I haven't seen this friend for over 2 years and we're supposed to have lunch at her mom's over the Holidays. She has six coronary stents (no heart attacks), is nearly 58 and recently told me she weighed 250# at her initial visit with a new dr. I was waiting to hear that she was seeking gastric bypass surgery (she has been a surgery nut to some extent). She was practically living at the ER the last year or so. She told ME of about six visits mostly for chest pain--there may have actually been more. The stents are pretty old and despite being monitored and reassured that she hasn't had any restenosis or good reason to worry--worry she has done. And lots of it. (One of the ER visits may have saved her life--it turned out she had pneumonia and even the ER dr was shocked when the chest X-ray came back.)
No gastric bypass surgery talk, thank goodness. She asked the dr to recommend a diet. The dr said anything you can live with--glad it wasn't Atkins. From what she said she's about 95-100% on board with a plant-based, no-oil, eat to satiety diet (she has a name for it, but it might be just a little too politically incorrect for this board). It's essentially heavy on Pritikin, which she had remembered from her dad trying briefly in the 1980s. I reminded her to get her Esselstyn (P&V) book and consult it at least for recipes.
Are you reading BlueHeron? To others, I had given her a copy of the Esselstyn book at her sister's funeral--didn't know when I'd see her again.
She has lost about 13# in six weeks. She has moaned the blues to me over the years how she eats like a bird and can't lose weight. At any rate, the attitude of the dr, learning she has no thyroid problems (again), had a borderline for T2D blood sugar, high insulin (indicating insulin resistance) and getting supplemented for her vitD level of 8 seems to have pointed her in the right direction. I know she's breathing a sigh of relief. I don't know for sure, but I don't think she fancied herself a T2D in any way, shape or form.
I'm not taking any credit, but I wanted to include her (early in the process to be sure) success story to show that people can surprise us. Hell, we can surprise ourselves! It's going to be a shot in the arm for me to see her after such a long time where so much seemed doom and gloom for her.
Nice to have this forum to share--even if it's not about me just yet!
