I've done my best to prepare, now it's time to take the test!

Today is Tuesday, July 28, 2009 and it's the day that I visit my doctor for my six month check up. Since finding out about my situation with diabetes these visits always seem more like going for an FBI interview where I will be asked about all my activities over the past six months. To be honest, I have struggled with the diet I need to be on, maintaining my target weight, and in keeping up with the tracking I need to do to monitor how well I am controlling my blood glucose. If sixty is the new forty, well, I must have not been there that day when they handed out those certificates because I certainly do not feel forty. You are only as old as you feel is the saying but some days my way of appreciating this youthful orientation is greatly challenged. My wife tells me that I am looking weak eyed lately and I do feel a little fatigued but I'm not so sure that is very unusual for these humidity and heat saturated days. Plus I know my doctor will have some thoughts about the lost tribes of Israel and I certainly am not up to having a huge theological exchange with him.

I voluntarily cut back on the amount of acetaminophen I take for arthritis after all the press on its potential for liver damage. I was taking it within the recommended dosage levels but some of what I read make even these levels suspect. Maybe that's why I am dragging a little and feel like someone has taken a tire tool to me while I was sleeping. Aches, pains, and weak eyes. It's a wonderful life George Bailey and you had better know it! It is a wonderful life and as soon as I turn off my complaint module I will turn on the thankfulness unit because I am so very blessed in so many ways. My wife came home. What? You thought she might take the opportunity to get out of Dodge permanently? Not hardly. She came home to a clean house with all the chores done and accounted for. She even gave me an 'E' for Excellence on my report card. It's always good to have things back to normal. She is my 'normal' and one of the great blessings God has given into my life!

Okay. I have done my preparation for my doctor's visit as best I could. I have read and re-read all the literature on the prescriptions I take and the latest information available on diabetes. I will be making a list of any questions I have for him and will try to keep him and I focused on the main reason for me being there, ME! I don't mean that in a selfish way but to be honest, I most likely wouldn't drive through traffic and hurry to make my appointment typically causing me to have to explain my blood pressure just to visit with him about his latest Adventist research. But I am thankful for his approach to dealing with my problem(s). Thus far he has dealt with everything in a way that uses a minimal approach to control and it has been mostly effective. This approach takes time for adjustment to get everything leveled out but doing it this way has avoided going after the latest greatest big gun medications which can always be used if needed. When any of us render a service or deliver an outcome, over time it is the results that count and that's why I thank God for my doctor and will even put up with some of his unrelated dialogue. The Bible tells us that we can be sure our sins will find us out (see Numbers 32:23) and I know after all the battery of blood tests they will be doing on me, my good and bad efforts will be revealed. No wonder I get up tight over these exams! Have a blessed day and don't forget to find something to be thankful for! Amen. ....More later.