Here we go again......

Since being given the all clear in December 2012 I thought life was okay and out of the woods.
Having applied for an HGV licence I went for a works medical with a little trepidation, but was reassured when my urine test showed normal - no excess sugar. (It was never really found why it was high last time)
Then I went to the GP for his part of the medical the following day and, slap me in the face with a kipper, High Blood sugar. The only difference between the two was on the Monday I had breakfast at 6 a.m. and the medical at 9.30 whilst on the Tuesday i had lunch at 12 with the medical at 1 pm almost immediately after. So, high blood sugar after a meal. Not crazily high, but high again regardless.
Now I must admit that despite my best efforts to lose weight, shiftwork and haphazard eating habits, plus eating the wrong kind of foods - i.e. fast food and processed junk my weight had crept up to 220 lbs from my December 2012 average of 212.
So this time I am more determined and have lost a stone in just over a month, and aim to lose another. This takes me down from borderline obese to simply "overweight" and with another stone off I shall be borderline "normal." This is of course according to the BMI, a 19th century guide to body mass. It takes little account of modern nutritional values and the fact we are all bigger and taller than we were even a generation ago. When I think of obese I think of those fat women that look like they have swallowed a space hopper, or the gentlemen who waddle, rather than walk. To look at my six foot two frame you would say I had a bit of a belly, on the chunky side for sure, but obese? Well that's the label, so God knows what the Spacehopper eaters should be called. Anyway, I digress.
I passed the medical, and was given the usual advice of lose a little weight, exercise a little more. Which I am doing. The good doctor assures me I am not YET diabetic, but could be on my way to becoming so without lifestyle changes.
Okay, exercise and weight loss it is. Now there are many fads and many scams which will help you lose pounds, but only of the sterling type. There is only one known way to lose weight, which is eat less and exercise more. Less in, more out, must equal a reduction in waist and weight. Finding time to exercise is always a problem in my busy schedule, but needs must, so it will happen. Asides from the normal active lifestlye I lead I have managed 6.6 miles of walking, 13 cycling and a one mile run in twelve days. Not much and I must do better, but this is over and above my daily activities - intentional exercise, in addition to the day to day walking etc. For example I always park at the far end of a car park at the supermarket, so I walk further to the doors, and push the trolley further back to the car - every little helps as a certain supermarket often says. It's quite amusing to see all the fit young men in sportswear squeezing their tiny little sports cars in as close to the door as possible, so they can go in an get their energy drinks and carb supply before driving off to the gym - they obviously don't see the irony.
Anyway, an acquaintance who I discussed my blood sugar/weight issues with has suggested drinking Aloe Vera Juice. I have never heard of this before, I assumed Aloe Vera was for face cream and suntan lotion, but apparently there may be health benefits to drinking the gel from the plant. It can, apparently lower blood sugar and aid weight loss as well as detoxing  the body. Now this sounds like snake oil, too good to be true to me. But then I got to thinking - in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction to everything, hot- cold, sweet - sour, Elvis Presley - Andrew Llyod Webber, and so on. So why doubt that nature could come up with something to counteract sugar? It has to be worth further investigation. I'll keep you all posted.

Glucose result

A phone call this morning shows my glucose tolerance test to be normal. I have to wait for the doctors letters to see where we go from here, but that must be good news.
I'm not breaking out the cream cakes or anything, because there's still the question of why my blood sugar was high in the first place, but it seems I am metalbolising sugar okay. Still feeling fine and I've started to loose a little weight with my new regime, down to 210 lbs this morning, which is still "obese" for a 6 foot 2 inch tall person but not crazily so. I aim to loose around a stone but with Christmas dinners and party season coming up that's going to require a lot of discipline. But as weight is a factor in this whole diabetes thing it's got to be worth it.

Fasting Blood test

I have the results now of my fasting blood test. If this blog is going to be of any value to anyone reading it, other than my usual humorous side on life then perhaps I ought to get slightly technical and explain what that means, otherwise those going through the same concerns as me won't know any better than I do.
A fasting blood test measures the amount of blood in your sugar after a ten or twelve hour fasting period. Basically you can eat or drink nothing other than water for a minimum of ten hours before the blood is taken.
The normal sugar/blood level is a range of 4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L (82 to 110 mg/dL) I presume the L is for Litres, but the rest is gobbledegook to me and no-one in the medical profession has seen fit to explain it yet. Mine comes in at 6.3 mmol/L, which is still high, although not stupidly so. I have no other symptoms though.

This morning I have had another fasting blood test, followed by a drink of Lucozade, also known as the devils urine, because it makes me feel sick and looks like a sample taken from the dark one after he has had a particularly heavy night on the Jack Daniels. After two hours a second blood test was taken. This is to see how well my body copes with drinking Lucozade. Well, not very well I can say, I felt sick immediately afterwards, and for the next two hours, then when I got home after the blood test I pebble-dashed the toilet, with high pressure facies, not my normal mode of waste expulsion, I have to say. Lucozade and I do not agree.

I was working nights, so the twelve hour fast was particularly cruel. One of the possible causes of diabetes however is thought to be obesity. At six foot two and averaging 215 pounds I am medically obese, but don't look it. One of the adverse benefits of the enforced fastings I have had so far for blood tests is that I now weigh in at a mere 209 pounds, so I've lost six pounds already without really trying. 

Updates to follow when my glucose test result comes back.

In the meantime I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has successfully returned from the "Prediabetes" state to a normal blood sugar level and how they achieved this. Alternative medicines? Diet? Exercise? Bribery? I'll try anything within reason.

Pre-diagnosis (High urine Sugar reported)

I am supposed to have an annual medical at work. Recently I had my first annual medical for 8 years. This is not to say that I have been lapse and missed them, it's more a case of my job hasn't been bothered to do them. This has never really concerned me, as despite rapidly approaching middle age I have always considered myself to be in rude health. In fact I last saw my doctor (now retired) in 2001, and that was only to issue him a speeding ticket on the bypass. Before that I saw him in 1997 when I moved house and changed practice and only because he insisted on a well man check before he would accept me. Presumably if I had been ill, he would have rejected me as a patient. That's how the National Health Service works I suppose.
Anyhow, other than visits for a sick note after breaking some ribs (twice) and to arrange a vasectomy I haven't placed too much of a burden on him. I haven't had the need, as I generally feel fine. I don't get headaches, migraines, stress, back pain, football cup finals or anything else that I might need to see the doctor for.
So I was surprised when the medical at work threw up a problem. I live a sort of healthy lifestyle, to a certain value of health. I drink too much but less than most Doctors, I don't smoke and I exercise a little less than I ought too - cycling occasionally and hiking regularly with occasional hours in the gym.If it's a short trip I walk rather than take the car, I use the stairs rather than the lift because I know it's good for my long term knee injury and I carry shopping if it's less than a basketful instead of using a trolley. I also park in the empty farthest recesses of the supermarket car park and walk instead of parking by the door. So, I'm not sedentary  but not a gym monster either. I also eat reasonably healthily, with some fruit and veg, chicken and fish and rice and pasta but also enjoy a juicy blood filled steak as well. I often skip meals and if I'm busy I forget to eat all day or just don't have time.
I expected to be told I was overweight, with high blood pressure, stress and the life expectancy of a Mayfly, simply because most of the rest of my team had been told the same.
My weight didn't cause any comment, my eyesight was fine even with my reading glasses on the desk instead of on my face, and my hearing was better than expected for my age. My blood pressure, I was told, was disgustingly healthy. And my resting heart rate was almost undetectable, barely ticking over. I was however dangerously dehydrated and showing excess sugar in my urine. I laughed this off as being down to the two mugs of coffee and the large bacon and mushroom bun I had eaten just prior to going into the medical. Yes, I know, not part of a healthy diet, but it was a 10 a.m. appointment, I'd been up since 5.30 and hadn't eaten breakfast. Besides which, it is part of the image I like to promote, poking fun at authority. Turning up for the medical with a bacon banjo in one hand and a steaming mug of sweet Joe in the other does normally provoke a reaction. And the dehydration thing is down to having little opportunity to stop either for a drink or to use a toilet, combined with working 10 hours wearing a flak jacket that weighs as much as a small child. It makes you sweat a little and you dehydrate.

Anyhow I was told, in no uncertain terms, to go see my doctor. Urgently. I might be diabetic.

The NHS, I discovered, don't do urgent. Well, casualty does, in a fashion, although not like "Casualty" on the TV. No on ever shouts "stand clear" or "Doctor Bon Jovi to Resus" when I'm in there. GP's surgeries certainly don't do urgent. You need to know a fortnight in advance if you are going to be ill so you can arrange an appointment. And then you have to take time off to fit in around all the retired and unemployed patients.
So, a fortnight later I got to speak with a Doctor. A nice girl, but I couldn't help but wonder if her mum knew she was using her office. Anyhow, she arranged for me a fasting blood test and a few days after that I rushed straight in and blood was taken. The results I was told, would be available in a week. Yes, another week. This is urgent of course. Now, my non blood related uncle has been a diabetic all his life. I know for a fact he has a little electronic device on which he pricks his finger and in seconds it tells him his blood sugar levels. He'd be knackered if it took a week. Why should it take a week? I could take it to the laboratory myself, and do the test in a couple minutes.

I was informed that if the test result was high, I would find out sooner, and they would make arrangements for a Glucose Tolerance Test. This I was told, involves another blood test, followed by a drink of Lucozade (other brands of glucose based drinks are available) followed by a two hour wait and another blood test. And the results would be available in a week. Or sooner if they were high. The appointment for this test has been made for next week. So it will be roughly seven weeks before I learn my fate. Urgently. Ha!

I do have a slight problem with this though, Firstly they have arranged the appointment without consulting me for 9 a.m. so that I can fast for 12 hours beforehand, i.e overnight. Very considerate of them, except I am on nightshift and would normally eat between 3 and 4 a.m. Secondly I have to hang around the surgery for two hours between tests. Well, I hope they don't mind me snoring, as I will, because I will have been at work all night. Thirdly, I was given Lucozade once as a kid when I was ill. It made me even more ill, because it makes me vomit. I cannot stomach Lucozade - there is too much sugar in it, which is why I have never drunk it since. I genuinely fear I will embarrass them in their own surgery.

In the meantime I have been reading up a bit about diabetes just in case. All I knew previously was that if a diabetic goes into a coma you give him a barley sugar sweet. Because we all carry barley sugar sweets don't we? What are they living in, an Enid Blyton Novel?

It turns out that if I am diabetic it will be type 2 diabetes. I think this means I cannot eat Volkswagen Camper vans. If I do not adapt to it I can look forward to going blind and deaf, my legs falling off, erectile dysfunction, depression (presumably because of the erectile dysfunction) dementia, strokes, heart attack and eventual death. Damn, and I was so trying to avoid eventual death. These could of course come in any order.  Death usually prevents the others taking place though.

I don't mean to make light of diabetes, but what else is there to do? I need to change my diet and loose weight, and exercise more. But we all know that, diabetic or otherwise. It's easy to say on paper, but in reality when the cake hits the fan you can't help yourself. Okay, when my legs do fall off I'll loose weight, but that kind of limits the exercise thereafter.

Hopefully I am "pre-diabetic" and can avert the full blown condition by lifestyle changes. But if I can't I luckily  have someone else to blame. Both my parents are type 2 "late onset" diabetics, and the chances of me being the same are about 70%, so it's their fault, not mine. Maybe I can claim compensation.

The one silver lining appears to be that alcohol consumption actually reduces sugar levels in the body. So, I'll drink to that then.

To be continued "urgently," once my results are known.