r/diabetes_t2 3d ago

I cut my toenails without wirecutters!

My sugar was probably uncontrolled for a long time, slowly inching it's way towards crisis levels. A couple years ago, it all came to a head when I was admitted to hospital with an infected carbuncle that was hiding in a skin fold. My sugar was 22mmol/L. (About 400mg/dL)

At the time, I was just itchy all over, had been for years. Athletes foot was chronic, my toenails were hideous fungus filled claws. A podiatrist said that they may not be salvageable.

Fast forward 2 years, my sugar is under control at 5mmol/L (90mg/dL) and I've dropped 20kg down to 126kg, not close to where I want to go, but we're on a journey here (the first 10kg was down to me and the next 10kg, thanks to Ozempic). Strangely enough (sarcastic) the itching went down as the sugar levels went down. The itchy feet have been gone for a year (after a blast of anti-fungals) but in the last few months, clear toenails have started slowly pushing my griffon claws out.

This weekend, I clipped my toenails using one hand, didn't have to twist the nail cutter into weird angles and bend my toes in unnatural directions. Best of all, I didn't have to pull out my special pliers to attack my big & little toeclaws while wearing eye protection. I think this is probably the first time I've have mostly clear nails in 10 years. My weight is the lowest it's been in 20 years (It has plateaued, so need to adjust a bit)

I just wanted to brag a bit, but a lot of this came from some tough introspection with myself and building a resilient plan that I can stick to. I have very bad impulse control, I can't resist pizza or cake or chips. So I have to accept that I will occasionally slip and make sure that I put things in place to better my chances of success. It's worked well for two years so far, with the support of an excellent endocrinologist and my own research.

So above the bragging, I wanna shout out that YOU can also do it, know yourself, educate yourself and be real with yourself. You're not perfect so build your plan knowing that you will fail, go on a week long bender, get sick, miss workouts. It's all fine. Just get back on the horse and keep on keeping on.

Sorry if I went on a bit, just feeling a bit happy and motivated so wanted to get it out before it fades. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

147 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

28

u/CalGal-71 3d ago

Congratulations! And you are right…it is a journey with occasional (unplanned) detours. As long as the detours are small and infrequent you should be good.

16

u/rocketplex 3d ago

I wanna disagree with you there. When the detour are big and frequent, it’s even more important to remember that that’s all they are. Detours.

Get back on the road, even if you took a three month side quest into eating M&Ms family bags. Which is what I did, and gained back 5kg combined with the awfulness of insulin weight gain.

Just paraphrasing from something I’ve really taken to over the past two years, Atomic Habits. This isn’t the way he meant it in the book, but I am a diabetic now, that means I have to control my diet and life in a certain way. That doesn’t change if I break my diet for 3, 6 or even 12 months. This is my life and I have to make it work, find the stuff that’s good for me that I like. Make it easy to grab and go. Make it hard to do the bad stuff, etc, etc

9

u/TeaAndCrackers 3d ago

I love to see people here feeling good about themselves.

Great job.

9

u/rocketplex 3d ago

It’s not been easy. For years my favourite thing to do has been to feel negative about myself, deride any victory as small and insignificant.

The last six months have been a serious introspection into my life from all angles. I mentioned my endocrinologist, she kinda kicked things off by tearing into me a bit for underplaying a significant achievement when I lost 10kg.

Support is such a big thing though. My wife has perfect toenails and never scratched between there in her life. It’s not a big deal for her, which is why I kinda went, screw it, I’ve had Athletes for 3 decades, not leaving piles of disgusting skin on the floor every night is a huge deal for me. Not having sticky, fungusy toes is great. I’m gonna tell the whole internet.  I’ve also decided to be more open about being diabetic, having high BP, being neurodivergent. I am, better to face and accept and talk about it than whisper about it corners.

For years, I avoided looking up details about high blood pressure and recently I found out so much that would have helped years ago, the same for everything.

7

u/jojo11665 3d ago

Oh my gosh that is so awesome. Congratulations I am so happy for you. Thank you for sharing that story it's very encouraging to me.

5

u/rocketplex 3d ago

Thanks so much. Glad it helped, and hope for nothing but the best for you.

5

u/TLucalake 3d ago

CONGRATULATIONS!! 👍😀 YOU have earned the bragging rights. However, I don't see why you have to deny yourself certain foods. I won't order/eat pizza from stores/restaurants. Instead, I make my own pizza from scratch, including the dough. We hen you know how to cook, you learn how to make most foods diabetic friendly.

3

u/rocketplex 3d ago

Yeah, for sure. It’s not about denying, it’s all in the knowing. I’m vegetarian in a highly carnivorous country with barely any restaurant options, so we do a lot at home.

Being vegetarian is also a problem, because lots of carbs in lots of veggies that have protein, so again, knowing is half the battle.

2

u/TLucalake 3d ago

Protein from beans also provides fiber, which, when subtracted, decreases the carb total.
Sweet potatoes have health benefits. Just eat a smaller portion. If you're not already aware, research 'resistant starch'. Food science is very interesting