Category Archives: Diabetes

Diabetes

Diabetic Depression

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By now, everyone’s heard about diabetes. This is a tough disease to deal with sometimes. There are some folks who think this is pretty easy to do; just change how you eat. Well, it turns out it’s not quite that easy to do permanently, and when you change up, sometimes bad things happen.

migrant mother, Dorthea Lange, for TFIF contest
susan via Compfight

At least I know about it. I was reading a story a couple of days ago where a basketball player on the Georgetown team was just diagnosed with it. He was having stomach problems and finally went to the doctor about it, and there you go. Now they’re saying he might miss some games; how bad can it be if he has to miss some games?

This kid is in great physical condition and got it; how the heck is someone like me, out of shape and on insulin, supposed to control it all of the time?

Well, I could, and I do well from time to time. I’ve written about my eating plans and when I can stick to them they do work. When I don’t, though, things can start messing up in different ways.

One thing I go through here and there is something called diabetic depression. I seem to get it when my glucose levels are high for at least a couple of weeks. I don’t always know it immediately when it’s coming on, but probably should know that if my glucose level is high for at least a week it’s time to go back to the drastic eating plan.

What does high mean? Though there are mandated highs or standards by the government, each person has their range where they feel good or bad. The U.S. has a standard between 80 and 120; I feel good between 110 and 150. When I start getting under 110, I feel like I’m borderline dizzy, and when it gets below 100, I’m no good at all. Hitting 44 after a walk one day, when I couldn’t even drive home, was probably my scariest moment. By the way, as Sire once mentioned here, other countries have different numbers they use, and I guess if they stay under a 4 they’re considered as doing well; I don’t fully get it, but I just wanted to be somewhat clear.

This obviously means anything over 150 is high, no matter how you look at it. If I’m around 170 or so, I don’t panic at all. But when my readings get around 200 and stay there, or higher for awhile, there’s trouble a-brewin’.

In the last two weeks, since that’s the average a glucose monitor will give you, I’ve been averaging 219; no, that’s not good. Three days ago I awoke to a reading of 320, and that was after being awake 2 hours without eating anything.

The day I wrote my post on possibly giving up blogging, it was 244 after a couple of hours; nope, not good. I’ve had only two readings under 200 in the past two weeks, and both were afternoon readings, not morning readings. I’ve come close to 300 a few times; that’s not good either.

I tend to get depressed. When I get depressed, I want to quit some things and overdo others. I’m a dessert hound; I admit that.

But it’s not just desserts that drives up the numbers. Carbs is the monster. I’ve had pizza a few times. My wife made spaghetti on Sunday and I had some, then had some on both Monday and Tuesday. I’ve eaten a lot of McDonald’s fish sandwiches over the last week or so; yeah, that commercial got to me. I’ve had cake, cookies, and hot chocolate also, and I can’t say in moderation either. Once the numbers get high, you stop caring, and you go hog wild.

Luckily, my life has always been about coming to grips with something at a certain moment and deciding it’s time to get back on the straight and narrow. My wife is out of town this weekend, yet I’m working hard on being good. I can’t claim perfection, because I acknowledge that I do need her help, but I’ve gained a little bit of control, and hopefully by the middle of next week I’ll be back into the 150’s or lower.

I was talking to a friend of mine Wednesday night at a networking event. He was telling me his mother was diabetic, and he never realized how hard it was to plan meals and try to stick to an eating plan.

I’m not going to say this is harder than giving up cigarettes, but it’s different. You stop smoking, at least you have other things you can go to that you enjoy. Sure, you might overeat for awhile, but you’ll get used to that. With diabetes, supposedly you can never go back to eating what you like, or at least how you like, and there’s nothing to replace it. Well, there’s poker, but when I play poker I don’t tend to eat, and my wife wouldn’t like that any better than me playing poker every day. She’s like that. lol

Just thought I’d share that, so if every once in awhile you see an odd post or two, you might have an idea of where it might be coming from. Doesn’t mean I might not be thinking about something here and there, but at that moment the thought process might be influenced by something else. And, just for clarification, not everyone gets depressed. There are so many different symptoms people will exhibit. I’m lucky that my vision hasn’t been affected this time around.
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Diabetes

World Diabetes Day 2009

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Today is World Diabetes Day, the day when diabetics and those who treat them hope to spread the word as to just how bad this thing is. It’s the fastest growing disease in the world, and it’s not just because people are eating badly, eating too much sugar, or overweight. Well, a part of it might be eating badly, but those aren’t the only reasons.

Since last year’s post on World Diabetes Day, when I told my story of how I learned I was diabetic, I have written a number of posts highlighting some of the issues diabetics have to deal with. Truthfully, when it comes to eating plans, it’s not about being diabetic so much as it is about starting to watch what you’re eating most of the time, and controlling your diet so you’ll feel healthier all around. In the three weeks since I went on my new eating plan, my glucose is way under control, with medication of course, and I’ve lost 5 pounds. Yeah, I’ve done some exercise, but not as much as you’d think I should be doing.

I wrote two other articles dealing with diabetes, although one of them might have applied to others who hadn’t thought much about it. That one was about sugar alcohols, and how many people have a resistance to them, and thus explains why they have problems eating many foods that say they’re sugar free. The other one was telling you about my worst day of the year as a diabetic, when it seemed like my world was ready to crash. Okay, that’s pretty dramatic, but suffice it to say it was a scary day.

So, what would I wish for on this day? The reality is that there are a lot of people walking around with diabetic symptoms who haven’t gone to get tested. Often, if you’re not paying attention to the signs, by the time you do get yourself checked out you might end up in the hospital for a few days. I have known way too many people who say they weren’t feeling well, or were having problems with their vision for weeks on end, then finally went to see a doctor, only to discover they glucose was in the 400’s or 500’s. One person I knew had his glucose at 679; it’s a wonder he was still walking around.

The higher numbers will get you admitted quickly, because at those levels you’re a walking time bomb. It could take a lot of work to get their glucose levels down to at least close to normal, where you can put someone on regular medication and start talking about changing one’s diet. I know there’s a lot of you reading this blog who aren’t feeling great, or might be a little bit overweight, or possibly even more. We, as I have to include myself in this one, are predisposed towards diabetes. It also ran in my family, which means I should have known better.

The wish, therefore, is to go get your blood tested for this. It’s a simple test, and most cities or communities every once in awhile have a blood glucose drive, where they’ll test it for you. It’s free, easy, and it’s better to know early than late. If you don’t have such a thing, go to your doctor and ask for the test. It’s inexpensive and fast, and at least you’ll know and can do something about it.


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Diabetes

Sugar Alcohol Problems

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Here’s a short story for you. As you know by an earlier tale, I’m diabetic, coming up on 12 years in September. It’s not always easy to know what to do if you’re diabetic, and I have to admit that I’m not the best diabetic in the world.

not healthy no matter what was in it 🙂

I have a sweet tooth, and these cravings are hard to overcome. There are times when I don’t even know I’ve left the house to get something sweet until I’ve started eating it. That may sound crazy to some, but it’s the truth. Every once in a while I get my mind in the right perspective just before I leave the house, and look to call someone to talk to, which usually helps me get past the craving. That’s the thing about a craving; if you can get past the time period when it’s really strong, then you won’t succumb to it… most of the time anyway.
Continue reading Sugar Alcohol Problems →

Diabetes

Some Diabetes Information

Unfortunately, I have to put diabetes at the top of my illness list. Actually, it’s the only thing on my illness list, so I guess I can be happy about that. However, I’m also now on insulin, and I’m nowhere close to happy about that.

5 ml

El Alvi via Compfight

Often, we get these diseases, and we get some information, but it’s never all the information we’re looking for, or need. So, I’m going to share a couple of things here, just in case you happen to have the same malady.

First, your glucose numbers can be affected by not getting enough sleep. Over my ten years, I’ve noticed that if I get little or no sleep, which happens often for me, my morning fasting number is going to be high. I learned that those with sleep apnea will have high numbers, and I have a little bit of that.

Second, there’s more than one type of insulin. I’ll admit that I’m not really sure why, but I do know that my first insulin, Levemir, had additives in it that gave me a rash. It also had this scent of bandages, of all the odd things, and I was told that was so you knew whether you’d injected yourself properly or not. I’m unsure of that one also, as I seemed to have that scent whether I did it right or not.

That’s number three. You can inject yourself incorrectly. I’ve made two mistakes to warn you of.

First, you have to try to make sure you push straight in, not at an angle.

Second, if you even slightly touch yourself with the needle, either change the needle or get ready for some pain. I don’t know why I do it, but every once in a while it’s like I’m doing a test puncture, will pull it out, then push it back in. The needles are very fine so they don’t hurt, per se, but that also means they’re delicate, so if you push a second time, they’ve already been damaged.

Number four, there are many places one can inject themselves. For some of them, my mind is trying to think of how you could still do it and inject yourself (like the arms and back), which of course means you’d have to have help; that’s not happening with me. Others may be fine, but it turns out there’s a reason for knowing this.

I developed a rash from the Levemir, so I was changed to something called Lantus. No additives, no scent. However, my rash never went away, so I first talked to my nurse educator, who recommended I try another area.

Then I did some research online, especially on the Lantus, and there I learned that they recommend that you not inject in specifically the same area for a couple of days. For instance, one recommendation as it concerns the stomach is to view it as a clock and rotate around it, so that it gives the injected areas time to heal.

Same with the legs and arms if you go that route. I know now that’s where I made my mistake, as I picked pretty much two areas and kept injecting only in those places. Now I’m going to set up a routine where I move it around to at least six different spots, to help me overcome some of the swelling and lumps I’ve got now.

There you go. I may drop more hints as to what’s going on with me as time goes, or just general information as I learn it. After all, we need to try to make sure we share information as possible, right?

UPDATE!!! As of the beginning of 2013 I started using Novolin 70/30, which I purchase from Walmart. They call it Relion, and it’s only $24.95 per vial, which is a great price when compared to all other insulin, and in many cases costs less than what you might have to pay even if you have insurance.