This morning on News Radio WINA I met a Dr. I've been praying to find. My nutritionist Ivana Kadija can verify that I've had so much trouble with carbohydrate addicton, getting a handle on it (as I once did very well!) since my mom died has frustrated me...it's been so difficult to do but is essential to my health. Essential.
I'm Diabetic now and that is just an open door to inflammatory disease, heart disease, all. So, I've reached out to a few specialists whose mission aligns with my own.
The Northern VA Dr. who I made an honest plea to for help wrote me back a "why are you telling me all this?" To me, it was a slap in the face. She went on to invite me to make an appointment. I did, but her initial response never rested well with me. I plan to cancel.
Another Dr. responded with kindness and encouraged me to make appointment with Endocrinology at UVA. That's scheduled for October.
But today was a gift. A gift.
During our Live Well segment, Dr. Daniel Cox showed up to detail what it's like to live with Type 2 Diabetes. It is a disease he handles himself and is convinced can be naturally controlled by lifestyle change - in a lot of cases.
He said the same thing Ivana always tells me: Low Carb Diet. LOW CARB DIET. LOW CARB DIET! So many people living with Diabetes are taught to eat what they want just limit the amounts and, to me, it is killing them. I watched my mom die this way. Untreated, unable to control my food addiction, I am going to die this way.
Dr. Cox said whole grains, oatmeal, all of it...unhelpful. (I swear I heard Ivana say yay!!!) Then he said something more helpful than I could have dreamed:
UVA has a new program planned to monitor 50 Diabetics who meet certain criteria and will agree to change their lifestyles, monitor their blood glucose and experiment not with drugs but with food - something Ivana has encouraged me to do to no end.
I feel like her want for me and my want for myself have aligned in this opportunity.
Moreso, I wholeheartedly believe this is all a gift from God and my mom. Probably God but my bet is he's used my mom to help me, knowing how much I need her.
Here is the evidence....
My prayers have been so earnest and so needful of support, communal support, close close close monitoring, accountability and raw education.
I've made attempts to get help over and over and over - I cannot tell you how much.
After doing the interview, Manna sent me a photo of a penny she found at school. Between us, pennies mean my mom is with me. Quarters mean my mom is with Manna.
I took a nap today and I dreamed I was with my mom. You may not think that a big deal but I've not been able to talk to my mom and hear her for over a year since she died. We walked a HOSPITAL hallway. Tufts Med Ctr. probably? Where I last spent time with her alive.
She and I walked and talked about this study...and I told her I was excited to do it. I carried on and on as you can imagine and she was glad for me...as she always is when I decide to help myself. Then I asked her if she'd like to be one of the 50 in the study (clearly not remembering she has died) and she said no very firmly. And I started to get irritated and all my old feelings of "why doesn't my mom damn help herself?" started to come...and I went to open my mouth to say what I would have said back then. She was gone. It was just me in the hallway.
I took a shower and started to cry...because I got to hear from my mom.
Still in my towel, I got a call from Dr. Cox inviting me to join the program. He outlined what I need to do...and away we go.
I hung up with him and sort of reflected on all that has happened: the interview, the penny, the dream, the call.... how much does it take before I realize, this is a gift?
My mom can't do this now, but I can, and she's given this to me.
I thank my mom and God so much.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
From the Horse's Mouth
As I explained to my counselor yesterday, I hate taking pills. I hate feeling dependent on synthetic crap to make me "work right." I hate needing medicine. I hate owning up to the fact that I have any disease or disorder. But I do: High blood pressure. Hypothyroidism. Diabetes.
I talked at length for most of our session to make clear the feelings I have about asking my doctor to go back to taking medicines that regulate my hormones and insulin output. I do take high blood pressure medicine without complaint...mostly because I feel horrid if I don't. The headaches and general discomfort have hammered that prescription into my daily life. I hate that, too.
But I went on and on about how I've been able to regulate the Diabetes AND increase thyroid activity by diet and exercise - not to mention that I've been truly consistent with neither for a year. Of course I didn't mention that part! Fortunately, I've been to this counselor regularly since before my mom died and she knows that while there was a good six months, once upon a time, when I DID do spectacularly well via diet and exercise (and was improving my BP and every other important regulated system in my body,) that time is past...and my attitude toward drug-taking is obsolete.
I tried to diffuse her argument, saying that I did it once so could do it again. Do you know want what she said to me? She said, "Isn't that interesting that you want to be healthy, but you want to do so on your own terms. You want everything to work out the way you want it to, but you're not willing to do the things you need to do for that to happen." I was quiet for the pause. "Isn't that what your mother tried to do?"
......
......
......
I can't say what I felt at that wallop, but I heard the truth. And in the span of only a few minutes, I relived the aching hours spent watching my mom's body disintegrate before my very eyes. That is what she tried to do. How much am I like her? And how do I stop before I become what she has become?
The question led me to a day long search for a physician who works with patients who experience metabolic syndromes like Diabetes and Hypothyroidism (and whose family history is full of heart disease and strokes and cancers).
I found someone who has a private practice over 2 hours north of where I live and I'm going to go see her. I've already sent her an email sort of outlining what is happening with me. My luck, she is taking new patients and can accommodate out of town people like me...and has done gobs and gobs of work to help individuals like me whose genetic predisposition is the suck.
So tonight/this morning I feel intensely mortal, delicate as tissue paper, and have not been able to sleep with all the worry over what my body is doing now. I am sorry it took such a jolt of awareness to make me look in the mirror that doesn't reflect Wendy: separate from her mom, but Wendy: the overlay on her mom's sad image. At least it took.
I talked at length for most of our session to make clear the feelings I have about asking my doctor to go back to taking medicines that regulate my hormones and insulin output. I do take high blood pressure medicine without complaint...mostly because I feel horrid if I don't. The headaches and general discomfort have hammered that prescription into my daily life. I hate that, too.
But I went on and on about how I've been able to regulate the Diabetes AND increase thyroid activity by diet and exercise - not to mention that I've been truly consistent with neither for a year. Of course I didn't mention that part! Fortunately, I've been to this counselor regularly since before my mom died and she knows that while there was a good six months, once upon a time, when I DID do spectacularly well via diet and exercise (and was improving my BP and every other important regulated system in my body,) that time is past...and my attitude toward drug-taking is obsolete.
I tried to diffuse her argument, saying that I did it once so could do it again. Do you know want what she said to me? She said, "Isn't that interesting that you want to be healthy, but you want to do so on your own terms. You want everything to work out the way you want it to, but you're not willing to do the things you need to do for that to happen." I was quiet for the pause. "Isn't that what your mother tried to do?"
......
......
......
I can't say what I felt at that wallop, but I heard the truth. And in the span of only a few minutes, I relived the aching hours spent watching my mom's body disintegrate before my very eyes. That is what she tried to do. How much am I like her? And how do I stop before I become what she has become?
The question led me to a day long search for a physician who works with patients who experience metabolic syndromes like Diabetes and Hypothyroidism (and whose family history is full of heart disease and strokes and cancers).
I found someone who has a private practice over 2 hours north of where I live and I'm going to go see her. I've already sent her an email sort of outlining what is happening with me. My luck, she is taking new patients and can accommodate out of town people like me...and has done gobs and gobs of work to help individuals like me whose genetic predisposition is the suck.
So tonight/this morning I feel intensely mortal, delicate as tissue paper, and have not been able to sleep with all the worry over what my body is doing now. I am sorry it took such a jolt of awareness to make me look in the mirror that doesn't reflect Wendy: separate from her mom, but Wendy: the overlay on her mom's sad image. At least it took.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Ride the Wagon
You can imagine where I've been for the better part of a year - eating this and that, screwing around with diet and exercise, suffering grief, being angry, making myself too busy to pay attention to my grief...you name it. Then I shaped up again, decided to be "regular" and go the controlled diet and exercise routine. I lost a little. I gained a little. I lost a little. I plateaued. Calorie counting wasn't working for me...so I spiraled right back into carbs-loading and half-assed caring about myself and my weight.
In the back of my mind, though, there is this image of my mother lying in her hospital bed, alone but for a single roommate, with no one to help her get up and go to the restroom. It is a life she accepted because she was defeated by her diseases. It is a life I yelled at her for living. I cried at her for giving up. I begged her not to die. She wouldn't do anything - couldn't do anything - to help herself. It was too late. I didn't believe it, but she did. She argued no...but she had to believe it to resign to the arguments of rehab workers refused to lift her out of bed - it took too many people, she was too heavy, required an electronic lift, yadda yadda. Every time I fought for her, she fought against me. Why?
Why couldn't she just fucking help herself?
At the time I was doing my "damndest" to live a better life - strictly low carb, seeing amazingly great results. I didn't get why she didn't just STOP hurting herself by not trying. When she died, I was torn up. I hated her. I hated me. I hated fat. I hated disease. I hated my family. I hated mom's friends. I still have a lot of anger I am working through because I miss her SO much and her death feels like a needless, wasteful, horrific tragedy....like murder or suicide.
I've been seeing the same counselor for my own weight loss issues. Like I said, I let go of everything I worked hard to achieve after my mom died. I regained 30 of 50 lost pounds. I have to start over. Again. I hate starting over again. I hate that I quit.
My counselor showed me this:
In this I see how I treated my mother. I see how some people probably look at me. I see how it's possible she could not help herself. I see how I HAVE to help myself before I suffer the same fate. I have to get back on the low carb wagon and ride it like there's no tomorrow. There may not be.
In the back of my mind, though, there is this image of my mother lying in her hospital bed, alone but for a single roommate, with no one to help her get up and go to the restroom. It is a life she accepted because she was defeated by her diseases. It is a life I yelled at her for living. I cried at her for giving up. I begged her not to die. She wouldn't do anything - couldn't do anything - to help herself. It was too late. I didn't believe it, but she did. She argued no...but she had to believe it to resign to the arguments of rehab workers refused to lift her out of bed - it took too many people, she was too heavy, required an electronic lift, yadda yadda. Every time I fought for her, she fought against me. Why?
Why couldn't she just fucking help herself?
At the time I was doing my "damndest" to live a better life - strictly low carb, seeing amazingly great results. I didn't get why she didn't just STOP hurting herself by not trying. When she died, I was torn up. I hated her. I hated me. I hated fat. I hated disease. I hated my family. I hated mom's friends. I still have a lot of anger I am working through because I miss her SO much and her death feels like a needless, wasteful, horrific tragedy....like murder or suicide.
I've been seeing the same counselor for my own weight loss issues. Like I said, I let go of everything I worked hard to achieve after my mom died. I regained 30 of 50 lost pounds. I have to start over. Again. I hate starting over again. I hate that I quit.
My counselor showed me this:
In this I see how I treated my mother. I see how some people probably look at me. I see how it's possible she could not help herself. I see how I HAVE to help myself before I suffer the same fate. I have to get back on the low carb wagon and ride it like there's no tomorrow. There may not be.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Break Down and Break Through
My latest attempt to Live Well was hideous and embarrassing and absolutely essential. Read on!
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