My Personal Struggles: Avoiding Diabetes

by Kathi
(Pennsylvania)

This is a true story of my personal struggles.

As my age in years crept up and up, so did the list of complications which plagued me and my health. But today, the story has finally turned around. Hope and faith are now within my sight for much better years which I now know are further ahead.

Where Did It All Start?

I am from a family of type 2 diabetics from both sides of the family. Every member back for the two generations I know of has fought, and many have lost the battle before their 40th or 50th birthday. All of their deaths were attributed to some form of complications from diabetes.

Being born into a family of diabetics, I got to observe the daily struggles and failures of my immediate family members. This front row seat subconsciously instilled in me the desire “this is not going to be me nor my future life.” So, as one after another kept getting sicker, my resolve intensified - there had to be a way out of this trap.

I made it to my middle 40’s before diagnosis. The doctor was so calm when he said “well, it was just a matter of time, considering your family history.” But all I was thinking, all my efforts to date were all for nothing. It happened anyway.

Sure, I started out with mild symptoms but it just escalated faster and faster. My blood sugars bounced around higher and higher from the 200’s then to the 3’s , 4’s and 500’s. The A1C, such an easy test, I never could receive good news either. It was always recommended to be around 6 or 7 for an average but I just kept raising to 10, then 11 and 12. Nothing I did seemed to help.

Of course, the blood pressure rose, the cholesterol and triglycerides kept going up also. It did not matter what test I tried, I failed them all with flying colors. I was always a perfect specimen of what the numbers are not supposed to be. None of the medications, diet, lifestyle changes or anything else my ever-changing medical teams could give me ever seemed to work.

So the complications grew. My weight ballooned to staggering amounts in just one year. Eye problems intensified, kidneys, digestive issues, painful muscles and joints, and the feet and legs were becoming useless.

Sleep was becoming non-existent. The list of new symptoms added to the pain, shortness of breath, stiffness and soreness when added to everything else just would not shut down to let me sleep. Life just kept going, with me getting worse for an entire decade.

I changed doctors and medical teams twice during that decade, hoping fresh minds and a different approach may lead to a new and better way. Even that was all to no avail. My health continued on its downward spiral.

Six Months Later Now and I Have Found The Way

In the spring of 2011, I was angry and frustrated. Years and years of futile effort led to no concrete improvement, actually just a continuous decline further and further into poorer health. Changing my diet, my medications, my lifestyle and any other suggestions which I had been given all led to no discernable improvements. Nothing I was given ever became the “road to recovery” for me and my body.

I had reached the end of my patience. I also lost all of my hope that the method for me was out there. I had frittered away almost 60 years of my life totally absorbed by this disease, for most of them trying to beat down the hope I would avoid it, then the need to contain it. I was still seeing all the doctors, nutritionists, family doctors and endocrinologists (a specialist in diabetes) and anyone else they sent me to as a possible means to a better end. As far as I was concerned, I was seeing them way too many times every few months. My final appointment one week in the spring was with the diabetes specialist and I had heard nothing different from him than all of the other appointments before.

I decided right there what the end of our conversation was to be. “Give me something new, right now, right here, or tomorrow I throw all of these pills, shots, tablets, liquids and pills away. I would live out the rest of my time free of all of these restrictions. The discussion with him carried on, under my new resolve with this new decision.

The final result of this discussion - I got a new name, a new doctor, and a new way. Conventional medicine was giving up and sending me to a Holistic physician, a healer in the ways of Alternative (Complementary) Medicine.

It is now about six months later. My weight is steadily going down. My medications have plummeted downwards, many of them have been discontinued. Others, the dosages are reduced or falling consistently. My symptoms, the pain, my digestive issues, but most importantly of all is the complications of my diabetes (and some previously undiscovered food allergies and sensitivities) are all clearing up and reducing in severity. My body has been given the means and direction to heal itself from the inside out.

Sure, all of this is still “work” but my new doctor and myself have determined the necessary steps needed for me to advance myself towards healing. For the first time in over a decade, I actually do see an entire list of positive results.

I have finally found my way out of that continuous cycle of despair.