November 20

So, a few days ago I showed you all my favorite food that I have issues with.

So today, I wanted to show you all my favorite "free" food!

A "free" food to a diabetic means they do not normally have to take insulin for it since there are no carbs in it.

I like sugar free jello (just don't like using the energy to make it) and pickles. I really like pickles with ranch, but ranch has carbs so if I don't want to take any insulin, I'll leave the ranch out.

Normally, mostly sugar free foods are so much worse with diabetics and can make blood sugars worse than a regular food! Like sugar free candy has always been worse than normal candy. Same thing with cookies and even yogurt. I found over the years what works and what doesn't and I learned what to look for on food labels.

Sugar free really means sugar free. It does not necessarily mean it's carb free (which I count carbs, not sugar).

Oh, another is diet hot chocolate. It has carbs, but not nearly the amount of regular hot chocolate. So I live off of it during the winter.

November 19

for November 19th, I wanted to share with you a very important habit that I'm still working on developing: testing my blood sugar before driving.

I need to make sure my blood sugar is in a good range before I go and drive so that I do not cause an accident due to a too low or high blood sugar. 

Low and high blood sugar levels do affect how your brain functions. It's just like driving drunk.
People who are diabetic and are on insulin can drive safely as long as they have good control of their blood sugar levels. I'm not sure of the laws but I have heard from doctors that driving with an extreme low or high blood sugar will still count as a DUI/DWI. 

Also, ketones (produced in uncontrolled T1Ds) reads as alcohol on breathalyzer tests! 

I do not test while I am driving! I test before I head out the door or when I get in the car and let it run for a few minutes. Jeff will test me while I am stopped at a light if I really need to test.

I am still working on making this a habit. I do miss a lot of tests, but I do around 8 tests a day on average so I've got a fairly good idea of my blood sugar when I go to drive. I do also feel my lows and highs!

I have never had any accident or driving issues due to my blood sugars. I always pull over and stop if I feel low.

November 18

This one is a bit more embarrassing and hard to talk about. I have never really said much about this. Yes, that is my actual weight on the scale. I did not sharpie out the number, my parents dropped a cigarette on the plastic and it burnt.

Being at a good weight is very important for a diabetic. Added weight can decrease insulin sensitivity and is a huge factor for my polycystic ovarian syndrome. At my weight, I am very insulin resistant and have to take more insulin to make up for the fact that I am over weight.

Insulin also stores fat! So the more insulin I do since I'm over weight, the more fat my body will store and it turns into a vicious cycle. Now that I am on the pump, I'm doing about 20 units of insulin less a day and I have already lost 2 pounds from this picture.

Exercise is a key factor in keeping my blood sugars under control. But I have always had issues with losing weight due to my hypothyroidism and my PCOS (both prevent me from losing weight). I never had the energy to exercise! The asthma doesn't help either.

I eventually got fed up with my weight and sought out a quick fix. Phentermine. This is a weight loss pill that I was prescribed as a last ditch effort for me to lose weight. It is an amphetamine! I lost a lot of weight quick. But sadly, it triggered me to lose my gall bladder and I gained all of the weight back.

This is the hard part to talk about. With that weight gain, I ended up figuring out that if I made my blood sugars high and withheld my insulin, I would lose weight! I thought I had something good going on. I really didn't. This is very dangerous and is termed Diabulemia. I think it's actually considered an eating disorder now. I did not starve myself through food, I just starved my cells of glucose by not giving myself insulin.

Luckily I did not develop any complications from being so uncontrolled and I have no idea how I did not go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

I am now away from that point of my life and I am taking care of myself now. It took a lot of work from Jeff to help me out of that state and I found some online support groups that helped me by showing me that I was not alone. I know I had my support system of my parents, friends and family. But no one actually understood how it felt to be diabetic (besides Matt)! I was essentially alone in that. But I found the help and changed my life!

I am active on a few of those Facebook support groups and I no longer feel as alone.

I know I am still over weight. This last Endo appointment, I lost 2 lbs since I started on the pump just due to not using as much insulin. The pump is more efficient with that! I also had to change my thyroid medication and that will also help me lose weight and give me energy to start exercising again! Having the right thyroid level will also help with lowering my insulin needs.

Things are looking healthier in the future!

November 17

For November 17th, I wanted to show you all my feet!

I know what sounds totally weird, but as a diabetic (T1 or T2) I need to keep a good eye on my feet! This is due to the facts that a common complication is neuropathy (disease of the nerves). Like I have said in a previous post. Neuropathy can be seen as burning, tingling, numbness, cold or a stabbing feeling.

The feet and toes tend to go first. I get tested at the Endocrinologist to see if I have neuropathy by him putting a little pin on my feet, with my eyes closed, and telling him if I feel it. They also use vibration on the feet since the sense of vibration tends to go first in neuropathy. 

If I had neuropathy in my feet, I could easily step on something that could cut me and never feel it. That can lead to infection and even amputation of some toes and farther depending on the severity of the infection.

I do pay a lot of attention to my feet and Jeff rubs my feet also so that he can take a look to see if anything is wrong.

So far I do not have any neuropathy and I have all feeling in my feet. But I shouldn't stop checking my feet!

One of the pictures is Daisy's little feet against mine. For some reason she thought it was comfy to sleep like that.

This picture reminded me to tell everyone that animals can develop diabetes too! It's not just a human disease. The animals that develop diabetes end up having their blood sugar checked from their pads on their paws multiple times a day just like humans do. Most also have to be put on insulin based on what they eat. There is no pump for your pet so they have to be on injections! I've known a few people who have had a diabetic dog!

November 16

For November 16th, I just wanted to share with you my most favorite "bad" food.
Which as a Nutrition Major I will never really say BAD food. No food is bad. There are more healthy options than others!

So my most difficult food to bolus for and I end up having to chase high blood sugars is any kind of oriental type of food. Chinese food or what Jeff and I are addicted to is HuHott. I try to go low carb, but it doesn't always work out with all of their sauces. But we go to HuHott often and it is healthy-depending on what you get. Rice is just as bad. Those high carbohydrate foods that are dense and so very yummy are not nice to my blood sugars!

Once I'm farther with my pump.. I'll figure it all out. Eventually.

November 15

For November 15th I wanted to talk some about what blood tests I get done and why.

The first and most important is my Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). This test is to check my overall control of my blood sugars over the last 3 months. I have a picture of my HbA1c which is at an 8.7%. A non-diabetics will be less than around 5.7%(around 90 mg/dl average). A diabetics will be 6.5% (around 130 mg/dl average) or higher. For me, I aim to be less than 7% (around 150 mg/dl average). That means I have my diabetes fairly well controlled. There is no way I'll probably ever get to non-diabetic levels. But the lower, the better. About 3-4 years ago I was at around a 12% (around a 315 mg/dl average) when I didn't have my good insurance and when I was going through a period where I didn't care so much about my diabetes and was dealing with an issue called Diabulemia. I'll talk more about Diabulemia but it's where someone doesn't do their insulin so they can lose weight.

I have my lipids checked like my cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL (good cholesterol) and my LDLs (bad cholesterol). Being T1 with hypothyroidism and polycystic ovarian syndrome makes me at a much higher risk for high cholesterol and heart disease. My cholesterol is high and always has been which is not good since heart disease and high blood pressure run in my family and my grandpa has even had a heart attack before. One good thing is that my good cholesterol (HDL) is perfect and that's working for me to prevent heart disease. 

I need to have my thyroid checked since I have hypothyroidism (same time I was dxed with T1D). They check for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which my levels were much too high recently and that needed a medication boost. I'm already feeling a whole lot better with that increase in medication. My Endocrinologist also checked my free T3 and free T4. These are two other tests to check thyroid function. 

I am also tested for protein in my urine which checks for kidney function. With uncontrolled diabetes, the kidneys are one of the first organs to be damaged and can lead to serious problems and even transplantation to save my life. Good news is my kidneys are doing great and there was no protein!

Those are just the usual tests I get once a year or more often if needed. I got many more tests done this time just because I am a new patient there and I just got started on a pump.
The last blood draw was 8 vials of blood!

November 14

Happy World Diabetes Day!
Wear blue for us today and show some support.
I know you've seen my tattoo before in another post, but here's a better picture! The date is my diagnosis date in the ribbon.