Mmmm…Here we go again—like there is some kind of competition to prove my D is “worse” or “harder to deal with” than yours.
When I joined TuD, there were around 800 members and this is an old topic. I have been helped right here at TuD on various aspects of dealing with this scourge by every kind of diabetic that has so far been identified… I am a T2 not on meds or insulin yet----I also consider insulin a “non-med”’ because–jeeze, you can’t live without it, can you?!..
First of all—the term “lifestyle” as a description of what we do in my stage of the D is entirely inadequate and offensive. Diagnosed at 57, if you decide to try for no meds, well, it is a pathway that is all about turning your entire life—since childhood—inside out and upside down, emotionally and intellectually—Oh my—is it my fault because in 1957 I loved my mother’s Midwestern gloppy hot dishes made with campbell’s cream of mushroom soup or potato salad made with miracle whip or rich chocolatey desserts? My dad’s beef stew with dumplings? This is how they said We Love You—etc…Of course not—but that is what many wanted me to believe…Until I emptied my little local library’s medical shelves of everything to do with the D AND fibromyalgia, because now I had to braid them together…
My DX came through my dad’s genes and the trauma of major surgery in 2006 as the tipping point. DX with fibromyalgia in 1996 necessitated giving up on a dance career of 40 years—I was pleasantly soft and curvey in middle age, but never at any time even close to obese. So if that is your dearly held notion of T2s, abandon it. Reference Atila’s TED talk on how metabolic syndrome happens first and causes the damn weight gain–not our “lazy pig-out lifestyles”
I had an idiot doc at dx, but made the effort to find a GP who got what I wanted to try and helped. I obviously had enough beta cells working so that I could consider giving it a try—my A1c at dx was only 6.9, so I am thankful to that idiot doc for her early vigilance. Found TuD just a few months later and through TuD, Bernstein.
I have written about my decade lo-carbing elsewhere and will try to include the link…
But the point is—we are truly all in this together. We can’t begin to have a strong political voice for change in treatment options if every single one of us doesn’t reach out to form a united front…I hate that in the medical community, too often, one is never even offered an opportunity for controlling without meds…BUT—guess what? TuD has taught me that as this scourge progresses, I will go right to insulin and skip everything in between. If insulin is what my body needs, insulin is what I will do. That decision will actually be simple now because of all I learned here…
Deciding to try and control without meds, I simply embraced my stubborn streak (thanks mom) and it didn’t take long to realize I could eat like royalty while doing so AND----on one level I am a wimp----my #s got so good so fast, I quickly decided “cheating” was much too scary…
Whatever each and everyone of us can do to “live long and prosper” is exactly what we should do!!!..Blessings all…Love…Judith in Portland…xx000