Sunday, January 17, 2010

Getting control of my life habits!

My goal for starting this blog was to motivate myself to become more healthy. I realized over that past few years (especially since turning 50) that my health was steadily declining. Like a lot of other people, I tended to ignore what I needed to do which was to get off my ass and become more active and quit eating just for the hell of it.

I can remember my brother, Billy telling me back when I was in my twenties, "Lose your weight now Don, cause when you hit 30 it will never be as easy as it is for you now". Boy was that ever the truth. Billy gave me some wise advise that I never took advantage of.

I'm not one to take criticism easily. I'm just one of those people who gets pissed and gets my feeling hurt when I'm told that something I'm doing is not right. Since becoming diabetic, I've been through a few doctors, in an attempt to find one that wouldn't shout at me for my weight (which I know ultimately has caused the majority of my health issues).

The first doctor I found was great. He was an internal medicine physician at Baptist Hospital in Nashville that took me with a grain of salt. I'm not sure he really had my best interests at heart, but wasn't too bad going to see. He never chastised me for my failure to lose weight nor did he chastise me for not keeping my blood sugars under more control. He decided to leave his practice and return to a hospital setting and not see patients on a day to day basis. Thus began my look for another doctor.

I met up with a doctor at Hendersonville Hospital. This doctor I think really wanted me to do better but I probably didn't take him seriously either. He told me my blood pressure was out of control and there was NO other medication that anyone could give me to make it go down. He truly tried to get me to see that I needed to lose weight. His religious beliefs hendered me from taking him very seriously. So I quit going to see him.

During the spring, 2009, I realized that my prescriptions for my blood pressure medicine were up that I had to face facts and find another doctor. That's when I went to Long Hollow Family Practice. I saw the nicest Physician's Assistant ever. She spent a really long time with me and discussed where I was and where I needed to be. She wasn't hard with me but actually made me realize that I needed to get my blood sugar and blood pressure under control. That summer I really took her to heart and worked hard that first 3 months and my A1C was 5.8, which was excellent for me. Considering when I came to her it was over 10.

That fall as more health issues started occurring I generally failed at everything I had done to keep my A1C where it was. I ate pretty much anything and everything I wanted and gained back all the weight I had lost during that summer. As Christmas arrived and I knew that my visit with my doctor would be painful, I unwillingly went back to see her. It was quite funny that I owned up to her just how bad I had been. She was so sweet and told me that I needed to get back on track. She told me that I needed to take up knitting to keep my eating habits under control. Again, she told me my blood pressure was not good. She couldn't give me any more medication as I was on as much as she could allow. When I received my blood work back, my A1C was 6.2 (which isn't all that bad considering how I had acting of the course of the last 3 months). My good cholesterol was still very low and she wanted to be up my fish oil to compensate for that. She mentioned that exercise would help raise my good cholesterol.

So here I am, on a mission to get my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol under control for the first time in a long time. I've joined a gym and with the help of my faithful and ever-loving family, I can lose weight and become more active. I'm looking forward to seeing if keeping myself accountable through this blog will help me in this life saving venture.



1 comment:

  1. I couldn't be more proud of you! Unless, of course, you took off your shirt and weighed in before all of America :) I know you can do this because I hear the desire of your heart is to be healthy so you can be around for all of us. I promise to encourage you in any way I can. I am so excited to get to follow your journey, and to witness how you are transformed before my very eyes! I love you and am so glad you have put yourself out here :P Go get em!

    ReplyDelete