Diabetic crisis? Almost

Whenever I've found needles in the street, they were always the same type I use.
 

Pepper said:
Whenever I've found needles in the street, they were always the same type I use.
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The needles I was given for insulin, which I could not inject into myself and still can’t, were short. The ones I see in the street have long needles on them, like the ones they use to take blood.
 
Your husband needs to learn the things he shouldn't be doing, like bringing home pizza to a diabetic. Or at least bring home the right pizza. Did you know an entire half of a thin crust pizza is 75 carbs? I can eat a half pizza (I don't, just sayin') and drink water or a diet pop and still be within my dinnertime carb limit.

When my wife wants to get 'X' for dinner, I look it up on line. We love hamburgers from a certain local restaurant. Carbs are about 40, so instead of fries, I get the salad bar. You can go to the restaurant or manufacturer's website and look up nutrition. There are a million ways to cut back without feeling like you cut back. At home, I put a full size burger on a slider bun for half the carbs.

Whole wheat or dark bread is no advantage unless it's whole grain. Your body processes that differently and helps to avoid sugar spikes.

Want something sweet? Looks for products with Erythritol. It is the only sugar alcohol recognized by the diabetes association as zero carbs, they go right through you. You can subtract all of the carbs from Erythritol from the total. Check out Swerve's website. They have tons of fantastic recipes using Erythritol as a sweetener.

Learning to read the labels is important. The dark heading for Total Carbs is the grand total. All of the lighter headings under it like fiber, soluble fiber, sugar, and added sugar are part of that total. You can subtract half the carbs from fiber if they're more than 5, anything less is splitting hairs. Stay away from added sugar. Your body processes naturally occurring sugar like in what's in fruits and berries over time. Added sugars go directly into your bloodstream. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. They will cause sugar spikes. My limit is supposed to be 2 grams of added sugar per day.

My carb goal for snacks is 15. That's a small apple, half of a large banana, etc. Count anything that will fit in your hand as 15 grams of carbs, like a cup of mashed potatoes at dinner, or a small baked potato.

Spending some time online researching these things will get you on a 'can do' track. Instead of being depressed over what you can't eat, you'll find the things you can eat will surprise you.

Lastly, I'll say it again. Your husband needs to learn too. It's important those around you support your efforts.
 

I'mnotdeadyet said:
Your husband needs to learn the things he shouldn't be doing, like bringing home pizza to a diabetic. Or at least bring home the right pizza. Did you know an entire half of a thin crust pizza is 75 carbs? I can eat a half pizza (I don't, just sayin') and drink water or a diet pop and still be within my dinnertime carb limit.

When my wife wants to get 'X' for dinner, I look it up on line. We love hamburgers from a certain local restaurant. Carbs are about 40, so instead of fries, I get the salad bar. You can go to the restaurant or manufacturer's website and look up nutrition. There are a million ways to cut back without feeling like you cut back. At home, I put a full size burger on a slider bun for half the carbs.

Whole wheat or dark bread is no advantage unless it's whole grain. Your body processes that differently and helps to avoid sugar spikes.

Want something sweet? Looks for products with Erythritol. It is the only sugar alcohol recognized by the diabetes association as zero carbs, they go right through you. You can subtract all of the carbs from Erythritol from the total. Check out Swerve's website. They have tons of fantastic recipes using Erythritol as a sweetener.

Learning to read the labels is important. The dark heading for Total Carbs is the grand total. All of the lighter headings under it like fiber, soluble fiber, sugar, and added sugar are part of that total. You can subtract half the carbs from fiber if they're more than 5, anything less is splitting hairs. Stay away from added sugar. Your body processes naturally occurring sugar like in what's in fruits and berries over time. Added sugars go directly into your bloodstream. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. They will cause sugar spikes. My limit is supposed to be 2 grams of added sugar per day.

My carb goal for snacks is 15. That's a small apple, half of a large banana, etc. Count anything that will fit in your hand as 15 grams of carbs, like a cup of mashed potatoes at dinner, or a small baked potato.

Spending some time online researching these things will get you on a 'can do' track. Instead of being depressed over what you can't eat, you'll find the things you can eat will surprise you.

Lastly, I'll say it again. Your husband needs to learn too. It's important those around you support your efforts.
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Good advice. My husband is also a diabetic and eats whatever he wants since he takes metformin and it controls his sugar. His A1C is 6. Mine is 8.5 on tragenta. As I said, I’ve switched to metformin which is already helping with my blood sugar. I have banned candy from the house.
 
Aneeda72 said:
Good advice. My husband is also a diabetic and eats whatever he wants since he takes metformin and it controls his sugar. His A1C is 6. Mine is 8.5 on tragenta. As I said, I’ve switched to metformin which is already helping with my blood sugar. I have banned candy from the house.
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And that right there is the biggest problem. My doctor said that most people do that exact thing, and it's the wrong thing. This is a direct quote from my last visit:

"Most people don't want to do what needs to be done. They just want to keep eating what they have been eating, not exercising, and take the medicine."

As for me, I am beating it. My 6 month checkup is one month form now, and he fully expects to take me off the metformin. Between weight loss, exercise, and diet, my body should be able to do it on it's own. The other advantages to these changes are too numerous to count.

This is a mindset, a lifestyle change. My doctor said he wished I could come in and speak with new diabetes patients to let them know it can be done. I told him it didn't make any difference what I said, if someone doesn't want to, they aren't going to.
 
Aneeda72 said:
The needles I was given for insulin, which I could not inject into myself and still can’t, were short. The ones I see in the street have long needles on them, like the ones they use to take blood.
Click to expand...
Being in Utah, obviously you live on a different street. 🙃
 
Pepper said:
I check my GPS!
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See, there is the problem. I don’t have GPS, just a failing memory and the ability to get easily lost so I might have seen the needles on your street, my street, or someone else’s street. I just don’t know.
 
This thread has been an eye-opener for me. I had no idea how difficult it is to deal with this health issue. Those who are dealing with it now have a much greater level of sympathy from me.

Now I feel a greater urgency to periodically ask my son how well he is controlling his blood sugar. He is 57 and told me that he is pre-diabetic. But the last time I visited him the ice cream vendor came by and delivered several gallons of ice cream and he placed another order for the next week. I don't think that he tries to watch his diet. His daily trips to Starbucks are probably not helping either. (Unfortunately he is on the West Coast and I am in South Carolina.)
 
Pecos said:
This thread has been an eye-opener for me. I had no idea how difficult it is to deal with this health issue. Those who are dealing with it now have a much greater level of sympathy from me.

Now I feel a greater urgency to periodically ask my son how well he is controlling his blood sugar. He is 57 and told me that he is pre-diabetic. But the last time I visited him the ice cream vendor came by and delivered several gallons of ice cream and he placed another order for the next week. I don't think that he tries to watch his diet. His daily trips to Starbucks are probably not helping either. (Unfortunately he is on the West Coast and I am in South Carolina.)
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You might be wrong. He does probably, to a certain extent, watch his diet. Telling himself he can not have bread, rice, beans so he can have ice cream, or it might be some other favorite treat or something else he does without. Or the ice cream is for someone else and he will only taste it.

The excuses we give ourselves are endless, the struggle is endless. My husband downplayed my diabetes and refused to believe it was a problem. Then he became diabetic, takes meds, and refuses to believe it’s a problem.

I found that the older I get the harder it is to gain control over the disease. My will power is low, I like carbs and sweets. The older I get the less I care about health issues. The closer death approaches the more I want to have what I want to have. Do I want to die without having ice cream? Sadly, no.

It is my awful hip injuries, and the absolute need of a hip replacement, that forces me to get my A1C down. Otherwise, I would not care. Even so, it is hard. (Edited a couple places that I left words out).
 
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Pecos said:
This thread has been an eye-opener for me. I had no idea how difficult it is to deal with this health issue. Those who are dealing with it now have a much greater level of sympathy from me.

Now I feel a greater urgency to periodically ask my son how well he is controlling his blood sugar. He is 57 and told me that he is pre-diabetic. But the last time I visited him the ice cream vendor came by and delivered several gallons of ice cream and he placed another order for the next week. I don't think that he tries to watch his diet. His daily trips to Starbucks are probably not helping either. (Unfortunately he is on the West Coast and I am in South Carolina.)
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"Several gallons of ice cream?" When's the party?
He knows how to enjoy life, but his poor pancreas is going through some difficult times......... :)
 
Aneeda72 said:
I found that the older I get the harder it is to gain control over the disease. My will power is low, I like carbs and sweets. The older I get the less I care about health issues. The closer death approaches the more I want to have what I want to have. Do I want to die without having ice cream? Sadly, no.
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How about asking yourself if you'd like to die without your eyesight or your feet.
 
I am diabetes type 2; I find it fairly easy to control my particular case but everyone is different. I have a good salad every day with baby spinach and cauliflower and celery topped with EVOO and Balsamic Vinegar. I watch the portion sizes on things carefully and the carbohydrate content choosing things with less carbs. I have had this for 2 years and my A1C is now 5.6 when it was 7.2 when diagnosed. I have lost about 20 pounds so far, roo. I do have some sweets and higher carbs things at times but not all the time. I know as time goes on my diabetes may get worse as it's a progressive disease but I am not at that point in time yet...thank God.

It's an individual thing that one has to learn to control on their own with the help of a diabetes educator-which I had-and doctor. I take my blood levels most days. I keep a journal.
 
C'est Moi said:
How about asking yourself if you'd like to die without your eyesight or your feet.
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My paternal grandmother lost both legs to Type II. That was a long while back before they knew as much about it as they do now. Still, I can recall her sitting there in her chair with no legs due to this mystery (to me) disease. Then dad got it later in life, and he ended up with neuropathy in his feet. I ignored the pre-diabetic thing for years, but once my A1C hit 9.4 I got serious.

I checked my blood sugar this morning for the first time in weeks. Since it rarely goes above 97 anymore I don't check regularly. It was 85. My target per the doc is <110.

Hey, at least dad got to eat cookies laced with pot for his neuropathy. Not bad at the tender age of 98!
 
C'est Moi said:
How about asking yourself if you'd like to die without your eyesight or your feet.
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😂, I do like you, right for the heart wound, no holding back. @C’est Moi. No, I would not want to be blind but I am not even close to that issue due to my diabetes. I do have an eye problem, tumors growing on the nerve.

I agreed to have them stripped off one eye. He wants to do the other as well. But I’ve refused. The surgery itself can cause blindness if the scalpel slips etc. I don’t want to take the chance. Caring for the eye after surgery was confusing, difficult, and traumatic.

When you start getting blood sugars in the 500’s then you are in real trouble; or an A1C of 9 or higher as was explained to me by my doctor. When my SIL was in the hospital, my brother had blood sugars of 500. I urged him to go to the ER/hospital. He refused. He is now sight impaired. I am diabetic, but I am not stupid.

As for my feet, no problems from a diabetic viewpoint, but, hey, I honestly appreciate your concern. But I have a great many medical issues. As I said, lots, DNR/DNI.
 
I watch what I eat. I keep a food diary. I take my meds. I see the doctor probably more frequently and longer than any on this forum or possibly in the world 🤣. If my feet fall off, they fall off, at least the pain from arthritis will then become imaginary. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

And, yes, I am most certainly going to eat ice cream when I want, in moderation. It is about quality of life, it’s not about living as long as you can in extreme pain. In 2018, I was hospitalized twice. The second time, a week after the first, I was semi conscious for 2 weeks, and unaware of my condition.

I could have stayed that way the rest of my life. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong, couldn’t “fix” it, and one day I simply was there again and it was over. I lost 30 Lbs as I was tube fed into my intestine as my stomach had stopped functioning.

Diabetes is a serious disorder, but I have worst problems.
 
C'est Moi said:
How about asking yourself if you'd like to die without your eyesight or your feet.
Click to expand...
Amen. A number of relatives and friends in the generation above me lost their kidney function and had to go for dialysis a few times a week, lost their vision, and/or had pieces of their feet and legs hacked off over time. I was astonished by how often they shrugged off "cheating" with high carbs and desserts. Sad to say, their bodies were keeping score and eventually the piper had to be paid.

Now it's showing up more and more in the Boomer generation. There's so much diabetes in my extended family that I'm on tenterhooks waiting for results whenever I get glucose tolerance and A1C tests done.
 
StarSong said:
Amen. A number of relatives and friends in the generation above me lost their kidney function and had to go for dialysis a few times a week, lost their vision, and/or had pieces of their feet and legs hacked off over time. I was astonished by how often they shrugged off "cheating" with high carbs and desserts. Sad to say, their bodies were keeping score and eventually the piper had to be paid.

Now it's showing up more and more in the Boomer generation. There's so much diabetes in my extended family that I'm on tenterhooks waiting for results whenever I get glucose tolerance and A1C tests done.
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Yup, I understand. But I had a family kidney disease before I became diabetic. I was born with a kidney in my right front lower abdomen and it’s tube to my bladder went up, twisted around my spinal cord, and went down into my bladder. Pain, years and years of pain, as a child, back pain and stomach aches. Beaten for those “fake” stomach aches and back issues.

The condition was discovered on 1970. The kidney failed in 1985 and was removed, again before I became diabetic. Yes, tons of horror diabetes stories. But I have tons of non diabetic horror stories. I am sorry @StarSong that you, as do I, have a genetic disposition towards diabetes.
Hopefully you won’t get it.

I am in stage 3 kidney failure with the other kidney, not related to my diabetes. Neither of my birth children are diabetic, both have kidney disease as it is passed through the mother. 😥. If only I had known, if only medical science had caught up, But it still has not.

I refuse to become my brother, who while staying in almost always, has been tested twice for the virus. I asked him, how on earth could you have got it? He replied, Idk, just want to make sure I don’t have it. He’s an idiot.
 
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