Diabetes
Gman
learned that she was a serious diabetic. Although I had religiously "Walked
For The Cure" every year for as long as I can remember, I really didn't know
too much about the condition until then. Almost immediately, I went to work
researching all I could about it to put me in a better position to help her
if she experienced any complications.
For anyone reading this who is diabetic or lives with someone who is, you
already know that I have had to use that knowledge on numerous occasions.
There's times when she woke up in the middle of the night shaking
uncontrollably because her blood sugar level had dropped too much while she
slept. Other times, she'd forget to take a shot and her BSL would shoot up
far too high. She has even passed out on me in mid sentence a couple of
times. Scary stuff, but I was prepared and I knew exactly what to do in
each case to get her back to a more normal BSL in a hurry. As this thread
progresses, we can discuss various methods for doing just that for yourself
or the ones you love.
Then, about 2 years ago, I developed what I thought was a boil on my bum.
Like any other moron, I figured it would eventually burst, the pressure
would be gone and the pain would go away. Healing the burst wouldn't be a
problem as I have always been a radically fast healer. Well, this little
anomaly grew larger and more painful every day over the next two weeks until
I just couldn't take it anymore. I reluctantly agreed to go to the hospital
and have it checked out. They told me that it wasn't the type that would
burst and that it would only continue to worsen. The only fix would be to
go in there and lance the thing. I agreed. When all was said and done,
they told me to follow up with my own doc to make sure it was healing
properly. When I went in to see him, his nurse wanted to test my BSL. I
told her I didn't need that because I'm not diabetic. She replied that the
doc had requested it. Well, to humor him I said "Whatever' and let her do
it. The result was a BSL of 384, which is extremely high. I don't know if
the same scale is used worldwide, but a 'normal' BSL here is in the 90-120
range. Aparenlty, a bum boil that won't pop is a strong sign of extended
time spent with a high BSL. Even with all of the research I had done, I had
no idea.
Although a part of me immediately leaped into a denial stage, the rest of me
was almost as quick to shove that part into a corner of my mind and get to
work dealing with these high numbers that had been literally 'kicking my
a**'. If I hadn't already been caring for a serious diabetic for years, I
may not have been so quick to pull myself together and deal with it in my
own body.
With renewed vigor (and a strong goal of eventually returning to an insulin
free life), I have learned a great deal more about the condition since then.
My reasons for sharing all of this with you are plenty.
First of all, one or more of you may be dealing with it without the help of
a partner. That can make it tough, but I believe I can help you in several
important ways. If you'd like this help, just ask some questions and we'll
get right to it.
Secondly, you (or someone you love) may be stuck in that denial stage and
are not properly taking care of yourself. The biggest reason why someone
might do that is a feeling of being overwhelmed by it all. Again, I believe
I can help. Developing the condition myself has made me realize that I
didn't dig deep enough into my initial research. I suppose I didn't take
the quest personally enough to ask more questions than I had. Well, that's
been fixed. I now have a VERY clear picture of what the whole thing is
about and how certain actions and inactions contribute to better or worse
health for diabetics. Of course, I can't help anyone who doesn't want help.
But if you're in a situation where you feel paralyzed because you simply
don't know what to do or how to approach any aspect of this condition, ask
some questions and we'll get right to it. I'll even toss in a bunch of
awesome recipes if you're good. :0D
I remember hearing a long time ago on a commercial something like "Diabetes
doesn't have to be a life changing thing" and on another one "You can live a
perfectly normal life with Diabetes". Since I wasn't a diabetic at the time
and I only 'knew of' one person who was (plus, I wasn't even a teen yet),
those words really didn't mean anything to me. Well, they certainly do,
now. I also know that they are very close to, but not completely the truth.
If I had been the one writing those commercials, I would state that the
changes to a diabetic's lifestyle can be dramatically minimized (even to the
point of being 'normal'), but only if they accept that they have the
condition and that it can never get any better until that do something to
fix it. I'm not a doctor (although I play one on TV), but I can give you
many of the right questions to take to yours.
Just ask some questions and we'll get right to it. :O)
Peace,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
Maya
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
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Gman
You've been 'lurking' long enough where you should know by now that we
absolutely LOVE our lurkers. We just don't get that many chances to bring
it up and tell you. ;0)
It sounds to me like you have quite a bit of experience with the condition.
You may or may not have noticed that I do not refer to it as a disease,
although it really is when using the old definition of the word (dis-ease =
a lack of ease in the body). I have come to view dibetes as a condition
primarily because it's brought on by what we injest much more than the
'health experts' would have us believe. Basically, our food supply has been
slowly poisoned over the past several decades with all of the preservatives,
artificial everything and the processing that removes so much of what we
evolved on. Any type of heating kills off beneficial bacterium and enzymes
that are helpful to us in so many ways and the result is that I have also
come to see most processed foods as "non-foods". One simple rule of thumb
is that if it no longer resembles how it looked in nature, it's most likely
not that good for us. Food suppliers have gone this route partially because
it's much more profitable to charge us extra for 'preparing' our food (just
pop it in the microwave!) but there's other things at work here, too.
Pasteurization is the process of heating liquids for the purpose of
destroying bacteria, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. While that sounds good on
paper, it also allows farmers to milk sickly cows and sell off the tainted
milk without it showing up in the finished product. Of course, cow's milk
was specifically designed for cows by momma nature, but it used to be highly
beneficial for us to drink as well. If you're old enough, you might
remember fighting with brothers &/or sisters over who was going to get the
cream that rose to the top when fresh milk was delivered. There is no cream
anymore because it's been removed, along with most of the other benefits
milk used to provide. These days, the Dairy Association pushes the idea
that the calcium content alone is enough reason why everyone should be
drinking tons of the stuff, but that's mainly because the rest of the good
stuff is no longer 'allowed' to be in there. So, milk has become just one
more bland, generic foodstuff that's been heavily modified by a food
industry interested more in their own profits than in our health. Calcium
USED to be in a lot of the stuff we ate, but back then, we were eating much
more natural foods prepared at home mostly by moms (and some dads) who took
great pride in their abilities in the kitchen. How many younger 'cooks'
does anyone know who can do much more than whip up an omelet? It's sad and
I could go on for volumes about the rest of the food industry, but I've
hopefully made my point with this one example/rant.
Simply put, we no longer live in a world that allows for a healthy diet
without actually "dieting" (and I absolutely HATE that word). That means
it's up to us to be intelligent enough to realize that it's on us. That WE
have to be the ones to pick and choose what we put in our bodies (you are
what you eat?) and that most of our results will be based on those choices.
If you really look at the true statistics and not what the powers that be
have been able to hide from us, you'll see that there is now a much higher
percentage of diabetics than at any other point in history, and the numbers
just keep growing. I don't need a fancy blood test to tell anyone that they
are at risk of becoming one themselves given enough time. All I need to do
is take a quick peek in their pantry & fridge. If you see a lot of frozen,
quick meals, you're looking at serious risk. Filling up with soda pop, ice
cream, etc. that's made with High Fructose Corn Syrup also make a person a
high risk. Unfortunately, you'll find that garbage in almost everything,
including bread! Again, HFCS has become the entire industry's answer to
real sugar because it's so much cheaper to make. I should mention here that
the HFCS problem only exists in the US. From what I understand, most other
countries have banned the substance. Check a bottle of Pepsi in the US and
you'll see it's one of the top ingredients. Check a bottle in another
country and you'll see Sugar instead. So much for the US goernment
protecting its citizens, huh?
But, I digress (and need to learn to restrict my rants better lol).
Let's get to your specific questions and get me off of the poisoned food
topic that does just a bit more than infuriate me when I think about it.
A boil is not always a sign of anything other than a small problem under the
skin. If it pops, it's usually nothing more than a simple boil. To truly
know for sure whether it's related to a BSL issue, get ahold of a BSL meter
and test him. It's just a tiny, almost painless prick of a finger and the
resulting single drop of blood is placed on a testing strip that has already
been inserted into the meter. It only takes about a half minute to get a
readout of the BSL that can then be compared to what is considered normal.
My first testing after my lancing was considered VERY high, but Babydoll has
hit much higher numbers due to forgotten shots, so I don't feel quite so
bad. In the US, the normal range is between about 90-120. Other countries
may use a completely different scale, so those numbers may not be of much
use if you live elsewhere.
**************************
Taken from http://tinyurl.com/ymjjbw
A1C (or Hb A1c) is a measure of how much glucose is stuck to your
hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein inside your red blood cells. It is the
part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest
of your body. Hemoglobin also carries glucose, because glucose can stick to
all kinds of proteins in your body. Once glucose sticks to hemoglobin, it is
stuck there for the life of the red blood cell, about three or four months.
The more glucose there is in your blood, the more will end up stuck to the
hemoglobin. Your A1C reading tells you what your average blood glucose
level has been over the last two or three months. If you have lots of
glucose in your blood and your average blood glucose has been high for the
past few months, then your A1C will be high.
**************************
If your hubby's numbers are just a little elevated, there's no need for him
to immediately think of it as diabetic or even pre-diabetic. It usually
just means he hasn't been eating properly and he has more glucose in him
than his system should be made to handle. Cut back on the junk food a bit
and, given a couple of months, they might come back down to normal. An
increase in the amount of exercise (even just simply walking more) will
lower BS levels. If overweight, shedding some of the excess will go a LONG
way towards dropping those numbers back down and has a slew of additional
benefits. Instead of thinking "Diet", try substituting water instead of
soda more often and some of those extra inches will melt away without any
other help. In addition to any or all of those ideas, make a chef's salad
(together, if possible) once in a while to go with dinner. Include romaine
lettuce, sliced red onion, broccoli, hard boiled eggs, Cauliflower, apple
slices, celery, bell peppers, roasted chicken strips, mushrooms, fresh
spinach, chunks of ham &/or crabmeat, scallions, shrimp, etc.. Top it off
with some low-carb dressing that doesn't contain any HFCS. As long as the
greens are plentiful, it will do several things for the both of you. First,
it'll supply you with more anti-oxidants than you can get with nearly any
processed foods and those will help reduce free radicals throughout your
body. Secondly, the fiber within the greens will help to clean out the
intestines and colon, which will go a long way towards helping both of you
feel better, even if you don't feel so bad now. It's also nice to actually
make something together once in a while and salads are simple enough to
provide you with that closeness while cleaning and chopping up the
ingredients you choose to include. Babydoll and I make one HECK of a salad
together. lol
Your daughter's situation sounds much more serious since she's showing more
denial than willingness to take care of herself. I was unable to get a feel
for how old she in now from your post, so I don't have any way of guessing
just how set in her ways she might be at this point. About all I can
suggest there is to remind her that ignoring diabetes is a bit like ignoring
your teeth. After a while, they'll go away. Unlike teeth, however, it'll
take her with it and you love her too much to let her kill herself without
you putting up a fight. Just within this last decade, with the introduction
of MUCH better time release insulins (taken only once a day now) to
compliment MUCH better fast acting insulins (taken just before eating), it
has become FAR too easy to get and keep BS levels under very good control.
For those with really good insurance or financial independence, they even
have a combination meter/pump that is carried like a cell phone that
delivers very small doses of both types throughout the day & night and
eliminates the need for multiple daily injections. There is a simple dial
on the side for controlling the amount.
I have a lot more to share on the topic, but I'm trying to limit my rants.
So, I'll stop there for now and hope for some more questions to give me
direction for the next one. ;0}
Peace,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
Maya
All who wander are not lost.
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Gman
As it is with all changes, take things slowly. One step at a time is
the only way to get to any destintion and that includes reviewing one's own
eating habits. The main thing to remember are the two famous sayings "Your
body is a temple" and "You are what you eat". If you can keep them in the
back of your mind, you'll naturally start looking at labels more often and
questioning some of the more unpronouncable things food makers put into the
stuff they sell. In fact, you might get a kick out of hearing how it takes
Babydoll and myself about four hours to get through food shopping since we
view it as an adventure in label reading, just looking for new things to try
that aren't bad for us (we always do the food shopping together). We have
come to view it as a healthy way to get exercise, while looking for healthy
things to munch. lol
As for the bagged cole slaw, you'll have to read the ingredients to see
if there's anything bad in it. Cole Slaw is primarily shredded cabbage,
which is VERY good for you. Since it's bagged, I can only imagine that
there's no mayo or other dressing included, so that's a plus since you get
to use your own, more healthy concoction (better yet, make your own!). The
only thing that I can think of that might be bad would be any preservatives
used to keep it 'looking' fresh. Personally, I don't want any preservatives
in me until I'm dead. But again, ANY step towards healthier living is a
great one and cole slaw, even with preservatives, is better than most other
things that people put into their bodies.
Another pointer I can give you is that many of the so called 'generic'
brands of foods have better ingredients in them than the national brands. A
perfect (and related) example would be salad dressing. I've found that
Kraft, Ken's, etc. all tend to use HFCS, but the store brands use real
sugar. Diabetics have a MUCH easier time handling the real thing than the
processed syrups like fructose, sucrose & glucose.
As for your hubby's BS meter, let me know when he has the new one and
I'll toss him some thoughts on making that whole process easier to handle.
There really isn't much to keeping track of, and then adjusting, blood sugar
levels if you have a workable plan to follow. Since I've been on BOTH sides
of the meter for years, I've had plenty of time to develop such a plan and
I'm more than happy to share it if it can help ease the anxiety that
sometimes accompanies the topic. :O)
Finally, when Babydoll and I bought the mobile home we currently live in
(situated on private land), we knew we would have to redo some things. Our
initial thought was that we wanted to rip out the old paneling that covered
nearly ALL of the walls because they were old and brittle. Our fear was
that if there was a fire, the entire place would go up like a tinderbox.
So, we started tearing it down at one end of our new home (master bedroom
w/bath) only to discover that the studs behind them were not up to par.
Some walls used odd sizes (2X3, 2X2, 2X6) and many of the boards were too
warped to properly support new drywall. So, I decided to replace a lot of
the studding as we went along. Much to my chagrin, I broke down and removed
the first wall and discovered that the sub-flooring had been installed AFTER
the existing walls were put in place. So, when I removed the wall, I had a
4 1/2 inch gap that allowed me to peer down into the crawlspace below. I
ended up basically rebuilding the entire room except for the rafters. I
took the opportunity to also redo the electrical wiring and add in other
types of built-in wiring for coax (cable or satellite TV), ethernet
(computer networking) & phone (uh, you know. lol). So far, we have done
this for those two rooms plus the entryway, living room, dining room, a
special 6X9 foot room for the kitties, the main hallway and the kitchen. We
stopped there because redoing the kitchen pretty much wiped us out both
financially and mentally. We started the kitchen in April of that year and
didn't get to use it again until sometime in September. That entire time,
we did all of our cooking on the grill outside, regardless of weather. We
both got SO sick of BBQing that we vowed to not even touch it the following
year. LOL
I sure hope you kids can get through the renovations faster than we did.
In the meantime, you can always use the broken kitchen as a perfect excuse
for eating more salads. ;0}
Here's to your health,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Maya" <may...@comcast.net>
To: <pctab...@googlegroups.com>
Maya
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.
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Gman
First of all, thank you SOOO much for keeping things separated with new
subject lines. :O)
I'm really glad to hear that this is the last of the major stuff that
needs to be done. We have lots of cats, so I've pretty much done the same
thing with my flooring. The master bedroom and bath both have sheet vinyl
(often mistakenly called linoleum) to make them easy to clean, but the rest
of the place is laminate. The only exception is the computer/bird room,
which has carpet but the kitties aren't allowed in here. lol
Peace,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Maya" <may...@comcast.net>
To: <pctab...@googlegroups.com>