Today's topic was to discuss what I would do should there be a cure.
My first response, I confess, was silly. Find a good Italian restaurant. Order angel hair pasta with olive oil, garlic, and good parmesan. Tell 'em to keep it coming until I cried "Uncle!".
But then I thought more about it.
If I could take a pill....
If I could take a pill that would not only make my insulin resistance go away but undo any damage that has been done to my pancreas....
If, further, this wonderful little pill also magically cured the whole cluster of maladies that like to hang out with Type 2, such as high cholesterol, hypertension, sleep apnea, and depression....
If all these things were true, if all these symptoms went away....
Wow. What would it be like?
What it would be like to not worry every time I eat, every time I fail to exercise, every time I forget my meds, if I've just made the "last straw" mistake that will doom my pancreas, my feet, my kidneys, my heart, my ability to recognize my friends, or my ability to face the day?
That would be a new day, indeed. And I'm unable to imagine what it would be like.
Showing posts with label Diabetes blog week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diabetes blog week. Show all posts
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Diabetes Blog Week: Saturday -- Picture This
I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about what word I would use for the "Word in the Hand" project done over at Tudiabetes.org. About a month ago, I came up with my word, and thought I would share it with you today.
My word is "waiting", and it seems to me to be a good word for my stage of Type 2 diabetes, at least as seen through my personality. Right now, my health is okay. My fasting BGs are normally pretty good, and beyond feet that sometimes tingle, no signs of any complications. (As far as that goes, my circulation could be iffy for completely non-diabetes-related reasons. )
But, how long is that going to last? I'm waiting for something to go wrong: a significant decrease in pancreatic function requiring more aggressive treatment, the onset of complications, maybe even a cardiovascular event.
Yes, I know: I should be optimistically and with self-empowerment and faith making those changes that might well help me prevent or long delay any of those things. Yet one more healthy habit I don't seem able to pull off.
You can also see photos relevant to my diabetes life in this post and in this post.
My word is "waiting", and it seems to me to be a good word for my stage of Type 2 diabetes, at least as seen through my personality. Right now, my health is okay. My fasting BGs are normally pretty good, and beyond feet that sometimes tingle, no signs of any complications. (As far as that goes, my circulation could be iffy for completely non-diabetes-related reasons. )
But, how long is that going to last? I'm waiting for something to go wrong: a significant decrease in pancreatic function requiring more aggressive treatment, the onset of complications, maybe even a cardiovascular event.
Yes, I know: I should be optimistically and with self-empowerment and faith making those changes that might well help me prevent or long delay any of those things. Yet one more healthy habit I don't seem able to pull off.
You can also see photos relevant to my diabetes life in this post and in this post.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Diabetes Blog Week: Friday - The E Word
Exercise. It's important. I know it is.
When I exercise regularly, my fasting numbers are lower and my post-meal numbers don't appear to go as high and come down faster.
Exercise is good for, well, everything.
I saw a headline on a podcast the other day (I haven't listened to it, yet) about how exercise may help prevent Alzheimer's disease. My dad has Alzheimer's disease.
I walk to and from work essentially every weekday. That forms a basis of about 25 minutes a day of moderate walking.
But more than that? Well, crud.
When I exercise regularly, my fasting numbers are lower and my post-meal numbers don't appear to go as high and come down faster.
Exercise is good for, well, everything.
I saw a headline on a podcast the other day (I haven't listened to it, yet) about how exercise may help prevent Alzheimer's disease. My dad has Alzheimer's disease.
I walk to and from work essentially every weekday. That forms a basis of about 25 minutes a day of moderate walking.
But more than that? Well, crud.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Diabetes Blog Week: Thursday - The F Word
The "F-word". Food.
Most folks with diabetes have complicated relationships with food. Not only am I not an exception, I might be the poster child
At some point, I should try blogging about all the various ways I manage to screw up my food life, but I'm really not up to that.
So, here's what I TRY to do about food, without answering the touchy question of how often I pull it off.
Because I'm obese in addition to being diabetic, and because my risk of heart disease is huge, I try to eat reasonably low carb and reasonably low fat. In practical terms, this means trying to focus on the veggies with enough protein and starch to make it to the next meal without discomfort.
Breakfast these days is half a cup of All-Bran with cinnamon, Splenda, skim milk, and sometimes flax meal. (The cinnamon really helps the flavor.) I eat this out of a dixie cup both so that I don't have a bowl to wash and so that half a cup of cereal doesn't seem really small. Supplemented with a string cheese, this gets me through to lunch.
On a good day, I take my lunch. This will be some kind of vegetable entree (like the ratatouille stew I invented) with some chicken breast or something to fill it out. The carb will be a sandwich thin, some brown rice, or a "variety grain" like quinoa or barley. Sometimes I have a salad bar instead of the above, but I can't eat lettuce salad too often without risk of crankiness.
Supper (as I was raised to call the evening meal unless it's an event) is similar in concept to lunch except that the portions are larger.
That's the goal, anyway.
Most folks with diabetes have complicated relationships with food. Not only am I not an exception, I might be the poster child
At some point, I should try blogging about all the various ways I manage to screw up my food life, but I'm really not up to that.
So, here's what I TRY to do about food, without answering the touchy question of how often I pull it off.
Because I'm obese in addition to being diabetic, and because my risk of heart disease is huge, I try to eat reasonably low carb and reasonably low fat. In practical terms, this means trying to focus on the veggies with enough protein and starch to make it to the next meal without discomfort.
Breakfast these days is half a cup of All-Bran with cinnamon, Splenda, skim milk, and sometimes flax meal. (The cinnamon really helps the flavor.) I eat this out of a dixie cup both so that I don't have a bowl to wash and so that half a cup of cereal doesn't seem really small. Supplemented with a string cheese, this gets me through to lunch.
On a good day, I take my lunch. This will be some kind of vegetable entree (like the ratatouille stew I invented) with some chicken breast or something to fill it out. The carb will be a sandwich thin, some brown rice, or a "variety grain" like quinoa or barley. Sometimes I have a salad bar instead of the above, but I can't eat lettuce salad too often without risk of crankiness.
Supper (as I was raised to call the evening meal unless it's an event) is similar in concept to lunch except that the portions are larger.
That's the goal, anyway.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Diabetes Blog Week: Monday - My Type Two Day
(This is a lightly edited version of a post that first appeared 1/10/10.)
Here is what I do (or should do) about my T-2 diabetes on a daily basis. I'll try to be pretty honest about what I actually manage to accomplish and what I don't.
Note: take NONE of this as advice. My sole goal here is to give a picture of what I do (or try to do). Go forth, and discover what works for you.
1. Medication
It took me a long time to figure out how to be regular with my meds. I now have one large 7-day pill sorter for morning pills and another for evening pills. (I'd be a little better off by doing one for dinner time as well, since a couple of my bedtime pills would be better at that time, but I haven't implemented this yet.) Using the pill sorters means I only have to think about the pills once a week. This is a Good Thing.
I currently take prescription meds for diabetes, for blood pressure, for cholesterol, for glaucoma (not diabetes related), and for one or two other things. I also take a number of over-the counter supplements which have been credibly (to my satisfaction, anyway) recommended at one time or another.
2. Testing
Most Type 2s seem to be told to test once a day in the morning before eating. That number is used as sort of the baseline for how your diabetes life is going. I work at not letting myself be too up or down about a given day's number (unless it's way out of whack) but to watch the trend, expressed as "about how I've been running." I think it's safe to say that I do this more often than not, but I go in spells of not testing several days in a row.
When I'm being conscientious, I test once or twice more during the day. I don't have a set pattern for this: sometimes I'm checking on the effects of a particular food, if I've come down satisfactorily after a meal, etc. If I feel weird physically or emotionally, I sometimes test to see if there's a blood sugar relationship. (Usually, for me, there isn't.)
I'm not very good at all about testing my blood pressure, which I should also be doing on occasion.
3. Food
Oh, boy, is there conflicting advice about optimal eating plans. I try, when I'm doing well, to eat reasonably low carb AND reasonably low fat. Eating this way, with exercise, helps me to lose weight. But I'm not very good at it. It's easy for me to feel discouraged about this area, but I have made progress in terms of laying off many of my worst choices or indulging only occasionally.
One thing that works very well when I do it is to plan a few days at a time, then hit the grocery store. My basic approach for each meal is to plan for some veggies and/or fruit, a modest amount of carbs, and a lean protein source. I try to lean in the direction of whole grain stuff for the carbs. (In particular, I find that I do well on brown rice, while white rice is a spike food for me.)
4. Exercise
I'm off-and-on here. The exercise I most enjoy doing is walking, but iffy weather and tiny injuries don't always allow for this. I'm experimenting with other things. I recently got a Wii Fit, but am inconsistent. Exercise videos tend to leave me feeling fat and clumsy.
I will tell you this: when I am exercising regularly, the effect on insulin resistance is very marked. I not only see it in my morning numbers but think I have a much faster return to "normal" BG after eating.
That's my Type 2 Diabetes day. (Sometimes.)
Here is what I do (or should do) about my T-2 diabetes on a daily basis. I'll try to be pretty honest about what I actually manage to accomplish and what I don't.
Note: take NONE of this as advice. My sole goal here is to give a picture of what I do (or try to do). Go forth, and discover what works for you.
1. Medication
It took me a long time to figure out how to be regular with my meds. I now have one large 7-day pill sorter for morning pills and another for evening pills. (I'd be a little better off by doing one for dinner time as well, since a couple of my bedtime pills would be better at that time, but I haven't implemented this yet.) Using the pill sorters means I only have to think about the pills once a week. This is a Good Thing.
I currently take prescription meds for diabetes, for blood pressure, for cholesterol, for glaucoma (not diabetes related), and for one or two other things. I also take a number of over-the counter supplements which have been credibly (to my satisfaction, anyway) recommended at one time or another.
2. Testing
Most Type 2s seem to be told to test once a day in the morning before eating. That number is used as sort of the baseline for how your diabetes life is going. I work at not letting myself be too up or down about a given day's number (unless it's way out of whack) but to watch the trend, expressed as "about how I've been running." I think it's safe to say that I do this more often than not, but I go in spells of not testing several days in a row.
When I'm being conscientious, I test once or twice more during the day. I don't have a set pattern for this: sometimes I'm checking on the effects of a particular food, if I've come down satisfactorily after a meal, etc. If I feel weird physically or emotionally, I sometimes test to see if there's a blood sugar relationship. (Usually, for me, there isn't.)
I'm not very good at all about testing my blood pressure, which I should also be doing on occasion.
3. Food
Oh, boy, is there conflicting advice about optimal eating plans. I try, when I'm doing well, to eat reasonably low carb AND reasonably low fat. Eating this way, with exercise, helps me to lose weight. But I'm not very good at it. It's easy for me to feel discouraged about this area, but I have made progress in terms of laying off many of my worst choices or indulging only occasionally.
One thing that works very well when I do it is to plan a few days at a time, then hit the grocery store. My basic approach for each meal is to plan for some veggies and/or fruit, a modest amount of carbs, and a lean protein source. I try to lean in the direction of whole grain stuff for the carbs. (In particular, I find that I do well on brown rice, while white rice is a spike food for me.)
4. Exercise
I'm off-and-on here. The exercise I most enjoy doing is walking, but iffy weather and tiny injuries don't always allow for this. I'm experimenting with other things. I recently got a Wii Fit, but am inconsistent. Exercise videos tend to leave me feeling fat and clumsy.
I will tell you this: when I am exercising regularly, the effect on insulin resistance is very marked. I not only see it in my morning numbers but think I have a much faster return to "normal" BG after eating.
That's my Type 2 Diabetes day. (Sometimes.)
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