Living with Diabetes

Not sure if others see this, but I find it ridiculous on how much focus and money is spent towards getting a cure for diabetes. I am a Typ2 diabetic, so I know that a cure would benefit me, but I cannot feel smug about it. I rarely see any company/government taking steps to find a cause for the rise in Type 2 diabetes in the world. It is very frustrating to see this situation. I blame the way the pharmaceutical companies have developed. It is a by product of capitalism I guess. Research is done and financed by individuals, or corporations. They need to make money. No one makes money if we can stop the spread of the disease. So all the money goes into finding medications to fight it. If it is something that you will have to keep taking for the rest of your life, it is perfect. What better than creating a product which you will need for ever. Some governments sponsor research into the cause etc of the disease, but these are mostly academic stuff. Who is going to bother to take this data ...

Got my A1C checked. Three months ago I was sitting at 7.6 Last week I was at 6.5 I feel much better. I think the diet changes and exercise are beginning to yield results. Hope the next check is even lower.

Some of the folks around the world might not be interested in this post, but then this blog is about me. The elections for 2008 are fast approaching and candidates all over the place are out there talking about all sorts of things. I am beginning to wonder what their positions are relative to my diabetes. Will their policies and ideas help my life going forward. I plan on running through their websites and look for things. I wonder if anyone else has analyzed the candidates for their type2 diabetes policies.

The sugars are sure coming out better these days. In the month of Aug, my average fasting sugar was 148. Last week my average fasting sugar was 118. A 30 point reduction, I am happy. What am I doing - 1) I am doing moderate amount of exercise each day. 2) No carbs in the night. I am only filling up on vegetables and protein. 3) No food after dinner. Even if I am hungry, I tolerate it and sleep on water. Lets see how long this keeps up.

Sometimes I catch myself living in fear of my diabetes. It tends to occur after a couple of days of higher sugar numbers. The task of checking blood sugar becomes a small anxiety. I fear the results I will see on my meter. Curiously in this fearful state I end up wanting to eat more to pacify myself. And the desire is not to obviously eat things that will keep the sugars down. After a couple of days of being in fear, I finally get it, tell myself to be brave and face the challenge head on. I start eating more responsibly. Become more active through the day. Check blood sugar regularly. Morale goes up, days seem to be brighter and waking up in the morning is no more a painful process. I would like to be strong enough to never end up in the fearful phase. But got to deal with this weak brain as it is...One day, I will be stronger. I am sure making myself mentally stronger will help my whole life, not just the diabetic part.

A couple of months ago I put on about 10 pounds of weight. I did this during the height of summer, go figure. When I should have been out taking walks and mowing my lawn, I was sitting inside eating goodies. Now trying to lose this weight is such a hard thing. Every step is painful and the numbers just do not show up. Eating better is hard since you end up feeling hungry. I am thinking it is better to just starve myself. That way I can stay hungry but loose some weight. Some amount of exercise has moved into my daily life. Now I need to add more and do it regularly. Trying to keep in mind - No pain no gain.

I do not know what was special about Monday, but lots of weird stuff happened. I lose a close friend and three lives get extinguished. I woke up in the morning and found out that a close friend of mine was moving back to India. We used to be really close, but had been out of touch for a while and now he was leaving, this would end up leaving a void in my life. I felt bad that we are not talking together much and felt bad that I had no close friends left any more. There was an emptiness left. Then I talked to my parents and they told me that my cousins young husband just passed in the night. They guy went to sleep and never woke up. I was shocked. He was much younger than me. Brings mortality back into our heads. I told myself that the treadmill is going to get started to being used very soon. Went to work, come back and hear that my Father in law's closest friend passed away in the night too. Heard that a close friend, whose parents I adore, lost here grandmother. It seemed life t...

There is so much going on in the world these days related to the mobile phones. Maybe it was always there and I just did not happen to notice it. It is an overwhelming feeling. Everywhere you turn you see something being done for the mobile phone. Every company is working on making the mobile experience as good as the one on the internet. Some examples - - Yahoo has a great mobile application that you can download and then you can see all your calendar, addresses etc easily on the phone. - Calorie king has launched CalorieKing Mobile , a great resource for me. Now when I am outside and decide to eat in a new place, I can quickly run the numbers through Calorie King database and know how much carbs I am having. - Facebook is now trying to replicate their experience on the mobile. I can't wait for this to get done properly. It is all very exciting. I am being tempted to create a mobile prescence for the fightType2.com website. I hope someone out there is actually reading this blog ...

I am ready to finally introdue my website, www.FightType2.com . I created the site to help me keep track of my numbers. I designed it to be useful for me such that I can check and enter my sugar data when and where I need. Putting the database on the web helps since now I do not have to translate everything inot a Excel spreadsheet. I can also track my weight and A1C data on the same website. Next I want to have better reports generated so that I can track things like how my fasting sugars are moving on average with my weight. Lots of cool data, but would need me to keep track of the information for atleast a couple of months. The site is geared towards Type2 folks and only lets you track certain sugar numbers. For type 1 folks or the type 2 folks who really want to track more details, I would recommend trying out SugarStats . The SuagrStats folks seem to have a nice slick interface. Probably have more than one person working on their system. Lets just get hold of our Diabetic lives. N...

I have had diabetes for over 2 years now. Like any other diabetic this has been a nice roller coaster time. There are good coasting times and then there are those rocky times where nothing you do seems to calm your sugars down, and then you get stressed and sugars go whacko some more. I all this time my spouse has been a great support. I did not realize how much that means. She has cooked great meals to help keep the sugars down. She has helped keep my focus on the things I need to do. But lately things seem to be changing. There was a change in her attitude. She had been asking me to consider going on medications. Last week she finally told me that sometimes she feels trapped in by my disease. I was shocked at first, but then got OK with it in a few hours. Why should she not feel this way? After all she now has to deal with a person that suffers from a life long and possibly terminal disease. She gets to see me go through the mood changes as the sugars move around. I think I realize t...

I do not know what is up with me. I have been making all sorts of excuses to not get on the treadmill. It is sitting in the garage with my Bowflex all disassembled all over it. So neither do I do my Bowflex, because I cannot even make 1 hour of free time in my day to assemble it. Neither does the whole clutter leave space to fold down the treadmill to start using it. It is a perfect storm condition to not do any exercise. On top of that, I am freely eating peanut butter. No wonder the sugars beginning to creep up. Got to get back into life and start again. Diabetes sure messes up with you. You are cognizant enough to know that you need to do something, but also not wanting to do something because without doing it, you know for sure that your days are numbered.

So now I have had 2 weeks on this medication. Here are some of the things that I am dealing with - 1) My highs seem to have gone higher. Same food, but the high has jumped from 180's to 240's. Not sure if this is related to the medication. 2) Gastrointestinal problems seem to come and go. Some days I have almost painful gas and other days nothing. I am going to try some of the ideas sent by others like eating the medication in the middle of supper. 3) Odd stuff happening to the body. Every once in a while I get a odd feeling. Almost reminds me of hypoglycemia that I used to experience with Glyburide. But I checked my sugar, it was 180. So it was not low sugars, must be something related to the medication. The fasting sugars have not dipped yet, but I am willing to wait.

My A1C numbers were just not to my liking. I am also having trouble keeping up with the strict diet. When you hit issues you realize how much of the support structure you need around yourself to have a good diabetic friendly regimen. So anyway, I am giving up the fight without any medication for a little while. I am string off on Metfornin. The doctor put me on 500 mg during dinner. We will wtach and adjust as we go. I have been on the medication for a week now. Not much change, but right now I have a lot more gastrointestinal issues. They say it can take about a month for your system to adjust. So a new experiment begins...

Lately the news lines are again talking about how coffee can reduce the risk of diabetes. This has been going on for a while. Here is an article from the ADA about this issue - ADA on Coffee I think that some amount of coffee does help me manage my type2 diabetes. And the reason it helps me has nothing to do with any ingredients in the drink. It is to do with what the drink does to me. Here are my two reasons - Reason 1 - I am lazy by nature. So given a chance I would like to sit down and rest. Having a cup of coffee gives me a reason to get up, make the cup and drink it. Then when the caffeine kicks in, it gets harder to just sit around, so I get more active and this helps keep sugars down. Reason 2 - When sugars actually go high, it seems like I am wearing a lead suit. This is when I go to coffee for sure. I need some way of keeping myself up and not just falling asleep. I have tried the dowsing off thing, but it does nothing to the sugars. You have to get active instead. It is wei...

This is a purely satirical piece, so do not take it seriously :-) Lately my sugar numbers are just off the roof. I am seeing numbers like 240, 250 on the meter. Lately the oil prices are just off the roof too. The price of a gallon of oil has crossed $80. Once you cross a limit, it never seems shocking again. Now a number over 200 for my blood sugar gets a response...bah humbug...I will live. Same with the process of oil over 80, response is ...whatever...if I cannot afford it, I will not travel... So what do the two have in common... 1) They have both broken through some limits and now the numbers will never phase me as they rightly should. 2) They might have an impact on each other. If I can get myself motivated right, to reduce my sugars, I would walk or bike to work, thus consuming lesser gas, thus making a small dent in the gas consumption and reduction in the price. In the same way, a higher gas price can motivate me to take the bike to work, thus bringing down the sugar levels....

Last six months has been crazy with my A1C swings. 6 months ago, my lab result said A1C was 7.8. I was shocked. Promised myself that I would take better care of food and exercise. 3 months ago the lab check said A1C was 6.4. I was beginning to relax. Then came a bunch of family and a lot of stress related to them and work. So last week I get by blood test, A1C numbers are now at 7.6 This is very depressing.

I mostly like to eat at McDonalds. I tend to go for the Fish sandwich or the double quarter pounder. I seem to do good with either one of them. Sugars are a little higher since I eat the whole bun, but the large amount of protein in the burger seems to compensate. I tend to be under 160 two hours after the food. A little bit of exercise and the numbers are lower. Yesterday while on the road, I got really hungry and Burger King was convenient. I decide to try them out. They had a new stacker series, I went for the two patty one. It also came with a slice of cheese and some bacon in it. The buns seem to be a little smaller than the ones in MD. But the taste was excellent. Not sure what the sauce had but the taste was delicious. It was good enough to want to come back again. MD, if you are listening, you might want to make things more tasty. The sugars were not shappby eiter,. I was 150 after basically eating the food and sitting in the car. The BK burger has 32 g of carbs in it. Here is ...

Now I have diabetes and I have no use for all the sugar that I used to eat. What do we do with all this extra stuff that is still being produced? Well here come our friends at Sony with a solution. They have developed a battery that runs off sugar. Read all about it - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/sony_biobattery_dc;_ylt=AoulhoduMbGmXQH233ksOUAjtBAF

I know it makes no sense. You would think that after two years of seeing the doctor regularly, one would be used to the idea of getting the results of the latest blood test. But I still get anxious. It starts a couple of days before the visit, when I have to start planning my trip to the lab. I do a 12 hour fast and land up in the morning at the lab for my set of blood draws. Then I setup an appointment with the do c a couple of days after so that the results are in. Then there is the wait in his office reception area, then the wait for him to come into the room and then finally you get to hear what the results are. Of the 10 times I have been on this routine in the last 2 years, I have only had one bad experience. This should make me feel secure, but I don't. Outside, I remain cheerful to the rest of the world, nonchalant as usual. Inside I cringe and worry if the numbers are trending wrong. If my feet will stop feeling responses from his needle pricks, if my cholesterol would hav...

It was not by choice that I did these experiments. Lots of things were happening in my life which led to a multitude of issues. I was gaining weight, I could not exercise, my stress level was up, minor depression was setting in. I figured we are going in, might as well treat it as an experience. So I started watching for changes as my average sugars started shooting up. It was not uncommon to see 200's two hours after meals. First, my feet start to hurt. I had a weird pain in the balls of my feet. They were constantly hurting. It was as if someone put a needle in there all hight long. The pain would be worst in the morning after waking up and also after any period of rest. Second, I start to get blurriness in my vision. There seems to be nothing wrong with my glasses. The vision deteriorates as the day goes by. Seeing in the night gets to be a strain on the eye, especially when I am driving. Third, I started to get more depressed. Where a couple of weeks ago a 200 on the meter woul...