Guest Author - Deborah Pipas

For the past thirty years our family has always celebrated my husband’s November 22nd birthday and Thanksgiving together. Nowadays our children and grandchildren come to our house on Thanksgiving Day and we enjoy visiting with each other, being thankful for another blessed year, discussing our plans for the coming Christmas holidays and reminding “Papa” that he is another year older. Mike (Papa) has always enjoyed celebrating his birthday in this manner and it is a joyous occasion for the family. This year we will do the same things but due to Papa’s recent diagnosis of diabetes our meal will change a little as we all join in to help him get his blood sugar under control.

Actually, Mike was diagnosed about five years ago. He took the meds for less than a month and made no changes in his diet. It didn’t take long for me to realize he was in denial about his disease. Although I bought diabetic cookbooks, tried to change his eating habits and pointed out often to him that he was diabetic I soon realized that I am limited to what I can do to control his disease. He had to get past the denial before anyone could help him, even the doctor.

The first couple of years after the original diagnosis were not too bad but, along about the third year I began to realize a decline in his health. He lost a lot of weight approximately fifty pounds without even trying. He would lose his appetite for periods of time, his eyes began to bother him and he complained of extreme fatigue as well as a variety of other symptoms. The children and I made several attempts to discuss his health with him but he would have no part of it and continued to say (and believe) he was fine. We were all very concerned but the door was closed.

A few months ago I decided to take a class on herbal alternatives for some minor health issues I was experiencing. He approached me about putting together a daily vitamin and herb regimen for his various complaints. I did some research keeping in mind of course that he is diabetic and put together a regimen of vitamins and herbs that would be beneficial to him. We tried several combinations until he found one that he felt was helping him. He did begin to feel a little better but still complained of fatigue, eye problems and a variety of new symptoms that seemed to appear intermittently. I suggested that he needed to see the doctor again and this time he agreed that he would do so if he wasn’t feeling much better in three months.

During that three month period we attended a family party and had the opportunity to visit with relatives that he had not seen in over ten years. They were surprised about his extreme weight loss as he was never overweight to start with. One of the relatives commented that they did not recognize him when he first arrived. Apparently between not feeling well and the comments made by the relatives he finally decided he needed to see the doctor.

Of course the doctor told him that he attributed most of the symptoms he was experiencing to the diabetes. He also informed him that his blood sugar was nearly four hundred (400). Medication was prescribed again; he was given a meter to measure his blood sugar and told to return in a few weeks to get another blood test. He is finally working on changing his eating habits, taking the meds and accepting the fact that unless he deals with the disease he will become one of the many diabetics that suffer the disabilities brought on by this debilitating disease when it is left untreated. Diabetes can be a horrible disease if not treated; the patient can develop Diabetic Neuropathy which can become quite uncomfortable physically. Often those who suffer with the disease lose their eyesight, limbs, develop heart and kidney disease and/or eventually lose their life to the disease.

We are a close knit family so as we look forward to the holidays this year we all plan to support Papa in practicing moderation when we sit down to our Thanksgiving/Birthday Celebration. We plan to encourage him to take better care of his health so that he will be with us for a long time and enjoy a good quality of life. We also will assure him that as a family we will be there to support him no matter what happens.

Our family has so much to be thankful for this year as always. We all survived Hurricane Ike with minor damage compared to friends and neighbors. We were blessed with a brand new baby granddaughter this year. For the most part the family is strong and healthy and we all have each other. No matter what the future may hold, we are blessed.

To you and yours this coming Thanksgiving day, may you be blessed, loved, and cared for no matter where you are, who you are, or what your circumstances may be. I pray that you will be able to look back on this year and see all the times that God has richly blessed you.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!