My jaw dropped when my doctor told me the news. “You are diabetic.” I stared at him in disbelief. I had complained to him about frequent urination and having to wake up so many times during the night to go to the bathroom. I had told himthat many times I had considered going to an urinologist, and asked him if he could refer me to one. Instead, he recommended that I take a blood test.

I had taken the blood test at his office the week before and the results were in from the lab. Now sitting before him, I stared at him unable to comprehend as he explained “The results are not good.” “As a matter of fact” he added sternly.” They are bad.” My blood glucose level was double the normal level of 4%.They were 8% plus. My diagnosis was Type 2 Diabetes.

I never would have thought that I was diabetic, because each time I reported my urinary problem to a doctor over the years, I was always given a urine test. The result had always been “There is no sugar in the urine.”, and I believed that eliminated me from having the disease. I was convinced that my problem was one for the urinologist.

Now, my doctor was telling me that he had had a similar problem. He recounted how his brother, an urinologist, had advised him to test his blood for diabetes. The

A change of lifestyle test had turned out positive, like mine.

It is only now that I know, having done some reading on the subject that according to the John Hopkins White Papers on Diabetes, “testing urine for the presence of glucose is far less accurate than blood glucose monitoring and is not recommended.”

My doctor was speaking “If you lose 30 lbs, all diabetes will be gone!” he announced with a wide sweep of his hand. I looked at him intently and I said “I’ll show you, I’ll do it.”

I left his office with a prescription for the generic drug Metformin and the determination to diet and exercise. Previously, each time I wanted to lose weight, I would resort to the American Heart Association’s “Cabbage Soup Diet.”. It was the only diet which had ever worked for me. However it is not a diet designed for use on a long term basis. My goal was that when I returned to my doctor in two months following lab-work one week before, the results should show an absence of diabetes. I also hoped that he would see a slimmer, more slender me.