And the Envelope, please....

I went for my 3 month follow up test results yesterday. I was anxious, nervous and tried not to feel too confident if in case, the results were not what I expected. When Dr. Tung waved a paper in his hand saying “Here’s your report card and you get an A+”, I felt like a school kid who passed a major exam. And in fact, I did.

I could feel my whole face beaming. And it also showed on the doctor’s face. We were just all smiles in the office. Dr. Tung sat down and started to go over the numbers. Right off the bat, he said "I no longer consider you diabetic and if I just met you at this moment and based on these numbers, Diabetes is not an issue." I sat grinning and shaking my head. WOW!

Then he checked off the other stats which he said were all normal…liver and kidney function, blood count etc. He came to the number I was most concerned with. The last three months I have been able to personally monitor my blood pressure and glucose levels. I had no idea how my cholesterol was doing although that was the only issue I was taking medication for. The doctor wrote down “225” saying that was my LDL from 3 months ago. I think I blanked that out. Because whenever I spoke about my cholesterol with anyone, invariably the person would ask “what was the number?” and I would say…oh…it was high! But I never could remember exactly what it was. Just passing it off as higher than 200. Which if course, could mean anything! But there it was…225. Sigh. But then his pen moved to a number on the page which meant nothing to me since it didn’t look like there was any correlation. The number was 66.2 and the doctor happily said “this is now your number.” OMG! I wanted to jump up and down. I wanted to shout “Hallelujah!” But I just sat still…heart beating fast with excitement.

It really works! Diet, exercise, will power…aggressive life-style changes. I knew the medication was going to work wonders on me with my low tolerance of any medication and alcohol. But I don’t think even I thought it would be this huge. I know the doctor was very surprised saying it surpassed all his expectations.
He even said I could possibly get off any medication if I was able to keep this up. Another WOW!

I floated out of the office. The doctor said to hang my report on the fridge with an A+ on it. I said I was going to email everyone which I did. I just had to share my news. Elation was not anything close to what I was feeling.

But I know I am not cured. I know it’s a daily conscious effort to maintain my health and keep everything under control. I am so grateful for the people in my life that has supported me during this transitional period with discreet advice, gentle prodding and enthusiastic encouragement to get me to where I am today. Without Winnie, Kathy, Daniel & Nikki to name a few, this experience wouldn’t have been as manageable or as satisfying. I am so looking forward to an absolutely fantastic New Year! Now back to the treadmill!