| Hey, does anybody out there have diabetes?Well, | | | | vegetables, fruit and no bread! Gone were the |
| if you're shaped like a pear and you're from the | | | | days of freedom where I could eat fried pork |
| South where the three main food groups are | | | | chops, biscuits and gravy, mashed potatoes, wash |
| flour, sugar and lard, (pronounced shortening for | | | | it all down with a huge glass of sweet tea (with |
| you Northern folk) then you have a good chance | | | | real sugar) and finish it all off with an entire |
| of developing it.It ain't no picnic, and about as | | | | chocolate cake topped with a half gallon of vanilla |
| aggravating as a loose tooth.I wasn't always | | | | ice cream.No! I even had to eat my weeds and |
| round. I was a very skinny child, all hair and | | | | fruit from a small plate about the size of a silver |
| eyeballs. I have naturally curly hair and my mama | | | | dollar. Gone was the macaroni and cheese, the |
| refused to let me cut it until I was thirty or there | | | | cornbread and beans, the fried potatoes, the |
| abouts. You could have drawn big round eyes on | | | | overflowing plate and the sweet, sweet tea (with |
| a rag mop and stood us up side by side and we | | | | real sugar).If you need a good laxative, try |
| would have been twins.I ate what everyone else | | | | Splenda. The first time I tried it I was amazed. My |
| ate, but I stayed skinny, all the way through | | | | stomach started to make noises that sounded like |
| school and up until my fourth marriage. I've | | | | a volcano was getting ready to erupt. And talk |
| always felt that fat people were happy people. | | | | about flatulence! I tooted with each step I took. |
| My sister remarked on my weight gain and told | | | | And these weren't quite little poots either. It |
| me to get miserable for a change. "I swear , if | | | | sounded like thunder. It rattled the windows. My |
| you get any happier you won't be able to fit | | | | poor Hubby. He was so patient through it |
| through the kitchen door."Well, turns out she was | | | | all.However, since I was feeling a lot better after |
| right. I was pushing against 200 pounds this time | | | | the medication started working and my glucose |
| last year. I kept feeling sick, and short of breath. | | | | levels were beginning to return to normal, I have |
| My eyes didn't work right and I had about as | | | | stayed with the diet. It hasn't been easy. |
| much energy as a dead house cat. All of this | | | | Sometimes I get so hungry I could eat a pile of |
| combined was a pretty good sign that I needed | | | | dirt...if it was mixed with lard and sugar and |
| to see a doctor. I did. He did the blood work. He | | | | shaped like a biscuit.Oh, and I don't look extremely |
| told me I had developed type 2 diabetes.The | | | | happy anymore. I weighed this morning and I am |
| normal range for the hemoglobin A1c (a simple lab | | | | down to 129 pounds. I look like my rag mop once |
| test that shows the average amount of sugar | | | | again.Think I'll get us both dressed up, draw her a |
| (also called glucose) that has been in a person's | | | | pair of big round eyes and go have our pictures |
| blood over the last 3 months) should be around 7 | | | | taken. I'll be the one on the left with the short |
| or below. Mine was 14.3. My blood sugar had been | | | | hair.Leeuna Foster is a Marketing Strategist, |
| at a constant level of 400 for the past several | | | | Author and Poet. She has been writing for two |
| months.I was immediately handcuffed, taken into | | | | decades and her short fiction and poetry have |
| custody and sentenced to a life of green weeds, | | | | won several national and regional awards. |