The Life Sentence (Pumpkin Bars!)

Welcome back to my kitchen!

Together, we walked into the emergency room. The admitting nurse took my vital signs. “Are you on high blood pressure medicine?” “No, but its always high. I feel fine.” I replied. “Why aren’t you? You cannot afford it? You can get it for free.” she bluntly assumed.

“My blood pressure is always high,” I said staring in disbelief at The Hubs. He lowered his hands motioning me to not rip into her comment. “You aren’t going anywhere tonight. You are extremely sick,” she informed me while printing my admitting bracelet. The Hubs and I looked at each other. We both surely were wondering what my concerning vital signs were.

We got placed into an ER bed/room. To save you agony and me some personal tears, I won’t go into the nitty gritty details. We did find out, from nurse #3, my blood pressure on arrival was 285/175. My oxygen level was almost non-existent. I had a slight fever. For five hours, a rotating team of physicians, nurses and aides ran every test and screening imaginable. The Hubs called The Folks right away. I think he wanted to talk to a reasonably sound mind, as we navigated this game of eliminating possible causes and illnesses.

After the five hours, the head emergency room physician and lead RN came back into my room. They looked like they were about to deliver horrible news.

“I have reached my evaluation. It’s not good. You are severely diabetic.”

I looked at The Hubs—who shrug his shoulders. The physician continued, “Any of your grandparents or parents have diabetes?” I shrugged my shoulders and looked at The Hubs. He took that nonchalant clue and called The Folks instantly. “Well, it turns out, your paternal great-grandfather was diabetic, and your maternal grandmother had geriatric diabetes,” he told all of us. “Figures, diabetes skips a generation. You got a double whammy.” she replied, “Your urine is full of spilled over sugar. Your glucose shows a sugar level off the charts—over 12. You should be thankful you got here when you did.”

She left my bedside seemingly upset. The head nurse stayed behind and said, while squeezing my hand, “Kid, you are going to be okay. You are young. You have a wonderful husband and what it sounds like great parents. Get yourself a good doctor and follow their directions. It will be ok.” She again squeezed my toe before leaving my bedside.

The ER physician returned. “I’m going to let you go home tonight. My final diagnosis is diabetes. You came to the ER saying you had a stomach infection—nothing related to diabetes. Therefore, I can’t prescribe you any medication. You need to find a primary care doctor from this list. For now, eat salads and lean meats. Good luck to you.” We left, both feeling a sense of relief and ease. It was just diabetes and sounded like no problem. I had visions of still traveling that weekend to watch Em’s first volleyball games of the season. Pretty easy—all I had to do was eat salads and lean meat—on it.

For forty-eight hours, The Hubs served up salads and lean meat only. I slept like a newborn. My body would shake, tremble and I felt like a drug addict detoxing. We’d supplemented meals with healthy snacks of grapes, apples and peanut butter, bananas, and salty crackers. Good sound choices, right? I continued to vomit, shake and run to the bathroom.

The next morning. “Damnit. Now I need a new phone,” I told The Hubs throwing my cell phone at him. He flicked on the tv for our usual weekend morning shows. “Can you see the tv?” I asked. He played with my phone and looked at me weird. “Nothing wrong with your phone. The tv is fine. What’s wrong with you?”

I rubbed my eyes. “Everything is blurry.” Within a few hours, my eyesight went from blurry to almost a zero ability to read, see or walk straight. I called a client of mine—an emergency room physician. After a full day of going back and forth between long telephone calls with him, he asked what my blood sugar was? “My blood sugar? I have no idea—how am I to know?” I asked. “You didn’t get a meter from the ER? What medicine did they put you on? Tell The Hubs to go get you a blood glucose meter immediately. Check it morning and at night. Have him text me your numbers.” That was midnight. The Hubs went shopping.

The next morning, like two anxious wannabee parents, we took my blood and stared at the device’s screen waiting the results. The prior evening, before bed, it was around 220. My friend/the physician said it needed to be under 150 as he wasn’t convinced, I was diabetic. It came back around 180 in the morning. “F—-” The Hubs remarked. Both of us looked defeated.

My friend/physician made an emergency prescription order of Metformin, to get me through until my first primary care appointment in 72 hours.

I know that diabetes can affect anyone, from any walk of life. Currently, more than 30 million Americans have been diagnosed and 422 million people worldwide. I’m not looking for sympathy or for you to cry me a river. Quite the contrary. I shared the diagnosis with a couple of friends and their reaction was…..“Oh diabetes—that’s nothing—you’ll be able to eat whatever you want. It’s no big deal. Get over it.”

I shouldn’t have taken those words to heart. Well, this diagnosis isn’t a life sentence of misery. It’s been a wake-up call, a restart and a promise to myself for a happier and healthy life.

The adventure continues……meeting Doc Lopez and Hot Doctor.Trust me you’ll want to meet Hot Doctor.

I wonder if he likes pumpkin bars?

We’re on a roll. Life is sweet.

All this made with LOVE!

Jayne (aka The No Sugar Baker!)

No Sugar Baker Pumpkin Bars (Always been a treat to me!)

Ingredients:
1 regular size can of pumpkin Puree
½ C. melted butter
6 T. whipped cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 C. almond or coconut flour
½ C. Swerve granular
2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
Pinch of salt

Easy Directions:

Mix the first five ingredients in large bowl. Mix in separate smaller bowl, flour, Swerve, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Combine with pumpkin mixture. Mix well. Pour into 9×9 prepared baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Top Bars When Cooled with Yummy Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
¾ C Swerve confectioners
2 t. vanilla extract
2 T heavy whipping cream