Living with Diabetes

November was diabetes awareness month. Sad thing is that I did not realize it for almost the whole month. No wonder there were so many items in the NEWS about folks struggling, surviving and beating diabetes. It is amazing to realize that even though you think of yourself being well connected, you miss something that important. Just makes me want to help create a community for the help/support for people who are living with this life long disease. I found a link posted by Jay, a Type 1 diabetic talking about the missing support network too.

The weekend is over, time well spent. Had a party at a friends house and then had one at our own. It was pretty good. Sad part was that I could not exercise the whole four days. And did not get to put the Bowflex. Need to get that machine up and running so that I can build more muscle and also loose some weight. Did eat really bad on Sunday. Lots of carbs and even a piece of cheesecake. Avoided testing the sugars as expected them to be high. Monday morning fasting sugar is at 122. Not bad considering how the Sunday was spent. I am looking forward to a more productive week. Did start the day with 30 minutes on the treadmill.

I found an interesting news item about another person trying and succeeding in controlling their diabetes type 2 with diet and exercise. News article (http://www.clintonnc.com/articles/2005/11/24/news/top_stories/topstory05.txt)

An interesting thing about Diabetes is how many numbers are involved in your daily life. There is first the blood sugar. Americans use one standard and some of the Asians use another. Most meters can be programmed to do either one. I am not sure what the Europeans and others use, but it must be one of these. The factor between the two sets is 10. In the US, we use numbers in the hundreds. Here is what is considered great - Fasting sugars under 90 Breakfast sugars checked two hours after - 120 or under. Lunch sugars checked two hours after - 120 or under. Dinner sugars checked two hours after - 120 or under. There are a lot more numbers but this is what I concentrate on. Without the medications, it is really hard for me to get to these numbers. I manage to get the 2 hours later numbers only if I have done some rigorous exercise. Else If see numbers in the 140's or 150's. Which seems to be OK too. The ADA sets a limit of 180 for the 2 hours after meals. The other set of numbers i...

For a few months after being diagnosed, I started taking Glyburide. The doctor started me off on a 10 mg dose. On the first day I had my first low sugar moment. It was horrible. It seemed like my body was being drained of all the energy. There was a tingling all over and a weird shaking starts taking over. I hated that feeling. Problem with Glyburide was that I had to keep myself under a very strict guideline. I tried to go to a lower dose of the GLyburide, but that still led to issues. One day I decided that I am going to keep the control using just diet and exercise. I have bee doing that for about 3 months now. It seems to be working. I have to get on the treadmill atleast 5 times a week. Have to be pretty much in control of my diet. Luckily for me, eating the same thing over and over again is not a problem. What I mean is that I eat the same thing for breakfast each day. It does not bother me. Infact I enjoy the consistency. The interesting thing about eating the same thing at the ...

When I first discovered I had diabetes, one of the ways I coped was to go to the books to learn as much as I can about the disease. I obviously started off from the web sites. They were a good place to start. Learnt a lot about the two types of diabetes - 1 and 2. And read some odd articles about the new 1.5 that is beginning to show up. The American Diabetes Association web pages were a nice place to start. The web pages talk about general stuff related to the disease. But my thirst for knowing more meant that I had to go find more details in books. Next I checked around at office with folks that are already diagnosed with Diabetes. I got a copy of a book from Dr. Bernstein. He is a survivor of type 1 for over 70 years and it was a great start. He seemed a little extreme but the book was very informative. You can find details of his book and his philosophy at his website - www.diabetes-normalsugars.com/ Once I read through Dr Bernstein's book, I figured that I need to know more a...

I seem to remember the day in May when the doctor announced that I had diabetes. A few weeks before I had decided to get life insurance. Life was looking good. Had a new baby, things were doing great at work, it made sense to plan for the future. The nurse who came to check us out for our medical profiles told me that my fasting sugar was unreasonably high and then the insurance company denied my request. It was shocking as I believed that I was in a reasonably good health. I finally went to see the doctor. He told me to get a blood and urine test. On seeing the result, without batting an eyelid he said that I had diabetes. It was the weirdest feeling. I just took him word. I had no real reaction to the news. It is as if I was expecting that news, which I think I was. Both my parents had diabetes, but I was only in my mid thirties. I did not expect that to happen to me at this early stage. But I accepted the doctor on face value. He was not exactly the best doctor either. I realize now...

It has been 6 months since I found out that I had diabetes type 2. The last six months have been a blur with just trying to get my hands around the problem . I call it a problem because it was a change from what I was used to. It was out of the ordinary for me. It prompted me to change my life, which in itslef is a long process. Getting diagnosed with something like diabetes is a life changing events. What you do with the NEWS is up to you. Me, after a couple of days of not knowing what to do, have been trying to address it head on. I want to take control of this. In a way it is great because now I know that I have to take care of myself and my body or else, I get into all the complications that arise.