My Little Fat Health Scare

January 11, 2010 | By: Rakisha White

*SIGH*

Last week, I went to see my doctor about a follow-up to a blood test I had gotten in December. I went to see my general physician, because I was feeling a general physical and mental malaise as well having zero sex drive. Although I am a diagnosed depressive and am on anti-depressants, I never had a drop in my sex drive like the one I was experiencing. My doctor thought it could be a thyroid condition, so he took blood and urine. I wasn’t that worried because all my blood tests usually come back normal…. Until January 6, 2010

There was glucose in my urine. My sugar levels in my blood were high. My A1c test number was 6.5— rising to a worrisome level. My liver functioning test was slightly abnormal, and my trigylceride numbers were high. (The liver and trigylceride numbers being high was new, because I’ve always had EXCELLENT cholesterol and fat levels despite my weight.) Although my risk factors had always been high–overweight, African-American woman, gestational diabetes, relatives who are diabetic, the blood tests never showed that I was so close to the edge of being a Type 2 diabetic until now. I’m not joking when I say that I am one cookie inhalation from having full-blown Type 2 Diabetes.

I’ve always been a proponent that one can be fat/overweight/obese and still healthy despite what the media shovels to the public. I had been living proof, and there were thousands of others who were doing it too. Now, I’m not fat and healthy. I have to lose weight so I can be healthy. I feel like I’ve let my pro-Fat brethen down. I’m now the stereotype. I’m now the target of people who believe that their tax dollars support people’s unhealthy lifestyles (like overweight people don’t pay taxes). But I’m not a whiner nor a hypocrite nor a quitter! I’m fighting to get my healthy and fat status back. Type 2 Diabetes will not get me!

After I absorbed everything he said, I looked my doctor straight in the eyes and said “I’ll give you better eating, less carbs, and at least 2 days a week of exercise. What else can you suggest? Supplements, herbs? What? Because I’m not going to spend the rest of my life pricking my fingers.” He said exercise, diet, and a medication called Metformin.

“Metformin is used with a proper diet and exercise program to control high blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes (non-insulin-dependent diabetes). Controlling high blood sugar helps prevent kidney damage, blindness, nerve problems, loss of limbs, and sexual function problems.”

So, here I am 5 days later. I’m on WeightWatchers. I worked out twice already, and plan on adding a third day this upcoming Wednesday. I’ve gotten past the side effects of Metformin already. I’m feeling empowered by my proactivity. I could have been paralyzed by anxiety or self-pity or any other low self-esteem traits.

If it weren’t for my chronic condition (I’m an asthmatic), I wouldn’t have been seeing a doctor regularly because I know the horrors first hand of dealing with someone in the medical field who can’t see past your weight (or gender or race). I also know many may Fat Advocates feel, like I originally did, that somehow losing weight is a betrayl of principles. It’s not. Losing weight for health reasons doesn’t mean you suddenly have to get “skinny.” Check out below.

“We have seen a consistent pattern in our weight loss studies that when patients lose 5%-10% of their body weight, they lower blood pressure, reduce LDL ["bad"] cholesterol, improve glucose tolerance, and in general, lower the risk for cardiovascular disease,” says Catherine Champagne, a researcher with Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

This excites me, because I know soon I will be able to spit in the eye of convention again and be fat and healthy!

Fat and Healthy!