“The thing is…” Nelson pauses for effect, “it doesn’t seem to matter what I do, I just can’t seem to stop putting weight on.”
Nelson has Type II diabetes. You know. The grown up sort. The kind that won’t put you into a coma in just a week or two, and, that seldom requires insulin at the start. One of the problems with this is that, in an effort to get his blood sugars to target, he has ended up on rather a lot of meds. And some of those meds can, paradoxically, cause weight gain. So he may just be experiencing a side effect.
“So,” say I, “what exactly have you tried?” A reasonable request I think you’ll agree. But Nelson’s body language comes over all discomfited.
“Well, I don’t have sugar in my tea anymore. And I’ve started using all those low fat thingies….” At this point his brow creases as he casts around for other lifestyle changes made in the three years or so he has been afflicted.
He dries.
“So have you tried dieting at all?”
The stunned look in reply says it all. It appears he was hoping for a visit from the “Weight Loss Fairies” to magic the excess avoirdupoids away.
And so we agree to give it a go. In the end he is weighing in a good three kilo’s heavier than he was in the spring, and this tips him over into the dread “Obese” category, which, coupled with his diabetes is not the best news. He has a target to make in the next four weeks, and if he can hit or get close to the required 2.5kg weight loss we shall be in a position to start him on some meds that might help (yes yet more meds, Type II Diabetes Mellitus is not for the faint hearted—‘scuse the pun).
If not he gets to go to the endocrine clinic for further advice.
Or we could always send in the Weight Loss Fairies...
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6 comments:
Poor Nelson; the tooth fairy came to my son a couple of nights ago, maybe I can persuade him/her/it to transmogrify into a weight-loss fairy for Nelson.
I'm not a fan of the word "diet" or "dieting". In fact, I hate it - it deludes people into thinking they can eat a certain way for a certain time to achieve weight loss/better health before resorting to their old ways. There's no quick fix, and healthy eating is a habit for life.
(Sorry, I know you know this - tell me to shut up if you want.)
:-)
orchidea-- you are of course and as always, quite right. The thing is, Nelson needs a kick start. His background heart disease risk is ten times what it should be already :-(
Send him in my direction Dr J, I am a weight loss fairy! I've not actually weighed myself, but judging by the clothes falling off, I'd guess I've dropped a couple of kilos in the week I've been away, purely because I've failed to keep up my necessary chocolate intake.
It's not very pc I know, but I'm not a fan of fat people who bitch in an intentionally audible fashion about me for being thin whilst shoving a constant stream of food into their mouths and wondering why they still haven't lost weight. Ahem. This would be why they love me at the endocrine clinic, it seems needing to gain weight is a complex and increasingly rare condition these days. A week or so living with me should sort Nelson's weight issue out, which actually happened to an obese friend of mine (male) after spending several days in my company and only eating when I did lost so much weight he stuck to the pattern and got down to a very healthy weight...hmm, perhaps I should start a business ;)!
So what sort of things do you eat then? Or is it when do you eat that matters? I could do with a weight loss fairy too, having put on a stone this year - not endocrine related as proved by blood tests. To make matters worse, a fractured foot is now stoppng me excercising! I'm not trying for the sympathy vote here, by the way; just a bit of useful advice.
I could do with a weight loss fairy. I wake up morning after morning to find a trail of chaos across my kitchen with no memory of having got up in the night to eat. It all started when my meds were upped. The only time it doesn't happen is if I take a good swig of alcohol before bed, which is far from ideal. So send me your weight-loss fairy, and ask her to guard my kitchen at night!
Please come back, Dr J. We miss you!
o xxx
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