So, here comes.
About a month ago, I was in need of a change. I felt it in my body; I wanted to do something with my life; I didn’t know what it was or how it was supposed to manifest, but I was 100% ready for it. I even got a brand-new tattoo which means “change” or “transformation”. I didn’t know yet what I was going to transform or what was about to transform me, but it looks like the Universe had already had some special plans lined up for me, as if in response to my mental requests.
Let me backtrack this story a little bit, so that you can learn a bit more about me before we go any further. I’m a female in my thirties, generally pretty healthy and active. I do yoga and have done it for about the last 20 years of my life (on and off!). I eat mostly healthy… mostly! I love my wine (guilty!) but no sugary sodas in my diet, ever. That would be enough of an introduction for now, I think.
You see, about the same time I was desperately looking for a change, I’d also just finished reading a book about general health and how to track it better. I learned all about the blood tests, wearable devices, fancy apps – you name it. And so, I thought to myself – here it is! I’ve got a plan! (And a transformation to come with it). I decided to re-start my intermittent fasting regimen that I’d had a huge success with some 6 years ago. The plan was to eat OMAD (a fasting term for one meal a day) with no specific meal plans in particular – just whole, unprocessed foods.
Since I got very fascinated with tracking the results (that’s the data nerd in me speaking!), I decided to get a blood ketone meter to check my ketones every morning. There were two similar devices offered on the website: one for tracking ketones only, and the other one for tracking both blood glucose and ketones. The dual tracking device was on sale, so I decided to get that one instead (and the book also recommended to check your blood sugars if possible, so that was an added bonus!). Exciting stuff.
On the “control” morning when my fasting journey was to start, I took a measure of my fasting blood glucose first. My ketone strips remained untouched since that day, the day that was to change the course of my life for the foreseeable future.
After much trial and error (I’d never before had to do finger pricks and I get dizzy from looking at blood – oh, the irony!), three wasted strips later, I got my result flashing on the little monitor screen: 14 mmol/L. Like I mentioned already, fasting glucose wasn’t of much interest to me, but I decided to check it against the standard range anyway. As you can already imagine, the result has shocked me. For your reference, below is a graph showing standard fasting blood glucose ranges:
And mine was 14 mmol/l! It was a very early morning when I did this test and I thought to myself – surely, I’m doing something wrong here! So, I performed the test again, with the same result showing on the screen.
What does a normal person do when they do an at-home blood test, and their results show up as abnormal? Yes, my friend, we GOOGLE everything we can find on the internet and scare ourselves to death! My Google search turned out to be exactly like that, with one particular statement popping up from every corner of the internet: “…if your fasting blood glucose is more than 7 mmol/l on more than one occasion, you are likely to have DIABETES.” The D-word. DIABETES.
My first thought was: BUT I CAN’T BE DIABETIC! I’M SKINNY, HEALTHY AND I DO YOGA!
My second thought (and so my next Google search) was: What are the SYMPTOMS of diabetes?
Some of the more common symptoms mentioned included frequent urination, constant thirst, unexplained weight loss and blurred vision. Yes, guilty, I do wee a lot, but I have done so since I remember myself and I’ve always known it had something to do with the funny shape of my bladder than with anything else. Other than that, I never experienced any “common” symptoms.
No, I’m definitely not diabetic.
I will have to stop writing here for a second. From then on, “I’m not diabetic” has become a bit of a mantra that I would repeat about 50 times a day. There would be more discoveries to come – with more emotions to unveil – but this a story for another post and another day.