How I Saved My Own Life (page 2 of 7)

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Denise Gets a Deadline

Denise wasn't sick enough to need insulin injections yet, so the nurse-practitioner offered a less alarming option. "I'll give you one month to get your blood sugar down with weight loss and exercise," she said. After prescribing a strict 1,800-calorie-a-day diet and no sweets, she studied Denise for a moment. The health care provider saw an overweight woman in a baggy sweat suit perched awkwardly on the paper-covered exam table, looking frightened and defeated. "Honestly, I don't think you'll be able to do it," the nurse added. "If anything, you'll probably gain weight and have to go on oral medication."

Denise burst into tears. "So many emotions raced through my head -- shock, fear, denial, grief -- that I could hardly hear what the nurse was telling me. It was still sinking in that I had diabetes, just like my mother." Her mom had been on oral medication, but her blood sugar was always going up and down, and there were times when she had to go on insulin. And even that didn't really work, since she ended up with such awful complications. "I realized that I could lose my eyesight or my legs, and felt like my life was over," Denise says.

The nurse's grim assessment rang painfully true. "Even as a child, I was chunky," says Denise. "I'd tried lots of diets, but they never worked. I'd lose a few pounds, then gain them back -- plus a little extra." The problem was the unhealthy eating habits she'd learned from her parents, who were both seriously overweight. Her childhood meals had typically consisted of meat and fried potatoes, or pizza piled with extra cheese, followed by a rich dessert, patterns that persisted when Denise was an adult. "I don't know how many calories I was eating a day, but it was a lot. I'd have three big meals, drink four or five cans of Pepsi, and then snack on doughnut holes and Snickers bars," she says. Over the years, her weight soared to 255 pounds on her five-foot-nine frame.

• The Secret Behind Denise's Turnaround
• Experts say some minor changes make a big difference in preventing and defeating diabetes. Here are 3 you can try today.
• 
• Your Diabetes Prevention Plan
• Decrease your risk of getting diabetes.
• 
• Tips for Helping a Person With Diabetes
• Your support can make a big difference in how well your loved one copes with diabetes.
• 
• Diabetes Resources
• Organizations dedicated to providing you with information and support about living with, and preventing, diabetes.
• 
• Making Healthy Changes to Prevent Diabetes
• "It finally sunk in -- my weight was killing me."
• 

A patient limped into our University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill hospital with his girlfriend in tow. His back was killing him, and he wouldn't stop griping about his chiropractor.

"I could just wring his neck," he said angrily. "All that money, and he's nothing but a charlatan."

His girlfriend disagreed. "I thought he was from Raleigh."

-- Alex Aggen

“ I happen to feel that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic. ”

— Lisa Alther

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