Planning ahead

We finished the "Living Well With Diabetes" course at Kaiser tonight. We attended the first class in February, and then because Zirpu was sick one night and we were in Mexico for another night, we attended the rest of the sessions, two weeks ago and tonight, to finish up. The Registered Dietitian teaching the course even had "graduation certificates" for everyone.


There were only about half the people in the class during tonight's session than there were two weeks ago. I was interested to see who wasn't there. One was a man who asked repeated questions trying to get the RD teaching the class to tell him that he could continue having his customary two scotch-on-the-rocks each night. The RD didn't lay down any hard rule about not drinking, though alcohol can make blood glucose go wacky. She pointed out, several times, that alcohol is made up of carbohydrates and diabetics need to limit their carbohydrate intake (more so than non-diabetics). The visual that came to my mind was similar to the riddle we used to ask each other in elementary school, "Which is heavier? A ton of feathers or a ton of lead?" The lead takes up much less room, just the way that a small butterscotch holds about the same amount of carbohydrates as a piece of bread.


People in the health professions have learned that coming down hard on patients about their lifestyles doesn't inspire much more than guilt, so it's all about presenting choices or possibilities now, like "How about smoking less?" or "Try walking ten more minutes a day." The RD tried hard with this man, but he was either being really obtuse or just resistant. All through the course, the RD took this approach about making choices and said it is no big crime to "mess up" and eat something you shouldn't, or eat more than you should, like at a party or something. You just start over. When someone else in the class said that she had been with a group of friends who wanted to go to a restaurant that didn't have anything she was supposed to eat, the RD suggested that she say she is taking better care of her health now and she won't be able to eat there, and they can go there and she'll go somewhere else and meet up later, if need be.


Another man who was there last week and not this week had clearly showed up because someone had told him he better go. I imagined a family member ordered that he show up. He came late, didn't listen to most of the lecture and discussion, and then left early saying it was time for his beer.


At the end of the class, the RD put up an overhead saying what she had said in the first class: "This is YOUR diabetes, only YOU can manage it. If you don't IT will manage you." I learned a lot about diabetes and how I can support Zirpu in managing it so we avoid all the complications that come with unmanaged diabetes.


The course reinforced my idea that this is the only body I have, and the few replacements parts are expensive and slow to be installed, kind of like those for my mom's old Renault 12. I'm operating with the assumption I am going to be around for a long time, and I want Zirpu to be around at least as long. I want our bodies to last as long as our lives do.