Week 2 has brought challenges for sure! I’ve had to readjust my dosages again and I’m
hoping that this will work a little better.
My doctor and I decided on upping my night time dosage of long acting
insulin, so no more 2am shots, but I’m still waking up at 2am to check my blood
sugar.
I’m still having problems with the dawn phenomenon. For those of you that don’t know what the
dawn phenomenon is, here’s a brief overview;
in the early morning hours the liver deactivates insulin that’s
circulating in the blood stream. Without
the proper amount of active insulin in the blood stream, blood sugar
rises. This means that I can go to bed
with a normal blood sugar and wake up with a high reading and then have to
correct it with more insulin. Also, this
means that my body isn’t as receptive to my insulin in the morning so I
typically need more! Trying to find the
right balance has been EXTREMLEY HARD and I have been so frustrated by it, but
I know I have to figure some kind of strategy out.
Being sans insulin pump, I’ve discovered that some of my
habits MUST DIE! When I was wearing my insulin
pump, I was able to slide with some of my bad habits. What would those be you ask? Um, peanut butter binges or almond butter
binges, straight from the jar. Yes, my
name is Dorothy and I’m a peanut butter/almond butter addict. Is there a support group for that, because
seriously I’m not the only one that craves multiple spoonfuls of the
stuff? For years, I’ve been able to get
away with BLT’s, no not bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, but the “bites,
licks and tastes,” that we all forget to count in our daily food
consumption. With my handy dandy insulin
pump always delivering a steady stream of insulin and the convenience of
hitting one button to deliver my bolus, I could get away with the “BLT’s” of
life and like most of us, pretend that they never existed; on MDI’s, there is
no way to cheat the system. If I don’t count
these little things, they add up to great BIG numbers on the glucometer screen.
Trying to curb my desire to stick a
spoon in the PB jar, or to not have a couple of the tortilla chips my hubby is
munching on is much harder than I ever anticipated. I’ve decided that I need to take up a hobby
for the evening hours to keep my brain and hands busy so that I don’t dwell on
the fact that there is food in the kitchen that I could eat. Crocheting anyone?
My new addition going into week three will be Insulow. This is a supplement recommended by Dr.
Richard Bernstein in his book Diabetes Solution. It is a mixture of Biotin and R-Alpha Lipoic
Acid and it is supposed to help insulin sensitivity. In case it isn’t apparent yet, I like to go
against the grain and I am very interested in the natural approach to
medicine. Granted I will always have to
use insulin, if there are other things that nature provides us that I can use,
I’m going to use it. I will keep you all
posted on the outcome of the R-ALA.
Here’s the newest addition to my supply kit. I finally treated myself to a new, cute, pink
glucometer this week. The lancing device
is freaking awesome! If any fellow
diabetics out there are tired of what they’re using, the OneTouch Delica has
really impressed me so far. The lancets
are much smaller than any I’ve ever used before and it actually made checking
my sugar a bit more pleasant. I would
suggest giving it a spin!
Well, thanks for checking in again this week! I’ll be writing again soon!
~D
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