Diabetes Update, and other Life Stuff

So, how is the diabetes thing going?  So far, so good, I guess.  I am keeping a food diary, and tracking my carbs, fats and proteins. I wrote up a meal plan, based on what it was when I had gestational diabetes.  I had that three times, so I am way too familiar with monitoring, etc.  I am just writing it down and being aware of portion size, etc. again.  Just like Weight Watchers, only a little easier in some aspects. What is harder, though, is that in WW you can save up your points for megadessert, or have a huge dinner one night with your extra points.  Here, the main thing is to stay regular.  The problem is not that blood sugar goes up (everyones' does) but that it does not come back down.  So if I eat a Big Mac and large fries, it is going to go up, up, up, but it won't come down.  If I eat a regular hamburger and small fries it won't go up so high, so I won't have such a high level over extended time.  I probably won't change a whole lot about how I cook, but it is portion control - if I bake cookies, two small ones, not 8 cookies and a giant glass of milk.  

It is really a shame, because I make such good cookies!

I went to the doctor Friday, and he said for now he calls it Impaired Glucose Tolerance.  On Monday, when he has the rest of my bloodwork back, he will call it Diabetes.   Semantics.  He also said the problems I have been having with my feet are nerve damage from the diabetes (numbness, tingling, feels like needles in them, as if they were "asleep").  Anyway, depending on my numbers from the A1C test (which will give him a weighted average of my blood glucose), I may be just diet-controlled.  I am trying now, and some of my numbers are coming down, but they are still too high.  He said we may start out with oral medications and then see if my numbers go down and wean off it.  He said that should help with my feet, too.  If not, there is a specific med for that, but he doesn't want to start piling on too many meds.

I was also super-blessed in that I have a friend who is a parish nurse, and she referred me to a program call KICK Diabetes.  It is free, part of St. Louis University Medical School and ADA/St. Louis Diabetes Coalition.  It is research on diabetes education, and people with pre- or type 2 diabetes can participate.  You are assigned an educator and you meet four times to go over nutrition/create a meal plan, exercise, monitoring, medications, etc.  You agree to fill out questionnaires when you are done and again at three months.  I think they want to see what role education plays in helping people to manage their diabetes.  I am very excited about this!  Plus, now I will get to go to St. Louis four times and can get in a little shopping!

Financially, this is not as bad as I expected.  I told the doctor I was self-pay, and instead of the $150 office charge, I had to pay $80.  He has his own lab, so my A1C and cholesterol tests together were $18.50.  He said the meds would be generic, too.  I was able to cancel the appointment with a nutritionist ($50) because the KICK Diabetes educator will do the same thing.  And I signed up for discounts for my blood monitoring strips.  

So, the Lord is good, as always.  Sometimes my sinful attitudes keep me from seeing that.  Today, for example.  We had our monthly Fellowship Sunday, aka, crockpot and dessert supreme!  I did really well, small portions of a couple starchy items, larger portions of veggies, small dessert.  Still, last month I would have had a LARGE portion of the chicken potpie (my friend Faith makes THE BEST potpie) and at least two regular servings of dessert.  And probably (syrupy) sweet tea.  And later on today I will hit the treadmill again.  I have been getting on it almost every day.  

August is my month to "organize and simplify" my life.  I have almost nothing except church on the calendar.  This seems like it would be sad, but I am so happy.  I need time to establish some routines of exercise and meals before we jump back into the whirl of school chaos.  I need time to get used to this and order my mind around the new "normal" here.  

As normal as it gets, anyway!