Hello friends,
I’ve been spending this morning pouring through medical site after medical site on my laptop, trying to discover who cares about seniors. Oh, I’m not talking about the sites that tell us, “Sixty is the new forty.” No, sixty is not the new forty, it’s still just sixty. I know, it’s hard, at sixty, to let go of those dreams of the body we wish we had, but I’m afraid that for most of us, sixty is never going to be forty.
What I’ve been trying to find out on these inefficient websites is two-fold. First, what solid advice is there to help a diabetic who is also asthmatic; and second, what advice is out there for an asthmatic who becomes diabetic?
Both diseases often go hand in hand, at least for me. My love/hate affair with prednisone began with my first full blown asthma attack, at age 44, and nearly ten years later, with prednisone induced diabetes. So, what available treatment is recommended for a senior, with both diabetes and asthma? I can answer that. Zilch. Nada. Nyet. Nothing. So, I must go my own route. Forge my own path. Find my own physicians for each and every ailment. Specialists. And hope no one kills me in the process.
One very important event in my present day struggle with diabetes is bringing my A1c down from 8.7 to 7.4. I was becoming increasingly discouraged, for the last year and a half, because all my years of walking a tight-rope with this disease, simply went down the tube. Suffering one asthma attack upon the last asthma attack, five in all, made my life a living hell. I lived on prednisone, and that caused my blood sugar to sky-rocket. It was so discouraging. It was dangerous. And it made me feel like a failure.
So, I bit the bullet. I went on insulin, and now I’m even more overweight, but my A1c has come down dramatically. All is not lost on the overweight side of my life, however, I’m now being weaned off of insulin and back onto Glumetza. We’ll see how that works. I’m also biking. Indoor biking. I bike from 2 – 4 miles a day, and my stamina is building up again. Perhaps this time I’ll beat that old asthma again, and live to fight another day. And, who knows, I just may lose a pound or two. Twenty would be nice.
Oh, and I have discovered who cares about seniors. My family cares, I do, and anyone over sixty does too. I’ve also realized, after my Friday visit with my doctor, just how much she cares. Perhaps, before I’m faced with another asthma attack and bout of prednisone, a cure will be found for both diseases. At least I hope so.
Father in heaven, there are so many things in this world that we have no control over. To name a few that are beyond our control, the weather, the oil spill in the Gulf, the economy, the fact that we age, and the diseases that assault us as we age. But one thing that we do have control over, is within our grasp. Whether to give in or to fight. Help us, Lord, to not give in. Help us to have the desire to be as healthy as we can, and, please Lord, grant us the courage to live another day and fight again.
With love,
Jaye Lewis
