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Music.

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Welcome to the Mid-Milvans Podcast. My guest today is Tom Hartman.

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Tom is the host of the Podjacky Podcast.

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Also, he is a husband, a father, and he's involved with children living with disabilities.

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But today, we will be listening to him sharing some of his experience with diabetes. diabetes.

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So welcome to the Meat Musings podcast, Tom. Thank you for having me.

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So can you please tell us more about you and your experience with diabetes, really?

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So it kind of started on, I want to say our honeymoon, my wife and I's honeymoon.

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Oh, wow. And we ended up going to the Dominican for our honeymoon.

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And I didn't know that I was diabetic at that time.

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And what What happened was, is I got a blister on my foot or I had a blister

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before I had left and we went over to the Dominican and I ended up coming home

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and there was an infection in my foot.

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They don't really know how the infection came to be, if it was from here or

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if it was from the Dominican, they want to say it was from the Dominican because what happened was we went

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into one of the spas and apparently a breeding ground for bacteria and is in

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a as hot as like in a hot tub. So we came back and my foot had swelled up and I got like a serious,

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serious infection where I was about 48 hours away from losing my foot.

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That sounds scary. It was. It was really scary.

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So I was in the hospital for that and I was put on IV and they ran a bunch of

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tests and they found out that I was diabetic.

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And they said that it had turned into a diabetic ulcer on my foot.

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And that's the way that I actually found out that I was diabetic.

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Oh, wow. That doesn't sound nice at all.

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No. Did you not have any symptoms at all prior to that time?

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No. See, people, when they're diabetic, you know, I always hear people talk

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about getting the highs and the lows, you know, like, you know,

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feeling really, really, really tired or feeling like, you know,

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way too much sugar in your system. I never got that.

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And I didn't, I didn't take care of my diet at that point.

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I just ate whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to. To me, it was almost a joke.

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Not that I knew that I was diabetic, but diabetes does run in my family.

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But I had never tested for diabetes.

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I never had a positive test come back to say I was diabetic.

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So I didn't know at that point. Oh, wow. So how long ago was that now?

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So that would have been about 10 years ago. And how has that been? How has that affected your relationship?

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Have you had to adjust your lifestyle and things? I mean, what has been going on with it?

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Relationship wise, I don't think there has been any kind of a strain on it,

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although I've put a lot of work on my wife because the diabetes actually led to something else.

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And two years ago, this February, this upcoming February, it'll be two years

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now, I went into kidney failure. And ended up in intensive care and I didn't even know what had happened.

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I had ended up getting sick and my wife went and slept in another room just

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so she wouldn't get sick that like while I was getting over this flu.

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And I ended up in the hospital and I woke up from the hospital two days later,

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not knowing what happened. Apparently an ambulance came and picked me up in the middle of the night.

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I was apparently groaning in the bed. My wife could hear me in the next room

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over and the dog was barking because I was making noise in bed.

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And ended up that I went through kidney failure and I had two seizures.

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Wow. Sounds like you've had a tough time with this.

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Yes, yes. But on the bright side is, like, I'm still here.

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And I have changed my entire lifestyle. The whole entire lifestyle has changed.

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I'm on zero medication for diabetes now, which is fantastic.

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I was on medication before. four. I didn't take it seriously.

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I didn't take my meds every day. I wasn't watching what I ate, even though I was diabetic.

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I still liked the sweets, what normal people want to eat all the time.

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I wanted to eat it as well. I wanted chocolate. I wanted candy. I wanted chips and cookies and all that.

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And now all of that has been cut out of my diet.

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I've lost about 35 pounds in total, which is a little bit too much for my wife's

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liking. She says I'm too thin now. But But the whole lifestyle change had to happen. And now, like I said,

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I am not on any medication for diabetes whatsoever.

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Okay. What medication were you on prior to this time?

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So I was on metformin. It's called metformin. I was on a thousand milligrams a day.

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Yeah. So which I don't know if that's a lot compared to what other people take.

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I wasn't on any insulin, but I was on just the pill form.

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And now I'm on nothing. Okay. Okay, so with your diabetes and you saying you

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are not on any medication right now,

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how did you manage to go from being on medication to not being on anything at all now?

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Well, I have to credit my wife for that because when I ended up with the kidney

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failure, she was very, very strict with my diet.

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And she changed everything that I was eating. She made sure that I was eating the proper foods.

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That's pretty much how it was. And then you just get used to that lifestyle.

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You just get used to it and you continue with it.

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Okay. So when you say you changed the food that you were taking,

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what have you actually had to do away with now, apart from the sugar and the candies and the sweets?

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So most of the food that I got rid of was the sweet stuff.

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Stuff and then the dinner portions are a lot smaller

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and the dinner portions aren't as i

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guess full of fat as as they normally would

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be like instead of the fast food going out and

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getting a hamburger we we do homemade hamburgers like if we had spaghetti then

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it's like a little bit of a lesser portion of spaghetti everything in portion

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everything in moderation everything is fine to eat as long as you're not eating

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too much of it i did away with alcohol so i will have maybe one or two two beers a year, if I'm lucky,

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if I have that much. I mean, I don't drink at all.

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I don't drink any sugary drinks at all. There's no pop. There's no juice. It's all water.

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And all the snacks, the snacks have been cut out totally. All right. Okay.

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So how does your diabetes still affect you now?

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I don't want to say it does at all. I don't put the limitations on me to do

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anything. I don't have that tired feeling. I don't have that...

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Sugar high. I don't have any of that right now. I feel better than I have in the last 10 years.

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So everything that happened happened for a reason. It was a wake up call.

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It just basically made me open my eyes to see what I was doing wrong in my life,

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change my lifestyle and make it for the better.

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Okay. Yeah. That sounds like, I mean, you caught it right at the nick of time.

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So because you've not made changes to your lifestyle, you're on top of things.

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And I hope it stays that way. I was recently diagnosed with diabetes. And one of the risk factors for diabetes

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is like anybody above the age of 25 of Afro-Caribbean descent,

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they tend to have diabetes.

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And I never got checked for diabetes, even though my mom was diagnosed with diabetes.

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Is yeah i think recently it

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was just about three months ago i was in

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hospital and they were like okay let's just text you for

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i mean do it randomly and they

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were like oh you've got type 2 diabetes and i

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it was just scary for me i was

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given this machine to monitor my blood and i just couldn't get my head around

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it doing four tests a day on the machine and that was scary for me so I got

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rid of the machine and I've, changed my lifestyle as well. I do more exercise. I changed my food,

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cut down on my sugar, everything. And I'm hoping that that works.

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And it's true. I had the same thing. I have that machine that you have to test your blood every day.

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And I got rid of it as well. Not rid of it. I just kind of don't do it anymore.

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More because I found that with my lifestyle change that my A1C is what they call it here.

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I don't know if they call it A1C over there, but the A1C is the three month test that they do.

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My A1C was coming back consistent all the time at around five.

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And that's a good number to be at with your sugar levels or your A1C levels.

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And it was just consistent. So I said, you know what, I'm doing something right.

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There's no need to test every day. If my numbers are coming back back consistent every day.

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And it's almost the same thing every day. So I don't need to test if I'm not

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changing the foods I eat, and I'm not changing my exercise.

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If it's snowing, if it's raining, I have two dogs, you go for a walk,

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I take them for a walk, it doesn't matter if the weather's bad, I take them for a walk.

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It's just for me to get out. And it's an excuse for me to exercise.

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I bought a treadmill as well. So that if it is a really, really bad storm out,

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then I can and use the treadmill in the house. So yeah, you have to keep up with that.

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The doctor actually said to me, you know, I said to him, you know,

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I that's it, this scared me, the kidney failure thing had scared me enough that

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I was changing my lifestyle. And he said, That's all fine. That's all good.

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But most people will fall back into the trap that they used to live in.

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And I said, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, I will not fall back into that

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trap. I said, you know, I was, you.

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Not that I was dying, but I was close to it with the kidney thing.

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And I said, that scared me enough that I'm not going through that again.

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I'm not putting my wife through that again. And, you know, I said, I promise you that my lifestyle will not change because

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now I take this seriously. And that's something everyone has to do. Diabetes is not a joke.

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It isn't. It's not a joke. It's so scary.

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Like i said with that

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machine thing i was even more stressed with

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the machine than without it that's

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why i got rid of it not really got rid of it i just stopped

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using it because i was like every time

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i did it the thing the machine would tell me or use the script and then i got

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frustrated and i mean i was trying every time and the it wasn't just giving

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me the accurate readings so So it was getting me stressed all the time. I was anxious.

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I was like, wow, what's going on with me?

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Well, I think the hardest part of it, and this is for any human being, is knowing the truth.

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So that when you're doing your test and you feel like your sugar is going to

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be like 20, 30, 40, up in those numbers, you don't want to know that number.

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Number and when you do your tests and you find that number the

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the hard part is is knowing the truth and that's why

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a lot of people get anxious doing it no it's no different

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than doing a regular blood test at the doctor you panic

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for the few few days while you're waiting for the test results being you know

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am i okay is everything coming gonna come back normal and then you get your

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test results and then you're like okay wow okay i'm good or the doctor wants

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to talk to me so i I think just knowing the truth is pretty much what everyone fears.

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Yeah. So for you, what were the risk factors for you having diabetes?

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Because, oh yeah, you did say you had a relative that had diabetes.

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Did you? Yes. My mom is diabetic and she is on insulin.

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Well, she was on insulin. She's off insulin. She changed her lifestyle as well.

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There's been a lot of health issues in my family. And unfortunately,

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I'm the one that gets the pass down, I guess.

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My two brothers have nothing that has come down from my parents. Only I have gotten it.

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So I'm not looking forward to the future because there are some other health issues in there too.

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Now, just look forward to the future.

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You've made lifestyle changes. That's right. You seem to be on the right track.

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Just stay on the track. and don't deviate from that track, I don't think you

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should have any fears for the future. As long as you're conscious of what you're doing and what you're eating and

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the nutrition and the exercise and also making effort to keep on top of your

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mental health as well because that's very important when you have diabetes.

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Oh, definitely. Definitely. I mean, it was a journey the past two years And

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the diabetes and then the kidney failure, that same point during these two years,

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my brother attempted suicide and my dad had a heart attack. Wow.

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So it's been a rough two years mental health wise, but we got through it.

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And, you know, you have to stay strong in everything that happens and you'll be able to keep it going.

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That's just the plan. I know it's easier said than done. And I know there are

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people out there that struggle. And I know people have anxiety towards having like health issues or mental health

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issues or whatever it is. But there are people out there that you can talk to about it.

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And if you do have that kind of anxiety or you're afraid or whatever it is,

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there are people that you can reach out to and you can get it off your chest.

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You can talk to them about it in privacy. You can talk to them anonymously and they can help you through it.

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And I think that's very important what you said is to have like a strong mental

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health to get through anything that you're going through. Yes, definitely.

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Sorry about your family having to go through all that. Your dad with a stroke

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and the brother attempting suicide.

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That's a lot to take on.

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That's a brother had counseling with a suicide attempt.

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2020 was difficult. But each one of us going through our own cycle.

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But as families, we have to support each other, encourage each other.

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And offer a listing here. And there are counseling lines open where you can find someone to talk to.

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The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 0800-273-8255.

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Submarines are on 116-123.

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And the emergency number 999 is available anytime. time.

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I know there are fire services also offer counseling services sometimes.

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And in America, I know the travel project focuses on suicide prevention and

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they also offer training for lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender,

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queer, and questioning young people under the age of 25.

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That's the LGBT community under

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the age of 25 so that if you're a young

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person under the age of 25 and you

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are experiencing suicidal thoughts

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please pick up your phone and speak to somebody Mind also the organization for

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mental health and the Samaritans also offer counselling services There is also

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the stroke support line,

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which is 0303 3033 100,

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again 0303 3033.

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33100. That's in case anybody needs that.

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There are other charities that offer support for mental health like the CALM.

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CALM stands for Campaign Against Living Miserably.

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And their number is 0800-585858.

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They also offer confidential web chats. And there's also MIND.

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MIND is another national charity that supports mental health.

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The number for them is 0300-123-3393.

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Three because we need them we all

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need families to support each other that's right

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so when your family is around you you are able to cope

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with much more and when they are going through their own stress as well it's

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so difficult to get the support that you need yeah yeah and and the good thing

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is is that everybody has made a full recovery everybody is healthy everybody is doing doing well.

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So I mean, I guess there was a silver lining to it that everybody's lifestyle had to change.

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Everybody's health is way better than it used to be. Not that we were on an unhealthy family.

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But, you know, the health issues just crept up on everybody.

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And, you know, getting older, you know, you tend to feel things at a certain

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age, but now, you know, I'm in my 40s. and I feel better than I did in my 30s.

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And you had this same thing with this diabetes in your 30s, did you?

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Yeah. Yeah. So, well, that's so important because I think statistics here says

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that if you are in your 40s, that's when,

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as a white person, in your 40s, you have more tendency to have type 2 diabetes.

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Yeah. Or you've had it in your 30s. So, yeah, you got rid of it.

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Wow, that's so interesting. And what advice would you have for anybody going through diabetes at this time?

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Take care of yourself. Don't treat it as a joke.

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Watch your diet, get some exercise in.

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That's basically all I can say. I mean, at the end of the day,

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I went through a lot of health issues because of it.

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And there are a lot of people that either die from it or they lose limbs from it.

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They were a lot worse off than I was. but you

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know they didn't tend to manage it properly or they

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were on the wrong medications you need to take care of it

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you need to see your doctor regularly you need to have your a1c's

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done regularly you need to watch your diet you

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need to do your exercise because that is going to help you get through it it's

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going to help you feel stronger and feel better and it's going to help you live

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a longer life thank you stay safe keep well keep fit and just keep positive

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safe for focused, take care of your mental health,

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take care of your nutrition, take care of your emotional health,

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every aspect of your health, physical health and well-being is so important

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for everybody at this time. We have to stay positive. We have to keep doing the exercise, keep walking.

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If it's to go out for a walk, if you can go out for a walk and if not,

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stay indoors and just Just run up and down the stairs.

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That's what I say to people. Run up and down your stairs if you don't have any gym to go to.

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By the time you do like 10 times up and down the stairs, you've done probably

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more steps than you would have done if you were just sitting there.

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A new strain would be cold. So don't let it get to you. Just stay positive.

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Just keep taking care of yourself and take care of your loved ones as well.

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And just look out for each other and just be kind to each other. That's all I can say.

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Definitely, 100%. That's how I always end off my podcast. Stay safe and be kind

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to each other. Yep. Thank you so much for having me.

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Music.