Late bloomers truly do exist. Discovering who you are and what you want at 49 years old was a huge milestone for me. After leaving Florida in 2001 to move back home to Michigan to take care of my Deaf mother who was diagnosed with Salivary Gland cancer after her 3rd surgery, with the final lab results being malignant. When my mother passed away in 2004, it was a life altering and growing experience that changed the core of who I was. Fast forwarding to 12 years later of just existing, becoming restless, and wanting more, I relocated to Roanoke, VA at 49 years old in 2016. I took a management job in the automotive industry. I was excited and scared at the same time because I have always had my sister or a friend living with me. I was never on my own with anything. Joy who was my last roommate in Michigan and is like a sister from another mister to me; I will never forget her words when I expressed my concern and worry about what will happen if it doesn’t work? She replied, “What if it does?” I took that comment with me and set off on my journey to Roanoke, VA.
The first day I started my new job, I got rear ended. I was thinking, ok Lord, if this is what you have planned, I want to move back home. After that mishap in the morning, the honeymoon phase began, and it was awesome. I found all the necessary doctors and dentists that someone needs when moving to a new city. As strange as this is going to sound, I was elated and hit rock bottom at the same time. I was at my heaviest, weighing 309 lbs. and my A1c was around 10.2. The lab results were the start of taking 500mg of Metformin. The doctor mentioned that I needed to lose weight and change my eating habits. He referred me to a nutritionist and requested a follow up appointment in 3 months. I was overwhelmed with everything after my appointment. I had NO clue about food or how to “really” cook. I always had someone else cook for me. I went through life with the mentality that I don’t need to learn. I spent several months trying to make heads or tails trying to decipher the food plan that I was given by the nutritionist with very little success and a lot of frustration. When I went back to my 3-month appointment with the Dr, it was awful. My labs showed my A1c’s went up to 11.8 and my weight increased to 315 lbs. I became more depressed and frustrated about my weight. I had another follow up appointment in 3 months and had the same results. There was no change in the sugars or weight. The doctor increased the Metformin to 1,000 mg twice a day. He also wanted to give my body time to adjust with the increase in medication and continue to work on weight loss. We scheduled a follow up appointment in 9 months. I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride for the next several months with life in general. When I say I was a late bloomer, I mean I was “a late bloomer”! I met someone that fall. With managing on my own living in a new city, adjusting to a new job, needing to focus on my health, and meeting someone new for the first time, and experiencing the newness of being in a relationship; it was extremely overwhelming. I had no idea what to do about my health and where to start, so I called my sister.
My sister is a fabulous cook and with her love of cooking and nutritional knowledge of food it was the logical choice for me to ask for help. Without going into full detail, our relationship was rocky, and she still helped me. She asked me to forward everything that the nutritionist gave me. After a few days, she was able to create a simpler food plan. Her advice was to “keep it simple”. The recipes and food menus gave me ideas on what food to buy, plan the week, and how to cook the food. Her simple recipes and suggested food portions worked. I started to slowly lose weight. By the time I went back to my 9-month appointment I had lost 63 lbs. and my weight was 252 lbs. My A1c dropped from 11.8 to 8.2. A vast improvement, still high, but much better. I was elated and so was the doctor.
With my cocky attitude and mindset that I always had, I stopped following what my sister had taught me and went back to doing things my way. Life got difficult. I had broken up with Nicole and moved out to live with Lisa and her family. I stopped following the suggestions my sister gave me and just ate whatever I wanted to eat. The weight ballooned back up to the 290’s range. Usually, people lose weight when they break up or go through periods of stress in their life because they do not eat. I am the opposite of that. I am a stress eater. After getting my life balance back and getting over the breakup with the “first love” of my life, my weight fluctuated between 280 to 290 lbs. for the next couple of years.
After the breakup, taking time to heal while living with Lisa and her family, I learned that I still needed to work on who I was. I had the chance to meet more people. Lisa took me out with her to different places, she showed me what it is to meet new people. I was going through a phase of “I don’t care”, and meeting other people and different women, I met a friend and moved into the mother-in-law suite in the basement of her home. While living in this place, I developed some serious health issues and landed up in the hospital for one week. I had issues with breathing and my lungs. My pulse ox had dropped to 69 and stayed in the 80’s range. After a series of tests and a biopsy, there was no actual diagnosis, but now I was diagnosed with an “idiopathic” autoimmune disease on top of my diabetes. After being discharged from the hospital given a 6-month prescription of prednisone to help with my lungs, keep in mind the prednisone does major havoc to the diabetes and weight. I started with 40 mg and each week decreased dosage and worked my way down to 0 mgs at the 6-month mark. My sugar was through the roof and my weight went back up over 300.
The next direction slowly prepared me for the continuous changes I have been making since the hospital scare and become serious about my health…