August 1st, 2007
Back at the end of March, I posted something about reviewing my New Year’s resolutions to see how they were going. I said I would revisit the topic in three months, but I was lazy and didn’t post anything for the entire month of July. I’m finally somewhat motivated again, so here we are looking at those resolutions again.
My main resolutions I talked about had to do with exercise, eating, sleeping and updating this site more often. I’ve been doing well with some of these things, and not so well with others.
I’ve been hitting the gym regularly, except for a short break during July. The gym at Durham College where we used to go closed down, and we worked out in the basement for a few weeks, then decided to take a break. Now that the new gym is open at the college, we’ve been going fairly regularly again. I’ve also been consistent with the bike riding, with only one week where I didn’t ride at all, due to the weather and a bit of laziness on my part.
I was doing fairly well with the eating and sleeping up until the summer started. There’s so many parties, barbecues, cottages and other things going on, that I find it difficult to “eat right” all the time. The same thing goes for sleep. The weather is great, the sun stays out late, and it’s not easy to get to bed at a reasonable hour all the time. I think I’ll just consider this all summer distractions, and I’ll get back into the swing of things once September rolls around.
As for the website/blog updates, they were going well until the end of June. I had at least one post per week, until I just got lazy and uninspired. But I had a month off, and now I should be back to posting regularly, whether people actually read this or not…
October 13th, 2006
We had a pretty good party and there were a lot of empties. 10 cases plus six stray bottles - just enough money for a case of Lucky…
June 28th, 2006
Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It’s not a fun thing to learn you have an uncurable disease that will stay with you for the rest of your life. However, I’ve learned a lot in the past weeks, and I’ve realized that while my life has changed dramatically, having diabetes is not going to prevent me from doing the things I want to do. It will definitely change the way I live my life, but it’s more of an adjustment than anything else.
For those unfamiliar with type 1 diabetes, it is an auto-immune disease, in which your immune system destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Insulin is a very important hormone that is needed by cells in the body in order to use glucose, which is the body’s main source of energy. Without insulin, the cells can’t get energy, and therefore they keep signalling the body for more food. This leads to increased hunger and thirst, but no matter how much you eat or drink, the cells are still unable to use the nutrients because insulin is not present. Since you cannot use the sugars that are present in the blood, the body will act like it’s starving and will start breaking down fat (and eventually muscle and organs) for fuel.
It all started just over a month ago when I suddenly started losing weight. I was actually trying to put on a few pounds during this time, so it was a bit surprising to see the scale going down week after week. During this time I was also really tired all the time, super thirsty and peeing a lot. These are all classic symptoms of diabetes. My dad also has Type 1 Diabetes, and after talking to him about it, he suggested I check my blood sugar with his glucometer. My reading was quite high - much higher than a ‘normal’ person’s blood sugar should ever get. This concerned my dad, so off to the hospital we went.
At the hospital, they checked a few things and took a bunch of blood samples. Fortunately, there was not a long wait, and they gave me my own bed in the emergency ward almost immediately. They put me on an IV and gave me insulin to bring my blood sugar down. It was a really weird experience, but the nurses at Oshawa General Hospital made it much more bearable. They were super friendly and took really great care of me while I was there. They were going to keep me overnight, but after my symptoms improved, they released me at about 3:30am so I could go home to sleep in my own bed.
The next day I went to see my doctor and I was referred to the Charles H. Best Diabetes Centre in Whitby by one of my wonderful co-workers. I cannot say enough good things about the staff at the centre. Finding out I am diabetic was difficult, and it brought a lot of questions and uncertainty with it. Everyone at the Best Centre is very supportive, extremely knowledgeable and will do their best to help out in any way that they can. They really made adjusting to this new life easier for me.
At this point, I am taking insulin injections four times per day. It’s really not as bad as I thought. The first injection is the worst one, and after that they all get easier. So far the worst part is pricking my fingers several times a day to get a drop of blood so I can test my blood sugar. I met with a dietician at the Best Centre, and I was delighted to learn I can eat almost anything I want. Things aren’t so restrictive like they used to be, so I can still eat sweets (in moderation). As long as I eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly and take my insulin, I should be as healthy as any ‘normal’ person, if not healthier.
That’s all about diabetes for now. For more info, check out some of the links below:
http://www.charleshbestcentre.com - The diabetes centre in Whitby
http://www.ianblumer.com - Dr. Blumer specializes in diabetes and works with the Best Centre. He has written a couple of books on diabetes and his website is a wealth of info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes - An encylopedia-like explanation of diabetes, with more scientific details than most people would probably want 
