I have to say it may be the best $0.14 I've ever spent. With my new longer commute to and from work I'm finding I finally have ample time to encourage a reading habit. I'm devouring books and couldn't be happier. This particular work is everything it should be, informative - detailing much of the history of the disease, compelling - components of a memoir add a lovely human element, contemporary - it's paced like a modern film with constant cutting between topics. There isn't a dull moment, especially for somebody with diabetes. It is also a good read for people who know somebody with diabetes. I will likely be sending mine the direction of the sun so that my family can add to their ever increasing knowledge of this disease.
For now, let me share with you some facts that I've found particularly striking:
"Scientists can quantify the number of years that diabetes will cost an average patient as well as measure the quality of those years. According to the CDC, men diagnosed by the age of forty will lose more than eleven years; women will be denied fourteen years. When calculated for 'quality-adjusted life years,' the men give up nineteen years of quality life; the women, twenty-two."
Nineteen!! What? Holy crap that number is high! For the past several years I've been taking a vitality quiz which used to tell me I would live to the ripe old age of 91 or something like that. Subtract 19 and you've got 72. No.
No, that won't do at all. I have every intention of still being competitive athletically in my seventies. Knowing how much I procrastinate I'll probably still only be in the early stages of writing the great american novel. And I don't want to be one of those authors whose work is published posthumously without me getting a look at the final edits. No, I'm gonna have to beat this thing. Forget 15 rounds, I'm going to have to stand toe to toe with this condition for another sixty years at least! (the good news is that on the vitality quiz I can now confidently answer that I NEVER eat junk food anymore).
Another awesome quote from the book:
"Someone with type 2 has the same risk of a heart attack as a nondiabetic who's already had an attack, while virtually all patients with type 1 have significant arteriosclerosis by the time they're forty."
Did I read that correctly? "Virtually all..."? I don't think so buddy. My arteries are going to stay as loose and elastic as this woman!
Today's numbers:
11:23 -> 147 This is okay but a tad high. Last night's cookie correction was too much. Also I wasn't that hungry when I woke up. Breakfast: Pb&j bagel 45c = 1 unit Novolog.
2:16 -> 131 This was my number after the auction scene and before starting Joey. I had a half Lara bar 15c just to keep me up there.
5:06 -> 83 Wow, awesome! Dinner: Salad 30c, chicken and veg 30c, 2 apples 35c, blueberries 22c = 117c = 3 units. At 6:40 I had a cookie 10c and another at 7:50 11c, and also a glass of milk 11c at 8:20.
1:38 -> 87 Had a glass of red wine and 3/4 of a Larabar 23c. Took 5 units Lantus. Dinner: 2 pieces of toast with eggs 28c, b sprouts 18c, salad 15c, grapefruit 30c = 91c = 2 units of Novolog.
4:12 -> 63 I felt fine and was thinking of not checking. Glad I did. This is why I must ALWAYS check before bed. Had 1/2 cup orange juice 15c, and finished a Larabar 10c.
I need to restock my fast and slow sugar supply (Gu and Larabar)
Day 47
You will be the exception to those "rules," in fact, you already are according to your doctor.
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