Still diabetic!
Once again the Christmas miracle failed to occur. I am still diabetic.
We spent the day at Mr. A's sister's yesterday with all his family. Throughout the day I stayed pretty aware of what I was eating, but toward the end of the afternoon the pies appeared, and that was when I sort of decided, well, it's Christmas, and I know for a fact that these pies are delicious, and one day of higher blood sugars is not going to kill me. So I went ahead and had a whole slice of pumpkin, and several bites of an amazing cinnamon apple pie that his mother had made.
Eighty minutes later, back at home, I decided to test, just to see. 153. Not great, but not terrible. I kept thinking of something I had read, about how even a non-diabetic person's blood glucose will spike fairly high after eating a lot of carbohydrate – it can go as high as the 180s – and that an occasional high number is not necessarily anything to freak out about.
So it occurred to me, since Mr. A had been eating pie at the same time as I was eating it, and had eaten even more of it than I had, that it would be interesting to test his blood sugar and see how high he had gone. Somehow I was expecting that he would also test at 153, and all my pie-eating would be vindicated – because if a non-diabetic person tests the same as me after eating a bunch of pie, then I must be not really all that bad off.
Of course he did not test 153. He tested normal. Which is about what I should have expected for a non-diabetic person – he would have spiked at the same time as me, 40 minutes or so earlier, and then his pancreas would kick out a bunch of insulin and he would very quickly be brought back down to a safe level. Whereas with me, either my pancreas isn't able to blast that much insulin anymore, or it's blasting away and my body's not able to respond to it anymore. Or some combination of the two.
So blah. I should emphasize again that 153 isn't a really dangerous high, and I'm not beating myself up over eating dessert or letting my glucose go over 120 or anything else. But comparing my 90-minute levels with Mr. A's was kind of a wakeup call, a reminder: I really am diabetic, even on Christmas, and every day, and it's okay to take a day off on occasion but over the long haul I really cannot afford to slack off on carb-counting or nutrition or portion size or exercise or anything else.
What's the big deal, really? Right now, probably it is no big deal. But the damage is cumulative. A couple of weeks ago a diabetic friend told me she'd been googling images of "diabetic feet" and those images really shocked her into getting back on track. I took a look, and I've been haunted by those images ever since. (A warning – if you decide to look, be prepared. These pictures are gruesome and disturbing and not easy to forget.)
So anyway. Back in the saddle.
We spent the day at Mr. A's sister's yesterday with all his family. Throughout the day I stayed pretty aware of what I was eating, but toward the end of the afternoon the pies appeared, and that was when I sort of decided, well, it's Christmas, and I know for a fact that these pies are delicious, and one day of higher blood sugars is not going to kill me. So I went ahead and had a whole slice of pumpkin, and several bites of an amazing cinnamon apple pie that his mother had made.
Eighty minutes later, back at home, I decided to test, just to see. 153. Not great, but not terrible. I kept thinking of something I had read, about how even a non-diabetic person's blood glucose will spike fairly high after eating a lot of carbohydrate – it can go as high as the 180s – and that an occasional high number is not necessarily anything to freak out about.
So it occurred to me, since Mr. A had been eating pie at the same time as I was eating it, and had eaten even more of it than I had, that it would be interesting to test his blood sugar and see how high he had gone. Somehow I was expecting that he would also test at 153, and all my pie-eating would be vindicated – because if a non-diabetic person tests the same as me after eating a bunch of pie, then I must be not really all that bad off.
Of course he did not test 153. He tested normal. Which is about what I should have expected for a non-diabetic person – he would have spiked at the same time as me, 40 minutes or so earlier, and then his pancreas would kick out a bunch of insulin and he would very quickly be brought back down to a safe level. Whereas with me, either my pancreas isn't able to blast that much insulin anymore, or it's blasting away and my body's not able to respond to it anymore. Or some combination of the two.
So blah. I should emphasize again that 153 isn't a really dangerous high, and I'm not beating myself up over eating dessert or letting my glucose go over 120 or anything else. But comparing my 90-minute levels with Mr. A's was kind of a wakeup call, a reminder: I really am diabetic, even on Christmas, and every day, and it's okay to take a day off on occasion but over the long haul I really cannot afford to slack off on carb-counting or nutrition or portion size or exercise or anything else.
What's the big deal, really? Right now, probably it is no big deal. But the damage is cumulative. A couple of weeks ago a diabetic friend told me she'd been googling images of "diabetic feet" and those images really shocked her into getting back on track. I took a look, and I've been haunted by those images ever since. (A warning – if you decide to look, be prepared. These pictures are gruesome and disturbing and not easy to forget.)
So anyway. Back in the saddle.
Labels: diabetes
2 Comments:
Hmmm. I have a question - how bad is 150? Does age factor into this? My best friend's little 4-year old boy was diagnosed with Type I this past June. They're having a craptastic time trying to get him regulated lately... I've learned how to do his testing and give his shots - did both last Sunday during sacrament meeting - he was at 385, had woken up at 487. He and his sibs were sitting with us since both his parents were performing in the choir. Since the shot they'd given him that morning wasn't working fast enough, I had to give him 15 more units. On the one hand, I'm so very thankful we have the instant glucometers and fast-acting insulin to help him, but on the other hand, it's a little heart-breaking to give this darling little guy shots so often - sometimes 10 a day - and know he'll have to deal with this for the rest of his life unless we find a cure.
love you-
Today you should repeat the experiment, only this time, eat the same proportions as Mr A according to bodyweight, and then measure blood sugar at the same time.
Perhaps tomorrow too.
Um, I love pie.
I love it possibly about 3.14 times more than anything else.
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