Someone said that there is no reset button in life, we can't take anything back, we can't undo anything. Our actions have consequences, everything that we say or do may have lasting impact for the rest of our lives.
Well then, if I can't undo diabetes, at least I can control it so I won't suffer serious complications like nerve damage, kidney trouble or blurry eyes and at its worst, blindness. It is therefore imperative to restrain myself from too much sweets and carbohydrates.
If only to know is as easy as to do, then all our resolve will be realized. Unfortunately that's not the case with me. I've indulged too much on foods not good for me. Now I have to double time washing down the traces of sugar in my system.
I've always loved sweets, it is my food orientation since I was a child. My mama always baked cakes; my aunts frequently made native cakes and our afternoon snacks were mostly pastries.
In my childhood, before the advent of chips, (well, maybe there was already plain potato chips then), we had boiled plantain, sweet potatoes, peanut with shells and other root crops to munch on in between snacks and meals, they simply weren't our real snacks. They were always on the table for anyone to pick and eat.
Nobody told me that diabetes is in my genes. I should have known that after seeing my great grandmother eat steamed okra with fish sauce night after night for dinner because she had diabetes.
But I can't blame anyone, can I ? This high blood glucose just cropped up in the last two years when I was tagged pre-diabetic. Had I restrained myself from eating too much sweets, I should still be good, right?
At the end of January my FBS was 8.13 mmol/L, but my doctor thought that a good part of it was due to holiday food. Nevertheless, he prescribed medication and cautioned me to go slow on sweets and carbohydrates and do another test after a month.
Using HbA1c as a diagnostic tool confirmed, to my dismay, that yes, I am diabetic. Though the result is on the lower bracket it is diabetes just the same.
Determined to overcome my high FBS, I watched my diet closely and exercised a lot in February anticipating a much lower FBS result by month end. To my disappointment, I was able to bring it down to a mere 0.03 mmol/L which is negligible.
I did not lose hope though, I recall what my younger daughter said that traces of bad elements remain in the blood stream for six months even if you stop taking them in; that's how long it will take to flush it down, and maybe not even totally. To abstain from foods high in sugar the day or even a week before the test won't make a difference as well, no, we can't cheat.
So I worked up more restraint, I did more exercise and finally I was rewarded. At the end of March, my FBS went down significantly to 6.99 mmol/L. My doctor reduced my diamicron to half and told me to have another test in ten days.
Ten days? I thought I could have a little reprieve and relax a bit, but NO, apparently I can't do that. I have to see this through, not only in ten days but until I'll hit normal again; even if it takes all my will power to get to that finish line, I'm going to do it.
Finally, I know that even when I bring my FBS down, I have to make a drastic change in my lifestyle diet from here on. As Chico Xavier said:
"Though nobody can go back to a new beginning; anyone can start over and make a new ending".
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