of whack.


I figured I'm screwed.  Since I am self-employed and have a history of cancer 30 years ago, health insurance is not a possibility.  The simple fact is:  I can't afford to have diabetes.   I have to fix it myself.


My doctor sent me home that day five weeks ago with instructions to make an appointment with an endocrinologist for investigation into new injections used for metabolic syndrome, to reduce caloric intake to 1200 calories per day with a low-carb diet, to test my blood sugar four times a day and my blood pressure twice a day.  She also recommended seeing a diabetes counselor (a suggestion I outright rejected).

Checking my blood sugar four times a day proved to be very educational.   I spent the last five weeks pricking my fingers for blood four times a day.  I recorded all of my numbers on a spreadsheet and kept track of all calories and carbs.  As the chart was filling with numbers, a clear pattern became apparent to me.  I began eliminating those foods that caused my numbers to spike.  First thing to go was bread.  I replaced bread with a low-calorie, low-carb wrap.  Pasta was eliminated also.  What became clear was that all wheat products seemed to be a problem. 


Two weeks after I began this process of trying to lower my blood sugar numbers through diet alone, I picked up the book "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis.  It confirmed everything that I had been figuring out.  The problem is wheat.  So now I realized that I have to eliminate all wheat products, which meant my tortilla wrap had to go.  


So for the last three weeks, I have been totally wheat-free.  This is not easy.  It's everywhere on everything.  It is a bit trickier than having Celiac disease.  Those with Celiac aren't necessarily also avoiding most carbs.  There are plenty of gluten-free foods available these days.  They're mostly made from potato or brown rice starch which are high in carbs.  Carbs are what produce glucose.  Glucose is the problem.  So no wheat and no gluten-free substitutes.


Three weeks later (today) I went back to my doctor for a follow-up.  My doctor was absolutely shocked by my numbers.  I had lost 15 pounds in five weeks.  My blood sugar went from 450 to 127.  127 is still considered diabetic, but lowering one's blood sugar 323 mg in five weeks by diet alone is seemingly impossible.  It has been written that it is possible to reverse diabetes in around 12 weeks.  But I started with numbers the like of which my doctor has never seen.



But I did it.  It's possible.  And it wasn't even very hard to do.  So my oldest son set up this blog so that I can show people that it can be done and let you all come along for the ride for the next seven weeks until my diabetes has been completely reversed through diet alone.


Diabetes II is optional.  You have to choose to have it.  I chose not to have it.