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Diabetes Type 2

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Aged 46 - 55

Andy - Interview 04

Andy - Interview 04

Age at Interview: 52
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 52
Background: Andy is a supply manager in IT and is married with two adult children (twins aged 24). Ethnic background/Nationality: White British.

Brief outline:Andy has chronic pain as well as diabetes which was diagnosed six months ago. His medication includes Avandamet [rosiglitazone + metformin], simvastatin, Xenical, perindopril, amlodipine and doxazosin.

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Andy doesn't know exactly what caused his diabetes but says that chronic pain has always made exercise painful.
Print Because of chronic pain I'm relatively sedentary. I don't do exercise… I'm not exactly a couch potato, but I don't go and do exercise. Interestingly I had for four months from January through to at the end of April, I joined the gym and I was going swimming every other day. And I gave that up simply because my joints were just hurting more and more. It wasn't actually, whilst I felt my chest improving, the rest of my body felt so much worse… In hindsight I just wonder whether that was the diabetes coming on. But I didn't get any, I didn't feel any benefits from the exercise, so I gave that up as a bad idea. It seemed like a sensible thing to do so I gave it a go, joined the gym. I can't use the gym equipment but they've got a swimming pool, so I'd go every morning before, every other morning, before work go and do sort of fifteen to twenty minutes in the pool. Didn't help - gave that up… I'm not suggesting that starting exercise triggered the diabetes at all, but it's just I had done some exercise and I felt the benefit in my chest, and breathing became easier… But, no I didn't feel the benefit anywhere else and my joints ached. I know that I was perfectly fine December 2005. Six months later I'm diabetic - very - now, did I get a virus? I don't know. Nobody's ever tried to find out where I got it from. I'm not overweight. I'm 6'2” and fifteen and a half stone - I could do with losing about a stone but I'm not hugely overweight. I'm a little bit overweight. I don't sit down and do absolutely nothing, I just don't do a lot of exercise because of the [chronic] pain.

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