The Extraction

Hello everyone. Or as watercolour artist Paul Clark says, “Good morning afternoon or evening wherever you are.” Thanks for dropping by and reading this post.

There’s a feeling of autumn-to-come in the air this morning, a cool breeze. I think it’s supposed to get fairly warm though, so I watered all my flower pots. I didn’t stay up and watch for streaks from the meteor shower we were supposed to be able to see last night. Did any of you see the falling stars?

This is Day Three of my new Regime, my Abstemious Diet lifestyle. I’ve had my first couple of sips of coffee and suddenly remember: blood test first! Best set the coffee aside until that’s done because I DO NOT drink black coffee.

I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday to find out the results of my fasting blood sugar test. When he walked into the exam room I asked him, “Are you going to behead my sweet tooth?” And he said, “I have my axe in my pocket.” EEK!

I thought of telling him, “Then you sure better not sit on it!” but I decided I’d best not push be too humorous about this. He pulled up the test results on his computer file, read off the numbers, then proceeded to give me the bad new: “Blood sugar counts are too high. No, you’re not just borderline; you ARE diabetic.”

I can’t say I was surprised, but still it’s rather stunning. Feels like the Road of Life just took a 90-degree turn.

It’s not a serious case, rather just into the diabetic range. He gave me pills and told me I’d need to monitor my blood regularly, so I now have one of those dreadful little springers, or stingers, with which I must test a drop of blood first thing in the morning and at night before bed. He also prescribed a simple Abstemious Diet: “If it’s something you really like, don’t eat it.” I got the picture.

And now I’d best go do what I must. It’ll take me awhile to remember and get the technique down pat. I had to poke my finger three times last night before I got a usable blood sample. 😦