I was 16 when I was diagnosed in 1988.  It was kind of a surprise – no one in my family (immediate or extended) had it and I was really a healthy kid.  But, so be it, there it was.  I spent about a week in the hospital trying to get my blood sugar under control.  I was almost dead when I arrived at the hospital – my blood sugar was 1089!!!  Yep, you read that right – a thousand and eighty nine!

But I’m doing great now and live with it successfully every day.

I still do things the old fashioned way – with syringes and a vial of insulin.  Actually two vials since I take 2 different kinds.  I have a One Touch Ultra blood tester and I test several times a day (most days).  It varies with what I eat, but I normally take about 53 units of Humalog insulin with each of my meals, and I take 75 units of Lantus before I go to bed.  So, yeah, I take a dang lot of insulin.  I suppose my weight has something to do with that.

So far (and it’s been 21 years!!), I have no diabetic side-effects.  My doctor says that other than my weight, I’m a very healthy person!  My eye doctor sees absolutely no retinopathy in my eyes.  The nerves in my hands & feet have no effects.  No kidney issues.  I am certainly blessed in that way and hope that RNY surgery will help me keep it that way!

Okay, so that’s the basics of my diabetes.  Now we’re all on the same page. 

–Banjo

So I’ve decided to give this blog thing a shot.  I don’t know that I have too many interesting things to say, but I do tend to be able to chat & chat & chat, so maybe I’ll be able to write & write & write too!

The main reason that I decided to start doing a blog is that in my research for weight loss surgery and its effect on type 1 diabetics, there just wasn’t that much information out there.  At least not much that I could find.  So, I want to document my weight loss surgery journey from the perspective of a type 1 diabetic.  Notice that it’s type 1.  Sure, you’ll find lots of information all over the internet about weight loss surgery and diabetes – but I can guarantee that about 95% of it is about type 2 diabetes.  They’re not the same thing.  It kinda makes me mad that they’re even named the same, but that’s probably a topic for another post! 

So, if you’re a type 1 diabetic, keep checking back in.  Hopefully I’ll have some useful information for you that will help in your weight loss surgery research and/or journey.

So here are the details of my surgery:

• Gastric Bypass (otherwise known as roux-en-y or RNY)
• November 10th, 2010 (note that comes out to 11/10/09….cool, huh?)
• 7:30 am
• St Luke’s – Downtown Boise, Idaho
• Dr. Christian Oakley

Alrighty, that’s about enough for now.  I better break gently into this whole blog thing!

–Banjo