Welcome to the Fat Emperor podcast. I'm your host, Ivor Cummins.

Well, it was 16 years ago now when I discovered that I had type 2 diabetes.

I'd been working in a position with Health Canada.

I had a senior management job with Health Canada, so I wasn't doing

clinical practice at the time. And I was not well. I had gained weight. I was fatigued. I would

have afternoon crashes where I could barely keep awake at my desk and things like, you know, typical diabetes symptoms in retrospect,

but I noticed that I had to squint at the TV in the evening, you know, and I was drinking

or I was getting up at night to go to the bathroom. And I just thought these were the inevitable

effects of getting older

until one day it occurred to me that I had the whole florid symptomology of type 2 diabetes,

which shouldn't have been a surprise because I have a strong family history of diabetes on my mother's side of the family.

But nonetheless, when I figured it out, it was a bit of a shock.

And largely because at the time, my son was two years old.

And I know too much, you know, as a doctor, you know,

this is, you know, your life expectancy is suddenly shorter.

You're at risk for all these complications and cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction,

stroke, all these, you know, significant potential life shortening problems.

And so it was a bit of a shock in that sense.

And, you know, the last thing it would have occurred to me to do is go see a doctor.

Right.

So my plan, and this happened, you know, on a dark and rainy November day in my, you know, lovely house in West Vancouver.

I'm upstairs in the bathroom, looking in the mirror,

...