By Deirdre O'Connor

I found my cheekbones! They weren’t exactly lost; they were buried under 45 extra pounds that had sneaked up on me over 30 years. It took a big health scare for me to begin the long search to get acquainted again with a slimmer and healthier body.

I don’t know why it was such a surprise. Almost every day now a radio or tv announcer broadcasts the statistics: “Because of the obesity epidemic, one out of every three Americans has diabetes but doesn’t know it!”

I was one out of those every three Americans. My only symptom was that ccasionally I couldn’t feel my toes and the balls of my feet. But one night I woke up as bolts of pain like electric shocks darted from my toes to my ankles.

When I mentioned this to my wonderful internist, Dr. Rose, she told me to fast overnight and then go to the office for blood and urine tests. Soon after, Rose phoned me. “You have diabetes. I want you to attend the diabetes classes at Camino Medical Group and learn how to take care of yourself.”

I don’t know why I was surprised. One branch of the cousins in my mother’s family is morbidly obese - I mean 100 pounds or more overweight. One of my darling uncles died of diabetes. Occasionally mother would get little sores that took a long time to heal on her legs. She was a diabetic too but she never knew it. My mother was addicted to cigarettes. She died from smoking.

I hurried to the nearest bookstore to find “Diabetes for Dummies,” by the outstanding American endocrinologist Dr. Alan L. Rubin, a San Francisco resident.

I was thus introduced to the basics of one of our most dangerous diseases, diabetes. At first, the more I read, the more frightened I became. At one point, panicking, I even thought, “Perhaps if I pay no attention, this will all go away.”

Then my 54-year-old cousin, John Charles Evans, a long-term diabetic, lost his battle with kidney disease and died. John Charles was 21 years younger than I. He had a wife and three teenagers to support. The shock of his death brought me back to “Diabetes for Dummies.” Gradually, through the information in Rubin’s book and the patient teachings of the diabetic nutritionists at Camino Medical Group in Sunnyvale, I’ve learned that while perhaps some day I may die from complications of diabetes, if I learn to eat carefully, lose weight, start exercising, and never, never ignore symptoms, I have a good chance to be around for a long time. I have five more pounds to lose before I’ll be out of the classification of overweight.

Type 2 diabetes, the kind that overweight people get, is always hereditary. If someone in your family has ever had diabetes, please get yourself tested. In its early stages, diabetes is controllable. Have a life! Find your cheekbones, too.

O’Connor is a Los Altos resident.