General Music Chat

Any of you guy's deal with this affliction. Lately I have been feeling like crap. I went to the doctor and he asked me what was wrong so I described what I have been experiencing. He told me I just described textbook diabetes. Sent me for a blood test looked at the results from the test and said yep you are diabetic. So now I fear my love affair with food is about to come to a screeching halt. I was just curious if any of ya'll have it and what problems from a musicians standpoint I can expect.

First and foremost as a newly diagnosed diabetic you owe it to yourself to learn about your disease.
Find youself a good diabetic educator and learn all you can.
Non compliance is NOT an option.
I repeat non compliance is NOT an option!!
The process of diabetes can harm every cell in your body.

That being said the best diabetic's I work with know their disesase.
They know their bodys. As we each are individuals so will be your response to the disease process. They can tell me when their sugar is high or low, and it involves more than food !!!
Stress, emotional or physical will jack with your sugars faster than a handfull of twienkies. As will many medications.

The good news is most people whom go to the trouble to learn and utilise the avaiable information live long full healthy lives.
The ones whom dont lose limbs, major organ function, eyesight, etc.

Oh and did the nurse tell you ?
NON COMPLIANCE IS NOT AN OPTION !!
Forgive my blunt bedside mannors.
God Bless my friend .

Yes, I've been dealing with it. No, I don't have it, but my wife does, so every day I get a runing commentary about her latest aches & pains. If you feel 1/2 as bad as she does, I'm feeling very sorry for ya, JH!

She was gonna handle it wirh diet (I think she's actually borderline), but that, of course, didn't work, so now she's on the pills, but they don't really seem to help her complaints...

There are dietetic ways of handling this thing, JH, IF you are borderline, or haven't had it a long time, I do believe. They just aren't much fun. No drinking, cut out the bad carbs that taste so good, & cutting back on some proteins as well, but I'm not 100% sure of all of that, so don't quote me. Do your research & watch what you eat. Once you go on the lil pills, I hear you're stuck with 'em for life...sans is better able to tell you this stuff than I am, but there are alternatives out there you should prolly check out. I'd be very leery of a Dr that wants to put you on pills right off the bat, unless your condition is very very serious.

JH,

I am borderline diabetic. I may have it now, cause I haven't been to a doctor in a LONG while for a checkup. Sadly, I haven't changed my food habits much. But you have inspired me to get back on that horse.

You are lucky you cught it when you did.

And you are lucky you have a cool badass musican/nurse pal, that can not only give you good advice, but kick someone's ass in a dark alley with you, if need be!

Listen to sans. Listen to the doctors.

F*ck the bad foods!

It's not worth your life bro!

I agree with all of you guy's. I started noticeing I had a problem about 7 weeks ago. Drinking was making me feel bad instead of good Arrg! up every hour on the hour all night long to take a leak. Bladder fills up every hour, I know thats a little to much info. I haven't changed my eating habits but I am loosing weight my cloths don't fit anymore and I had to put 2 new holes in all of my belts LOL! I haven't had a decent nights sleep in about a 1&1/2 months. I mean I feel like crap. My blood sugar was 489 when it should be no more than 150 so the doctor has to put me on the pill he said if I take the meds and follow the diet ARRG! I will feel better by the end of the week. The Doctor gave me a blood testing kit and a script for another kit I have to test my blood sugar level 3 times a day at first. He wants me back in his office next Wed.

Guy's I have been as healthy as a horse all of my life untill rescently I started to get gout a lot but my Doc. finally got my meds straight and I have had no out breaks of that and now this. I remember my Dad telling me in 1986 that after 50 things start going wrong with you. I don't think I will jack with diabetes I am going to do exactlly what the Doc says.

Whew 489 ?

Non compliance is not an option!!!

Ok I'll give it a rest. You have stated you have good insurance.
Your local hospital system should have a Diabetic Nurse Educator:
Seek ye out a Good one. He / she will teach you more than many Dr.s. Many of them are diabetic as well.
Watch your feet, and any what most of us Texans would consider meaningless small cuts or sores.
You body will not fight infections like it once would.
Many a man lost a foot from a simple ingrown nail.
Invest in the right shoes, NOW.
Much of your outcome very much depends on YOU!!

Ive been a Type 1 diabetic since 79. It takes a bit of sacrifice and determination to keep it under control sometimes but ive been able to do and live like I want without a lot of difficulty. I take an average of 5 shots of insulin everyday, and prick my fingers 6-8 times a day. But thats what I have had to do for 30 years now so its become a daily ritual for me. I hope you will be able to control yours by eating a sensible diet and getting the proper exercise as most type 2 diabetics can, but it wont be easy at first. Please dont let this depress you or worry you to the point it makes you feel worse. I know I went thru several periods of depression before I could get a reasonable handle on it. I was in the army at Ft Knox when I was diagnosed to have it. And I spent 46 days in the Ireland army hospital ,11 in intensive care. This was from going into keto-acidosis after my sugar went over 1100. I actually almost died that time I got sick. Ive had a few more times I let it get away from me in my twentys when I acted stupid and didnt do the right things. But nowadays I just do what I need to and keep on keeping on. If you dont take care of it it can kill you in a slow agonizing way. Ive watched it do this to most of my dads side of the family. But even today the medicines are a lot better and theres so much help out there, and right here if you need it, that knowing you have it now only means you can do what you need to feel better. I got your back in my prayers and thoughts Jeff . The thing I want to say most is "dont let it control you, take charge and control it" and youll be just like everone else that has or doesnt have diabetes. Hey



Its another day in Paradise !!!

Here, Here #1:

Very well posted.

J Haley,
We recently lost one of the finest guitar players around our neck of the woods to diabetes. A dear friend to many, and a person whom I have never heard say an unkind word about anyone. He did have a few bad habits, however. Smoke, dope, booze,and a somewhat lackadaisical attitude about his health.

Listen to the Doc, (And Sans), and do whatever has to be done to keep yourself healthy, and you can be assured of many future gigs.

Take care,
John

Thank you guy's so much for your kind words. I feel like I have become friends with you guy's over the past year and a half. Today, actually the last several weeks have been kind of tough I made the doctors appointment I went to today about 3 weeks ago. I felt like I was trying to run a marathon and I felt like I wasn't going to finish. Every day it just kept getting harder to keep up at work and with daily life. I feel better at least knowing what is wrong with me and I am definately going to control my diabetes. Like someone said earlier you can't keep a guitar player down. Thanks again for all of your kind words.

not to belittle your experience with anecdotes about my cat but...

I have a diabetic cat. as a result I've had to learn more than I ever wanted to know about the disease (in cats).

They say that many cats will regulate, their liver will repair itself, and they eventually go - "off the juice".

whether that works the sm for humans or not - I am unaware... but once we got our cat eating 85% gluten free food... he's needing his shots less and less -sometimes even goes a few days w/o a shot.

sorry to hear about your heath issue,
best regard
mv

Man, I sure hate to see you going through this. Diabetes killed my father, and his wife a few years earlier, he was a problem diabetic in that he refused to even consider eating right. I had to learn more about it than I ever wanted to know because I got elected to stay with him and help take care of him the last 2 years of his life. It was not fun, but that was more because he and I never got along than because of his health issues. I won't go into that...

http://www.diabetes.org/

A lot of good info there, and what type is it? I'm guessing type 2, it's more common. Type 1 is when the pancreas stops producing insulin, type 2 is when it still does, but the body loses the ability to utilize it. I really hope it's type 2, if it's type 1 you'll be shooting insulin every day from now on. That really sucks and it's often more difficult to keep under control.

George has already mentioned several of the related problems, but do pay close attention to his comments about your feet. You'll probably also end up on a low salt diet, the main reason being swelling. Salt makes your body retain water and therefore swelling can be a problem.

Nerve damage is the worst problem. diabetes causes damage to all the nerve systems in the body, and usually the first to show signs are the tactile nerves in the extremities - fingers and toes. Tactile means...pick up your guitar. Fret a chord. FEEL those strings? That's tactile nerves. When they lose their ability to send signals to the brain, you don't know you just stepped on a tack, and since diabetes also drags your immune system down, by that time it's also seriously impaired so the tack you don't know about stays there and you walk around on it all day, and it gets infected. If you don't get to a doctor gangrene sets in...40% of the lower leg amputations in this country are caused by diabetes, and the scenario I just described is exactly how it happens. Tight shoes can cause a blister and the same thing happens, even a hangnail, as George said, can do it.

Sorry, I don't really want to scare you, but maybe if I do you'll do a lot better than my father did. His lower legs were swelling almost daily due mostly to a high sodium intake, which he refused to consider watching, and he had lost all feeling in his feet. I'm actually glad it took his life before it took his legs...he wanted to work in his wood shop as often as he could hobble out there, fish and hunt as often as possible, cooked every day because I wouldn't cook enough greasy food for him, and drove daily. Driving with no feeling in his feet really scared me, but he refused to stop. I had taken the keys from him, he had a locksmith make one and had a friend bring it to him. One day I came home in my truck and his was gone...YIKES!!! He was also a very bad driver, which is why I took the keys away, after my entire family told me DO NOT under any circumstances, let him drive...that was before he got out of the hospital when I moved here.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, but I'm sure old fisher guy bob will, find a natural health care practitioner. The website I posted will not tell you a thing about it, but has good basic info on diabetes, none of the websites funded by the AMA will admit it, (and 90% of them are) but natural means of controlling diabetes and most other illnesses are available and usually work well. Be aware though, that you will not see immediate results. Most natural/herbal treatments take at least 2 months to show noticeable results.

A couple of things I can tell you though, ginger, garlic, cayenne and vitamin C all boost the immune system. Ginger and garlic are just generally good for you, as is cayenne. I took a lot of all 4 this winter, and after working with or being around 6 people with the flu a lot, I never even sneezed once. And ginger tea is good. 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger into a cup of just boiled water, cover and steep 15 minutes, add some honey and it's good stuff. I never missed a night without ginger tea last winter, don't plan to miss one this winter either. OK except when I was on the road for a couple of weeks.

Lotsa luck, take care of yourself. And find someone who can deal with it naturally, the chemical drugs doctors feed you will only kill you over time. Drugs cause side effects. 2 years and the doctor will have to prescribe something else to counteract the side effects, another year or two and it's round 3...my father was taking 14 pills in the AM and 11 in the PM when he died. And he steadily went downhill...that's how drugs are killing more people than the diseases they supposedly treat.

That is good advise thanks Pete. I am afraid some of the nerve damage is already starting to occure. Half of my picking index finger is numb and has been for about a month now. Its weird the flesh on the left side of my nail is numb and on the right it is normal. It doesn't effect my playing at all.

J:
Not so weird as you might think. Fairly common occurence with peripherial nerves.

You'd best be about takin care of your self.

Dont make me come down there !

Thanks Sans, After I read your last post I made the appointment with a dietician at the Outpatient Diabetes Self Management Education Program.