Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A DIABETIC DIARY, Part Four


Here is my brand new prized possession. It was my Christmas present to myself, thanks to the generosity of my siblings. It will be my friend for the rest of my life. Or whichever wears out first. Every morning, I will test my blood after a night of fasting, assuming that my last meal was eaten early in the evening. Then, I will test it again, just before I retire for the night. I have been using my mother's kit for the last month and a half. Those test strips run a buck a piece, so that's been $2 a day. Fortunately, Medicare pays for it, but I could not justify continuously using hers. One day, she would have to run out and that wouldn't be a good thing. Plus, when I am up for taking a trip somewhere, I would still have to test myself wherever I am.

I have been keeping a log of my blood glucose levels for the last 2 weeks. This is something I will have to do for the rest of my life, too. On Glipizide, my numbers have come down, although not to normal levels. Last Friday, I began taking 400mg of
chromium picolinate (1)(2)(3)(4), an over the counter nutritional supplement. Since I began taking it, my numbers have come down, but I have no idea if it is strictly attributable to that. I will have to monitor my counts for a considerable length of time to make that determination and there is nothing scientific about it since my diet will vary from day to day. Anyone who considers it should talk to their physician first. Of course, I didn't, but I will when I go to my final visit at Shepherd's Hope clinic. Who knows, I may be told to stop taking it. In the meantime, life goes on and I have pretty much adjusted to my diabetes since the initial shock and denial has finally worn off.

3 comments:

  1. You did, in fact, come here from BlogExplosion, but I wonder why your compliment was so vague and why you are just trying to promote a traffic building site filled with banners promoting herbal Viagra and other questionable supplements instead of providing your own blog address?

    Normally, I would remove commercial comments, but you did take time to type in the word verification, so I will allow you time to respond, if you choose.

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  2. Dave -- oy the irony of a chef developing diabetes! I'm so sorry and I hope you're doing well lately.

    Have a happy new year's!

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  3. Thank you, Supine, and Happy New Year to you, too!

    Technically, I'm not a chef, but I appreciate the compliment. What is too bad is the fact that I can't eat a lot of the foods I like to cook and my overall diet had to change so radically. Rich sauces, butter and other fatty stuff. Carbs. Pizza and KitKat bars. It was rather depressing at first, but I'm getting used to it.

    Morning Star mushroom and soy burgers with fat-free sharp cheddar cheese. Yum. I'm finally eating all those vegetables my mother always told me to eat. Hey, lemon on broccoli is actually pretty good.

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