TYPE TWO DIABETES 

In 1984 when I was assigned to a project where radiation was in and around my location. I was required to undergo a physical, and a whole body screening. The doctor told me my sugar was high, so I ask him to tell me how high on a scale of 1 to 10. He laughed, and told me he wanted to do some more test. At the time I was riding my bicycle over 150 miles per week, so I did not pursue it. My age at the time was 47, and I continued to ride my bicycle.

We had several young men and women engineers who were bicyclist working  at our company, and I was considered a guru because of my age, and ability to hang in the bicycle pack as we hammered down the Oak Ridge turnpike. (hammering was slang for getting-er done, and in my case I was getting-er done with a 12 speed Tempo). That Tempo is gathering dust now.

Two of the young engineers were married to each other, and when we rode she always appeared to be struggling to keep up with us. One Saturday they came up to my house (approximately) 12 people male and female, and we rode to Jellico and back. The temperature was hovering around 90 degrees, and we ran off and left her on Peabody Mountain. I will add, "She looked like a fashion model, and definitely not a biker", She and her husband had recently transferred to Oak Ridge and we did not know much about them. A week or so after that ride we planned another, but her husband was on assignment, so she came to ride without him. She had been setting us up, as she cleaned our plow up the Mountain. She and we had a good laugh at how she set us up.

Any way all this bicycle riding was masking my diabetes. Now lets move ahead from 1984 to 2000. I continued to ride my bicycle, but I was hired on a consulting job at Arnold Air Force Base. For nine months I sat at a computer terminal doing absolutely no bicycle riding. I began to gain weight, and celebrated my 62nd birthday while doing that job. When I came home and signed up for SSI I went to the VA for a physical. The VA doctor said, "partner you are a diabetic". I told him I did not want to medicate, and ask what I could do. He told me to change my lifestyle, and I told him I did not have a lifestyle other than they had a good baker at Arnold AFB. He suggested I get back on my bicycle which I did. It was difficult to find people to bicycle with me in Campbell County, and I became disillusioned with all the harassment I was getting as I rode up the valley. So I stopped riding my bicycle, and started dancing in my computer room. I downloaded some old rock-n-role, and would get down several times a week. Then I went for another physical. The doctor told me I must begin to medicate to control my type 2 diabetics.  I think this was about 2 or 3 years ago. I am now 78.

When I was stationed in Turkey during the 1960's I was on separate rations. Not because I lived off base, but my job required me to travel around Turkey. I have always been particular about eating, and I would only eat at 3 places in Turkey. On my base, the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul, and a small USAF detachment in Istanbul. Most of the time I would go all day without eating waiting until I could get to one of my 3 eating places. When I told the doctor about this he said I was probably a diabetic in the 1960's but my lifestyle was keeping it in check. I did not consume alcohol, as my only vice was cigarettes.

This is probably more information than you care to read, but I am using this social internet stuff as a surrogate to more or less use it as an autobiography of myself until I can find that biography I am looking for who would be willing to do it for me. And I don't expect anyone to do it for free. LOL