When I was a young girl, I had an aunt that I just adored. She was so glamorous to my child eyes. She wore wigs to have more bouffanty hair, she had that eyeliner that looked like Elizabeth Taylor, she was daily dressed to stop traffic, and she always had what amounted to a small suitcase of medication, because she was ill all of my life. That little rectangular case (think hip 60's hard shell make-up case with mirror in the lid) held bottle after bottle of prescription medication to manage her outrageous heart problems and other assorted serious illnesses. In a strange bit of irony, all that medication that kept her alive for years, eventually was credited with causing the stomach cancer that took her life. Between heart problems, diabetes, and blood pressure issues, everyone in my family, it seemed, was on 'medication for life'. Since I was young, I thought this was what happened when you 'got old'.
Realizing I had arrived at the door of diabetes, I was overcome with that sense of 'medication for life' because I was 'old'. Never mind that I know better! As a matter of fact, 90 is looking pretty young to me these days. Least as far as I can see, the older I get the farther off 'old' gets. But niggling in the back of my brain was the sense that if I had to take medication forever, I was old, and doomed, and well, can't you just hear the violin playing?! I went so far as to ask the doc if I worked really really hard and was super good (yeah, fat chance, Twinkie loving girl...don't go there!) and got my sugar down the all natural way, could I please not take that medicine stuff. You can guess how that went. A big fat NO. Here's why. She explained that the medicine will help regulate the extremes of my blood sugar. Because with diabetes, if you have high highs, you are also having some low lows. And your body can't cope with that long term. The medicine shortens the wave...so there are fewer extremes and your body is a bit more leveled out.
There are dozens of medication options, prescription and OTC supplement type things, and then there's the insulin by injection, which I am so grateful not to be having to use. So, I'll share what I take, what it is, and where it falls in the list of medication options. Then I'll give you a link so you can go read up for yourself. I am on a medication called Metformin. It was my doc's choice because it is less taxing on that pancreas that has so deserted me in my hour of dessert needs. It is in the category of Biguanides which is one of six classes of blood sugar lowering drugs. It works primarily by lowering the glucose produced by the liver and by making your muscle tissue more sensitive to insulin so glucose can be absorbed. I take it every day and it's making a huge difference.
I'm still getting used to being on 'medication for life' but when I think I want to get dramatic about it, I remind myself that it is indeed just that...medication for LIFE. I am too busy having a life to leave yet. I have things to do, children to raise, libraries and library patrons to care for, and in general much fun yet to be had. So me and my Metformin are spending time together, twice a day. We're going to be great buds...especially if it makes me a little less sweet. Read more about medication for diabetes here, http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/medication/
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