The Diabetic DISers thread. Support and Info Here.

[Zippa D Doodah]

Hi Muffy, the meds are kicking in... I had a snack at 10:30 (low fat cottage cheese and celery sticks) at 11:30 my number was 111

That is the lowest # I have seen, until now 160 was the lowest.

I am feeling a little icky though, upset stomach and little yucky.

WTG, Cass! About the tummy issues, hang in there. I think most of us that are able to use metformin have a "get acquainted" spell with it.

Participating in this thread had motivated me to increase my exercising. I walked 4.5 miles this morning instead of the usual 3. That's gonna help my numbers for sure. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. My fasting # was 99.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Anyone have any tips on how to control stress, or how to not let stress send your numbers through the roof?

Prayer is one of my outlets.
Everyone's life is different of course so this may not apply to your DH, but one of the best thing I did for myself was to learn to say "no" to various and sundry things in life people desired or even expected of me. It was hard at first, but I began to realize that even if I said "no" to X,Y, and Z the sun still came up the next morning! People still liked me, my kids still thought I was a good Dad, DW still loved me, and my cat still laid in my lap. That unloaded a lot of stress in my life. I am blessed by having as uncluttered a life as I choose to have, KWIM?

 

[LittleDino]

My DH is T2 but also on insulin...

Anyone have any tips on how to control stress, or how to not let stress send your numbers through the roof?

Take a vacation.

Actually, stress gets to me too! I have panic attacks and those certainly don't help.

I'm currently reading a book called "The Mind-Body Diabetes Revolution: A Proven New Program for Better Blood Sugar Control" by Dr. Richard S. Surwit. He gives relaxation techniques to help reduce stress which he has proven to help control blood sugar levels. I'm a Type 1 diabetic... and this book is geared more towards those with Type 2 (but it's written for both types). Obviously the techniques described in this book are to be used IN ADDITION to your medication, exercise routine and diet... don't simply believe that reducing your stress will allow you to eliminate your other means of controlling diabetes.

When I finish the book, I'll post my review and see if his techniques seemed to help or not.

PS - Disney Kid at Heart - thanks for the kind words! Try not to worry about your twin sons too much... it's better to encourage them than worry about them. But I know that's hard.

 

[poohluvrs]

Something healthy without added sugar would be great. How about string cheese (or 2% cheddar) and fresh fruit? Or carrot/celery sticks and ranch dip? Peanut butter on a few whole grain crackers?

Thanks! I picked these up, healthy & yummy too!

 

[Micca]

This is a nice little support group here. I'm afraid you can add me to the list of those recently diagnosed. I've improved my diet, get a lot more excercise than I did for years, and with one Avandamet per day, my numbers are decent. This morning doc said my A1C is my biggest problem as my sugar numbers aren't too bad(not great, but not thru the roof either). When diagnosed in January my A1C was at 11 3 months ago it dropped to 8, and I'll find out Friday how todays tests went. Y'all hang in there and check in from time to time.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

I am glad to see this thread!! I know I wasn't on here over the weekend, but I don't know how I missed it last week.

DS6 (he'll be 7 in June) was diagnosed w/ T1 last August. Complete surprise to us!!

We are having problems w/ finding a good endo. doctor. There are only 4 here that see children and only 2 more in the whole area. Ours doctors office is extremely busy, you can't ever get appointments, the doctor stays about 5 minutes (MAX) and is walking out the door as we are still talking to them. They were supposed to be checking about getting the pump for DS and we have heard nothing. The nurse's take forever to return your calls. (Well they don't anymore since I called and showed myself when DS was sick and I couldn't get anyone to answer any questions for me.) He has an appointment next week and is seeing the PA. I like her much better b/c she will take time w/ you and talk to you. I have heard about a doctor located about 2 hours away who comes here 1 or 2 times a month. He is supposed to have 2 really good PA's who take his calls and all that. I have seriously considered talking w/ him. It couldn't be much worse than what we have now. I think these doctors are very good, they are just to big for the number of doctors.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

This is a nice little support group here. I'm afraid you can add me to the list of those recently diagnosed. I've improved my diet, get a lot more excercise than I did for years, and with one Avandamet per day, my numbers are decent. This morning doc said my A1C is my biggest problem as my sugar numbers aren't too bad(not great, but not thru the roof either). When diagnosed in January my A1C was at 11 3 months ago it dropped to 8, and I'll find out Friday how todays tests went. Y'all hang in there and check in from time to time.

Micca, I'm glad you are with us but sorry you have to join us. I get the sense that many here are like me, trying to figure out how we're going to live with this thing for a long, long lifetime. Good luck on bringing your A1C down. Here is a chart that shows the correlation between A1C and glucose(sugar) levels. http://www.geocities.com/diabeteschart/bloodsugarchart.html

 

[Mrs.Milo]

I am testing 2 times daily, fasting in the morning, and 2 hours after dinner, no meds. I have been told to test at exactly 2 hours after the last bite, that blood sugar starts to rise from a meal, and at 2 hours after that BS numbers start to fall. If your numbers are high, try low carb foods: Eggs, cheese, nuts, fish. Fish is the best for low numbers; 2 hours after a fish meal I am usually high-90's. I was also advised by someone who had gestational diabetes that to try to control blood sugar without meds, I need to keep my protein to carbs ratio to 80 per cent protein to 20 per cent carbs. And for me, starch is worse than sugar, so no potato or corn or rice or cereal. A couple years ago (?) maybe, I read a thread Native Texan had posted on the wish board. Her husband was diabetic, and I believe he went on Atkins, but not thinking it would work. But it worked great for him, all his numbers improved, BS, cholesterol, triglycerides. Some days I know why my numbers are where they are, some days I don't, it seems it's a work in progress, and exercise does help a bunch.

 

[Cass]

WTG, Cass!

Thanks! my numbers are much better now, not normal, but better than before

At bedtime I was 122 and upon waking I was 145. I was taking the pill with breakfast (6:30) and at dinner (6:30) I think I'm going to make it more like 8:00am and 8pm so there is still meds in my system when I wake up.

and I did my cardio

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

And for me, starch is worse than sugar, so no potato or corn or rice or cereal.

That's the case with me too. While I will eat small portions of corn, even a small serving of potatoes can mess me up. Rice? fuggetaboutit

 

[LittleDino]

We are having problems w/ finding a good endo. doctor...

I know exactly what you mean! I saw an endo for 4 years... and he would tell me to schedule an appointment every 3 months with him. Well.. when I'd get up to the reception desk I'd be told that the next available appt was 8 months away! I'd take it... however, I didn't like having appointments so spread apart. I gave up on the Endo... he was great, but I just couldn't see him often enough because he had too many patients. I started seeing a Dr of Internal Medicine and he is able to check my A1c levels, adjust my insulin rates, and even approve of insulin pump upgrades. Plus, I get to see him every 3 months (and in between if needed.) I'm much happier with this Dr.

Good luck in your search of a good Dr! Sorry to hear about your son. It is a shock, especially when Type 1 Diabetes seems to appear out of nowhere (no family history.)

 

[Lisa D]

welovedisneyx4,[B, it sounds like you have a similar situation as we do. We thought our Endo's office was checking on the pump for my son, meanwhile, they were doing nothing! I finally called our insurance company and looked into several pumps on my own. We had a pump within the month, and my son has been on it for about 6 weeks.

Our Endo is really hard to get into see too. Luckily, he works in conjunction with a Nurse Practitioner who is always only a phone call away. We feel very lucky to have her.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

Sorry to hear about your son. It is a shock, especially when Type 1 Diabetes seems to appear out of nowhere (no family history.)

Thank you, it certainly was a shock!

Lisa D, how does your DS like the pump?

 

[Lisa D]

He seems to like the pump alot more than giving shots. It does get in the way in gym class, although there are three (!) other kids with the pump in his class.

Sometimes the carb counting is hard when he has a meal like pasta where you're relatively guessing exactly how much is on your plate. I'm still pretty much the "expert" carb counter it our house, but I know I'm far from perfect. Jimmy has the Mini-Med Paradigm pump from Medtronic. They've always been very helpful when I've needed to call them.

BTW, we had no family history of diabetes whatsoever either.

 

[Cass]

The ringing in my ears has died down a bit since I started taking the metformin, in the evenings, when the house is quiet, it drives me crazy. Last night I noticed it was better. I'm hoping it will go away completely.

Does anyone else have ringing in the ears?

 

[welovedisneyx4]

Sometimes the carb counting is hard when he has a meal like pasta where you're relatively guessing exactly how much is on your plate. I'm still pretty much the "expert" carb counter it our house, but I know I'm far from perfect. Jimmy has the Mini-Med Paradigm pump from Medtronic. They've always been very helpful when I've needed to call them.

BTW, we had no family history of diabetes whatsoever either.

Yeah, that pasta is a total guess for us as well. Have you seen Delswife's (I think?) website? She talks about "WAG" (I think that is what she calls it) It stands for wild a$$ guessing!! I feel that is what we do a lot. It seems to work for the most part!

 

[Cass]

Rice? fuggetaboutit

Even brown rice?

 

[LittleDino]

Yeah, that pasta is a total guess for us...

Pasta is a killer!! The trick with pasta is that it absorbs into the blood stream more slowly (a LOT more slowly) than other foods. The trick I've learned to do when eating pasta is to take half of my insulin dose right before eating... and then take the other half 1½ hours after eating it. That usually does the trick for me. It's easy to do with the pump... but if you're on injections that would be a pain to take two injections just for pasta. If you have a pump, you can try the dual wave bolus or the square wave to see if those bolus options work too.

 

[Cass]

LittleDino, are you talking about regular pasta or whole wheat?

 

[Lisa D]

Our next pump class is in July - I imagine the educator will cover that then. I did read about those in the pump manual. One of the things Jimmy really hated about the injections was no more "grazing" - teenage boys love to graze. He's got it better with the pump.