diabetes awareness month

November 14 is World Diabetes Day

November 14, 2017

I usually wouldn’t put up posts back-to-back of “special days,” but I couldn’t avoid it.

World Kindness Day was important.

And today is World Diabetes Day.

This is, obviously, a day that I relate with. Created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization, it is an official United Nations Day and is the world’s biggest diabetes awareness campaign. The idea of the campaign is to draw attention to the issues in the diabetes world, as well as keep the disease in the eyes of the public.

For me, with how I have been trying to be healthier with my eating and everything else going on, it’s a good day for me to see where I’ve come over the past couple of months.

And I think I’ve come a long way.

I’ve pushed myself with my walking every day. It’s rare that I don’t make my goals for each day and I get out and get moving every day.

That’s a good thing.

I think I’m eating better, too. I’m eating less. I’m watching what is going in so I know what it might do to me.

All of this has meant my numbers have been improving. They aren’t quite where I’d like them to be yet, but they keep getting better.

That is good as well.

On the flip side, there are things I have to continually get better with. I’ll cover the gamut of things in a week or two when I do my normal monthly post.

But a day like this makes me kind of continue to look at how things are and what I am doing myself. I think I am — finally — on the right path.

The reality, though, is that this is a disease that a lot of people deal with in one way or another. There are a lot of things we can do as a society to battle diabetes, which is why days like this are important as they allow a platform for information to be put out and for people to see it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

World Diabetes Day

November 13, 2015

Saturday is World Diabetes Day.

The day is the primary global awareness campaign in the world and began in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization.

It’s an important day for diabetics, for sure. It’s one that everybody should look at because diabetes is an extremely serious issue around the world. Over the years, World Diabetes Day has been centered on a theme related to diabetes, such as diabetes and human rights, lifestyle, obesity etc.

As a diabetic, this day is important to me in the hopes that research continues and hopefully, one day, there’s a cure. The same goes for many diseases around the world.

For now, it’s about awareness.

Over the past year, I haven’t been as good as I had been. My A1C has gone up (though it’s not to a point where my doctor was crazy worried – we worked on things that I need to fix), and I’ve picked up a few pounds. I thought I had done pretty well over the summer, but with travel and such, I obviously didn’t do what I needed to do.

So I need to fix again.

I’m thankful I have the ability to fix the issue and work on getting things back under control. I have some goals and thoughts moving forward in what I need to do. Now, I need to follow through with things and better myself.

Take a peek at some of these tidbits in two infographics:

As you can see, it’s bad worldwide.

I know there are things I need to improve on and fix. I will be working to do that. The next time I get my A1C, I hope to see it go down again. That will show me I’ve worked hard to fix something that needs to be fixed.

My hope, too, is that I’ll also see daily numbers shrink with the improvements. For others out there, keep working to fight the disease and get checked at times. Diabetes can hit anybody, so it’s always worth having things checked when you go in for your normal checkups.

Stay healthy!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Living with Diabetes: Showing awareness during November

November 10, 2014

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month.

I’ve known this for several years, dating back to when I started geocaching. Though the campaign was actually a couple of years old, Groundspeak (the owners of geocaching.com) partnered with Unite for Diabetes to manufacture and distribute 20,000 trackable tags. When I see these, I still pick them up and move them.

In 2007, a geocoin to commemorate the first United Nations World Diabetes Day (Nov. 14) was released and there were many of these coins delivered. You can now actually purchase these coins (of which I own one).

Back then, though, I never took my own diabetes seriously.

diabetesmonth

It’s been a while since I’ve updated here about my battle. I’m doing this on the blog and in a more public setting, as I’ve noted in past posts, to keep myself honest and to have accountability about taking this a tad more serious than I’ve done in the past.

So far, it works out well.

In fact, at my last doctor’s appointment, my A1C, which is the long-term look at my numbers was a 5.9, which is extremely solid compared to what I had been in the early part of the year. That allowed my primary physician to lop off one of my medications, which was super awesome to me.

However…

It’s changed a little recently and I’m wondering where to go with it. As I read more and more about daily numbers and things like that, it seems like the goals doctors give patients differs. I have a hard time finding definitive numbers to aim for, so I can only go by what the diabetes educator I see says, as well as my primary. Those numbers are basically an 80-140 before a meal, and anything below 180 a couple hours after eating. That should, theoretically, get be to 7 or below on my A1C.

Now, that being said, there was a sign at the place where I go for my appointments that showed the following:

Fasting: 80-120

2-hour post meal:

Age 50 and younger: <140
Age 50-60: <150
Age 60 and older: <160

What this didn’t say, however, was if this was for a person without diabetes (who might be on the border) or if this is what diabetics should aim for. Because if these numbers are where I need to be, then I may have to go start taking that other medicine again.

See, my goal always has been to avoid any thought of insulin. So, if I need to try that other medicine again to keep me level, so be it.

As of the last day or so, according to my glucometer, I’m about 80 percent in range, and 20 percent high. That is alarming to me, as I had been in the 100 percent in-range category. My average reading is 126, which is higher than it was a month or so ago, when I was down in the 110-115 range. Now, these are also the numbers averaging the past 14 days, so it can and will go up and down, depending on the day and week.

The mornings have been the real culprit. I’ve been as high as 155 (Nov. 3), and I’m not eating a ton of stuff the night before. I’m keeping within my dietary limitations and following what I am supposed to be doing. However, the past week or so I’ve been pretty sick. So add some cold medicine and everything else into my body, and it’s possible that is playing games with things. But that’s for the past week.

If you go back to Oct. 1, I’ve been high (so above 140) at my morning check 18 times. That’s way too much for my liking.

It’s not that I haven’t been high in the mornings before. Look at Aug. 10-Sept. 10 and there were six instances of having a high count in the morning. However, they were not bunched with others and seemed to be kind of abnormal hits.

Now, when I get them, they are a bit more grouped, say 3-4 days in a row of high counts.

I’ve discussed this with my health care folks and they’ve explained different aspects of why this can – and does – happen. It has to do with some things I don’t fully grasp, but basically it’s something your body does to get glucose when you go an extended time (so sleeping) without eating etc. I am on a eating six times a day thing now, so I have breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, dinner, and an evening snack. I count the carb servings and all that.

A few things to note – as softball has ended, my activity level is OK, but not as much. So I need to start getting more and more active, even if that means just going out for more walks. Also, if you look at the rest of my readings (I usually check 3-4 times per day), and starting at Oct. 1 again, I had one number that was out of the normal range. So it seems like I am staying on the right path, but need to figure out the morning readings a little better.

I plan on having a few more posts about diabetes this month as I have been figuring other things out. It’s all a learning process for me and as I continue to push forward, I know there will be things I continue to work on. I won’t be perfect, that’s for sure, but I have goals and things I know I need to work on. The best I can do is keep plugging along and working toward a better result.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!