When my eye sight is failing and I can’t reach my toes to cut my toenails, it is time …
When walking a mere 100 metres leaves me breathless and exhausted, it is time …
When looking at a photo of me and realising I can no longer kid myself that the photo was just from a bad angle which is why I looked so huge … it was definitely time.
The final straw was going to my GP for a 6 month check-up and she cruelly made me get on the scale. I haven’t owned a scale in years … what I don’t know can’t harm me, can it? 95.4 kilograms. Of course there was something wrong with her scale. I went out and bought my own and for some inexplicable reason it agreed with the doctor’s scale.
I am my doctor’s worst nightmare of a patient. She is young, caring and thorough and I won’t play ball. My sole reason for going for a checkup is to get my scripts for the next 6 months. She holds the power to refuse to write my scripts unless I co-operate so it becomes a negotiation.
I don’t like being prodded and poked and trying to direct urine into a tiny bottle is very traumatic.
The dreaded blood tests. I am told the reason I faint when they stick a needle into my vein to fill a couple of tubes with my precious blood, is due to a drop in blood pressure. I am not afraid, I don’t think I am stressed and the pain is not an issue.
The blood test results revealed my sugar level and my cholesterol were just above the normal ranges, indicating I was now pre-diabetic. This was the prod I needed. I did not want to have diabetes. I have to lose weight.
I have never dieted in my life. Self care has never been a priority for me but at 69 I have to focus on my health.
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