Dad's blood sugar level came down and he had lived without
insulin for a few months by now. A couple of years ago, he
switched from a white-flour-rich diet to whole grains,
vegetables, tofu, and a little meat. That did the trick and
saved a bona fide diabetic. Dad didn't fully realize what he
had accomplished: the doctors told me (and him) there was no
turning-back once diabetic. He should have been more proud
of himself--how many people were able to defeat diabetes?
Of course it prompted me again to think: "If the doctors were
not accurate on that, what else had they got wrong?"
His hands started shaking recently and he turned to
acupuncture. I was never a believer and thought it was more
of a placebo effect. But dad learnt the art when young and
swore by it. From the little I read, I worried about
Parkinsons, especially as dad has little to do. He read
some newspaper stories but generally did not have the habit
of acquiring knowledge from books or enjoying doing
something for its own sake. Much of the day is spent on
watching TV. Swinging kettlebells would help but he used his
age as an excuse for anything that needed some effort.
It's all hopeless except that I cannot give up hope.
Five years younger, Mr. Zhao was a totally different story.
He always worked on one thing or another and he liked to
learn about the law. He felt an urgency to make money. It
was not that he didn't give his best before but, turning 73,
he was acutely aware of his age and wanted to leave more for
his young wife. After a few days of hard labor harvesting
soy beans last fall, he got high blood pressure and went on
medication. He agreed to cut wheat flour from his diet but I
knew it was much easier to go cold turkey than trying to whittle it away.
Other than the two, a few relatives including my father-in-law,
lost weight, which was good. Others stayed oblivious.
I was very productive on the plane to PEK, had dinner with
an old friend, and slept very well that night in the hotel.
The following week, I almost switched to local hours right
away except for retiring and rising early (8:00pm - 5:00am).
I kept my one-meal-a-day diet, snacked on walnuts from
Mr. Zhao's farm, and gained three lbs. Flying back, I felt
sleeply in the air half of the time and napped at SEA before
finally boarding for SJC. I went to bed at 9:00pm and slept
like a log (except for 3 visits to the waterhole) through the
night and, the next day everything went back on track as
if I never left. I guess one week of time-zone shift was not
enough to throw me off. I did catch cold again on Fri, sneezing
like crazy toward the end of the day. After sleeping 12 hrs,
it was gone. Also, I lost those three lbs in three days.
