Well, yesterday was very interesting. I had my two year complete physical at Cornell. I go to the ACCORD program there. ACCORD stands for Action to control cardiovascular disease in diabetic woman.

When I first went there I was at least 30 lbs heavier, my a1c was 9 and my blood pressure was controlled by monopril. Been on that for over 25 years.

My diabetes meds at the time were glucophage, then glucovance, then avandia. Nothing worked.

Why did I ultimately join the ACCORD program? Because it was sometime in February and I went out to shovel snow, (I love to shovel snow by the way), I felt great, so I thought to myself. "well I just did a big workout, I bet my sugar reading will be good". I take my sugar and it was 400. I nearly passed out. I had rarely gone over 265 and usually was around 150. So where did this 400 come from.

I immediately went to my doctor who said "what on earth did you eat? and I said "I didn't eat any thing, I shoveled snow". He said "Oh, of course, that did it, you shoveled snow". I looked at him like he lost his mind. He immediately said "I want you off of all these oral crap and I want you on Lantus. Of course I demured saying "i don't want to give myself a shot every day". but he was adamant. Saved my life by the way.

Two days later, I signed up with the Accord program at Cornell and they gave me a complete physical and explained why shoveling snow made my sugar go so high (I have had this explained to me 100 times, but it doesn't penetrate my brain).

So I go once a month, or once every two months, I get weighed backward (don't ask, it's a mental thing, I don't want to know what I weigh).
They have reduced my lantus from 46 units (one shot every morning) down to 34. Because my a1c is now 6, they believe they will reduce it even further by next week. I have to wait until all the test results come back. (they took a lot of bloodwork).

Now let's get to my blood pressure before we get to my neuropathy.
They hook me up to the machine and it takes your pressure 3 times and averages it out. Well, it averaged out to 87/52. They said "Oh dear". and I said "no wonder when I get up too fast or change position (or blow my nose hard) I get dizzy. They immediately reduced my zestoretic from 20/25 to 20/12 and a half. Next time I go in March they will decide if the 20 has to go down to 10.

My sugar reading in the a.m. is 95 so that's all positive. I lost two more pounds in the last month. They think this is the cat's meow, I think they've lost their marbles but they did explain that losing slowly is the way to do it so I go, Okay, whatever you say!!.

Now sometime last year when they tested my feet, they did the tuning fork thing on the toes and stuck little pin things on the tops of my feet and toes and it was determined that I had neuropathy.

So yesterday they redid the whole test. She bangs the tuning fork, puts it on my foot (where a person would have a bunion (but I don't have any bunions). and she goes "tell me when it stops vibrating". I told her "it never started". She bangs the tuning fork again, goes down my foot a little bit and I said "oh, I feel that and she goes, tell me when it stops, and I did.

Then she does this think with a pointy end and says to me "tell me when you feel what I am doing, it won't hurt, but I need to know if you feel it.
So I close my eyes and told her when I felt anything.

She then told me "well, you know you do have neuropathy, right?". I said "yes, but I don't have anything like my husband has, with the stabbing and pins and needles, etc. he's gone crazy with pain for 18 years until he found Dr. Theirl". She explained that in my case it's more loss of sensation then anything else. She explained that the best thing I can do is keep my blood sugar under control and watch my a1c number.

There were two people in the room and I said "well, I looked at a blood test I took in 1999, the other day, and I happened to notice that my a1c was 11"

They both looked at each other and said "Aha, now we know why you have neuropathy. But I don't have it in my eyes (according to my eye specialist).

So I'm doing good weight wise, blood pressure wise, and while my neuropathy is obviously going up my foot in dribs and drabs (I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen). I am determined to keep tight control of my blood sugar.

Does this neuropathy thing have to get worse. I mean, if I keep a tight control, do I eventually have to have it like Alan has it or will I just continue to get the numbness?

I asked them but it wasn't too clear to me.

Just wanted to update all of you.