This photo of
Harris in the Outer Hebrides is probably what started my journey towards
being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Crouching down to get the 'arty' shot through the grass is probably
where I picked up a tick. I saw it on my
neck in the bathroom mirror the next morning, which was quite a shock! Not having had a tick on me before I didn't
know how to remove it, so ended up seeing a lovely nurse at the local health
centre in Lochmaddy. Having removed the
tick she gave me a leaflet about what to look out for after being bitten by a
tick. So over the next hours I was
looking out for a rash or any flu-like symptoms. Being a Reiki practitioner I also gave the
area of the bite Reiki treatment as much as possible and there were none of the
feared symptoms. In fact the bite area
healed very quickly without so much as a mark.
However
later in the year when I was feeling unwell I wondered if it could be Lyme
disease, picked up from the tick bite (I also had several more bites from
smaller ticks after the big one on my neck).
I looked on the internet and found that many of my symptoms could
indicate this. These symptoms included
tiredness and lack of energy, low mood, pain in muscles, aching joints (mostly
my hips). It was a worry in the back of
my mind for many months, but I was too busy to do anything about it. Then one day as I was giving myself my
morning Reiki treatment I noticed this worry and as one of the Reiki principles
is 'Just for today do not worry', I decided to go and ask my doctor for a blood
test to find out.
She reacted
positively to my request, but suggested that I also have the NHS Health Check: a
range of other blood tests to rule out other possible causes for the tiredness
and other symptoms. She did also say
that at worst the cause of my tiredness could be cancer! Anyway I agreed to have the blood tests and
went along for the first one in April 2014.
When I went for the test the nurse asked if I'd been fasting: I hadn't
because this hadn't been mentioned. She
therefore said I would need to come back for a fasting blood test. There was part of me that was reluctant to do
this, but as I'd started on this path of finding out what was wrong I did go
back for that other blood test.
The evening
before my first fasting blood test I was giving a talk about Reiki to a local
group. I had been asked not to eat
anything after 8 pm (12 hours before the blood test) but thought it was OK to
have the drink I was offered. I had
asked for an Appletize, but they didn't have one, so bought me a J2O. I didn't realise at the time how much added sugar
was in this: I'd thought it was just fruit juice!
I got a
message back to say that the results were clear as far as Lyme disease was
concerned, but that there was some concern about my blood sugar levels, which
had showed a blood glucose of 13 mmol/l - the normal range being 4 - 7
mmol/l. A further blood test was
therefore recommended. At this point I
knew there was a possibility that I might have type 2 diabetes, or be on the
cusp of it. I preferred to think that I
was probably pre-diabetic. After all I
didn't have the symptoms I'd heard about on TV like continual thirst or needing
to go to the loo a lot.
I was still
kidding myself this was just because of the sugary drink I'd had the night
before, but there was a wiser part of me that pointed out that I was very
overweight and that being fat around the middle was a potential indicator for
type 2 diabetes. A second test was
recommended, which was to take place a week or so later.
I have found
that having the spiritual practice of Reiki in my life things often happen in a
way that seem to be quite a coincidence: so it should be no surprise therefore
that my husband had just bought me a book called "Fat Around the
Middle". He had been at a health
fair and had seen the author Marilyn Glenville giving a talk about her
book. He had been impressed with how she
talked about it and so bought the book (which he sweetly said was for both of
us, rather than implying that I needed to do something about being fat!).
So between
the two fasting blood tests I started to read the book and realised that it was
indeed possible that I might have type 2 diabetes, or (as I hoped) be on the
edge of getting it. I therefore started
to follow some of the advice in the book, starting with cutting out all refined sugar.
I was quite
upset, when I called about the results, to be told by the receptionist that I
had diabetes - another receptionist had been more compassionate in her
discussion with me, saying there was a concern about the blood sugar levels,
rather than telling me I was diabetic!
However the receptionist who told me I was diabetic also told me what
the doctors look for as an ideal number, so I knew that my second result, which
was 8 mmol/l and therefore still indicative of diabetes, was much closer to the
ideal of 7 mmol/l and that was in just a week or so of changing my diet. This gave me hope that I could do something
about it, even if I was diagnosed as diabetic (which I still didn't want to
believe).
An HbA1c
blood test was the next thing, which would show the levels of glucose in my
blood for the previous 8 weeks. The
results of this took a bit longer to come and I was asked to make an
appointment with Adelle, the nurse in practice specialising in diabetes to get
the results. I have a vivid memory of
sitting in her office and her telling me I have diabetes. I had not wanted to believe it was possible
and still found it hard to accept.
Adelle went
on to tell me that this could put my eyes, feet and kidneys at risk, so there
would be further tests. She told me I
would be getting an appointment to have an examination of my retina for
retinopathy and another to examine my feet.
She also said I'd be invited to go on a course to help me with my diet. She talked about the possibility of
medication to control my blood glucose levels and statins to control
cholesterol. I told her there and then
that I preferred not to use medication unless absolutely necessary! She therefore agreed to let me see how it
went for 3 months.
The reason I
did not want to use medication unless absolutely necessary is that as a Reiki
practitioner I have seen for myself what an amazing ability to heal the body
has given the right conditions. Some
years ago I had opted to have a less invasive procedure to help my gynecological problems, feeling sure that Reiki would do the rest. This had proved to be correct and having
suffered pain for many years, with a minimal intervention I was able to heal
and be pain free. While the surgeon
would have liked to be sure of a cure by doing the more invasive procedure, my
intuition (which Reiki practice has helped me be more in contact with) told me
that this was not necessary - but that's another story...
I have also
seen, through my work giving Reiki treatments to people with many different
conditions, how medication can sometimes create more complications. Indeed Adelle told me that going on insulin
can cause weight gain and I already knew that being overweight was a
contributory factor to diabetes (at the
time I thought it was the main cause).
So thanks to
the tick bite, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes!
