Living with Diabetes

Interesting, but this is what I observed in the last week. I have a pretty set routine on what and when I eat. My sugars were trending to be under 120 when I wake up. Then over a period of two weeks, got very busy. Spent most of the time driving around in the car, ate a lot more McDonald's and ended up running out of my cache of foods like the breads etc that I eat. So I started eating the bread that my wife eats, though I adjusted to keep the nutrition info the same. My sugars started creeping up. I starting getting a morning sugar of 150. My 2 hours after meals sugars was at 180-200. I got freaked out. I tried everything, even being more active, which was really hard as the body was reeling under high sugars and just wanted to rest. Finally got my bread from the store and sugars are now back to lower levels. I woke up to a 124 today. Not great but much better. So this is what I hypothesize - 1) When you start bring sugars in control, the body gets used to what you are giving it a...

I have been thinking about messages sent to us from various thing we read and listen to everyday. A couple of days ago I was reading the story of the rabbit and the turtle to my little daughter and was telling her the moral of the story...how slow and steady does win the race. It got me thinking, how does that philosophy apply to my life with diabetes? A rabbit signal highs and lows in your blood sugar. When you get a high, you have more energy (not true always) but you can get a spurt and then the slowdown. So being a rabbit is a signal of being on highs and lows and swinging like a pendulum from a rapid release of energy to a low where you have to sit down and rest. whereas a turtle would be a constant blood sugar. Not many highs or lows. A simple steady graph of sugar. Keeping things in relative calm and getting things down at a nice relaxed, but determined pace. I think these days I am a diabetic turtle . I want to keep things in control and continue achieving things.

The last few weeks my morning sugars are dropping. This is great considering where I was sitting for such a long time. I am actually able to see morning sugars under 120. This inspite lots of stress from work, home, relationship, kids and everything else you can think of. I guess it has been a time when life is trying to catch up. But in all the dark clouds, the under 120 morning sugars is a great silver lining. Why as I getting blessed like this - 1) I am being more active towards the end of the day. 2) Eating a bigger snack in the evening so that my body is not dying from hunger for dinner. 3) absolutely no bread during dinner. I am sticking to vegetables and protein during dinner. There is some carbs coming from the other foods, but no carbs. Definitely much lower glycemic indexes. 4) Some positive thoughts in the head before I fall off to sleep. I am just so tired by the time I hit the bed that I am lost really fast, unless one of the children decide to wake up and need attention.

Mother nature sure has a nice way of reminding you of your place and status every once in a while. Last week after the great doctors visit I was beginning to get cocky. I thought to myself, now I have a lot better control on diabetes, now I can live the rest of my life with no medicine. I thought in my head that I had it beat and am on top of it and dreamt of possibly reversing the disease. So while in this halo I went to the temple to celebrate a Hindu festival - Janamastami, the birth of lord Krishna. I sat there with my family watching other eat since I rarely eat at the temple anymore, too many carbs. Then I saw an acquaintance walk in using a walking stick. This guy was healthy just an year ago when I had seen him. I asked what happened and he said Diabetes. Still cocky I assumed that he must been having trouble since he was not watching himself. So I ask him what exactly happened. He said that he was keeping very good control on his sugars (strike one on my cockiness). Then he ha...

Before folks get all excited about this, no this is not because of any scientific study out there. This has been my experience. Before I got diagnosed with Diabetes a year ago, I had been loosing hair on the head at a very accelerated rate. It seemed like days of baldness were coming on really fast. Friends were beginning to comment on how my hair was going away fast. Some had theories like I was working too much, or that having kids was taking its toll. I know I will go bald eventually as my father is a baldy. I expect loosing hair slowly, but the pace was picking up. Then I ran into Diabetes and took control of diet and health. Then a month ago I noticed some of the fellow hair loosing guys comment on the fact that my hair seemed to be coming back. Most thought that I must be using some medicine, which I wasn't. Some cursory research into the look did seem like I was getting back a fuller set of hair on my head. It was weird. This is my theory about this. The hair is a indication...

Met up with my doctor yesterday. It was the three month checkup to see how I am doing. My A1C numbers came out at 6.4. I was very happy. It dropped from 6.8 the previous time to 6.4. The hard work is paying off. It was a good visit. Confirmed my belief that I am the right track. My sugars are still a little bit higher, but the diet and the minimal amount of exercise are definitely making an impact. We talked about my metfornin usage and I told him about not taking it. The doc says that I have proven that I do not need the medicine as yet so I can stay off it. He congratulated me on my tight control and was pleased. Told me to keep it up. Did warn me that I should keep things in control as traditionally diabetes is a progressively worsening disease and if a tight control is not maintained it gets harder to keep under control in the long run. One other piece of advise was to start an aspirin regimen. I have been thinking about this one tool. Especially since I found out that Diabetics a...

Listening to all the news coming from Lebanon, I started to wonder how do the diabetics take care of themselves in a war zone? Few things that will throw the careful life we diabetics construct around ourselves - 1) Having your house blown away with all your medicines. I guess you can be happy that you survived. 2) No idea where the next meal will be found. Have to eat what is available. No choice. Either you risk starvation or high sugars. I guess the choice would be to get your hands at as much meat as you can get. Know that the sugars are going to high. Try to go for raw vegetables if you can find any in a garden. Risk some starvation. High sugars are better than lows. 3) Constant stress. It would be an anxious and stressful time. The stress hormones are going to going crazy. There is really very little chance of keeping any control on your sugars. Overall not a pretty situation. My heart goes out to the folks that are currently going through this conflict, whether they are civilian...

[Enter your comment here] Has anyone ever heard about ELEOTIN before. I am interested, but very sceptical. This is going to need more research. As they say, anything that looks too good to be true .... Read more at www.asiawind.com/forums...

Just picking up around the house and cleaning up some of the surfaces and the sugar numbers are coming out great. It is amazing what a simple mopping of the floors will do to your sugars. None of this is very extensive exercise, but it sure is some. Reason I think cleaning up helps - 1) You get some exercise or else you would end up sitting around watching TV. 2) The act of cleaning gives a surreal pleasure to your brain. 3) Seeing a clean house makes you feel relaxed and good, which is a known way to keep the sugars in balance. So lets get cleaning...There is so much more to do....try not to get stressed....if you do not make the mess, you will not have to cleanup.....

Last week had a bunch of revelations forced on myself. I realized that my complaining about higher sugars was being considered a Pity me attitude. It was interesting. I obviously never thought of it like that. I always considered it my right to complain when I did not have everything in control. But when you do it too many times to the same set of persons, it starts to smell and taste like a pity-me item. And if it looks like one, smells like one, tastes like one, it is a Pity me. Some realizations that dawned as part of this process - 1) Things are always in your control. Do not let them out of your control and if you do, then do not complain about it later. 2) If you are overwhelmed by diabetes or any other disease, do speak out and complain. Just try to spread it out. Some ideas - - Compain to youself in the car, loudly. - Complain to family. - Complain to friends. - Create a blog and rant on it. This makes sure one single person does not get the brunt of al...

Last weekend we ended up going for a wedding in the family. It was a great Indian wedding. There was lots of food as usual and over a couple of days. I tried to do the best I can to eat things that will keep my sugars low - 1) Eat the meat. Lay low of the gravy 2) Eat the paneer ( Indian cheese for those who do not know what this is ). The sugars did great. It also helped that my two year old always wanted to be out and about rather than in the room full of people. I cam back thinking I have handled the weekend great. But the days following the weekend, my sugars started creeping up. I realized that the long term impact of eating the heavy stuff was - 1) The fat makes your appetite grown and make you want more. 2) I feel like I have gained atleast 3 pounds on the tummy and that cannot be good for the sugars. 3) It is going to take a lot of hard work to undo the two days of easy eating. What should I have done - Eaten the meat and stayed away from the panner. Tried to get my hands on v...

I got this question asked recently in one of the comments posted to my blog entries and it got me thinking. I am not sure why I am so much against taking the medicine to control my diabetes. So here are some random thought that come to mind - 1) When I did take Glyburide for a month I had three low sugar moments which were definitely not a pretty side to handle. I was a nervous wreck going to work and coming back always wondering if I have food and will I be able to catch the sign in time on the freeway as I drive. 2) Most medicines have side affects. Nothing is free in this synthetic world. 3) Looking at the literature tells me that once you are on the medicines you are sort of on a ladder systems. You have to keep changing them till you get to Insulin in the end. 4) I understand that eventually I might have to get to the medicines, why make a big hurry. I am not against medications. Infact I have been comfortable popping pills as needed. Just very nervous of being on any pill for a r...

I am always amazed by what people think about diabetes. The ADA seems to have done a good job of taking care of educating people in the US. There is still a lot of work to do, but atleast the general public is beginning to get an idea of what this is. But in the Asian American communicate I am amazed by what folks still think about this disease. Everyone still thinks that all this is a disease that is caused by SUGAR. The worst is when I meet people who have had the disease for some years and are still thinking that it is all about sugar. I see them eating white flour chapatis and potatoes and still hear them saying how they are controlling their sugar intake as they do not add any to their daily cups of tea. This really gets my goat. But educating them is not an easy task. I am seriously considering setting up a non-profit of my own and getting down to the process of educating the Asian-American and specifically the Indo-American community about this disease. So many folks at risk for...

Saw a link on the diabetes daily and made me think - http://www.diabetesdaily.com/content/2006/05/19/keeping-my-mouth-shut.php I have not hidden diabetes from people around me, but I do not go out there and make a visible spectacle of testing for my sugars. When I do test, I do it in the privacy of my own room. When I am at a party, I test in the bathroom. I believe that there is no reason to hide the disease, infact we should be open about it as more people need to talk about it. The more we all talk, the more the awareness for the disease and at times I have helped others who are trying to deal with the disease when it hits their families. There is so much ignorance about this disease and we need to come out and tell people about it. I also believe that we need not make other uncomfortable by checking the sugars in front of them. I am OK doing this in front of family. My 2-yr old daughter always comes up to me and tell me - "Dad, can I help". She sometimes playacts the act ...

This question came up in the comments in the last post that I did. Right now, I am not taking any medication. It is hard but I am trying to control my sugars just using diet and exercise. In this whole process I am finding that it is much easier to keep the numbers in check for the day, but the morning sugars are the hardest to get a handle on. Lately my target for the morning sugars is to have it under 120 and the sugars two hours after breakfast/lunch and dinner is to be under 150. So the numbers after the food are doing great. The one in the morning is going 50/50. Half the days I am over and half the days I am under. Still not able to figure out what exactly can I change to control this. To get better morning numbers, the doc has advised me to take metfornin. I have filled the prescription, but have not taken a tablet as yet. Something in me makes it hard to take the tablet. I think I was scared of the low sugar conditions that I hit when I was on Glyburide for a month earlier in ...

A1C was 6.8. LDL - 124 HDL - 38 I feel a little bummed about this. I was expecting a lower A1C. Also hoping for a better LDL and a higher HDL. But I am going to look at this positively, atleast it was not worser. The doctor was concerned that my fasting sugars are coming higher, mostly over 120. They are in the 130s most of the day. He thinks I need to consider going on some sort of medicine to be taken with supper that will keep my fasting sugars low by controlling the lever. I suspect this might happen is I cannot take control. I am experimenting with some dinner foods now. Maybe add some protein and reduce the carbs consumed in the evening. Also need to get exercise wagon started. Luckily with the summer here, it is easier to take walks, but that does not seem to help the night sugars. Walks and other stuff keeps the daytime sugars in control.

The time is approaching to go see the doc for the three month checkup. This is going to be the fourth visit for the year, which means that my diabetic anniversary is coming up. Kind of have mixed emotions about this whole year. In some ways it went really slowly and lots of adjustments in life with the disease. And in a lot of ways it went really fast and an year is already over. What do I expect, I expect the A1C to be around 6.5. What about the next year - 1) Have to reduce 10 pounds of weight. 2) Have to setup the bowflex and build some muscle. 3) Do more regular exercise.

Last week I got excited that I had managed to have a great week with sugars in control. I wanted to reward myself. But when I thought of how, I ended up thinking about eating something I really really like or missed since now I watch what I eat. A few more minutes and I could see how weird this whole things was. You reward yourself for eating good, by eating bad...hmmm This is a real thinker issue. What do I do now? All my life I have rewarded myself with some sort of food. I am sure it was something that started really early in childhood. Either it was something I created or something my parents inadvertently created in me. But for the last few decades that is what has been ticking my bones. Now, the great D is making me rethink the whole paradigm of rewards. My existing reward system has to be dismantled. What should I replace it with. Maybe I reward myself with a new exercise tool, nah, have too many of those already. Maybe a new electronic gadget. Unfortunately that can be a prett...

Last week I saw an article on the Diabetes Blog by Kristi - five-personal-accounts-of-reversing-type-2-diabetes Made me start thinking about whether there is a real cure for diabetes right now. The Type 1 folks do not really have any recourse right now. The Islet impantation seems to really promising. For the type 2 folks, seems like there is a lot of information out there. Most cases it seems like folks say that you can get rid of this disease if you loose enough weight. My feeling is that loosing the weight probably makes it better, but you can never ever get rid of the problem. Once you have diabetes, you have it for the rest of your life. You can change your lifestyle and keep it in control, but you can never get to the point where you can eat that large piece if cake and not have the sugar spike like crazy. The more I think, the more I realize that I do not want to be eating like I used to before I found out that I was a type 2 diabetic. Now that I know more, I would rather eat a...

Have been having a hard time coming up to write some information here to share with the other folks. Life has suddenly taken a turn for more busy, but I will start making time to make sure I start writing more information. There are lots of good ideas swimming in my head and just need to come in write them down.