When sweet sugar became a nasty enemy…

Hey my Live Action eaters,

Today I found out some news..

News that is concerning that so many around the world have heard at some point in time.

That news is: “Your blood sugar is off the charts, looks like you have diabetes..”

I want to tell you my story and how to accept this new fight with confidence and faith.

Scriptures to stand on:

No weapon formed against you shall prosper! Isiah 54:17

By His stripes we are healed! Isiah 53:5

There is no name bigger than Jesus (Phil 2:9) and if God be for you than who can be against you!! Romans 8:31

Amen!

Let’s get the story started..

So as you know, I like to eat right..

Not just any type of food, but great tasting food. Food that catches your eye,peaks your taste buds and leaves you begging for more.

Fried chicken, mac n cheese, sandwiches, lasagna, pizza, barbecue, desserts and much more.

I have indulged in these American delicacies all my life without hesitation and it finally caught up to me.

I am 41 years old writing this and for the past 7 years doctors have told me I was prediabetic; meaning my blood sugar level was at the high peak of normal at around 5.6.

HGBA1C %

Since I didn’t see any affects from this pre-diabetic notion coming from the doctors, I continued to live my eating life in live action.

Now don’t misjudge and think I only like eating and not keeping healthy by working out 3 days a week religiously.

Work hard play hard is my mentality!

However, that play hard mentality involved liquor in most cases along with all kinds of carbs.

Bacon burger with fries, barbecue ribs with hotlinks, mac n cheese, potato salad, biscuits and tons of barbecue sauce and beer to go with it.

I try to think about what has changed in the last year that could cause the spike to hit in my blood as of the this year.

The only thing I can think of is my IPA intake, as I used to only drink Red Wine and I would have a shot or two of Jameson on special nights for the past couple of years.

This past year, I spent a lot more time drinking beer at bars and going out to eat,which could have had an impact.

Rather than sticking to how I got here, let’s talk about the symptoms that led me to get myself checked out, in hope that it will help you save yourself from a bad outcome.

Let’s get to it..

My newborn baby girl was born February 22nd and while it is a great moment in time, it is also an exhaustive time period as well.

Sleeping for only 4-5 hours a night,in and out of the bed, rocking and nurturing; and along with that, having to wake up at 6am and drive an hour commute to work.

That has been my life for 6 weeks straight. To add on to that, I was even sick for about a week and a half with a bad chest cold that came with a horrible cough and sucked my energy.

After the cough subsided, it seemed I was better, but my energy wasn’t all quite there.

Maybe the cold was not quite gone, maybe it’s the baby..

Oh well, I simply kept on my normal routine. Wake up at 6:30am, drive to work, and go to the gym Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Now 2 weeks before, April 17th, the exhaustion still seemed to not go away and I was finding that I was aggressively thirsty with a dry mouth. I didn’t know what it was, but since there was no pain involved I ignored it.

One day before taking a shower, I weighed myself and noticed I lost about 5 pounds from my usual weight. That was interesting to me since I really didn’t change anything in my diet or workout. I simply cheered myself on for the success of losing the weight.

After a day or two, I started noticing that when I urinated there seemed to be a lot of foam in the toilet and I urinated frequently.I had drank a beer a few of those days, so I thought nothing of it.

After another day or two as it continued to occur, I thought to myself I better go get checked out, because something was weird.

So on April 16th, I go in to the doctor for a urinalysis and a blood test to see what is going on.

His first thought is that it could be related to diabetes or my kidneys. He said he would look for sugar or protein in the urine.

I await my test, exhausted with a dry mouth driving home and once I arrived home I get the auto alert that a test has been received.

I open the results and to my shock, I see that my glucose level is >500mg while the normal reading is 0>49mg.

I knew that was bad, but wanted to wait until the blood results came back to see what was wrong.

There was no call or email that day,until 4am that night when I saw a weird 877 number call me.

I didn’t answer the first time and by the 2nd back to back call, I was in the bathroom and didn’t reach the phone in time. The 3rd call was to my wife’s cell phone and she answered quickly and then handed the phone to me saying it was the hospital.

The nurse immediately told me that my blood sugar level was above 600 mg and I needed to get to ER right away. Kind of scary thing to hear from a doc I tell ya..

So I got dressed and jumped in the car and got on my way.

Once I arrived they tested me again and thank God I dropped to 300mg. Still high but no longer critical.

They began to work on getting my blood sugar down right away, by injecting me with insulin every 4 hours and feeding saline into my veins to help flush out the sugar.

They also said I had Ketones in my blood. This is a risky thing when it comes to diabetes, as your body starts to eat itself to cover for the lack of energy getting to the cells.

This explains the rapid weight loss.

By the next day my blood sugar was fluctuating between 194-254 and a bit over 300mg after meals. The nerve racking that takes place not knowing if you are well or not while dealing with a silent killer like this can be constant. I kept the faith in the Lord knowing I am in His hands.

The Doctor comes in and let’s me know my acid level dropped significantly and got back to normal. Glory to God!

I’m better, but still high in blood sugar,so this battle is not over.

This is a lifetime change in food lifestyle that has to change starting now. Eat well or face the consequences. The battle against sugar has begun!!

As I leave the hospital they are starting me on 2 pills(Glipizide and Metformin). One of them is to help the body produce more insulin and the other is to sustain the insulin.

This is the first day I have returned back home and writing this to let you know that we can beat this together. I will do my part in helping the diabetic community, by showing you diabetic meals that are still tasty and have you eating in live action.

My first meal today:

Homemade salad, with 2 seared chicken tenders over a bed of spinach,kale, tomato, broccoli, beans, carrots, cucumber with 2 tsp of lite ranch dressing.

Lightly seasoned with Creole seasoning and this dish packs a punch! Perfect for lunch or dinner.

For dinner:

Lemon herb Salmon with bok choy and brown rice! Great healthy meal to keep that blood sugar in check..

Nothing but true live action living!!

Thanks for joining me on today’s scary adventure!

I look forward to seeing you on the next run! Keep hope alive!

Eating is an enjoyable way of life.

Live it..Learn it..Love it!

Trevis Dampier Sr.