Gut check

Yes, I still write. Just not as much as I should.

Last week I received some news that literally hit me in the gut and has made me have to stop and take inventory of my life and how and why I'm doing things. Back in January, Catherine and I decided to take out some more life insurance. I had felt it was needed since I am being more active as a fire fighter and much more aware of the chances of myself getting severely injured or killed in this little side hobby I do. So as part of taking out the new policy, the insurance folks send over a nurse who asks you a bunch of questions, has you pee in a cup and draws a few vials of blood. Last week I was told by our agent, also my sister in law, that the policy had been refused at the stated rate due to "abnormalities" in my blood test. Of course they wouldn't tell her what this emant and I had to wait another two days to get a letter and the test results. For those two days I tried not to let my mind go on about what it could be. It's never a good thing to have a background in science and have a sizeable amount of medical training and be told something is "abnormal." Your mind goes off on tangents it should not.

On Friday, I got the letter. The issue was with the hemoglobin a1c test, a standard blood test that most folks get anytime they have a physical done. The test shows what your average blood sugar level has been for the previous three months. Hemoglobin only live for about three months so the test basically shows how "sticky" they are with sugars. It shows a percentage, anything from 4 to 6% is supposed to be good. Over 6 and you may be at risk for diabetes. Over 6.5% and you're on track to have diabetes and in trouble.

I got 6.6%

So...I'm now, as far as I'm concerned, pre-diabetic. At major risk to have a disease of my own making that while it won't keep my from living, will be be damn annoying for many years and keep from living as long as I'd like. So now the fun part. A much stricter diet. Cutting out all junk, most carbs (trying the approach of 100 grams a day, no more) and I've got to get myself back in shape. I was doing good last year, was in better shape that I'd been in years when I went to Smokedivers. But after failing at that, I lost a lot of drive, a lot of self belief and now, I will freely admit, am an absolute mess.

So now I get to clean up the mess. Let's hope quite a bit by August 6.

Later.