Feb 10 2009
Dumb Questions and Diabetes
Sunday morning, I felt a bit off. My head was fuzzy. I didn’t feel sick; I just didn’t feel right. And I’d not drank the night before, so it wasn’t a hangover.
I look down at the veins on the back of my hands and see they’re prominent and puffed up. I raise my arms, they get less prominent. I put them down and they fill up like firehoses just as they turn on the hydrant.
I say to my wife, who is far more medically knowledgeable, “I have a question for you. Probably a very dumb question. Do you think my blood pressure is up?”
I felt silly asking this because I was sure the answer would be that I was over reacting. My veins are a little puffy, this is not cause for panic.
Instead, I get told that yes, my BP looks to be elevated and I should go drink some water. This and some deep breathing fixed it. A short meditation on the morning’s activities reminded me that I’d had a lot more coffee with breakfast than I’m used to having daily so that probably contributed to it.
Yes, I’m getting to a point.
There’s a trick to listening to your body. It’s not one I’ve mastered by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s simple: Don’t assume anything is a dumb question. Feeling sleepy in the afternoons? Don’t ignore it. Have a random pain? Don’t assume it’s going to go away. Take what your body does seriously.
A friend of mine recently told me that he may have had a heart attack. He told me this like he was asking if I’d seen Recent Action Flick or if I’d like to go sing kareoke some time. He had gone to the doctor because he’d had an elevated heart rate and shortness of breath along with some other early warning signs of a heart attack, but no chest pain.
As they were setting him up with blood pressure medication, the nurse told him “Next time, don’t wait for the chest pain.”
The human body is an amazing instrument complete with a number of backup and early warning systems. But as clever is the body is, the mind is moreso and has to be in order to rule the body properly. We can ignore signals our body is sending and this is a good thing: if you’re trapped in a burning building, you want to be able to shut off the pain from a sprained ankle so you can get out. Hunger that comes on when you’re no where near food is unwelcome and it’s best that you can ignore it. But as humans tend to push things to their limits, especially in fast paced Western culture, the ability to ignore your body is sometimes a bit of a liability.
If I’d asked the dumb question of why I was suddenly gaining weight and unable to stay awake in the afternoons a month or two earlier than I did, who knows how much better control I’d have over my blood sugar. If I’d not ignored or rationalized things like acid reflux or constant dehydration or any of the other things my body was telling me was wrong, I might never have gotten my diagnosis as hyperglycemic in the first place.
So if you’re body is doing something weird and you don’t know, please learn from the mistakes of someone who was quick to dismiss too many concerns as being inconsequential. When it comes to your health, make a point of petitioning those who know more than you. There are no dumb questions… usually just dumb choices.
