My family doctor wanted me to have a cholesterol test. I procrastinated as long as I could as I never had trouble with cholesterol before...so why the test? He is a good guy, he seems to truly care, so I gave in...
Fasted, arrived at the doc's office the next morning, it was only a finger stick, so I knew I probably wouldn't die...I didn't...but I also knew what else was on the horizon...deep down, deep down inside and with my medical training, I was only fooling myself... but it was time...
Blood Sugar 130, A1c 6.4 (diabetic test)...cholesterol 188... not bad as far as medicine goes, but the BS(blood sugar) well deep down inside my denying gut I knew I was FINALLY diabetic! I worked hard to get here, and it took me all of 53 yrs! It was sorta fun, but then again that wasn't my only problem...
The PA (physician's assistant)came in to chat with me, talking to me about not having to go on medication YET, but staying away from starch. I knew better, see I knew because 15yrs ago, I found a health plan ( well my mom did), a plant based diet plan. See, my mom was in the navy, she had a best friend, Mrs. McDougall, well Mrs. McDougall's son, he became an MD and was very unhappy treating people's symptoms, so he decided to try to make them better instead. He ended up discovering the importance of diet for health...the rest is history...that was 35+yrs ago for him...
Yes 15yrs ago, or so, I wanted to lose weight, I never believed in fad diets, as I had tried many of them over the years and they never worked...so was this another one of those? Well how could it be, it was free, free to use and eat the posted recipes, I mean you could spend money on this if you wanted to, books, cook books, lecture CD's...so it didn't seem the guy was really out for the notoriety or to get rich, he seemed sincere about what he discovered and believed in. So thanks Mom for introducing us to this fabulous discovery...it lasted 4yrs for me that first time... I lost 50lbs and felt just wonderful...then another long story for another day, my life changed and I fell off the starch wagon with a crash!
Mom told me you will see how life is at 50, really, it's pretty much done...well I found that she was right! By 50, I was having those female problems that caused chronic anemia and HUGE bulky pads blah,and heck my bladder,was pretty much shot...so now what? Sit in that chair, make pretty dolls and stay as close to a bathroom as you can...don't go anywhere, they might not have a bathroom close by, besides, it was way too much work to get cleaned up and ready to go anywhere, much too exhausting...blah... so life was torturous...man how much longer to I have to stay alive? it takes way to long to get through this life...that stinks since I had just remarried, poor guy, did he know what he was getting himself into?
Then I had THE SURGERY ( I was 51) yes total hyster, and a bladder lift... WOW, that changed my life back to at least where I was at say 44, feeling pretty danged good...so with my new attitude, and new found youth (nope didn't need the bathroom to be my best friend anymore) I proceeded to grow my doll business and so many happy things began to happen. I quit my RN job, never did like being a nurse, blah...and just created art! I finally 'FIT' into my life.. wow, so this is what life really is? how amazing... there IS a GOD!! I already believed that though...
So no more nursing, which means no more having to get ready for work, or actually get out of a chair to move etc...I could just sit and sew and paint all day long... life is good... too good...
I often forgot to eat breakfast as I was too busy creating...I would walk back and forth from the kitchen coming out each time with no food...but I wasn't all that hungry... I was also in instant menopause since I had my surgery (April 2009)... I was told the weight would come on...so I expected that.. and it did.. I have no idea really how much came on, I wasn't a fan of the scale...but my stretch pants can't tell a lie...i always wore stretchies, heck you don't have to buy a new wardrobe with those, you can go up and down 20-40 lbs and never have to buy new clothes!
I noticed maybe 6 months ago, I was just so fatigued all the time, so achy when I got up in the morning before my 4 ibuprofens, and still with a happy attitude it was sort of getting to me...leg and foot cramps, blurry vision several times a week... and those dark spots on my face, well mom had em, so i was destined...( was having a derm work on them for me), stomach aches frequently ( I believe diverticulitis, and or colitis~yep I am a nurse) inconsistent bowel habits,headaches,then extreme thirst which I blamed on the dry atmosphere in our home from our wood stove... a bit of vertigo, and lack of balance at times...always a foggy brain, just couldn't remember ANYTHING... then i began to think, man what if I have early alzheimers? nurse's are their own worst enemies...I was a mess again it seemed, a mess with a positive attitude...I felt like a lazy butt...but I wanted to have energy... just wasn't there.. "it was all blamed on menopause" ... I only had maybe 6-8 hot flashes, that was it, then nothing more since july 09.. I felt fortunate...
The PA told me " ok so you are diabetic" I was happy, I said something to the effect of .. no way, cool.. ok then, I know what to do... she was skeptical and a but perturbed with my response, I could tell... but as I said, I knew what to do...
I began my McDougall health plan that day at lunch...here is the link,http://www.drmcdougall.com/index.html
I will be posting this quite a bit as I share my health story with you, in the hopes that you too can fix your health just by diet alone...as always I don't recommend doing anything without first asking your doc, only problem may be is that he may encourage you to stick with that american diet, as he has no knowledge of diet and true health, he is used to treating symptoms, so you may have to talk him into it...
OH AND... maybe 30yrs ago, my father came down with acute rheumatoid arthritis...my mom being an avid reader found a cookbook, called The Arthritic's Cook Book...
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