As you may notice from the picture to the right, November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. As part of the awareness month, there are some d-bloggers (diabetes bloggers) that are writing a post a week on a selected topic.
I am not one of the bloggers in that group but since I do read other diabetes blogs, I can cheat and find out the topics from those blogs. There are an amazing number of diabetes blogs. Through these blogs, one can connect with other diabetics. The people who write these blogs are very helpful and willing to answer questions.
From reading Karen Graffeo's blog, Bitter~Sweet (http://www.bittersweetdiabetes.com/2012/11/the-beginning.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Bitter-sweetDiabetesBlog+%28Bitter-Sweet+Diabetes+Blog%29) I know that this week's topic is as follows:
The Beginning: Share a story from when you (or the person you blog for/about) were first diagnosed.
We are coming up on Silent Sam's first anniversary of being diagnosed with diabetes. He had been warned for a few years by his doctor that he was pre-diabetic. He had barely mentioned it around the house. To be perfectly honest, I knew nothing about diabetes. I knew I should be worried but he wasn't saying much and we were busy and well, life just moved on. I don't think that our story is out of the ordinary. We simply ignored the unknown and pretended that it would go away.
On the Monday after Thanksgiving, Silent Sam decided to admit that he had a lump on his thigh. He further admitted that it had been there a few days but now it really hurt. He tried to go to his doctor that morning but his doctor had stopped allowing drop in patients and would not be able to see him for several days. We ended up going to the ER. It seems that he had a pretty serious leg infection that needed to be drained. While in the ER, the doctor told him that he needed to go to the doctor because his blood sugar levels were too high. "They will put you on pills. Not a big deal." were the words that were said. They hooked SS up to an IV antibiotic and left us for awhile. When the doctor came back, he had decided that SS, because of the size of the infection would do better with another dose of IV antibiotic and that SS was being admitted to the hospital. This was our first shock. This went from not appearing to be a big thing to being admitted to the hospital. Once up in the hospital room, the doctors quickly came to the conclusion that SS had diabetes and needed to go on insulin. We received a lot of information in the hospital. There was just so much to learn and I wasn't absorbing all of it. Fortunately, SS did much better than I did and we were able to start stumbling through.
What did I remember from all the education they threw at us? Why I remembered that American dinner plates had grown over the years to our current size of 11-14 inches in diameter and that we should have
a 9 inch plate!
The other take home was that the plate should be 1/2 salad and vegetables, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 carbohydrates.
That was our start down this path to a more healthful life.
And if you have been following this blog, you know that I am now behind (again!) on my thankfulness posts.
I am thankful for the other diabetes bloggers who have been so helpful to me during the past year. If you can take a minute to check out their work, I am sure they would welcome you. There is a list in the left hand column of some of the blogs I follow. They are not all diabetes blogs. Check them out. You may find a new voice that you want to welcome into your life. (Besides mine - don't dump the old for the new. I like you too much....)
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Part of the reason for the special November blog posts is to not only raise awareness but also to raise funds for the Joslin Diabetes Center. If you would like to find out more, please click on the following link