Greetings

[Axel Slinger]

Hello everyone. I'm Axel Slingerland (you can call me Ax) and I am a Type 2 Diabetic. My A1c levels are a bit too high and I was searching the net for some information about what to do to try and get them under control and found this forum.

You would think I could spell my own name when I registered... Could someone fix that by any chance? I seem to have dropped the d in Slingerland by mistake... Or maybe it's because I'm one letter over the max name size. If that's the case, could some kind Administrator person change my username to Ax Slinger, as that should fit nicely in the available space. That has been one of my nicknames since I were a youngin'. :o

[Handybear]

Welcome to the group. A lot of smart people here with a lot of good information. Just remember everyone is different and you have to find what works for you.

[Jill-O]

Hi and welcome here from Virginia http://www.getsmile.com/emoticons/smileys-91853/aiw/bye.gif

You will find a lot of nice people and good advice here http://www.getsmile.com/emoticons/smileys-91853/aiw/yes.gif

Hopefully one of the moderators can help you with your forum name http://www.getsmile.com/emoticons/smileys-91853/aiw/smile.gif

[xMenace]

Welcome Ax.

So tell us what you've been doing or perhaps what you haven't been doing. I haven't been doing the dishes and **** if they ain't doing themselves :(

[princesslinda]

Welcome Ax! Glad you found the forums! Tell us a little more about yourself and how you manage your diabetes. Do you watch your carbs and get regular exercise? For me, that's very important in maintaining good control. How was your last A1C?

Look around, ask lots of questions....we're here to help....and we'll get one of our "super-mods" to "fix" your name soon. :)

[kgm0612]

Hi Ax and Welcome! Nice people and tons of information to be found here.

Karen

[morrisma]

Welcome to the club Ax.
What was that "not so great" A1c?
How often do you test?
Any exercise?
Lots of questions, eh?
Enjoy the forum,
Mike

[JadeMonkey]

Welcome to the forum and may I say that is a cool name you've got there. :cool:

-Jade

[Tony]

Welcome, You may not have chosen diabetes, but thanks for choosing Diabetesforums!

By now you know I have change your user name to Ax Slinger. You had hit the max letters allowed for a username.

[mzteacher]

hi axel,
welcome to the forums! this place has saved me....i found it right away and have learned most all i know about diabetes here...if i had just learned from the diabetes class at the hospital i would be way out of control!! no way could i eat all the carbs they suggested and maintain control....so if you are any thing like me finding this place will be the best thing regarding diabetes that ever happens to you!
susan

[artlizard]

Hey Ax,
Welcome to the forums!

[Axel Slinger]

Welcome, You may not have chosen diabetes, but thanks for choosing Diabetesforums!

By now you know I have change your user name to Ax Slinger. You had hit the max letters allowed for a username.
Thank you so much. That was fast! I just registered yesterday. I've waited as long as a month for something like that to be fixed before.

Do you resemble this guy? http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/axelslingerland/supermod.gif

***

Now as for the rest of these fine greetings, thank you all for such a nice welcome. I have been running forums off and on for the last ten years and have never had a welcome like that. Thank you! You folks seem to have taken "Online Community" to heart like no forum I've ever seen. You should be proud.

So there were a number of questions and or comments I would like to address one at a time for clarity. And by the way, I can get a bit long winded at times so I'm givin' y'all fair warnin' about that... I'm retired and I have plenty of time (I hope!) and I usually just say whatever comes to mind at any given time.

So tell us what you've been doing or perhaps what you haven't been doing. I haven't been doing the dishes and **** if they ain't doing themselves :(
What have I been doing? A lot less than I used to. But I don't do dishes. I have children. I feed them. I buy their clothes. I pay their rent and utilities. They do the dishes. I used to make them do the laundry too, but my clothes always disappeared so I started doing that myself. http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/axelslingerland/rofl3.gif

Tell us a little more about yourself and how you manage your diabetes.
Well, I'm a "Retired Hippie Guitar Player". Or at least that's what I always say anyway. My kids always tell me I'm a Redneck, and I never was much of a Hippie anyway... I worked too hard for that.

I spent about 25 years on the road with various Blues, Jazz, and Classic Rock bands you most likely never heard of, the most notable of which we called The Generic Band. (Not to be confused with a band of the same name that I found while searching Google one day a few years back.) Our "theme" was everything was "generic". Meaning everything was painted white with black stenciled labels, just like generic foods used to be back in the 70's. This included all the band's equipment and we always wore white T-Shirts that said "BAND" on them. (Sorry if you were one of the people who paid $10.00 for a T-Shirt that we paid about 50¢ to make...)

Here's one of my favorite guitars, a Rickenbacker 4080 (4 String Bass \ 6 String Guitar) Double Neck. I played this guitar for many years. Not all the time though... It was far too heavy for that!

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/axelslingerland/genericguitar.jpg

I also had a Rickenbacker 362/12 (12 String \ 6 String) Double Neck, a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender Stratocaster, and various other guitars, all with white finishes (they weren't actually "painted" white) and had GUITAR stenciled on them.

We played just about anything you could possibly want to hear. The goal was to work every day, so we learned lots of material we wouldn't necessarily listen to ourselves, but if it got us a paycheck we would be more than happy to play it. We did try to stick with one particular type of music at a time so we could keep ourselves in good practice. But we were good enough that we could play a rock show one day, a blues show the next, and a jazz show the next easily enough. But by nature we were a Classic Rock \ Blues band, along the lines of the Allman Brothers Band. And yes, we played a lot of ABB tunes.

This was a great job and we had a lot of fun. But like any job that you do your whole life, it had it's long term effects. We were on the road all the time, and as such we ate in restaurants for every meal. As Diabetics, I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions about that! If we weren't working so hard that alone could have killed us all.

In 1994 I fell off of a stage and messed up three disks in my lower back, which effectively ended my career as a "Music Leaper". Someone asked me what I did to my back once, and I explained it to him like this... We played over 6000 shows in 20 some odd years. We had an average of 50,000 pounds of equipment, and carried it in and out once per show for about 2\3's of all shows. The other 1\3 were long term gigs in Casinos as cabaret acts or house bands.

Assuming it came to a total of 21 years exactly, which it didn't, but it's a good figure for doing the math... 2\3's of our shows would be 4000. And 100,000 pounds a day makes a total of 400,000,000 pounds in 14 years. The other 7 years we did another 2000 shows, but only about 1\10th as many loadins and loadouts, for a total of 20,000,000 pounds. Add that all up and you've got 420,000,000 pounds carried over 21 years. Realizing that makes one thought come to my mind... No wonder my back hurts all the time...

Do you watch your carbs and get regular exercise? For me, that's very important in maintaining good control.
Yes and no. I have actually changed my diet a lot in the last two years. But due to back pain I can't always exercise. I love to ride my bicycle and do it as often as I possibly can. The problem is my Doctor gives me plenty of pain killers. I just refuse to take them because they make me stoopid. 30 years ago I would never have believed I would say such a thing, but that's me today.

How was your last A1C?
If I said "Oh my God", would that cover it? The last one was 9.0. Before that I was doing a little better. At first I was just taking Metformin and Glipizide and I was getting 7's. I had two in a row. Then I had an 8, and after that it shot up to 10.4 and 10.3. I started taking Byetta and the next one was 8.8 then 7.1. I was pretty jazzed about that, and since I thought it was under control I got careless. That obviously was a big mistake, as the next one was that 9.0.

But I know what I have to do. I need to continue to eat better, watch the carbs and calories a lot better than I have been, and I need to either take a couple of 30 minute walks or bike rides at least every other day. That would help a lot.

I tend to keep a lot of records on my computer. That helps me keep better track of what I've been doing. So I looked for a program to keep track of what I eat, and was surprised that I couldn't find a good free program to do that. So I hooked up with a friend of mine who is a programmer (and my PHP mentor) and we're writing one. Let me tell ya, a good programmer is a handy friend to have.

But I have a question for you guys... If I go on Insulin, and I going to gain any more weight? I couldn't deal with that. Since I was diagnosed two years ago I have gained 50 pounds. I feel like a baloon, and look like I should be headed for the Delivery Room. (But I'm the wrong gender for that.)

Whew... Now that's a long post, even for me!

[Jill-O]

Axel --

Going on insulin does not automatically mean you will gain weight, but it makes it SO easy to do so.

The insulin will make your body get everything out of your food... without it, your sugars run high and you basically pee away lots of calories. Insulin makes your body store what it doesn't burn.

So, you would want to cut your calories most likely as you start insulin.

I started insulin only a few months into my diagnosis (but no doubt, I had it for years based on complications w/ my eyes). It really helps me have good numbers and I wouldn't want to switch back to oral meds.

Jill

[Axel Slinger]

Well, the key issue at the moment is my weight. I was about 30 pounds over my normal weight (250 pounds) for about 80% of my life when my Doctor said I am diabetic. I had gained that a little at a time over the previous 7 years. In 1998 when I moved to Humboldt County, California (the beautiful Redwood Coast) I weighted about 195 pounds, which was about 25 pounds under my normal, but I had just ridden about 1500 miles cross country on my bike.

After I fell 1994 I spent some time in the hospital in Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona. I healed up as best as I could and tried to move on. That didn't exactly work. I couldn't play guitar the way I had always done it anymore. Not being able to work I lived on my savings.

Even though I had been pretty close to actually making my lifelong goal of retiring at 40 as a millionaire, I went through my life's savings pretty fast because I didn't have adequate health insurance, and I had a lot of contractual obligations from the band. (Just because I couldn't play anymore didn't mean all of the band's contracts went away...)

So time went by and I decided since I was forced into an early underfunded retirement and was basically living in a tent in the woods outside of Flagstaff and went everywhere on my bike, that I was in pretty good shape for a long ride (all things considered) so I decided I would ride my bike up here. That turned out to be one of the most fun things I had done in my life.

I have never been one of those bicyclists who ride over 100 miles a day. I like to take it slow. I averaged about 30 miles a day for the days that I was riding, and I took time to camp for a few days in some of the better places along the way. Like the Avenue of the Giants. What an awesome place that is...

Anyway, during that two months of riding about 25 to 30 miles a day I lost about 25 pounds and was below 200 for the first time in many years. Since I was in the Army in the early 70's, I have always weighed about 210 to 220. After that trip I weighed about 195. So the sad truth is between September, 1998 and now I have gained a total of 110 pounds, since I weighed 305 this morning.

It may average out to about 10 pounds a year, but I gained most of it in the last two years. 50 pounds over 8 years was bad enough, but another 50 pounds in 2 years? That's awful! I have all but eliminated junk food, I count carbs and calories, I cook with EVOO, on the 10th (three days ago) it's been two years since I quit smoking, and I've made a lot other healthy changes in my lifestyle.

Yet I still I have horrible numbers and I feel like caca most of the time, I can't see worth beans anymore, and I think I'm going to have a heart attack any minute... I have got to get this under control soon. My Mother and Sister both died at 52 from diabetic complications, and I am 52.

So the only thing I can think of to do is bite the bullet and ride as many miles a day as I can stand to ride, and maybe that will get my weight down a bit, which hopefully will also help the numbers a bit as well. One thing is sure... I have some good motivation because I don't wanna die.

[susique333]

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t168/susique333/da59.jpg

Hi and welcome to the forum! You will find many intelligent folks here and a whole library worth of information from diet to medications. Because of this forum I have the strength to face this dreaded disease. Ive already picked out my room here and Im staying!!

[mho357]

Hello Ax and welcome to the forum. You will find lots of good info and support here.

Mark

[matingara]

welcome!

it crossed my mind that you might enjoy this thread -> Nicholas Simmons: Tommy Bolin "Teaser" Guitar Unveiled - NAMM Day 1 (http://nicholassimmons.blogspot.com/2008/01/tommy-bolin-teaser-guitar-unveiled-namm.html)

:)

-- Joel.

[Axel Slinger]

Hey Joel,

That will be a collector's piece one day, specially if they made limited numbers of them. The more rare a guitar is the more valuable it becomes.

I had a 1959 Gibson Explorer like the tiny one in my signature. I played it on the road for years and ruined it. The poor thing took many a beating. Then some adoring rock n' roll fan releaved me of it. I guess he felt he needed it worse than I did...

[CaptainMike]

Ax, welcome to the forum! I'd say if you can't get your A1C down below 7% within the next 3 months by controlling carb intake, getting whatever exercise you can, and continuing on your orals, that you should really consider insulin. Lots of type 2's on here have made the switch, and just about every single one I've heard from was very happy that they did. A couple of things you said (typed) gave me the impression that you are a bit down on yourself about your A1C's. I think a lot of us feel that way (at least some of the time) but in a whole lot of cases the disease just progresses, and a lot of people need to eventually go on insulin, no matter how hard they try to control it on orals, diet, exercise.

I'm a bass player myself (A Rickenbacker man through and through) though I only have a 4004 Cheyenne right now. (lost my entire {Uninsured} collection to hurricane Wilma)
I haven't gigged in 15 years, but when I did I played mostly with a band called "The Exchange" which I always though was a pretty generic name ;) mostly in the Southeast (Opened for REM once upon a time)

Cheers,
Mike

[Axel Slinger]

I was ready to do that but my Doctor is holding off until my next A1c test. I wish she would just do it... I like this Doctor but she can be a bit of a flake. She's great for my wife's many health problems, but for me she's a little bit lacking. But there's only a few good Doctors around here, and my Neurologist says I should stick with her because of the limited choices I have available to me.

But sometimes she says the strangest things. One day we were talking about food and I said something about how I eat a bowl of Cheerios every day because it helps to control your cholesterol. And she says that I shouldn't pay so much attention to corporate advertising.

Then not five minutes later she writes me a prescription for Advair because I would have "fewer asthma symptoms and better breathing" which is almost word for word exactly what they say in Advair commercials on TV.

The law says they can't say something helps to control your cholesterol if it doesn't really do that, whether it's food or medication, or whatever. And I personally see no difference between advertising for food and anything else, and that includes medications.

So I don't know...

[Keezheekoni]

Hi Ax, welcome to the madhouse!!

As for gaining weight on insulin, just don't do so much of the green stuff they grow in your area :canabis: and you won't get the munchies... :)

Overdosing on insulin is what causes a lot of the weight gain. You give too much, then have to eat to come up from a low...give yourself more insulin because you ate too much, but then later you're low again...vicious cycle!

[Axel Slinger]

As for gaining weight on insulin, just don't do so much of the green stuff they grow in your area :canabis: and you won't get the munchies... :)
As an ex-pot smoker (I suppose that's where the "Retired Hippie" part of "Retired Hippie Guitar Player comes from) I know Humboldt Buds are the best on Earth. The last time I smoked any was in 1999 at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at the fabulous Redwood Acres Raceway.

It was a great show. While Lynyrd Skynyrd burned the stage, I burned a bud with a Humboldt County Sheriff. But after the show I promised my wife I would never do such a thing again because ya never know who's watching. And then I basically quit after that anyway. That was the first time I had smoked any in almost a year at that point. I guess after 30 years I lost interest in it.

Oddly enough though, since that concert was on our anniversary I can pinpoint to the date and time almost exactly when I quit smoking pot. (September 6th, 1999, just before midnight.) So I guess it didn't effect my long term memory as bad as I thought it would.

However, that is only one source of fame for Humboldt County. As a confirmed lover of the great outdoors, I also love the Redwoods. It saddens me to know that there are less than 1% of the Redwoods left that were growing strong for 2500 to 3000 years before Loggers came to California in the 1800's. There are still a few Redwoods trees that have been around since about 1000 BC, but not very many.

When one tree can produce enough lumber to build several houses, Loggers love 'em. They don't see Redwood trees as a source of clean air, or beauty, or something to be preserved. They see $$$$$ and want to cut them all down.

Overdosing on insulin is what causes a lot of the weight gain. You give too much, then have to eat to come up from a low...give yourself more insulin because you ate too much, but then later you're low again...vicious cycle!
Hmmm... I never thought about that. But I will remember you said it, that's for sure. Specially since I put it in my handy little black book of Diabetic Information. (I hope you don't mind...)