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Showing posts from 2008

Still far from positive

I continue on the journey to becoming a positive person. The last week I had more than one meltdowns, but they were lesser in number and were lasting for shorter durations. It is weird to analyze your own negative meltdowns. It seems to start like a deep rumbling in the bowels of my mind. It starts to swell and burst up into the forefront. When it hits the surface it seems to be traveling so fast that there is no stopping it. I have tried to stifle it, but that never works and it blows out later. Best is to let it come to the surface and have it pass. I try to remove myself from the situation if I can. If not, I focus my mind to something religious. It is weird but the process of turning positive is also making more more religious. Funny how that seems to be related.

Book Review of "What To Expect When you have Diabetes"

The book has 170 tips for folks dealing with Diabetes. It is very much a low level reference book that is a good addition to any library. A lot of this information you see in there is easily available on various websites, but then this is a nice and neat compilation available to look up when ever you need to. I like the idea of having this book to quickly check on questions that arise as I deal with my diabetes. The thing with having a disease like diabetes is that you never know all about the disease at any one time. Various issues/complication arise over time. It is nice to have a source to look at questions. The book is not going to answer your questions in detail. But it sure is a nice place to start. The book is well organized and finding the answers to the questions is simple as looking at the index. I would recommend the book to all diabetics who are relatively new to the disease. It is a good package to keep handy when odd things come up related to the disease. You can always s

My experiments with turning positive

In one of my last few posting I talked about going on a seven day diet for the mind to turn some of the negativity around and enter the realm of a positive thinker like Dr Peale. I have tried to go on the diet about three times and failed miserably. But like King Bruce and his spider, I refuse to give up. I started it back up again on Monday and seem to be doing better. Still not as good as I can be, but I think that is the whole point. You have to keep practicing till it becomes second nature. Key thing I have learnt is that you cannot controls the negative thoughts from popping up, but you can dictate how much time you spend thinking about them

Still keeping the A1C down. The latest doctors results

Got my quarterly checkup done. A1C is 6.5. I am happy that it has stayed the course. Was hoping for something lesser, but no reason to complain. The doctor saw a rise in weight gain and I was wondering of I should get off the glyburide.

My experiments with the seven day mental diet

Lately I have noticed that I am becoming a ball of negative energy. My thoughts and my actions are a lot more negative than positive. I am beginning to feel like a person who is a perpetual grouch. So I decided to take back my life from this negative well. I decided to follow the metal diet as prescribed by Emmet Fox as in - http://www.alchemylab.com/seven_day_mental_diet.htm I started it on Friday. The day tunred out to be excruciatingly hard. I had a humongous headache at the end of the day. Saturday morning, I ended up fighting with my wife early in the morning and that took me back deep into my negative self. So as Emmet says, I abandoned the plan. Now I have taken a couple of days off and watched myself and my reactions. I realize that I always feel like I am getting the raw deal in every thing, which is not neccesarluy true. Today I restart the diet again. Will keep the blog updated on how it goes.

What medications am I on these days?

Metformin - 2 tablets, one with breakfast and one with Dinner Glyburide - 1 tablet each morning with breakfast Simvastatin - 1 tablet at dinner time. MultiVitamins - Once a day Testosterone cream - once a day Fengreek seeds - A tsp soaked in water overnight, eat first thing in the morning. Quite a list considering that I was not wanting to take meds. The future is still murky. Will I be eating more or less in the coming years. Basic common sense tells me that it will probably go up unless I keep the rigid schedule going. The old positive thinker wants me to believe that I will be off the prescription stuff.

Here comes Christmas rush and the holiday catalogs

The holiday catalogs have started bursting in through the mail. They are of all shapes and sizes this year. I get attracted to the ones with baskets of fruits and food. Each time I look at them, I see carb laden stuff everywhere. I sure wish someone would make baskets targeted specifically for Diabetics.

What was so scary about Halloween

The candy...That was way more scarier than any of the costumes. There was candy everywhere and for a former addict like me, it was hell walking with the kids in the mall. I just bought myself a starbucks grande iced latte with soy milk and sipped it as I walked along. I can say that I survived the holiday with eating just one piece of candy. I am so proud of myself.

Did you know that this is the Diabetes Month in the US?

I sure did not. Saw it mentioned in one of the mails I received from the blog and went out to see what it was all about. I think I am pretty savvy and mostly aware of what is going on, but for some reason I never saw this. Must be all the glitter of the Presidential race going on around me that did not let me see :-) Anyway, so here we are, it is the month for folks like me and most of my readers. What shall we do!!! I have decided to blog each day of this month. Yup that is a lot of stuff I need to think about and write about, but I beleive it will be a good thing. Here is an official link to the diabetes month - http://www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/americandiabetesmonth.jsp?WTLPromo=HOME_flash_102908adm

Trying to understand the one pound weight gain on the weekend

Last week I had decided to start the process of loosing weight. My weight had been steadily creeping up. So I started watching what I eat. Did not stop eating all the sweets in the house, but cut them down. I exercised everyday. But then on Monday I checked the weight and I had gained one full pound. I was dumb founded and not sure what to make of it. So I started thinking back to what I had had. On Saturday I had gone to a birthday party and on Sunday we had a couple of friends over. I started to think back what I ate there. Nothing jumped out till I remembered the Paneer. Yes, the Indian cheese. I have blogged about it before too. It seems to have a big impact on me. I had eaten some pieces of paneer on both the parties. Now I know what caused the rise in the weight. I will watch out as there are more parties happening the coming weekend. It is the start of the holiday season and time to get things in some sort of control.

And I have a great Sugar day...till now

I wake up to my best number in years - 106. I go to the gym. Come back, have a nice breakfast. Check again after 2 hours - 85 I have not seen a two digit sugar number is ages....I am all jazzed up and guess what.. The destructive self is wanting to intervene. My brain is suggesting that I go for a nice subway sandwich on the garlic bread.... I should be going for a salad instead....

The Yo-Yo of weight, me rolling at the end of the string

So now I have gained 5 pounds in the last month and a half. This weekend I decided to stop being a victim to the weight again and decided to pull myself back up. I have started the exercises back up again, but controlling the diet is still hard. But I know I will be able to do it. One thing I am trying to do is to wear the clothes that were great fits when I had 5 lesser lbs. Now they are really tight and even uncomfortable. This is a constant reminder through the day. Hoping to loose the 5 lbs in the next 5 weeks. Stay tuned.

Was it a good idea to avoid medications?

When I was first diagnosed with Diabetes, I was very stubborn and refused to get onto any medications. I told myself that each medication has a lot of side effects and I would rather control it with diet and exercise. I put all my faith in the fact that if I kept my A1C under 7.0, then I was good to go and over time managed to keep it that way. But then a couple of years I find myself with some damage in my eye, and my doctors seriously telling me to do more. So now I stand here with medications in my hands. I am using both metfornin and glyburide. The combo is actually working pretty well for me. My sugars are doing great and my A1C is good and I do not feel any sugar highs. I do watch what I eat and try to exercise moderately. I think back if the effort to stay off medications was worth it and I see a mixed bag. If I had not instituted the tight regime, I suspect I would be on a lot more medications. In some ways taking the medication is an easy way to get instant relief, but no life

Men with Type2 Diabetes: Get your testosterone checked

I recently discovered that I was running low on the testosterone. This was kind of a shocker and so I started some discovery of the problem on the net. This is what I found interesting , if you are low on testosterone - You feel lack of enrgy You will be lethargic Muscle development will be stunted Now coupled with my Type 2 diagnostic, I am not sure if this and my diabetes are related or not. Was it that I had lower T issues and this leaded to me being more lazier and led to diabetes creeping on me earlier than what I would have got it. Was it the diabetes which is ravaging my system from the inside now leading to other complications. Interestingly there is no clear data between your T levels and Blood Sugars. Looks like folks are beginning to look so maybe more data will emerge. I sure as heck would like to know. So my fellow type 2 diabetics, go to the doctor and have them test your T levels. I am working on getting them higher and hope to see some better sugar control soon. Interes

Glyburide for Type 2 Diabetes will make you fat

So I started back on glyburide once a day in the mornings. My sugars are definitely doing better now, but I have started to gain weight. Not sure what all is causing this. I find myself stressing about getting a sugar low so I try and eat things more regularly. I definitely eat more carbs since I am worried that not enough is going to bring about a low. I am eating more junk, especially sugary stuff. Part of it is my relaxation on the diet since I am eating more medication, but part of it seems to be an incredible urge to do so that does not seem to be in my control. I used to have urges before but I could get control on them in a day or two. This time it is over 2 weeks and still not slow down. Not sure if this is glyburide doing something internally, or my brain, or a combination. Net effect of taking the medication, I am feeling a little more balanced through the day as my sugars are controlled, but the weighing balance is tending to move into the higher range. Sigh, just another th

What about - Eat, Drink and Be Merry !!!

I hear that once in a while from folks who think it is cute to use a cliche. I myself an guilty of using a lot of them :-) So what do Diabetics do with a cliche about food - 1) Eat, in moderation. Avoid carbs unless you are on a sulfonylureas(like glyburide ) or Insulin. Eat more protein, it will keep you full for longer. Eat lots of vegetables to fill you up. Eat after atleast a 2.5 hours break between meals, longer if possible. 2) Drink, in moderation again. Or like me, give it up all together. Drink without food can send a diabetic into hypoglycemia. And in general with the propensity to depression, diabetics should avoid downers. 3) Be Merry, definitely. I try to be. It is easy when the sugars are in control and life is relaxed. Much harder when the sugars are out of control. So my advice to other diabetics is to try to - EAT, DRINK and BE MERRY

Good A1C, but still leaking sugars from the kidneys

I visited the doctor a few days ago. He ran some blood and urine tests. Results were interesting - A1C - 6.6 Ya, I was expecting higher. But seems like there was sugar in the urine. so it means that kidneys are leaking stuff. The doctor thinks that I might be a higher risk even though my A1C is in good control. Something about some folks have genes that cannot handle diabetes. So now I got to figure out what I need to do.....

In servitude of my diabetes

I feel like most of the time I am a servant of the disease. Diabetes has taken over my life and now I am serving the disease. Can you imagine an entity like the disease who decides to rule over the people it has control on. I cannot think and do anything that is not approved by the disease. I pay homage to it by thinking about it more than anything else in my life. I obsess about how to manage my relationship with it. I am glad when I happen to have a low sugar, thanking the disease for a temporary break. When I break the rules, I get punished by high sugars. There is always the specter of other complications like blindness and amputation on my head. So I pay homage to the disease and ask that I may be spared once in a while so I can have a more normal life.

Methi seeds (aka Fenugreek) lead to weight loss

I am spending a week with my in laws and they have some older family visiting from India. As usual in such a setting we always discuss health especially speculating why I would have gotten diabetes at such a young age. So in all this, there seems to be a great amount of talk about methi seeds. These are seeds of the plant also known as fenugreek in other parts of the world. The latest consensus from these folks seems to be that if you start eating a spoon of this stuff each morning, you are bound to loose weight. So when I get back home in a couple of days, I am going to go back to a tougher regimen of food and bring back overnight soaked methi seeds into my diet. Luckily, I have managed my food intake well while I am here. I have not gained a single pound. But it was achieved with a lot of starvation. I am trying to keep a four hour gap between meals and no carbs after 8:00 pm.

New screening services now popping up

One of the things that I regret is not having been on top of my regular yearly tests. If I would have been doing those, then I think I could have caught my diabetes in the pre-diabetes stage and controlled it. At least I like to think that I could have controlled it. Now I see new businesses come up to screen for specific diseases. Not a bad idea. So if you think it is hard to get tested for the whole thing with your doctor, you can get yourself screened regularly by one of these places. I found this one - LifeLineScreening Interestingly some of the places that pop up near my zip code are a fitness club and lots of churches. At a cursory glance this might seem weird, but I think it is perfect. Fitness clubs are a great place for this service. Folks going there are health conscious or trying to be and this can be a great addition. Churches, Temples, Mosques are another great place as folks are receptive to the idea of keeping up their health. Maybe the religious organizations can work w

The joy of seeing your blood sugar in double digits

I rarely find my sugar being lower than 100. So today 2 hours after breakfast when I saw 99, I was ecstatic. I have been active in the morning cleaning up the house and stuff and it is really hot, so I am pretty much sweating all morning. Maybe a combination of all these things is helping. Whatever it is, I am happy. Now to resist the impulse to eat worser food because one number was great :-)

How I got my Fasting BS down

I used to have fasting sugars running into the 150's for a while last year. This was really bad and I found myself waking up to body aches. For some reason the pain the soles of my feet was the worst. So I stated off on a plan to get it down - 1) Stop eating carbohydrates (e.g. bread, rice) during dinner. This was harder on my wife since she had to make sure that there was enough protein and vegetables to actually fill me up. I helped by adding lots of green salads to the diet. This helped take the number down a little. 2) Started some minor exercise in the the night. I tried to be active. If we are watching TV, I would walk on the spot. Play some tumbling games with the kids. Clean up the kitchen. This helped. 3) Started taking a 500 mg of Metfornin. This was another big help. Now my number are mostly under 115 for the morning. It seems to be trending down as I am exercising regularly at the gym and actually loosing some weight. Since I cannot stop experimenting, I tried out not t

I got quoted on the Health.com

Health.com is doing some interesting series of articles on diabetes, but then who is not. In one of the articles, they quoted me on some of the things that I said. Check it out here - Health.com Articles with my quote. It is interesting how so many websites are doing series on diabetes. It is a testament to how prevalent the disease is becoming. Each week I find out yet another person who is diagnosed. This week it was a cousin of mine whose sugars were out of the world. She is not on some medication, not sure which one though. My sincere hope is that all this extra focus will help people take control in earlier and earlier stages. I would have benefited if I would have gotten tested earlier.

Its sunshine all around

The blues have long gone. Exercising regularly. Feel so much more energy. Have been reading Positive thinking regularly and practising the principle. It is very interesting how well it works. I am amazed. Seriously looking at improving the kind of work I am doing. And the weather has also turned for the better. There is finally sunshine in Seattle. Seems like a cosmic sign of - All is Well...Go forth and blog!

Exercise is finally showing some results

I have lost 3 pounds in the last 3 years. I am feeling totally amazed and very very happy. The money being spent to be a part of YMCA is definitely worth it.

Been a long time since I read any book on Diabetes

Life gets so busy and you never have time to read up on things that you want to. When I was first diagnosed with Diabetes, I read vociferously. I enjoyed the Dr Bernstein book. I wanted to know as much as I could about the disease. Then life kicked in and taking up a book on diabetes was just not possible. I have tried on and off, but not gotten much farther. It is always more exciting to be reading something that is faster and more easier on the brain :-) Lately I do a lot of audio books that I check out from the library. We have a great system here in Seattle. But there are no audio books on the Diabetes issue. I wish there were some as I am sure that are a bunch of folks who would be interested. It is hard to get a handle on a book of facts via audio, but the right person, like the author themselves would be able to convey the ideas pretty well. I do plan on reading one new book on my diabetes this year. Planning a long 3 week vacation to the NY region this summer. It would be an id

Do you have times when you just want to feel bad?

I find myself hitting these days quite regularly. I seem to go into a mode where I just want to feel bad. I keep focusing on all the negatives., It is funny, in this mode, I can take the best things and put a really really negative twist on them. It is funny that 10 years ago I was the totally diametrically opposite person. I would always look at everything in a positive light. I would twist any situation to be a positive experience. Not sure what changed me from a glass half full man to a glass half empty person. Having diabetes does not help the situation at all. Fighting this disease all day 24 hours, 365 days a year is a easy fodder to think negatively. I almost did not want to write this post as it would reflect negatively on me some day. A blog is a life long view into your life. But then not writing it would make me feel untrue to my intentions of letting others know what it means to be Living With Diabetes !!!!

My plan to get out of these blues

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It has been a really blue few months. So two weeks ago I decided to change it all. It helped that the weather in Seattle turned for the better :-) So here is a three pronged approach - 1) Start regular exercise. This is a proven way to help you feel better. You have more energy and feel like you accomplished something good for yourself. Looking better helps you feel better. Better control on the sugars are always a nice plus. 2) Read some uplifting stuff. I told myself that I would read the Bhagwad-Gita and The Power of Positive Thinking . 3) Spend more time with family. I was beginning to divide my time into really small chunks and was ending up doing family time during work timings and work during family. I am changing this to come back to a normal schedule so that I can do justice to both. So now with these ideas in my head, I embark on the journey to come out of the blues. I am feeling better already knowing that I have a plan.

Trying to get back into life (on Blogger too)

I have been not blogging for a while. Lots of weird stuff going on in my life. First, I started having trouble with the eyes and had to go through a eye laser treatment. Was totally bummed out. Then I started to realize that I am getting depressed. Once I realized that, it just drained all my energy and sent me into a nice spiral into the dark end. Now I am recovering and trying to crawl back out. Lots of interesting insights into myself as I pull myself out. Will be talking more on that.

Loosing Eyesight thanks to my diabetes

Last week I went in for regular eye exams and suddenly my right eye will just not be able to focus on the letters. No changes in the lens made any difference. The doctor then put somethng to inflate my eye and check and told me that I need to go see a specialist ASAP right now. She told me that diabetes is starting to take a toll. Next day I was in the specialists office. He ended up injecting a dye in my arm and taking pictures of the eye. After some brilliant images, I sat with the doctor and he explained to me that I have leaking blood vessels in my eye. This leave some stuff in the eye that can start to cover your retina. Unluckily for me the leakage in my right eye was closer to the center of the eye, so it started to affect the ability of my eye to focus. Bummer.... I am going in for a laser surgery today to stop the bleeding. Hopefully not ruin the eyes anymore. I hate the idea of going blind, but am going to forget about it and get some treatment for now.

FightType2.com update for the month of Apr 2008

April 2008 update for FightType2.com What is New on the FightType2.com website? * Added Graphical reports for the A1C Data. Check it out at A1C Report * New Calendar control is now active on the A1C input screen. Looking for feedback if this is faster than the ones on the weight and sugar input screens. What am I working on for the next month? * Mobile pages to make data entry easy through cell phone browsers.

Handling a whole weekend without diabetes test strips

I can say that I love testing my sugars !! I test it four times a day and then record each data into my site FightType2.com. Last weekend I finished my strips and asked for a refill, but the pharmacy needed to call my doctor who did not respond in time, so I found myself without any test strips for a whole weekend. I was nervous as hell. I know that if I am not testing then I am not watching what I am consuming. I survived, but did learn some things about myself. Here is a summary - - If I am not testing, my diet restrictions get relaxed. This is a spiraling relaxation, i.e. it keeps relaxing more and more as days go by. - My mind keeps reminding me to exercise. But not watching the sugars means that I am more willing to make excuses to not exercise to myself. - No strips, less control, does not mean less stress. Each night before going to sleep, I would always stress on whether I am doing good. - I missed testing my fasting sugars the most. In my head I want this number to be the most

My metfornin is leading to weight gain

I started taking a metfornin tablet in the morning in addition to the one that was having with dinner. The doctor told me that this was better as there is no weight gain associated with this medication, but I am seeing a small creep up in my weight, about a pound a week gain each of the last four weeks. So I got to thinking what was up with this whole situation and I started back onto tracking what I eat and how I exercise. Here are the results - 1) Because of the metfornin, my sugars are coming out great compared to before. So I am generally relaxing on various issues. 2) I have started eating more carbs as now my body is handing them better. 3) I also starting eating a cookie a day. Indulging back in the sweet tooth as now the medication is helping the numbers. 4) Since the specter of higher sugars is sort of removed, my level and frequency of exercise is down. All in all, the medicine does not seem to have a direct affect on the weight, but the fact that I am relaxing my strict diet

March 2008 update for FightType2.com

What is New on the FightType2.com website? * Changed the look and feel of the website menus. This makes the website load up faster. * Added graphical reports for fasting sugars. * Made the adding of A1C data process smoother. What am I working on for the next month? * Better Calendar controls for choosing the dates on the data entry pages. * Graphical report for the A1C data.

Latest A1C numbers in, they are up :-(

Got my quarterly checkup done last week. The A1C numbers have gone up from 6.4 to 7.2. It is a big bummer. I am not a happy camper right now. This just reinforces my resolve to get back into the exercise and diet routine that was leading to good numbers just 3 months back. Got to go and wallow in my own misery now....

The Cheating Culture around my diabetes

I have been reading a book called the The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead . It is a great book, a little dark as it is telling a dark story, but a good read. Makes you want to think about how there is cheating around you and how the culture is self propagating the whole things. I have seen the cheating happen in the USA as well as India. It is not that the cheating is limited to just the two countries, but I know of what I have observed myself. I myself have cheated at times and so I know I am no moral authority who is out there decrying the others for their actions. Lately I see the whole pharmaceutical industry cheating around me. They bring out new drugs in the market that are no better that the exisiting ones, but the companies and the regulatory agencises cheat the comsumers by not making comparitive studies. Negative results are being hidden away and sometimes totally wiped out. There is a concerted effort of starting more rigourous drugs on all

My advice on fighting diabetes, Take Control Yourself

I keep seeing and talking to people who get diagnosed with diabetes and are always looking for the magic pill that will cure it. Must be the fact that right now we are always being bombarded with messages on how science has made these huge leaps in health and there is a cure for almost anything in the world. Folks do not want to think about the disease, they want a doctor to come in and just tell them what to do. Well, there is no magic bullet. Type 2 diabetes does not have a cure as yet. Sure there are doctors espousing the benefits of various drugs. Sure there are lots of people talking abut one herb or another that can cure it all. Wake up, and smell the spiced COFFEE. The only way to get control is to do it yourself. You can take herbs and pills, but no exercise spells long term doom. You have to watch what you eat, test your sugars as much as possible and move around. You have to change your lifestyle to a more active one.

Nothing better than exercise

There has been a flurry of posts and news going around about the stopping of the diabetes study. Made me start thinking about all this research. I know there is value in doing it, but sometimes folks are not looking at the basic information that is already out there. Case in point, Dr Bernstein. He has been dealing with the disease for decades. He is healthy and well. He has a book written about his experience and his philosophy with scientific thinking behind it. He is living proof that exercise is the key to the control of this disease. I don't know about others, but I like following him over other studies that might be suspect due to various monetary involvements.

Get Social Networked with other Diabetics

Last week I found this new site - DiabetesFriends.net It is like Facebook but for folks affected by Diabetes. I have got myself an Id and started exploring the site. It looks interesting and can serve a great need. So come on over and join the network. Find me, I love to have other diabetic friends.

Trying to rein in a run away fasting sugar

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I am in the middle of a three week vacation and I am having lots of trouble keeping my fasting sugar numbers anywhere close to where I will to keep it. Here is a graphical view of my fasting sugars - The graph is coming from my own website - FightType2.com which I am very proud of. As you can see, in the mid Nov to mid Dec time frame I had started getting fasting sugars under 120s, which was a tremendous achievement. Then came Christmas ( and family) and then came this vacation (and some more family). I am struggling here to keep a tight leash on things, but my diet is very hard to keep in control since I am not in my own house. Exercise is pretty much non existent. I feel frustrated, but am trying to be patient. Just another week and I will be back home. Then I can restart a life with better control and hopefully bring the numbers down again.

Time to go hungry again

I came to California expecting to see sunny weather and lots of chances to take walks. Right now it is raining like crazy and has been like this for over 4 days. If I wanted to see rain, I would have stayed back in Seattle. No walks + eating outside = high sugars I am beginning to do some fasting. That seems like the only way to bring back the numbers in control.

Raise your hand if you were addicted to Carbs

I have been doing some self analysis in the last couple of days and discovering some interesting things about what drives me. Looking back I am able to see some addictions in my life and one of them was to carbs. If there were different kinds of food in front of me, I would gravitate to the carbs. My carb of choice was rice, and that too white. I can remember salivating for them. I would eat multiple servings of the rice and always go back for seconds or sometimes even thirds. I remember not only being in love with my refined carbs, but also always searching them out. Lots of white flour, potatoes, rice. I loved sugary stuff and as I kept growing, I needed more sugar in everything to still feel sweet. I remember adding a spoonful of sugar to a glass of orange juice. I would eagerly drink it up to get to the sugar, which would not have dissolved, at the bottom. Then I would eat the sugar with a spoon. The good thing is that I was able to break the addiction once I got diabetes. I someti

Ever get bored out of your brains at a party

It happened to me. It was a party at my own house. Worked really hard to cookgreat food, planned out a fun time. There were atleast 20 people. But it just took two people to take over a nice time and turn it into a boring evening. I am always amazed at people who do nothing but still want to control everything. These two folks, wanted to take over the whole evening with an agenda of their own. Instead of enjoying the evening, they spent it all trying to make plans for how many more times we should all meet up the rest of the year. I was bored to my bones. Why would I want to take this great boredom with me to a vacation with them? So I graciously vanished from the room and the discussion. What does this have to do with diabetes - 1) I look back at the evening and see a bunch of people who are in their middle age, eat a bunch of carbs, they choose to ignore the healthy stuff, and then just want to sit down and chat. Call me crazy, but my high sugar diabetic radar was jingling. I wanted

How my fasting sugars went up by 16 points in just 25 days

I know this is uncanny and totally depressing. It all started as the Christmas vacation started to approach. Before the vacation season, I was eating good, doing my bowflex, feeling those abs tighten. Weight was beginning to drop. My fasting numbers were down to just under 120. Then stuff started to happen. My Metfornin finished. I told the pharmacy to refill a prescription but there were so many errors that it over 20 days to get it all sorted out. My sister landed in town, my stress level went up. She hounded me on my diet and I actually abandoned it. Exercise went for a toss. House got loaded with bad food. Spent a lot of time in the mall walking slowly in the sea of humanity. My fasting numbers climbed up to 135+. I can feel those abs slowly vanishing. I have resolved to get it all back. But I am surprised by how fast the numbers climbed up. Goes to show that there is no respite in the fight against type 2 diabetes.

What not to get a diabetic as a gift....

I have been off the blog grid for a while. It was very busy month. I had my sister visit and dealing with family is always a hard time. I will blog more about how my sugars are all messed up now, but today I want to concentrate on what chaos they led to with the gifts they got. So the first morning when my dear sister is over, she brings out a her first batch of gifts, and they were --- chocolates. I was a little amazed to see they mountain of chocolates that she brought out to the house of a type 2 diabetic. I made excuses for her saying that it was something she got for the kids. But a couple would have been good. It was a bunch. And to top it all, her husband is a diabetic, she is pre diabetic and she is a doctor. What am I missing here? I made through the first day. Put all the chocolates that were not consumed fast in out of sight places. Then she wakes up and says, brother I brought you some stuff you would love to eat. She brings out about 8 packs of precooked stuff, which are a