Diabetes and Me: by Kenneth Stokes – Contributing Author

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Saturday 01/09/2010

HI …..For three solid hours that’s all the meter said: HI.

I lay there in the hospital bed, my eyes and ears locked on a heart monitor over my head. It was making noises that sounded like someone was dying.

I followed the route of those colored cables coming out of that monitor making their way back to my chest. Looking at my right hand, there was an IV taped to it, dripping a solution that made my whole arm cold and uncomfortable.

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Then I noticed my wife sitting quietly at the foot of the bed, just staring at me. Any onlooker would have no clue that my beautiful wife was also a medical professional.

She wouldn’t dare say anything that hinted she was fearful of my forthcoming diagnosis, but with what I saw in her eyes . . . she didn’t have to say a word.

Every so often a nurse would come in with another syringe full of  liquid, that she would add to the dripping IV; fifteen minutes later she’d stick my index finger to check my blood sugar level again. After a series of these systematic tasks, the nurse said “Okay, we finally have a number….669.”

I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but any number seemed better than HI.  I glanced at my wife. The look on her face quickly turned my momentary relief into immediate concern. Now all I wanted, and needed to understand was:

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WHAT IS NORMAL ?

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Monday 01/11/2010

Is this really happening? Two days ago I was lying in the emergency room feeling like I was dying; now I’m sitting in my doctor’s office in a follow up appointment.

One of my worst fears has come true, now it’s personal … I have DIABETES !

My mind is racing. Wait a minute; how can I stop this nightmare?  As my mind continued to spin a tremendous amount of thoughts and fears at an unbelievable rate of speed, I didn’t even hear the Doc come into the room.

“Here, Mr. Stokes, take this.”  I focused and she was standing there with this needle in her hand asking me to take it.  What for? I thought.  She said again, “Mr. Stokes take this and I’ll show you how to use it.”

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My immediate, totally disrespectful reaction was, “That is not gonna happen!”

After she professionally presented me with countless pamphlets of information and statistics, she said something that changed my life forever!

“You can control this disease and live a very healthy life if you take charge now and stick to a plan.” She was now speaking my language:

What I realized was my Final Number would NOT be . . . 669! I would:

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TAKE CHARGE AND BE IN CONTROL of DIABETES

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I recognized immediately that the very first demon to be defeated, right then and there, would be False Evidence Appearing Real. FEAR . . . “was the first three days, of the rest of my life.”

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As I face my FEAR I will share more of my story; hopefully it will assist you through a similar situation or maybe even help you avoid it all together. Thanks for reading.

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Kenneth Stokes, Contributing Author

SenGraph@live.com

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