SCARY TYPE
Saturday, October 8, 2022 – column #7144
When it comes to typing, I’m Arial, I’m Courier New, and I’m Palatino Linotype.
There are hundreds of fonts, but those are my go-to types; I prefer them to the Sans Serif and Times New Roman any day …
But fonts aren’t the only type in our lives – and find that someone is ‘our type,’ or we use our type to describe our attitudes or lifestyle, or we give blood – they need our type, and so on throughout our language. But there is another one that is come into my life, one I find difficulty accepting and saying aloud.
I realize, like most people who age, that our bodies are not capable of what they once were, and no matter how much we diet, exercise, sleep, or give up red meat and white bread – sometimes it’s our body parts and organs that are getting tired, don’t work as well as they once did.
I’m thrilled my new doctor has taken a vigorous approach to fixing me – lucky me!
Progress on blood pressure, weight, general health and bloodwork has been proactive and effective. But one thing has been disconcerting/awkward for me to talk about or to write about. It concerns a medication called Metformin – a new one for me in recent months, as part of my program to get blood sugars under control and down to a normal level.
And it’s working – as am I, to change the eating habits of a 17-yr. old athlete into a sane diet for someone of my age/activity level; burning more calories and eating fewer calories seems to be a great solution, but I must praise the metformin.
If you don’t know about Metformin, good for you! If you do, then you know it is used for patients with one type of a disease; the one that has Type-1 and Type-2.
You guessed right; I’m Type-2. I’m sure many readers will read this and say, “Me too – I’m Type-2.”
I’m glad I don’t have Type-1, but not thrilled about being Type-2, but I prefer to simply think of it as taking Metformin. Why? My doctor tells me it’s not only about diet and exercise, and it might be my 71-year-old pancreas is getting tired. Apparently, there isn’t something that can fix it, goose-it-up or stimulate it to be younger …
I’m dancing around it here, but I really have difficulty when I type the word because it’s one of my least favourite words: diabetes.
Yes, I’m Type-2 diabetes – we are a type, we are a subset of the diabetes folks. And I am one of them; I take my pills like clockwork, watch what I eat better than ever, and my health is improving. I’m comfortable saying, “I take Metformin,” but I still cringe when the Type-2 term is used.
I’m not afraid of words, but I must admit this term gives me significant discomfort to say aloud – because it’s a scary word.
|