My story of failure on the way to success!

Sometimes it takes being at rock bottom to realize you need to wake up, get up, and take action to succeed. I am not advocating hitting rock bottom before deciding to succeed. I hope people can learn from my failure so that they don't ever hit rock bottom. Diabetes is dangerous at rock bottom, and I am very fortunate to realize how close I was to losing my eyesight, losing a limb, having a stroke, or, worse yet, losing my life.

In March of 2020, I was diagnosed as diabetic with an A1C of 6.2. My doctor put me on Metformin. I couldn't stand the medication as it made me feel groggy and sick to my stomach and gave me diarrhea. After a few weeks of being on it, I just couldn't handle being on it and quit taking it. I was supposed to talk to my doctor to discuss other medications, but I never did at that point.

Fast forward to April of 2021, my husband ends up in the hospital and finds out his platelets were super low. He was diagnosed with idiopathic thrombocytopenia. He finally got himself a PCP and finally got himself a full check-up. He is obese and found out his cholesterol was high. I was also obese.

Lately, I had been noticing my eyesight was getting really blurry, and I was very thirsty and peeing a lot. I looked these symptoms up and realized it was diabetes and those were severe symptoms. I looked online for a solution that would not require me to be on meds and found out about the keto diet to control diabetes. I began cutting way back on bread, rice, potatoes. I found a keto-friendly recipe for my Sunday morning pancake breakfasts. I looked for low-carb substitutes for all my favorite high-carb foods. I began exercising taking long walks after work. My husband and I both agreed we needed to make changes for both our sakes. He began watching his diet and exercising. I noticed within a few weeks, I was already feeling better and even my vision improved. After a month of diet and exercise changes, I made an appointment with my PCP. My A1C was 10.6! Even after a month of making positive changes, my A1C was sky high! My doc wanted to put me on Metformin again. I filled the prescription, but never took it. I decided to keep up with my diet and exercise regimen because I knew it was helping me because I was feeling better and better following it.

In August of 2021, I went back in to have my A1C rechecked. It was 5.5!!!!! My doc was amazed! I told her I never even took the Metformin, that I achieved this all thru diet and exercise. I just recently had the A1C checked again, and it is 5.4. And a lot of other things were going back to normal, too, like my liver function values and kidney function values. Even on my last CT scan, it was noted an area of fatty liver was reduced by half. So I am not only reversing my diabetes, I am reversing my fatty liver! My HDL has increased from poor range to normal range, and my triglycerides have fallen from a poor level to an optimal level. LDL is up but I foresee that coming down with the HDL having increased. I still have a way to go to reach my optimal health goals. So far I have lost 45 pounds. I have 20 more pounds of weight to knock off. I would like to get my A1C to between 4.5 and 5. I would like to see my lipid panel improve some more. I would love to see that my fatty liver has been completely reversed. I hope to become healthier than I have ever been. Thank you, Dr. Berg!

Sincerely, Michelle