Well it's been an interesting week for me so far and one that's going to be, looking back on it later this year, a real wake up call. One of the things I said I was going to do this year was visit a dentist. I'm not going to get into the length of time between appointments or the myriad of excuses for not having gone, but let's just say it's been a while. With that being said, I've had two thorough cleaning procedures done in the last week and my gums are healing and my teeth look better. Now I need to figure out exactly what I need to have done to my mouth moving forward and the all important fun part of how I'm going to pay for it. As I sat in the office on Wednesday morning, after my second cleaning, the dentist came in and looked over my mouth and prepared a sort of game plan on what should be done next. When she was finished checking me over, the office manager came in with a sheet of paper outlining the plan and handed it to me. I don't know if it was the look of shock on my face or the delayed reaction from the cleaning, but the office manager asked me if I was OK. I informed her that while I knew the procedures would cost more than the two cleaning appointments I'd just gone through, I didn't know that they would be nearly 10x more!! So I'm at a bit of a loss right now with exactly what I'm going to have done and how those procedures are going to be paid for.
What I'm more focused on right now is what I need to do in order to get my Type 1 Diabetes back on the right track, specifically after yesterday's appointment with my Endocrinologist. I've just started my 25th year with Type 1 Diabetes and I've only been an average patient at best during many of those years. I was doing well last year with my A1C number, which is an accurate average calculation of your blood sugar numbers over a three month period, lowering it in three consecutive appointments. All of that ended yesterday. So again I could list all of the excuses why it went up yesterday, or I had could set some real definitive goals to greatly reduce my A1C by my next appointment in the middle of April. So with that, here are the things I'm going to do, and continue to do for myself, my wife and our two young sons to remain healthy. (And they're going to be bullet points because that means you're really serious!!)
- I will test my blood sugar between 5-7 times a day to regulate both the highs and the lows.
- I will exercise four days a week a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
- I will start with my weight loss program of 15 pounds.
- I will aggressively count carbs and thus reduce the portion sizes on my plate.
- I will snack, but I will compensate for the snacking with the proper amount of insulin.
- I will not see a blood sugar testing number over 200mg/dl unless under a breakdown of my body that can not be fully explained.
If I can manage the six bullet points above, I can walk out of Duke University Medical Center in April knowing that I did an excellent job with achieving a lifestyle that will keep me around for a long time which is my ultimate goal.
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