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    At the Precipice: My Three-Year Journey from Stroke to Good Health with Type 2 Diabetes
    At the Precipice: My Three-Year Journey from Stroke to Good Health with Type 2 Diabetes
    At the Precipice: My Three-Year Journey from Stroke to Good Health with Type 2 Diabetes
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    At the Precipice: My Three-Year Journey from Stroke to Good Health with Type 2 Diabetes

    By Jim Snell

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    About this ebook

    After forty years as an electronics engineer, Jim Snell had a stroke that ended his career but not his life. In 2007, Jim suffered the fate of many Americans who do not eat nutritiously and who live a sedentary lifehe had a stroke. Although it nearly took his life, it served as a new beginning. Reeling from the physical challenges presented by the stroke, Jim also had to learn to manage the underlying medical condition that had developedtype 2 diabetes.

    At the Precipice is the story of one mans journey back to health. After three years of doing everything he was told to domonitor his blood glucose, make better food choices, take his medications properly, and moreJim gained control over his disease.

    But like many, he was frustrated by what he perceived as a chasm between what his doctors knew and what they were sharing with him. Like many new diabetics, he found himself lost in a sea of conflicting information, vague advice, advertisements for miracle cures, and the promise of impossible advances in non-medical supplements. Though overwhelmed, Jim applied his engineers mind to the task, and this memoir details his experiences.

    Living with diabetes is no longer the death sentence it was once thought to be. Jim Snell is proof of that, and his story was written to inspire others who have developed this increasingly common disease.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateAug 12, 2011
    ISBN9781462034581
    At the Precipice: My Three-Year Journey from Stroke to Good Health with Type 2 Diabetes
    Author

    Jim Snell

    For forty years, Jim Snell worked as an electronics engineer, troubleshooting complex digital computer systems. Now retired after having a stroke, he enjoys walking and exercise, gourmet cooking, and old steam trains. He lives in Camarillo, California, with his wife and border collie/PBGV mixed-breed dog.

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      Book preview

      At the Precipice - Jim Snell

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      Chapter 2

      Phase 1: The Stroke

      Chapter 3

      Phase 2: Working through the Diabetes and Other Problems

      Chapter 4

      Phase 3: Solving the Issues

      Chapter 5

      Continuous Glucose Monitor System (CGMS)

      Chapter 6

      Pills

      Chapter 7

      Medicine List and Recipe

      Chapter 8

      Daily Routine: Summary and Overview

      Chapter 9

      Diet and Other Rain Dances

      Chapter 10

      Vitamins and Their Ilk

      Chapter 11

      Booze and Having a Drink

      Chapter 12

      Exercise

      Chapter 13

      Heartaches and Tears

      Chapter 14

      Insulin Loading and BG Numbers

      Chapter 15

      A BG-testing Strategy

      Chapter 16

      Conclusion

      Preface

      I wrote this book to share my experiences and detail how, after thirty years of my blood glucose numbers being all over the map, followed by a stroke on December 2, 2007, and serious degradation of my body by diabetes I was able to correct the situation to manage my type 2 diabetes properly for the first time. This stroke affected my balance, knocked my right eye out of alignment, gave me partial right-side paralysis, and hindered my ability to walk properly. This is not a self-help book, nor do I recommend that you follow the techniques, schedules, or medicines I used. Your medical regimen plan needs to be thoroughly reviewed, discussed, and approved by your doctor before you make any changes.

      Occurrences of diabetes have exploded in America and elsewhere. This means a huge amount of time, cost, and effort are needed to combat the disease. Doctors must see more and more patients in shorter and shorter time intervals. The goal of this book is twofold: first, to reduce the chances that others will have a stroke like or worse than the one I had; second, to share information about diabetes and show readers how to help their doctors and diabetic trainers manage their care. The best way to do this is to learn about the disease and collect the data that will get the targeted care that is needed.

      When someone goes to a doctor, often the generic advice is to focus on three main issues and solve them in that short visit. In fact, a diabetic patient, especially a new one, may have a tractor-trailer load of valid questions that all take priority, and he or she may feel overwhelmed.

      My hope is that this book will give you insight, hope, and ideas that you can review with your doctor to improve your type 2 diabetes program. I have tried to provide detailed explanations (written for the layman) of how things work, what I bumped into when working with my doctor, how we solved problems that arose, and the day-to-day management of my type 2 diabetes. My goal is to reduce the steep learning curve on this disease and its management from a layman’s perspective, to shine a light on it, and to ensure others don’t have to spend the three-plus years of grief I went through to get this under control.

      In the early stages of type 2 diabetes detection, it may seem you can take shortcuts, reduce intake of carbohydrates, cut out all extra

      candy and sugars, and proceed. I am here to tell you—don’t kid yourself, and follow your doctor’s medical, diet, measurement, and exercise advice closely. Should you have questions and confusion, it is most important to resolve those early and quickly. That is where one can quickly get off track and lost.

      Lastly, I need to send my deepest heartfelt thanks to my wife, Sharon, and my medical team (all located in California) for their unstinting help and care, in particular:

      Dr. Wilson Fung, MD, head doctor and diabetes doctor, Camarillo

      Dr. Phillip E. Maurice, MD, neurologist, Thousand Oaks

      Dr. Susan Chang, MD, kidney doctor, Camarillo

      Dr. Lewis Kanter, MD, allergy and lungs, Coastal Allergy Care, Camarillo

      James B. Mayer, OD, FCOVD, specialists in strabismus and repair of double vision, Agape Optometry and Learning Center, Thousand Oaks

      Dr. Kenneth R. Diddie, MD, retina specialist, Westlake Village

      Grace Wong, Pharmacist/Owner - Medicine Shoppe Newberry Park. Ca.

      St. Johns Hospital and Rehab Ward, Oxnard

      Best wishes and good luck.

      James W. Snell

      April 2011

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      The last few weeks have seen clear evidence of my last three-plus years, struggling to effect an incredible turnaround of my type 2 diabetes and get it under better control.

      On Sunday, November 7, 2010, I ran a Bayer At Home A1CNOW test to evaluate my A1C number, which was an amazing 6.9 percent. According to the documentation in the kit, 6.9 is in the green zone called in control. It was a remarkable improvement. A prior test done a year or so earlier had been horrific, with a reading of 13.3 percent. The A1C number is a measurement of the blood sugar glucose that has been picked up by the blood hemoglobin and provides a three-month history of the levels that one’s blood has been at.

      In October 2010, a lab test of my kidneys showed all good numbers in range and spec, and their efficiency had changed direction and now were showing improvement. My eye doctor noticed that my retinas were no longer hemorrhaging and had shown extensive healing. My allergist confirmed that my lungs had been improving. He put me on his gas analyzer laboratory machine. In the past, I could barely blow 470 with the aid of Albuterol and Qvar inhalers. Now I could easily blow 520 or better without aid on the handheld volume check unit.

      Finally, thanks to a twelve hundred-calorie diet, I have seen my weight drop dramatically—from a high of 330 pounds down to 280, and it is still dropping. Previously, I could not lose a pound, no matter what I did.

      In January 2011, I obtained a Continuous Glucose Monitor System (CGMS) so I could conduct my readings without sticking my finger thirty-two times a day. One month later, I was walking faster and better and started having serious hypoglycemic moments that required me to reduce my medication that included needle insulin type and pills. The comments out there indicate one can gain tighter control of diabetes by using a CGMS. That has been my experience.

      After a three-year-plus journey, starting with my stroke on December 2, 2007, and through four distinct phases of healing, I am now on the correct path, and my type 2 diabetes is under control. I had been detected as a type 2 diabetic in the 1980s and have been fighting that all the way through to today.

      The first phase took a year; this was the recuperating from the stroke, dealing with the physical disabilities it caused, and fixing my broken binocular vision. My right side, including my right eye, and balance on that

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