Celebrating reversal

Now today was a good day, in fact an excellent day.  It started with a visit to the Doctor to get the results of a pre-Christmas blood test.   Now this was a big one after six months of diet and exercise I needed sugar levels to be at least stable to know that things were working, if improved better and there was the possibility that I might have managed to reverse the diabetes diagnosis.   So I got up early and went in with some trepidation.  The Doctor was looking pleased and said that that I had resolved the issue, if I put on weight again I will be at risk of Diabetes, but now I am not even in a pre-diabetic stage.  I left as they say with a spring in my step.  The crazy thing is that if I had listed to that diabetes nurse when I first diagnosed I would have improved things but not reversed them.  As it happens the diet was not too difficult and most could achieve it with a bit of support.   The cost of a dietician and some other support is far less cost to the NHS than the long term cost of diabetes.  I should have been given it as an option up front, not had to work it out for myself.  I was also lucky with the early diagnosis, before my pancreas had lost too much capacity.

I tweeted the result and got lots of great comments back, then on for a lunch meeting with Tony, Meg, Peter and Julia (watch for an announcement there) and then to Stratford for the second of the Hilary Mantel plays and a pre-dinner meal at the Arden hotel, where we had also booked in for the night.  It is right opposite the theatre so perfect.   I booked in and got the good news of an upgrade and was joined later by the family.  I had more than one glass of white wine for the first time in six months and the play was excellent.  More on those plays and the character of Cromwell in a future post.  At the end of the play it was good not to have to manage a one and a half hour drive home, but just to walk across the road and to bed. 

Tomorrow I had long planned a day in the mountains, if the news on the blood tests had been bad it would have been a way of thinking through and coming to terms with something too serious, now it will be a celebration.  But I still have 9 kg to go ….