Thoughts on Diabetes

I have not exactly made it a secret, but I have also not been all that public about my diagnosis with diabetes.  I was diagnosed with it in September 2011, so I’ve been living with it for about five months now.  There’s no telling how long I’d actually had it before then, as I had not had a blood test in about 4 years before.  Now I have a transformed life, a “food life” as someone once called it.  I have to worry about food all of the time – what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat.  I’m not trying to get sympathy or anything, it’s just something that is different and difficult.  So, I just thought I’d share a few thoughts:

• Having diabetes makes you focus on mortality.  You always think about the fact that you have a chronic disease, one that is likely to mean hardships earlier in life than they might otherwise have been.  Since you can’t escape diabetes, you can’t escape this thought.
• Eating well is hard.  I have put myself on a no-sugar, low-carb diet.  What carbs I do eat are whole grain and/or high fiber.  I don’t always eat well, as I am a snacker by nature, but I have been able to adjust fairly well.
• I’ve lost 20-25 pounds since the diagnosis, and I’m down from a 35-32 pant to a 32/33-32 pant.  That has been all through diet, as I am not exercising any more than before.  I am eating more meals/snacks and fewer big meals.  I eat about every two hours.
• I don’t have any real extremes yet, either of high or low blood sugar, but I can definitely tell when it’s time to eat.  I get light-headed and such.  The lowest my blood sugar has read so far is 80.  The highest since I started testing has been 158, after I had a beer and nachos at a concert.
• It is impossible for one person in a family to have diabetes and not have it affect everyone else.  Since I do a good portion of the cooking here, I make things for myself that work for me, and everyone else eats similarly.  We have not cut sugar and carbs out of everyone else’s diet, but everyone is eating differently, with more whole grains and fewer empty starches.
• Diet drinks aren’t terrible once you get used to them.  That being said, Diet Coke is disgusting.
• I don’t check my blood sugar as often as I probably should.  However, my blood sugar appears to be under control.
• They say that losing weight can really lessen diabetes.  Perhaps losing that much weight has helped a lot.  I might go off of the half-dose of medicine I’m taking now and see what it does to my blood sugar at that point.