Life of An Emotional Eater

Yesterday turned out to be a very long and difficult day. I have been fighitng off a nasty head and chest cold the past couple of days, so I really have not been feeling up to par. Mostly I have been laying in bed wondering when the throbbing pain between my eyes will go away. So you can understand the desire for me NOT to want to go anywhere, hell I didn't even want to put on clothes. But, when my sister called and said my dad was in the hospital, you can see how my feeling about getting dressed and getting into the car could change at a moments notice.

After battling LA traffic for an hour and sitting on the phone with my sister trying to find what hospital I should go to, I finally make to Anaheim. Without any idea of what hospital to go to, we decided the best course of action was for me to stop by my dad's house and see, if by chance, they were there. My lucky day, he had just pulled a few minutes before I got there.

So why am I so scared? Well, I had a deep down feeling that there was a good chance that diabetes ran in our family. Well, yesterday my dad went to the emergency room with a blood sugar level of 397 mg/dl. (For those who do not know, you blood sugar level should be between 80 and 120 mg/dl...397 mg/dl is considered an emergency). Well after an IV of D5W and insulin (standard treatment for high blood sugar), my dad's blood sugar started to come down. Add to that he has pnuemonia and a urinary tract infection, you can see why I pulled myself out of bed. Fortunately, the doctor decided my dad did not need to go on the injectable type of insulin and sent my dad home with a prescription for an antibiotic.

My dad over the past couple of years has been battling several health problems. Among them his weight. His son "inherited" his eating problems and habits. I look at food as a comfort. As something you do when you need to feel better about yourself. My dad on the other hand thinks food is something you do when you are bored. So, in his logic, if you are never bored, you never eat. Unless of course you are with family or friends, then eat to your hearts content. That is what family and friends do.

As much as I hate to admit it, my dad and I are alike. We are hard headed at times and we can get set into our ways. Only when something extreme happens, do we change. It takes a small act of God to get my dad to admit he has a problem; and it takes a complete aligning of the universal cosmos to have my dad say "I need to go to the hospital". My sister and I thought he was close to death (and when I mean close I am talking on a first name basis). All the time we sat discussing all the medical issues and the results of the tests and just light family catching up, all I could think of was "If I don't do something now, I could be in the same boat, or am I already there?"