It’s been a couple of months since my last post. Thanksgiving, if I remember correctly. Obviously I survived the big turkey dinner, in case anyone was worried that it finally did me in. My fans on Twitter know better!

Honestly I’ve been struggling with finding something meaningful to write about these past couple of months, and with such a busy schedule for my wife and my boys, it’s sometimes hard to find the time. That said, tonight I do have good news that I wanted to make sure that I shared.

When I first got out of the hospital in early September of last year, I wasn’t in the best of shape. My A1c was through the roof (13.5) and I was on 22 units of insulin, with it potentially moving upward. I wasn’t really overweight, but I could stand to lose a few pounds (which I was hoping to do anyway) and to be honest, my diet was pure crap.

Here we are now in January, only four months since I was discharged. In that time, depending on when I step on the scale, I’ve lost upwards of 15 – 16 pounds. Most of my clothes are baggy now, especially my pants, and I generally “feel” like I’m lighter. I’m taking 2000 mg of Metformin each day (1000 mg twice per day), my last A1c (just two months out of the hospital) was 7.5, and as of yesterday, I am down to 10 units of insulin per night.

Until today. After getting my youngest son to bed I logged into my online patient chart and found a message waiting for me from my provider. It was short and to the point:

Hi OpiningPenguin – 
Your numbers continue to look great. At this point I would like you to stop the Tresiba, continue with the Metformin. Please continue to check your fasting morning blood sugars. Keep up all the great work with your diet and exercise. 
Let me know what questions you have – 

So that’s it. As of tonight I am officially off of the insulin. Yes, even Penguins get a win every now and again!

While I’m very happy with where I am now, I still worry. What if this is just a honeymoon period where everything is going great, but then I go into some sort of remission? Obviously I need to maintain all of the progress that I’ve made. Sometimes, though, no matter how hard we try, things are outside of our control.

I read a post recently about someone who had a similar situation as me. They went into DKA, were diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic, and then started to go into remission. A number of months went past and, after great glucose readings, they suddenly started to get higher again without any changes in diet or routine. After further investigation by his doctor, they found that he was actually Type 1 diabetic. I know that it’s just one story of one person, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m just in a momentary lull with my disease.

For now I’m happy. No more poking my stomach for the foreseeable future and I plan to ask for a referral to an endocrinologist at my next appointment in a couple of weeks. I’m very excited to see what my next A1c is going to be when I get it completed next week. And of course I’m excited about finally stumbling upon a wonderful new weight loss plan, even if it did take adjusting my entire lifestyle…

It is the dawn of a new day!