Surviving Cancer and Embracing Life: My Personal Journey by Joel R. Evans - HTML preview

the doctors diagnose and treat. Let the patients follow those instructions.]

It turned out that I had gotten ulcerative colitis – another term I had to have explained to me. This hospital stay was 4 days; and I was sent home with a ton of instructions and other meds. No more details needed here. It was another l-o-n-g day when I was discharged from the hospital. But I was again very happy to get home.

Now, we get to the most challenging – by far – part of my life post-surgery: controlling my blood sugar. This remains a tough task, and one I will have to live with for life. But I try to keep this in perspective, as just one more step in my extended personal journey.

So, here’s the scoop. I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic in fall 1995. To demonstrate how much of a dummy I was, the day before my diagnosis, I ate 12 donuts in one sitting. Really? Yes.

Once diagnosed, I radically changed my diet (no kidding!). I don’t think I’ve had more than one or two donuts in total since 1995. And I began two oral medications, as well as testing my sugar levels twice a day. For years, my sugar level was normalized via diet and meds, and with exercise.

But as with many other diabetics, after a while, oral medications were not sufficient. Then, I added low doses of insulin to my regimen. Like before, my blood sugar was normalized. Being diabetic at that point was only a small part of my life, since my sugar was so well under control. This would continue until the Whipple surgery.