Group Acupuncture #1

In accordance with Dr. Sumetanon's instructions, I showed up for my first group acupuncture session. I checked in and paid my co-pay and then was directed to an area across the room behind a screen.

The girl behind the screen took my paperwork and gave me two alcohol swabs, instructing me to clean the skin of each ear while waiting. She also asked me what I would consider my pain level to be today, and I told her 8.

Another patient and I were the only two newcomers today, and we sat at one end of the room to wait for the acupuncturist. There were 10-15 chairs, arranged in an oblong shape, all with their back to the center. The Asian female acupuncturist explained that she would put five needles into each ear. Which she did. When she had served every patient in the "circle," she turned the lights down and left soft music playing. I didn't see if she left the room or not because my back was to everything else in the room.

It was a very pleasant and relaxing experience, but any decrease in pain lasted only as long as the session, which was about 35 minutes of actual needle time.

After the session, I was aghast to find out that I couldn't get into the second group acupuncture for several weeks! The girl behind the screen told me to call the acupuncture desk because there were often cancellations. So I decided to do just that!

At the Dentist Today

It was time. Six months seems to have passed very quickly! Always a painful experience for my bank account.

Fillings today. Looks like I'll be fasting the rest of the day.

Ouch! Based on the cost of today's dental experience, I should be fasting for a MONTH! Well, Jesus fasted for 40 days, so... I've GOT this!! Well, moving forward, if I just plan on a 30-day fast every 6 months, that should help mitigate the costs of my routine dental care. The benefits to my weight loss and blood-sugar control are just a bonus!

All I really need are avocados and almonds, blueberries and broccoli with butter, and coffee with cream and coconut oil. And eggs. Lots of eggs.

The only thing I really love about my dental care provider is the delightful ethnic diversity, from the Latina receptionist to the Asian and middle eastern dental assistants and hygienists, to my female Indian dentist!

Dentist-induced migraine. Thank God for sumatriptan. It was also a challenge today to manage my chronic neck pain (due to arthritis), given the contortions I was forced to maneuver into during the course of a cleaning and two fillings. I will *definitely* plan to have CBD and THC on hand before my next dental appointment!

Office Visit with Dr. Chan

This was my annual "free" physical checkup that Medicare is required to offer. I had already checked my lab test results and so I knew that my A1C was 5.9%--right in the middle of the "pre-diabetes" range! I was so elated with this news that it didn't really bother me that Dr. Chan was on a rant again about my "high cholesterol" and insisting I go back on statins. I pointed out to her that my HDL (the "good" cholesterol) was now over the minimum of 50 (it was 58) and my triglycerides are continuing to decrease (now at 123, down from 329 in 2013). I agreed to continue taking time-release niacin.

However, I did ask the question I should have asked months before this. I delayed asking then because I thought it should be in an office visit (instead of a phone appointment) so that Dr. Chan could actually feel my neck and detect a muscle spasm. I wanted to ask her about Flexeril or a similar muscle relaxant. That's when she said the infamous words that would haunt me for many months to come:

"At your age, there is nothing I can prescribe for your pain."

What?!? Old people are not allowed to have any relief from pain?!? And thus I began my quest--on my own--for pain relief!

At The Old Spaghetti Factory

Today was a good test for me. I attended the Pride on the Plaza Festival in Concord and ate with our Church 1.0 group at The Old Spaghetti Factory. While everyone else was having pasta and spumoni and Italian sodas, I had iced tea, house salad (no croutons), and one link of Italian sausage. I gave my ice cream to one of the children present. Stayed within Atkins food guidelines and carb count and blood sugar remained steady at 107 mg/dL. Yay, me!

Actually, it was surprisingly easy! Even the ice cream. Three years ago I would have killed for ice cream! The only problem was that the waiter forgot to bring out my Italian sausage with the rest of the order and I had to go hunt him down!

At California Pizza Kitchen, I can get a chicken Cesar salad (dressing on the side) with grilled chicken. At Old Spaghetti Factory, they use "lightly breaded" chicken for their Cesar salad. NOPE. It's a challenge to be creative in a restaurant. And immensely satisfying to be successful!

Losses

Today my friend Ryan Bell posted this:

"Some losses are a song interrupted. Some run their course and make coherent sense but sudden ruptures are deeply unsettling. Like a chord unresolved, it irritates and agonizes, not necessarily even because you loved the song so much, but because that's not how music is supposed to work. Like a story that ends midstream, it offends our highly trained narrative ethic."

This is especially meaningful to me as I am struggling with the first anniversary of my devastating loss last year of losing my biggest web client, which represented 20% of my income. And way more than 20% of my life.

What does this have to do with my diabetes journey, with my Year Without Carbs? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I am two weeks into The 30-day Richard Osborn Challenge, which is to see how close I can get to 10,000 steps a day. I was doing this last May and almost made it when everything came to a grinding halt on May 25. I have not walked since then, not until May 1 of this year when I began again. I'm not doing anywhere near 10,000 steps but I am putting on socks and shoes, taking a water bottle, finding a hat and sunglasses, and getting Barley dressed for the excursion. Some days I even manage to take along my iPod.

I'm also starting the second week of The New Atkins for a New You challenge and have survived seven days without half-and-half, almonds, and raspberries. Not even one. This is first time I've felt even remotely ready to take on this challenge! So far, no morning migraines, Dawn Phenomenon is minimal, and I haven't yet choked on any medication, swallowing pills with almond milk instead of half-and-half. Gawd, I miss half-and-half, though! But I will survive.

Challenges for Healing

Today I am beginning a 30-day challenge with the Atkins group, based on Dr. Eric Westman's book, The New Atkins for a New You. Now that I have my migraines and Dawn Phenomenon under better control, I think I can do this! Plus, I just discovered that Dr. Westman uses Net Carbs and I'm so used to calculating total carbs, that this should be a breeze! The main challenges for me will be giving up drinking 1/2 cup of half-and-half twice a day to swallow my pills with. And no cottage cheese, yogurt, nuts, or berries (with exception of the unsweetened almond milk).

I really love this Atkins approach since it is so appropriate for diabetics and accommodates all dietary lifestyles, from vegan and vegetarian to Adventist non-vegetarian. Contrary to popular misinformation, Atkins is not "high protein" or "all about meat." It is low-carb, moderate-protein, and high-healthy-fat. In fact, the basis of the diet is "Foundation Vegetables"--a list of 50-100 cooked and uncooked vegetables that are nutrient-dense and low in carbohydrates. I have my menus planned for this first day and the total is 19.7 grams of carbs.

One of the rules of this group's challenge is to do some kind of exercise every day. If walking, the final goal is to get up to 5,000 steps/day by the end of the month. I am already one week into The 30-day Richard Osborn Challenge with the Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics group and yesterday I did 6,145 steps, which I think may be my limit since I am having leg muscle twitches at night which (according to Google) is "because lactic acid accumulates in the muscles used during exercise."

I so need both of these challenges this month of May. For my healing.

Ryan Bell Is Back!

I posted this on Facebook yesterday (March 29, 2017):

Ryan Bell is back! After a 6-month "hiatus" from podcasting, he has just published another one. And I just finished listening to it. I have been curious about what he's been doing, other than being at Iron Triangle Brewery, but I figured he'd tell us sooner or later. And he did. Sort of.

But the significance of this is that I have been on my own hiatus--from life--for 6+ months. Like Ryan's silence on "Life After God," I have been deathly silent on my blog, "Year Without Carbs" (which began in 2015, the year after Ryan's "Year Without God"). And I'm almost (but not quite) ready to break this silence, as soon as I get my tax returns done. ("What?!? You don't have your taxes done YET?" I can hear my kids chiding me.)

I was SO glad to hear Ryan admit to having been depressed and to know that even young straight white males get depressed. That it's not just old, sick, and poor gay women of color that are affected. All of 2016 was pure crap for me, actually beginning during the 2015 year-end holidays and culminating in June with the loss of my biggest web client, representing 20% of my income. And then the presidential election totally finished it! Since then it's been a steady stream of ugliness on social media with restricting, unfollowing, blocking, and unfriending hundreds, from total strangers to those whom I once considered close friends.

Way too many people last year, from celebrities to people who are or were close, have died or have been diagnosed with cancer or some other potentially terminal condition. My own health has suffered in ways that only my closest friends and family members have any inkling about. My standing quip is that I'm going to die in a diabetic coma while living under the I-880 overpass. At least we already have a tent!

So much of what I heard Ryan say tonight resonated with me on so many levels, not the least of which is that change is inevitable. And I don't do well with change at my age. I refuse to stop using the Oxford comma. I am not growing old gracefully. But I also realize I have no alternative.

So, until I'm actually able to blog again, I want to repeat something Ryan quoted three years ago today: "Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can, and wine to accept the things I can't."
....

One of my FB friends had this response:

"I have diabetic issues and aging concerns as well. For me being on right medications and dealing with depression and bipolar tendencies are paramount, staying away from people who are toxic to me, staying away from media except to get a sense of what's going on to some extent. Are you depriving yourself too much with no carbs? I've decided that keeping my blood sugars at 100 is unrealistic so I'm trying to keep them under 150 with my doctor's permission which allows me treats from time to time. Thanks for your honest sharing."
....

And I felt obliged to reply:

"This is for anyone who may have concerns about my carbs. First of all, the 'Year Without Carbs' title of my blog is a little misleading because it's definitely NOT a no-carb lifestyle! The short story is that I get my carbs from non-starchy leafy green and cruciferous vegetables, nuts, seeds, and low-carb fruits like avocados, olives, and strawberries instead of from grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, and most fruit. The only thing I am 'depriving' myself of is peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy, liver disease, and kidney failure, as recent research has shown organ and nerve damage to occur with blood glucose readings over 140 mg/dL. I treat myself to eggs, bacon (gasp!), and cheese, heavy cream in my coffee, and real butter on my steak and broccoli. In spite of Kaiser now saying that it's 'okay' for diabetics over 60 to have an A1C of 8%, I believe that we old people have just as much right to have normal blood sugars as younger people! However, that is my story (and I'm stickin' to it), and I affirm and support anyone on their own journey, whatever it is, as long as they are achieving their own personal goals."

...

And now I feel more obligated than ever to play catch-up on what has happened in my diabetes journey since I last posted in August 2016. Most likely I will date the posts retroactively. I'm a bit OCD in that way!