Diagnosed With Diabetes

I guess the best way to start off is by describing how I found out I was diabetic. So here goes...

Back around August of 2001, my wife and I took a cruise with my parents. During this cruise, I noticed that I was building up quite a thirst... an incredibly strong thirst that wouldn't go away. I also noticed that I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom; something I never had to do before. Several weeks went by and the thirst continued. I also realized that I could see a lot better if I used my wife's glasses, which were about twice as strong as mine, instead of my own. On September 17th, 2001, I went to my doctor's office for my insurance companiy's mandatory physical and happen to mention to him that I was always thirsty. He asked a couple of questions and told me that they would check my blood sugar to see what was going on. I didn't even realize they were checking for diabetes at the time. Our doctor happens to be related by marriage to my wife's familly, so while the nurse was checking my blood sugar, I was chatting away with him and his wife, also a physician. When the reading was done, the nurse blurted out 287 and my doctor's wife yelled "Ohh my God! You're diabetic!!"

At that moment, I had absolutely no clue what was happening. My doctor threw his wife out of the consultation room and started to explain to me that there were several other things that could be happening that would cause my blood sugars to be so high.

"What's high?" I asked.

He said that normally, since I had fasted for my lipid panel test, my blood sugars shouldn't be any higher than 105-110. A reading of 287 was fairly high, but it could be caused by a temporary infection or several other things. At this point, it felt like my doctor started checking off additional tests like there was no tomorrow. He ordered everything on the sheet and had the nurse administer an EKG, gave me prescriptions for an eye exam and several ultrasound exams. He also gave me a prescription for glucotrol along with a bunch of samples so that I could get started right away. This may have occured during the following appointment, but it all sort of blends together. It turns out that I am a Type 2 Diabetic which means that my pancreas makes insulin, but my body is resistant to it and doesn't process sugar the way its supposed to.

During this series of appointments and tests, I also found out that my thyroid wasn't working properly. I had a hypo-functioning thyroid. I didn't even know what the thyroid did! It turns out that one of the things it does is to regulate metabolism. I wasn't an obese person, but I did notice that it was very difficult to shed any weight. I am 6'2" tall and back then I weighed 235 lbs. For the thyroid, my doctor prescribed Synthroid, and for about three months, I was changing my dosage to come up with the right amount for me.