HEALTH & WELLNESS
Dear Body
Our Bodies Are Guides Too
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One Month Ago:
Dear Body,
I’m trying to listen carefully to you, but I’m still not understanding what you need from me. You told me before about needing more restorative sleep and I’m glad we’ve got that sorted out. I know there’s more, though. Please be really, really clear with me about what you need so I can take appropriate action.
Sincerely, Me
Three Weeks Ago:
“It would be worth checking your blood sugar again,” Dresden told me one morning, shortly after I woke up.
“Oh?” I’d been checking it occasionally in the mornings for a fasting number. It had been hanging out in the low 120s for years, my HbA1C test results keeping me in the prediabetes range for over two decades after increasingly severe cases of gestational diabetes with each pregnancy.
I grabbed my test kit and took a reading. 150 mg/dL. That can’t be right. I chose a test strip out of a new container and tried again. 152 mg/dL. Oy.
Maybe it was a fluke, a one-off. Or maybe not. I began testing two hours after every meal and taking a fasting reading every morning for the next several days. My after-meal numbers were largely fine, but my fasting numbers were all over 145 mg/dL.
I made a lab appointment to get my HbA1C checked. It was time, anyway.
Twenty-four hours, a high random blood glucose reading (nearly the same as my own test kit reading), and an A1C of 6.5% later, I made an appointment with my doctor.
Two Weeks Ago:
“You now have type 2 diabetes,” my doctor said. “And celiac disease. And your blood pressure medicine, even at the increased dosage, isn’t working.”
I nodded, knowing all this but not thrilled about hearing it said aloud.
“I’d like to add a second blood pressure medication, as well as add another diabetes medication to your metformin,” she continued.
From her pre-appointment email, I knew we’d be talking about this, so I’d done quite a bit of reading. I knew from my own health history that adding a calcium channel blocker was the best second…
