Reply to Middle Age Health Feels like sword of Damocles (Diabetes, cancer scare, HBP, HLDL)

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[quote=Anonymous]I've had an autoimmune disease since childhood which has always put me at risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes -- and my autoimmune disease got nearly debilitating in the last decade, but the magic new biologics have moderated it.

In the last 5 years thought, its been a relentless march at each physical: high cholesterol needs statins, high blood pressure, here 3 daily pills, and just last physical: diabetes (its been marching up over the last decade, but a1c jumped an entire 1% in the last year, which is kinda of shocked my doctor).  I am overweight, BMI 30 so obese, but all the guides saying "give up soda" and "stop eating junk food" frustrate me -- I haven't drunk soda since my teens except the occasional craft indulgence, I haven't drunk alcohol since my autoimmune flared a decade ago, I don't eat fast food -- I do eat to much of the staples we keep at home, like nice cheeses, fresh baked breads, egg salad for example.  But typical day, coffee with cream no sugar, oatmeal for breakfast, a salad with hard boiled eggs and homemade dressing for lunch, some kind of chicken with roasted vegetables for dinner.  With the diabetes, I see things like roasted sweet potatoes have high glycemic index, so there are probably a few gotchas in my diet, and I clearly eat too much but it just feels like the easy fixes are not here.

I hit the gym about 2-3 times a week; not the greatest workout because its late when the kids are asleep, and I regularly hit 10k a day daily walking average.  I need to up the intensity and get back to weight training like i did in my youth.

On top of all this, at 50 I've been diagnosed with a very rare disease (50k in the entire world) which has a spectrum of outcomes -- it could just be some weird blood work (what they saw now) and it can progress quickly to a fatal cancer -- so I have that sword of Damocles over my head as well.

My kids are still young, I don't want them growing up with out a father, but every few months I see my mortality edging closer.  I would really love to make it to 70, so my kids are all launched.  None of my parents or grandparents made it past 75; but they all smoked and drank so I hoped I had an edge, but I guess you cant escape genetics.

I'm meeting with an endo in a few months; I think getting the diabetes controlled is now my priority, and add to my roster of doctors appts (I have like 4 appts a month, I think my boss thinks I'm dying -- honestly, I think I'm dying...).

I'm tying to eat low glycemic and low carb and hopepully control my a1c somewhat.  I'm using the more relaxed summer with the kids to up my exercise routine, and next year when they are back to their schedule, I'm going to phone it into work somewhat and prioritize getting in a daily work out and more walks.  Not sure if there is FMLA for "i'm freaking falling apart"...

I haven't told my wife about my diabetes a1c score -- I figure it can wait until I talk to the endo and really know the scope.  We already had a bunch of crying weeks because of the cancer scare, and she sees me popping my meds like the old man from Up, so I just don't need to add to her worry of being a widow.

Thanks for letting me put fears to paper, so to speak, and speaking of my most immediate crisis, folks who have dealt with an a1C of 6.5 at 50 -- what should I expect for the road ahead?[/quote]

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