Living with Diabetes

I have a big cold. My nostrils are fully stuffed and I am unable to breathe. I hate the inability to get a good nights sleep with continuous draining down the throat. Also do not like the body aches that accompany a cold like this. And not to mention the high sugar numbers. I am thinking about taking some Glyburide to help ride it out.

So this is the first Monday of the year and I come into office all sure that I have started off the year with my resolution to loose weight. And what do I want into, a temptation island. There is leftover goodies from all people. It is hard to walk around the office without running into someone or the other offering candies etc. So I stop to walk and sit in my room with the door closed. Then I printed something and walked over to the printer and BAM there are goodies next to the printer. Everyone seems to be wanting to get rid of their own temptations and what better way than to offer it to the rest of the world.... I am clinging on the last threads of internal strength.

Well 2009 is here. It is time to take a look at what happened last year and what is coming up for the New Year. Last year was interesting, I started on more medication and got a much better control on the A1C. But I also discovered eye damage starting the in the eyes and discovered that I need to add some more testosterone into my system. My muscular strength increased, but my eight went up too. I was happier but discovered that my whole disposition towards being negative is hampering everything in my life. I have simple desires from the coming year. First, I want to loose atleast 10 lbs in the year. I am starting the year at 184.6 lbs. I will need to be careful of what I eat and exercise more regularly. Second, I want to be happier. Now this falls into my desire to be more positive in life. Not sure what all I need to do, but I am making an effort. I wake up and tell myself - "I choose to be happy." A simple statement, but it lets me know that being happy is my choice., Nobo...

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.

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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....

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.

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...

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...

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...

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

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.....