Well, back at the time of the Pandemic, my mind was on my deteriorating health.   I had just been diagnosed as being fully diabetic, but had not yet started insulin.  I was seeing Dr Shaforo in Crookston at Riverside Clinic where my daughter, Jeana was working at the time.  I had been trying various dietary approaches to solving my problems and was not having much success,   I was on the Optavia diet but was becoming very much opposed to continuing, as I really was not happy with the fact some of their foods were using sugar.  I have been on a nearly life long battle with sugar and here I was now force feeding myself with that terrible stuff.  It did seem to be controlling my GERD for the first time in over fifty years.  I figure that was because I was eating no bread at all.  It was about that time I discovered I could make a difference with the type of bread I used, and I got started eating nothing but Rye and seeded Rye.   That has always been a puzzle to me, since they both contain Gliadin and they both contain Gluten, so I could definitely perceive my problem was not that I am gluten intolerant as so many others are.

 

Well, then I stumbled upon Omeprazole and guess what?  My GERD problems were forever solved.  Only problem being it is an over the counter drug and the Insurance companies balk at paying for it.  Then my Pharmacist suggested I ask my Doctor to put me on Pentaprazole, which should do the same thing but it is not over the counter so the insurance should cover it.  By this time I had quit going all the way into Crookston to see Dr Shaforo and was back with my old Dr Muller in Bemidji.  I went sort of nuts when I got my Gerd under control and started eating whatever I wanted and I was shedding the pounds, to boot.  Turned out that was because I was in full blown Ketone Acidosis and my body was eating myself up.  My A1C jumped to 14.5 and Dr Muller put me on Insulin,  Only 20 units to begin with but now I am up to 30 units/day.  Long story short,  I am done trying to be smarter than the doctors.  From now on I am taking the drugs they prescribe, and try my best to eat mostly protein and skip the carbs as much as I can.  My  weight is still hovering right around 240-245, about where I had gotten down to from 280 where I had been prior to all this blowing up on me.  I am 81 now and just trying to live my life out 1 day at a time.