Working With A Personal Trainer

One thing that every resource on "X" agrees on is that exercise is a powerful tool in managing the condition. Exercise lowers bad cholesterol. It lowers blood sugar. It stabilizes blood pressure over time. It produces endorphins that help manage the depression that often accompanies life with a chronic illness. So exercise is a very good thing.

Unfortunately with meds that cause weight gain, "X" related fatigue, blood sugar medications that can cause exercise induced hypoglycemia all working against us many X'ers are not friends with the gym. In February a new Kroc center opened in Memphis. The Kroc centers are large community centers funded by the generosity of the late Ray and Jean Kroc the founders of McDonalds through the Salvation Army. Ours has a 300+ seat theater, a state of the art aquatic center, a full size indoor soccer field, a basketball gym, 12 garage band bays, an outdoor splash park and playground and a phenomenal fitness center. My charter membership came with two free 30 minute personal training sessions and my daughter and I used those today.

I have to say that I worked harder in the gym today than I have in my entire life. Having been around athletes for my entire adult life I'm familiar with the expression "Leaving it all in the gym (on the court, on the field, on the track...all the same idea)" but I have never experienced it. I'm not athletic. I make no bones about that fact. I was grateful that when I was in high school marching band counted for all that one of our required P.E. credits. I do dance. I love that. Even in dance though, I am not a disciplined student. I don't practice as I should. Activity is not something that comes natural to my personality and makeup. So what made today different? Today I worked with a trainer.

My trainer's name is Tim. I am sore all over. In a good way. He had me stretch and then he had me doing squats and ball pushups and rowing and something called a farmers walk that had me walking around the gym carrying 25 lbs in each hand...then cardio...when I stepped off the treadmill my leg muscles were so fatigued that I felt like I was going to go all the way to the floor.

As I am typing this post I am sitting in the back row of the theater at the Kroc listening to rehearsals for "Best of Broadway" (BOB as we affectionately call it at our house...my daughter is the stage manager) and drying off from spending half an hour in the hot tub. My reward for surviving.

I have another appointment with Tim in 2 weeks. What have your experiences working with trainers been? 

Thoughts on Coping With A Chronic Illness and So What IS Syndrome X anyway?

Thoughts on Coping With a Chronic Illness - Being sick sucks. That, in a nutshell sums up my thoughts on the matter but since that doesn't make for a terribly informative blog entry I should probably elaborate somewhat.

In 1995, when I was pregnant with  my daughter, a routine glucose tolerance test showed that I had gestational diabetes. Evidence of course that God has a great sense of humor since I had a lifelong phobia of needles. In one morning my life became and endless regimen of finger-sticks and carb counts and learning to draw saline solution into a syringe and inject it into my thigh in preparation for eventually doing the same with insulin.We had prayed for so long for a baby that honestly at that point making the adjustment was effortless. I would have done literally ANYTHING in order to make sure she was safe. And besides, it was only a few months, most women with gestational diabetes return to normal after delivery, I could do anything for a few months. Right?

By checking my sugar religiously 5 times a day and eating prescribed combinations of carbs/protein at set intervals during the day I managed to avoid injected insulin. A feat my endocrinologist insisted couldn't be done, but then again I was carrying a baby that my gynecologist had said couldn't happen either. On September 5, 1997 I gave birth to a beautifully healthy 7 pound 10 ounce baby girl and I left the hospital weighing 29 pounds LESS than I did when I got pregnant in the first place.

Everyone was SO certain that my sugar would return to normal once Jessica was born that no one, including me, bothered to check and see if that was what had actually happened. Being consumed with the demands of adjusting to being a mom, I don't think I noticed that the weight was not just creeping but piling back on. My eating habits hadn't changed and other than the fact that I was craving sugar more than usual I wasn't exhibiting any symptoms that something might be wrong.

I was doing research on the internet about drugs for PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) the condition that had made it so hard to get pregnant in the first place when I discovered that a diabetes drug, Glucophage (generic name Metformin) was showing promise in experimental trials with PCOS patients. (It is now the standard drug prescribed for PCOS) I took the printouts and headed off to see my doctor. Jessica had just turned two.

On November 10, 1999 I sat in my doctor's office and showed her the research I had been doing. (I had this wonderful doctor that actually appreciated educated pro-active patients.) She scanned it and said, "Let's draw a sugar check on you. Your insurance won't cover glucophage for this but if your sugar is anywhere CLOSE to abnormal I think I can make a case for it with your history." I'm not sure which of us was more shocked when my fasting bloodsugar was 141, well over the 123 threshold to be diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

Suddenly it all clicked into place. the SEVENTY pound weight gain, the fatigue, the vision changes. I was one of the fraction of women in whom Gestational Diabetes had NOT gone away. I was full blown diabetic. this was NOT in the plan. Over the next four years one diagnosis merged with another until the diagnosis of "Syndrome X" (Now also called Metabolic Syndrome and/or Metabolic Syndrome X) was reached

So What IS Syndrome X Anyway? 

Syndrome X is a cluster of 5 related disorders that, in addition to being a royal pain by themselves, are also a major predictor of future heart disease. Did I happen to mention that my father has a heart condition?

Syndrome X in a nutshell (from the book "Syndrome X" by Challem, Berkson and Smith)

"Syndrome X refers specifically to a group of health problems that includes insulin resistance (the inability to properly deal with dietary carbohydrates such as sugars, as well as one or more other problems, such as abnormal blood fats (elevated cholesterol or triglycerides), overweight and high blood pressure...

The key underpinning to Syndrome X is insulin resistance -- a diet caused hormonal logjam that interferes with the body's ability to efficiently burn the food you eat. Syndrome X occurs when the insulin resistance is combined with high levels of blood fats (cholesterol and triglycerides), too much body fat, and high blood pressure. Both insulin resistance and Syndrome X increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes -- and many other serious life-threatening diseases -- because they affect, directly or indirectly, virtually every disease process." 

Which is a long complicated way to say that my body doesn't use insulin efficiently which puts me at risk of burning out my pancreas and needing injected insulin. It also doesn't process cholesterol efficiently which puts me at risk of potentially deadly arterial plaques. It ALSO hangs on to every ounce of fat it possibly can and all of that combines to drive my blood pressure up. In short, its a pain in the ass.

Who I Am and Why This Blog

If you've found your way here I'm guessing that you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Syndrome X or as I think they are calling it these days, "Metabolic Syndrome".

I'm not a medical professional. I am just a person who has lived with Syndrome X for years. I have a private blog here on blogger that I have been blogging my life with Syndrome X since 2003. I have been debating for a long time making that blog public but I decided that for many reasons I'd prefer not to do that. Still I have a perspective and a voice that I think is valid to the public conversation about living with Syndrome X so I created this blog. I will be migrating posts that are applicable from my private blog and I will be posting here from time to time as I encounter new information or new challenges.

Welcome.