For the Sake of Full Disclosure

“For the sake of full disclosure” is typically not how you like conversations to begin.  My son once started a conversation this way the day after Jenni and I returned from a trip to Paris.  He went on to explain that he had become light-headed, collapsed, hit his head, left a pool of blood on the bathroom floor, and his fiancé took him to the emergency room.  He didn’t want us to be caught off guard by any communication from the insurance company.

Well, for the sake of full disclosure, I think I need to further expound on my new found weight-loss program.

Recently I touted the miracle of Second Breakfast and still being able to drop weight and even reach my goal weight.  (Second Breakfast was typically eating a baked good a few hours after eating a breakfast bar or some simple food item; it led to numerous quests for the perfect Mom-and-Pop bakery while traveling in Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.)

After sharing that information, I continued to lose more weight.  Over breakfast one day at the home of dear friends (which was so delicious and plentiful that it qualified as First AND Second Breakfast), the friend asked me ‘Are you okay?’  I replied that I had seen my doctor that week and had blood work scheduled for the next week but I felt fine.

The bloodwork results told another story.

Most of you have probably figured out by now that I have been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

I can’t say that it comes as a big shock.  My mother dealt with the same late in her life and I’ll always remember my paternal grandmother baking oatmeal cookies but never eating them, only having Angel Food Cake for dessert, and carefully monitoring bread and other carbohydrate servings.  I suspected the day would come for me.

So for now the doctors are trying to help me find the right dosage of medicine to help control the glucose.  I’m evaluating the various after-tastes of sugar-free food products.  (Light Blue Agave sweetener is great in my morning coffee.) I still crave Second Breakfast.  In fact, we stopped at Justus Orchard near Hendersonville, NC this week for some apples; Jenni asked what kind of apples I wanted and I said ‘the apple cider donut kind’.  Yes, we picked up a half dozen.  And an apple fritter. 

And I’m learning to stick myself to check my blood sugar.  (But I probably won’t check it after those donuts.)  The first finger prick took about an hour and resulted in enough frustration that Jenni determined it was better for her to keep working in the yard.  (Maybe I should tell my son there was another pool of blood in the bathroom…..nah.)

Life is good.  It sometimes throws a curve ball at you, but it’s still good.

As a dear friend recently said, “Sorry to hear about your health circumstances, but--on you go.”