Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Paul Garcia, 54, came from a family that loved to eat. "We always had a lot of food at home, and whenever we ate, it was like a feast," said Garcia.
And he said his family's food choices weren't always the healthiest either. "My eating habits were terrible," he said. "We'd have lots of flour tortillas, beans and rice."
Over the years, Garcia's weight ballooned -- to 430 pounds at his heaviest. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on insulin to bring down his blood sugar levels. But he had such a hard time controlling his blood sugar, he said, that he went into a coma more than once. He also had several heart attacks and lost sight in one eye. His triglycerides, a bad type of fat in the blood, were over 2,000. Doctors recommend those levels be below 150, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Garcia also came close to losing a foot. Though doctors told him that they might very well need to amputate his foot, the surgeons were able to save his foot but they did have to amputate two toes.
http://www.ivillage.com/texas-man-bariatric-surgery-led-diabetes-free-life/4-a-512861
And he said his family's food choices weren't always the healthiest either. "My eating habits were terrible," he said. "We'd have lots of flour tortillas, beans and rice."
Over the years, Garcia's weight ballooned -- to 430 pounds at his heaviest. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on insulin to bring down his blood sugar levels. But he had such a hard time controlling his blood sugar, he said, that he went into a coma more than once. He also had several heart attacks and lost sight in one eye. His triglycerides, a bad type of fat in the blood, were over 2,000. Doctors recommend those levels be below 150, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Garcia also came close to losing a foot. Though doctors told him that they might very well need to amputate his foot, the surgeons were able to save his foot but they did have to amputate two toes.
http://www.ivillage.com/texas-man-bariatric-surgery-led-diabetes-free-life/4-a-512861