This edition of Health Update is a little less cheery than previous ones. First off, my M-protein levels continue to rise:
My doctor reduced the dosage of my chemo med yet again, so this isn't surprising. But still not welcome. On the bright side, the smaller dosage does seem to have helped to keep my immune counts at a reasonable level. As always, it's a balancing act.
(Of course, my hope is that this doesn't really matter because I will persuade Kaiser Permanente to approve the newly available Carvykti CAR-T treatment, which has a good chance of putting me into remission. We'll see.)
Unfortunately, that's not all. My GP ordered some routine lipid tests this time around and they showed that my cholesterol levels are quite good. Hooray! Unfortunately, they also showed that sometime over the past four years my A1C levels skyrocketed. So now I have diabetes. For someone like me, who has the taste buds of a small child, this is really sucky news.
The positive side of this is that I eat a very impressive amount of chocolate and other sweets. This means that as a first step I can just cut that out and probably make a pretty good dent in my glucose levels. I haven't had the self-discipline to do this before, but I probably do now that I have something that provides me with a real incentive.
Finally, there's some "??" news: It's possible that the A1C result is a false alarm caused by my fatty liver, which seems to be getting worse. Or maybe diabetes and fatty livers just go together? Or perhaps I have some other liver problem. I shall ask my doctor since I have no idea.
I can avoid everything but temptation. Metformin worked wonders for my elevated A1C.
Name checks out. Metformin here as well.
Steel cut oats, and I add whole foods house peanut butter for slow release carbs and proteins. Been trying to limit myself to some British dark chocolate whole wheat biscuits, but temptations.
Life must remain worth living, but if massive amounts of chocolate are being consumed, that can indeed be cut back considerably. And my anecdotal experience is it will help with fatty liver.
Lack of endurance notwithstanding, even a slight increase in physical exertion probably wouldn’t hurt either.
Good news on the lipids, at least! That has always been my problem. Too high for comfort, but not high enough for meds. On the other hand, it's my only risk factor.
Been a diabetic (lost most of my pancreas) since 2001. Fatty Liver and Diabetes goes together. Try and cut down on the highly refined carbs. I went on a wonderbagel (these are big good tasting bagels back here in the east) eating binge over a month or so and had a really bad attack. Not fun. Cut out white bread as well. No more wine.
Your liver needs to get out and walk more, that's the issue.
I don't mean idle wandering, I mean a steady pace straight on for a couple miles and back.
I understand your doctor doesn't want the chemo to kill off your immune system, so that seems like a good call for now. CAR-T seems promising, but maybe there's still some other silver bullet for the doctor to give you.
This is definitely oversimplified, and possibly incorrect. Nevertheless, here’s my impression of the relevant part of the metabolic cycle.
Excess of certain types of carbs gets metabolized into sugar, which is then carried in the blood. That load of sugar, in turn, is the primary cause of type 2 diabetes. It is largely converted by body processes into fat, which is why the leading cause of overweight middle aged people in the USA is not too many fat grams, but rather overindulgence in sugars and other problem carbs.
When all that excess sugar is carried through the liver, the liver tries to do its task of filtering the blood, which means removing some excess sugar. And that, in turn, results in accretion of fat deposits in the liver, similar to the accretion of fat deposits around my middle.
One thing that can help your immune system is Beta Glucan 1,3D. Scientifically proven to increase immune response. I started taking it the day I was diagnosed with cancer and my immune levels never dropped below a low-normal all through chemo and radiation. Immune response returned to normal within a week of ending chemo.
I still take 1,000 mg daily with vitamin C. I like the Transfer Point brand.
Ah, substitute nuts for sugar/candy. Particularly the kind that have shells and you have to work to get the nut meat out.
I can relate to your sweet tooth and nuts have saved me, as well as walking.
Good luck Kevin. We are pulling for ya.
I'm mystified that you say you don't know whether fatty liver and Type 2 diabetes "go together." There's LOTS of information on good medical Web sites about just that. Yes, they do go together, although I gather they don't know which causes which.
I've lost two friends to Type 2 diabetes over recent years, one just a few months ago. The recent guy did absolutely everything right-- was lean and muscular, got good exercise every day, ate no sweets, drank no alcohol and took his meds religiously. His wife cooked for them both, and as an employee of the local hospital, knew what he should and shouldn't eat. It still got him in his early 70s. I fucking HATE this evil disease.
Above all, do not fail to take Type 2 seriously just because it doesn't require injecting insulin. My other friend who died didn't, and he paid for it dearly.
There are over 160 genes that contribute to susceptibility to developing Type 2 diabetes and collectively they amount to 15% of the risk. What you eat and how much is the single most important factor. The ADA and your doctor will tell you that a HgbA1C of 7.0 is a good goal. Wrong, you want an A1C of less than 5.0. Read Dr. Richard K Bernstein's: The Diabetes Solution and live by it. He also has a YouTube channel.