I Don’t Want To Go Blind

Hey there!

My regular visit to the eye doctor didn’t go as planned this past week.

I came away scared…and motivated. Let’s see if all the things I’ve been sharing with you will work with my own situation.


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Hope this helps!

David

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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and this particular video is a little
bit different from other videos that
I’ve done in this one-a-day video thing
that I’ve been doing the challenge this
year
I had a bit of
a bit of an experience on Monday I went
to Costco
that wasn’t the experience but I went to
Costco to get my eyes exam and you know
the background is is that I have type-2
diabetes
I found this out one night when I was on
the air my radio show my national show
on XM and Sirius and on the stations
that I was on used to take place from
7:00 until 10:00 at night and around
7:30 at night on a Friday and I had to
think it was I was interviewing mr.
cranky who was a very funny guy who was
a movie reviewer that hated everything
and I asked him a question about halfway
through the hour that I was interviewing
him asked him a question he answered it
and when he was finished he didn’t hear
anything and he was like hello are you
there
did I kill you with my answer I had
passed out on the console just facedown
on the console at the time I weighed 380
pounds 385 something like that
and the reason I passed out on the air
just sitting there and just clunk I
found out about two hours later when we
went to the emergency services the quick
the quick you know Clinic place not the
emergency room at the hospital and they
took a look at my blood sugar and it was
eight hundred plus it was crazy and
you know it’s not that I didn’t know
there was something wrong with me you
know I was thirsty all the time and I
was you know all of the difference if
you don’t know what the the different
symptoms are of type 2 diabetes you can
google it and make it I don’t want to
turn this into a hade I have type 2
diabetes and you should know about this
but at the time this was like 2000
mid-2000s I then spent the next 18
months losing about 160 pounds which I
did and I’m kind of around that weight
right now I found a few of them that I’d
lost I found a few of those pounds but
not many and what didn’t happen though
was that I didn’t change much about my
eating patterns I did for a while and
then it got to be you know I serve
better food and I really love food and I
can figure out what to do so I went from
my eye exam as I do every year around
this time and the doctor who’s really
lovely her name’s dr. Lee she’s like
last couple of years like you know I’m
looking at your eye is it gonna be
careful we’re gonna take a you know just
keep watching this you don’t it’s not
gonna he’s not bad now but you know you
just want to watch this this year this
is what she said to me she said look at
this now look at last year see a
difference I did I saw a difference she
said if you don’t fix what you’re doing
with your type-2 diabetes
you’re gonna go blind it’s not going to
be reversible right now it’s reversible
but there’s been a big degradation
between last year and this year and now
it’s no longer an option I mean she
scared the crap out of me right
and so I ordered my glasses I was fairly
upset I ordered my glass my new glasses
she said look at your prescription your
prescription is 50% worse than last
year’s what does that tell you
so then I came home
had a really good cry
and I took my I didn’t like testing it
hurts
I took my blood sugar for the first time
in God six months and it was in the 350
range which isn’t good not good at all
and I
I had a good cry and then I went through
the house and this was before I taught a
class on Monday night it’s like three or
four hours before that I went through
the house and I got rid of everything
that was a sweet you know something
sugary or something that was high in
carbohydrates everything gone
I took the boxes of packaged goods the
next day to the forget the name of the
place where you take not goodwill but
like that at the top of my Street anyway
they said you know some of these
packages have expired like in 2012 we’re
not going to take those so some of it
had to be pitched but the point was I
went to Ralph’s and God the things I
should have been getting all along
because I don’t want to go blind so I
got salad greens and I got fresh Turkey
and I got you know pumpkin seeds and and
mandarin oranges and you know
Annie’s soups that are not highly
processed and don’t have high
carbohydrates I know exactly what I need
to do my endocrinologist has been
telling me for years that I know what to
do
my a once II was at the top of the the
charts
and
not only do I not want to go blind I
don’t want to lose any toes or fingers I
don’t want to lose any feet or any hands
I don’t want to have a heart attack I
want to be with you at least through the
end of the year because I I have these
videos that I have to do and starting on
Monday night you know I had a salad in
the in the refrigerator and I grabbed
that and I started testing and I ate the
right foods and I’m still doing my yoga
and I’m adding more to that on Tuesday
my blood sugar was still around 280 then
on Wednesday you need to take it first
thing in the morning and then you take
it at night in the morning on Wednesday
it was a little bit better on Thursday
my morning fasting blood sugar was 118 I
believe 116 and then Friday morning
which was a couple days ago and this is
my this is my meter
I’m going to show you exactly what my
blood sugar was
Friday morning after just doing three
days worth of stuff my blood sugar was
94
94 after three days
all this time all this time I could have
been well on my way to fixing this but
instead I was
not paying attention to my health like
it’s okay yeah my fingers tingled my
toes you know I gotta I gotta wear
glasses when I look at things and you
know who I mean everybody my age has to
do that right right
I’m telling you if you are in my
position and you have type 2 diabetes
you can change things and it doesn’t
take a long time to do it
I have had really great food I’ve gone
out to eat a couple of times and I’ve
made really great choices and my
commitment is to keep doing that so all
of these videos that I’ve been doing
with you about getting started in habits
that stick and I all of a sudden not
just in my professional life but in my
personal life I need those things
and so I am going to make another
commitment to you for this year not a
commitment to you per se it’s a
commitment to me
and that is that I’m going to use
everything that I’ve been sharing with
you that I’ve been using in my
professional life about habit-forming
and stick-to-itiveness and motivation
and all of those things and I’m going to
use them to stay alive and I hope that
if you’re in my position
you do the exact same thing
think about it 72 hours 96 hours from
really destructive levels of sugar in my
body
to
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levels I’ve never experienced that I’m
aware of is at least since I’ve been
testing ten twelve years I’ve never been
below 150 that I can remember and now
I’m consistently in the normal range of
normal range by the way is 70 to 114
somewhere in there you want to be when
you’re either doing fasting glucose
levels or two hours after your last meal
levels those are the times that I test
and I would go to my rent
endocrinologist to make excuses about
why I wasn’t testing about why I wasn’t
compliant
and apparently it took being threatened
with going blind for me to actually do
something about it
so I don’t want to go blind
and I also don’t want to cry right now I
want you to be safe I want you to be
healthy I want you to understand that
this can be fixed if you have type 1
diabetes congenital diabetes I am feel
so bad for you I mean you have had to
live your whole life with this
if you have type-2 diabetes and it’s not
too far gone
you can make a difference in a matter of
days that’s how fast I’m telling you
please do it tell me what your
experience has been like wherever you’re
watching this video please leave me a
comment below about your health and
about this maybe people in your life
that you have that are doing facing this
sort of thing
if you’d like to subscribe to my channel
please go ahead and click on my head
there my 94 milligrams per dekaliter
head there if you don’t see a head then
go ahead and click on a subscribe button
somewhere on the page we want to see the
latest episode just click on that frame
there I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I so
appreciate you watching and I will talk
to you tomorrow.

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Responses

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  1. Good for you! Congrats on making your health a priority! Let food be thy medicine! People don’t realize what we put in our mouths makes a huge difference in our mental and physical health, not only in lifestyle issues like diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc. but the food we eat also makes an impact in our mental health – mood, depression, anxiety, etc. So I tell my clients eat a lot of organic fresh produce – vegetables and fruit, lean proteins, and limit processed foods. Half your plate should be vegetables, 1/4 lean protein, 1/4 healthy fat. Your body will thank you! Oh, and eat Organic and Non-GMO foods would be a priority. Congrats again!

    1. Wow. This was a really powerful message, David…
      I know more about eyes than the average bear, and while blindness isn’t cancer, it would definitely take a toll on all you’ve got going on – until you learned braille and cane travel, anyway!

      I am keeping you in my thoughts and support your success at regaining your good health.

      Peace to you more than ever, this week!

  2. So pleased to hear that you are on top of this, David. Knowing the commitment you display in your professional life I have every confidence that you will do very well adapting that to your lifestyle.

    Contracting an illness when the prognosis is terminal to 50% in months and to 100% in three years is also a wakeup call—however, lifestyle wasn’t, isn’t, a factor (in treatment anyway.) Thanks to medical science and half a dozen drugs a day, terminal morphed into chronic.

    Now with the joys of geriatric problems piled on.

    I agree that problems with the eyes can be scary, strangely even scarier than having no problems at all—permanently. I have been procrastinating over getting my checkup.

    So, hunker down, Bunky. Be good and you will have many more years of testing ahead of you.

  3. Those are phenomenal results in three days! Why aren’t we ALL doing this?
    Good for you, David, for meeting the challenge and changing your stars.
    Now, I need to go give away all those Girl Scout cookies sitting in the kitchen.

  4. David —

    I applaud your effort and commitment to beginning and maintaining a healthy lifestyle! And congratulations with getting your numbers down!

    I also had a rather disappointing eye visit this year. I’ve worn glasses for many years and my vision changes periodically, but usually it’s no big deal. Well, this year my eye doctor was concerned about dilating my eyes. The reason is because they saw what’s called “angle narrowing glaucoma.” That sounds kind of scary doesn’t it. It can be. The reason they didn’t want to dilate the eyes is because if it’s severe enough dilating the eye may cause immediate blindness! Fortunately it wasn’t that bad and they went ahead and dilated my eyes and continued with the exam.

    All this brings me to my point. I would like to make an albeit unsolicited suggestion. I’m guessing that the eye doctor at Costco is an optometrist. (If I’m wrong I apologize.) Having worked in healthcare for many, many years, I highly recommend that anyone with a chronic illness, i.e. diabetes, see an ophthalmologist, rather than an optometrist. Ophthalmologists, as I’m sure you know, are M.D’s (or D.O’s). They have more medical training and look for eye diseases, not just vision changes. That’s very important for someone with diabetes. And yes, my eye doctor is an ophthalmologist.

    All my best,

    Deb

  5. Love to hear your taking care of business. You know the saying ” to know and not to do is not to know” wonderful that you know. I work in the EMS world and have seen the troubles and chanallges your facing. Take care…can’t afford to lose you.

  6. David, Your most moving message to-date. Not only can you be proud of your current and future accomplishments, but feel the pride in caring enough to share them with all the people here. You can save lives with your honest message about the struggle of Type 2 diabetes. I have 30 years of experience in the optical field and it’s so important to have regular eye exams. People make the excuse that “all I have to do go to the drug store and get the $8 magnifiers..so I don’t have to go to the doctor”. Getting an eye exam is much more than just finding the refractive numbers for your eyeglasses…it is another way to check your overall health. Thanks for your frank and emotional talk . I’ve enjoyed each and every message you’ve posted, but none as much as today’s. Be well my friend…Thom Varhol

  7. Wow…what a story. I quit smoking last year (July 11) because I woke up in the middle of the night having difficulty catching my breath. Scared the crap out of me. I’m not sure I’m worried about dying but for sure I don’t want to die drowning in my own bed. Haven’t had a puff since. I feel sooooo much better. I honestly don’t see myself as a smoker any more. It’s hard to admit that as mature adults we can still behave like a reckless teenager…but there you are. Thanks for your honesty. JO

  8. David, What a great turn around story! So very excited for you and happy to know we will have you around for a lot longer! I guess it took being told you would not ‘see’ to then ‘see’ the light? I feel what you have accomplished to be so impressive. Keep it up!

  9. Hi David – Sorry you are going through this. Diabetes is no fun. My daughter has Type 1 and while I know they are very different in a lot of ways we understand the struggle everyday of deciding what to eat, when to eat and timing the medication. I’m really glad that you are on a good path with this disease. My mom has Type 2 as well; and I worry about her all the time because she’s a day of plane travel away. The most insidious thing about Diabetes is that there is no instant feedback loop. If a person drinks too much, they get hung over; if a person skips sleep, they are exhausted; but if a person eats a poor diet, they don’t instantly loose some feeling in their fingertips…it’s years of mismanaging before it really starts effecting someone. In some ways Type 2 is harder than Type 1, because with Type 1 if you don’t deal with the extreme high’s or lows it will land you in the hospital, but Type 2 you can ignore it. I know you’ll be able to stick with this because once you decide to make a real life style change it becomes a habit. You’ve got this!

  10. I was on a break from a scene rehearsal about 2 years ago when I got a call from my new doctor’s office about recent blood work. “Do you know you’re an out of control diabetic?” That’s what they hit me with. Well…no. I did not know. I did know I was having to hit the john about 20 times a day but thought it might be other issues. Doctor said my body was dumping sugar. My A1C was over 11 at the time. Within a short period of time I had changed my diet to dramatically reduce carbs and with medication my A1C dropped below 6. One of my 2019 goals was to begin anew an exercise regimen and be more consistent with my diet. I have lost 11 lbs so far, my cholesterol has dropped 70 points, my blood sugar bounces around from the 90’s to ~120. And on my last eye doctor visit my perscription actually improved. Sometime it takes a whack up beside the head to get our attention. Glad your doctor got your attention before it was too late to gain control of this situation. Onward….

  11. I wish I could give you a big hug and tell you how proud I am of you for taking control! Though we’ve never met, you help me regularly, both personally and professionally. I look forward every day to “spending time” with you. I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic but until a month ago seemed to think that I was indestructible and not looking after myself. Last month I made a commitment to get my weight and blood sugar levels in line. It’s not easy. I don’t always make the right choices, but AM making the right choices more often than not. We can build on our successes, David! We can do this!!

  12. Hello David,

    Bette Davis wasn’t kidding when she said, “Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies.” As I write, I’m sitting on a heating pad, having just changed out the ice pack to help the swelling go down from my hip surgery. (The swelling in my butt is because of my hip surgery. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) But, the challenges we get as we age (and this is a life lesson) are just different from those we dealt with in our earlier years. They tend to be more internal. Literally. And we need to re-boot how we deal with them. Or not. But it is our choice in how we deal with it. Glad to hear you are making positive choices. And how great that you still have the choices to make!

    Cheers to you and your re-boot on your lifestyle. Hugs!

  13. I’m very happy to hear you’re taking care of yourself. A friend of mine recently had a toe removed because of complications related to diabetes. I have another friend who I don’t think pays much attention to his diabetes and it scares me to think about what may happen to him as a result. Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the video David.

  14. Thanks for sharing this personal struggle, David. You may be feeling down but I know you’re not defeated. I can already see you with a designated notebook, Signo uniball and Google Sheet plotting the steps to better health. PS My dear BIL faced a similar turning point last year with his diabetes. He now rocks the Keto diet, lost weight and his blood chemistry is excellent. We are rooting for you!

  15. First and most important: Great job! Keep at it. I know it’s hard to make life-altering changes, but it’s worth it. So glad you’re on this new path.
    I have my own issues and struggles. Funny how many times I knew what needed to be done, but didn’t choose to do it. It’s a daily battle. I’m in it for the long haul.
    Kudos, sir. Be well!

  16. David: A quick, one-word suggestion for carb challenges: quinoa. It’s a tiny seed that cooks like rice, but it’s a protein, so no starch problem. Moreover, it has the texture of pasta or couscous, very satisfying. (Great cooked with different bases and topped with veggies.) Cooks easily like macaroni or the like. Pick up a bag next time at Costco – they have the best price by far.

    Also, you might get the book “Always Hungry?” by David Ludwig, MD (NY Times bestseller sometime ago). It’s not a new crank diet, but a medical approach to correcting bad eating habits and promoting health. It helped me.

    You got this, MENSA boy! Best wishes – and keep us updated with these videos.

  17. This was a very emotionally charged podcast and I felt you. I am glad that you are going to work on this issue… Good for you for making the change in your diet. It means that you’ll be healthier and you’ll be happier as a result. Thank you for the wake up call for the rest of us…

  18. We want you to be healthy so that you can be here and enjoy your life, and keep making great videos and creating great classes and helping us be better vo people and better people and working private coaching and more and more! So amazing you took the radical steps and even MORE amazing the results you acheived in pretty much NO TIME!
    Michael E

  19. Congrats on getting better and taking care of yourself. Cant wait to see how the journey goes. Glad you are making changes because we don’t want you to go anywhere. Stay safe
    Remy

  20. Thank you so much for sharing this, and a huge congratulations on how far three days got you! I hope you’ll do an update next year at your next eye appointment.

    The part of your video that hit me was the comment you made about not changing much because of how the testing hurt and you love food. I think we should form a “people who resent having to eat healthy” support group, because I’m struggling with some of the same things myself.

    I’m glad you’re here now, and I’m sending you best wishes for a great, healthier journey all the way to the 365th video.

  21. I don’t want to lose you. It took me a lifetime to find you, and I’m selfishly saying “Time for you to take care of yourself, so you can continue to take care of us. Healthy food can become your joy. Hugs. Linda Mae

  22. Thank you for sharing this, David! Congratulations!! We are rooting for you!! It a good reminder to me to take my health seriously, too, and to actually DO what I know I need to do. I’m not diabetic, but have put on weight these past two years – this after completing three full marathons and vowing never to let my weight creep up again. Ugh. It’s hard to start over again. VO work is more sedentary, so I need to be more intentional (and get back to the Galloway Method of running :)) Thanks, again, David. You didn’t waste your pain 🙂

  23. After a rather nasty whiplash injury that I had to handle on my own. It limited me tremendously and the worst advice I got was, “Don’t do anything. Just sit still and wait for it to fix itself.”

    It took 5 years of me doing *everything* to fix myself, and during that time I learned to listen very closely to my body.

    I picked a goal, aimed at it, and then when I hit it I’d pick another one. First was, “I have to be able to sit in my chair long enough to do my job, without agonizing migraines.” Then, “I want to be able to walk for more than 5 minutes without painful migraines.”

    Last year was, “I want to bulk my upper body so the muscle mass matches my lower body.” Imagine! Weightlifting and martial arts without (many) painful days! Working with a personal trainer for over a year, I put on about 15-20 pounds of muscle (and 5-10 pounds of fat).

    Sounds like a pretty great success story, right?

    Well, despite all this attention, I recently did something very stupid. Something wasn’t right with me, and I didn’t want to face it. I even lied to my doctor–completely going against my own nature–and I realized it was because I was lying to myself.

    Suddenly I was very scared at what might be wrong, and it took a while to realize that that fear reaction was pushing me in the wrong direction. Like you’ve taught us in ‘Believe 2018’ and elsewhere, I recognized that my brain was trying so hard to protect me from harm that it would actually be my undoing if I didn’t override it.

    I *made* myself turn everything around. Tell my family. Start asking questions. Do research. Most importantly, go back to the doctor, tell them the truth, dive into the tests, and tell them every last little thing I could think of that might help.

    I’m pulling together old medical records to be able to organize some baseline data…and I’m waiting.

    I can’t believe I almost didn’t.

    I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if I didn’t.

    I’m so glad you’re taking care of yourself now too.

    1. Wow, Trenton!

      You are such an advocate for others I found this confession remarkable. I am so happy to see you wrestled yourself into submission. Good for you.

  24. I’m glad it scared you enough to change. It is fixable. My mom didn’t take the Dr’s orders seriously, and did nothing about it for 20 yrs. Never checked her BS, kept eating the way she always did. She is still alive, but not in good shape. Multiple strokes, heart surgery, vision problems, and she basically sits all day and barely walks around the house. I’m glad you are making the change!! It will be worth it, trust me!! One of my favorite movie quotes: “You can do it!”

  25. When Carl Reiner asked the 2,000-year-old man (a.k.a. Mal Brooks) what the chief means of transportation was back in the day, remember his answer?

    “Fear.”

    Stay with us, David!

  26. David – thank you so much for the very powerful message today. I am teetering on Type II, and while I am surrounded on all sides by Type Ii by my family (Mom/Dad/brother/Uncle) I truly don’t fight my numbers/eat healthy as I should. It’s sad that it takes something to scare you to death to produce correct behavior, but unfortunately for many of us, that’s how it works. As I’m getting older, I’ve realized I can’t eat like I did when I was 12 (dammit), and my quality of health for my remaining years is worth the fight. Thank you for the moving talk today. I’m going to go check my number to see if it’s down from 108 this morning. Then hit the gym. Thank you again! {{Hugs}}

  27. My brother from Cleveland. My birthday was March 1, and I marked it as the start of a similar change of lifestyle. As they say these days, “let’s do this.” I want to raise a glass to you on my next birthday.

  28. Hi there, David
    I’m so appreciative of each day’s video – and this one especially touched my heart..Thank you for sharing your story.
    Good to hear you’re on the path toward reclaiming your health! Stay motivated..and Be well! We’re all rooting for you!

    Ilona

  29. David, thank you for sharing what’s happening with you. My teenage son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2015. In my search to help him I came across the Mastering Diabetes program https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/. Many people following this program have been successful at reversing type 2 diabetes. The creators of the program are both type 1 and very active in staying abreast of the research surrounding this disease. I encourage you to take a look at the website. I firmly believe that it can make a world of difference to any diabetic or prediabetic.