It's been over a week now, I am ready to blog about the life changing event that occurred in our family on Friday, March 9, 2012.
First I should probably give you a little bit of background info. My husband has
sleep apnea. He wears a
CPAP machine at night when he sleeps due to the fact that he frequently quits breathing for short amounts of time as well as snoring LOUDLY. The "mask" as we call it in our family helps him to sleep, and as an added bonus, I sleep also...most nights. Sometimes he'll spring a leak in the seal between the mask and his face when he rolls around, causing an array of crazy noises that can sound anything like a squealing pig or an exploding geyser! Before he was diagnosed, he was constantly tired and felt like even after a full night's sleep he was still exhausted. Obviously this was due to the fact that his body was not sleeping because when he'd stop breathing, he would wake up, even he didn't remember it.
Once he was diagnosed and got this CPAP machine, he began to be less tired during the day and also got more sleep at night. He was diagnosed with this condition 7 years ago. Up until recently he has had no issues with exhaustion unless there were physical reasons such as being up late, getting up early, or just physical exhaustion from work. Recently, Brien has not only been overly exhausted, but also his vision has been blurry and he's been making frequent trips to the restroom, especially in the middle of the night...which obviously only add to his exhaustion.
It was bad enough that he decided on his own accord that he needed to to the doctor. For those of you reading this that don't know my husband, that's a big deal. I knew when he said that he needed to go to the doctor, it was serious.
Brien's father is a diabetic and he'd borrowed his glucose meter to test his sugar and the first time he tested his numbers were in the high 300s. He tested after eating a late breakfast which consisted of many high carb foods at IHOP. This time the meter just said "HI". This of course means that at this point his sugar was over 600! YOWZA!!! Against advise for him to go to the ER, he decided to just wait for the office visit scheduled for the next day due mostly to the fact that we have no health insurance.
As suspected, Brien was told by his doctor that not only is he type 1 diabetic but his cholesterol is also high, so now in addition to his once a day blood pressure pill, he's added a once a day cholesterol pill as well as a twice a day glucose pill. The doctor gave Brien a few valuable pieces of information as to how to get control of this. He told him to not eat anything white: flour, sugar, potatoes, rice, etc. This will make his life much easier. He also told him to walk three miles a day. With these two things, Brien could quite possibly get rid of the pills and take back control of his health.
At first I was upset with this news. Brien is only 34 years old, but there is a history of diabetes on both sides of his family. I guess, it is inevitable that he eventually has to deal with this health issue. At the age of 34, though I do not want my husband to be having to take 4 pills a day.
The more I have thought about this and prayed about it, I have realized what a blessing this has been for our family. My husband quit smoking two years ago (April 11, 2010). This was the first step toward a healthy lifestyle. I believe that God helped him accomplish this task in preparation for this journey that we are now facing. The day after Brien was diagnosed, he went to a nearby park with a walking trail and put in his first three miles! I can happily say that I did as well. He would have never been able to complete a three mile walk if he was still smoking two packs of cigarettes a day!
Since that day, I have not missed a walk. We've both decided that we want to get healthy and fit. We're changing our eating habits as well. I realized that although we received some very devastating news that day it could have been a lot worse. We are truly a blessed family and each and every day is a gift from God. Our bodies are a temple and we should always treat them as such. This was a wake up call to our family. I pray that our story can in some way do the same for you.
Going through the big D...
http://tishblack.blogspot.com/2012/03/going-through-big-d.html
