Denial
I’m the type that works really hard to afford to live on what I earn. I prepare budget, do a forecast and feel peace that my income is enough to support us as a family.
Then I spend my money with complete disregard for that budget, and still find comfort that I coulda done it! But now I’m in debt.
The same held for me concerning my diabetes. When I was first diagnosed I was scared to death. I worked hard to see if I could live with this disease. And I found out I could! Then I proceeded to eat like I didn’t have it, and failed to exercise. My A1C would inevitably tell the tale. And I’d promise my doctor I’d do better.
Then my doctor lost her bedside manner. She no longer had the ability to drink the excuses. She said it’s time we did something here.
I was doing random blood tests, before and after meals, and which is a way of checking your food choices against your body’s ability to handle that food. But I found I was burning through so many test strips and making fingers into pin cushions! One day I poked my finger and squeezed to make a blood drop 🩸 and the holes from previous tests oozed 🩸! Time for a change of plan!
Cut to today. I’m trying out a continuous monitoring sensor that hooks up with my iPhone for data collection and management via Bluetooth.
This section of my life blog is about that.
Applying and changing the sensor
My pharmacist was the one who mentioned to me that this is a teaching tool, to educate me on my reaction to all of the factors.
And that’s what it has been doing. Each link will take you my daily graphs, and also the meals I’ve been coming up with.
I went full into changing how I did things. And went a bit overboard, for a while. For example, I’m to stay within the 10.1 to 3.9 mmols range; that’s the goal, but I somehow got myself into the headspace that I needed to live within a much narrower range, between 8 and 3.9 mmols. I also wanted to get rid of all the sharp peaks. But that’s disappointing and discouraging to attempt, and not sustainable. So I’m allowing myself more carbs now, which is enabling me to eat a normal meal with my family.
Nights and Mornings
One thing that frustrated me was how high my blood sugar would be in the morning, seemingly no matter how well I did the day before. But then, once I got on the sensor and could see the range and exactly what my blood sugar is from moment to moment, I realized that a couple of misunderstandings and outright anxieties had taken the place of truth, and/or actualities. I feared that I would drop below 3.9 while sleeping and either die, or my liver would kick in and spike my sugar as a bodily self defence thing. Which conveniently meant I had to have a snack before bed.
Confronting this anxiety head on, I skipped the snack and let my blood sugar go down as low as 4.7 mmols. It didn’t drop any lower, and I awoke, and went through my morning ranging between 5.5 to 7.0 mmols before my morning meal.
Effect of Exercise
Another thing I’ve learned is what happens to me whenever I get up from sitting or sleeping, and move around.
Just walking downstairs in the morning, for example, can raise my mmols 1-2 points.
With the Lifestyle Libre2 sensor, I’m able to roll over, still in bed, and make note of my awakening blood sugar. I’m also able to see what my range was overnight. It’s very encouraging, but life changing! Again!
In the past when I’ve eaten the wrong thing, tested and found myself in the 14+ range, I’ve done stuff like go on a long, fast paced bike ride to being it down! And it’s cut my sugar in half! But I’ve learned that exercise can actually raise my sugar in the short term.
Support from family.
My wife coming along with me really helps. She does the shopping. So buying sweet snacks – calorie rich foods like cookies, fudge cakes, etc., Results in temptation being there, especially when I’m hungry, having waited too long to eat. But the other thing is, since she also is a diabetic, I wonder to myself “why am I bothering?” And part of that is if she dies as a result of not looking after her diabetes, I’m going to be alone without her.
I accidentally stumbled upon a solution.  We were on our way home from a trip, and I had prepared a meal for myself ahead of time so that I wouldn’t be tempted to eat fast food on the ferry ride home. I brought my salad and a fork and dressing, etc. and when I sat down to eat my wife, who was also hungry at the time, looked over at what I was having and mentioned how good it looked, I had an extra utensil, so I automatically handed it to her, and she enjoyed half my meal with me!
At first, I was less obvious about being more intentional, but now I have actually set. Hey this is what I’m going to have. Would you like that also? And she is happily joining me in better food choices.
If A Tree has a sugar spike in the Forrest and nobody sees cause it was wearing a dark suit is the metaphor hopelessly lost?
If a tree falls in a Forrest, and nobody hears it fall…
My graph helps me stay true ALL THE TIME. I don’t wanna ruin my graph. It’s as silly and juvenile as a star chart to keep record of my chores getting done.
The proverbial marble jar.
What happens is I’ll get a whiff in the wind of some fast food place, or someone offers me cake when I go over to their place, or free donuts at work, and I’ll be able to resist because I don’t want to see a spike up into the white above 10.1 mmols.
Medications
I’ve been on Jardiance, Gliclazide, Metformin, for my diabetes. I’m also FYI on Ramipril and Lipitor.
My supplements are, Fish Oil, Vitamin B 100 complex, Vitamin D3, Tumeric, Magnesium Bisglycinate.
Evening >
Morning >
I’ve been making sure I have them exactly 12 hrs apart, which means setting my alarm to wake up at 5:30 am on weekends and taking my evening meds with me to work in the afternoon shift, in case I’m still working at 5:30 pm.
The Fish Oil has really helped me with my various cholesterol and triglycerides.
Running Down Vimy 