I know you asked Dave, not me. I cannot resist to chime in. When I go to an Italian restaurant and eat chicken parm at 8pm my bg is kind of unaffected unitl about 2am. Then my bg shoots up and no reasonable amount of insulin seems to bring it down. I usually inject about 30 units over time and it does seem to make a difference. The symptoms would be more explainable if chicken parm caused insulin resistance. I hesitate to shoot up 100 units. Maybe this is what I should do. For the time being I gave up on chicken parm. I just cannot handle it.
yeah, that’s pretty much what mine does… and the bad thing is, i’m italian and love italian food… i had dinner over 6 hours ago and should be “low” but instead i’m pushing 300… i’ve taken 5 units as my correction with an extra unit just for good measure… hopefully, that’s all i have to take and not 100! yikes!
I thought that Italian food was a no-brainer once I got my CGM. The problem is that insulin does not seem to work the same way after Italian food. I inject and inject and nothing happens. I am afraid to pump in so much insulin that no amount of glucose tablets can rescue me if the insulin does kick in. Which it never does. But it might. I am too chicken to play Russian roulette.
that’s what i am afraid of… a really bad low that no amount of glucose tabs will be able to rescue me… sigh… i will try the dreamfields pasta… do you get it at Whole foods?
it’s actually available here in atlanta in publix… going to get some tomorrow and try it out! thanks Dave!
well that was according to the website… hopefully… my local publix will have it!
Following this thread it is interesting to notice how much diabetes treatment has improved. Shortly after I was dx’ed my T1 neighbor died at age 56 of complications. I am pushing 56 and I believe that I have another 30 years in me if I acknowledge that I am a diabetic. The mantra these days seems to be: “Diabetics can behave like non-Diabetics”. We have come a long way but I don’t think we are there. I am trying to minimize the damage to my body until they find a cure. And I don’t want suffer complications if the cure is not found during my lifetime. My belief is that thinking about diabetes is not optional. Once dx’ed a diabetic has a choice of thinking about bg control early or complications later. I had my complication scare. This is why I obsess about bg control. Bg control is a piece of cake compared to complications. I thought that I was safe because my A1C was in the low 6s. I resent the good doctors that told me that A1C in the low 6s is great. Normal people have A1Cs in the 4s. The same good doctors told me that I should control my T1 with 100 urine strips per month. I have to stop before I get more angry.
well, i’m not sure if you know my story but, i’m third generation type 1, i was diagnosed this past june and I’m the 7th one in my family with the disease and the only one alive with the disease. my biological mother was 13 when she had me and 15 when she had my sister and died right before her 18th birthday from renal failure as a result of her diabetes, her brother died the same way a year later. I do not give myself the choice of blowing this off and paying for it later. i had a friend of a friend who is also type 1 tell me, oh well, you have 30 years before complications set in… my choice is that i want to live the longest, fullest, most non-complication life I can and whatever i do now reflects that.
I did not know your story. I thought T1 was not hereditary. Only after my complication scare I realized that diabetes is only a nuisance. When other organs failed my only thought was “I should have”. I am lucky that my symptoms reversed after I tightened up control. I hope everybody is that lucky.
Warning: I like the flavor and idea of Dreamfields, but I found it really hard to bolus for. I had awesome blood sugars with 50-60% of the insulin that I would give for regular pasta, but always had highs about 6 hours later. I heard others with similar experiences.
My Dad, who has type 2 and treats with oral meds, can eat a regular serving of Dreamfields and experience no highs. For me, it hasn’t been so easy.
But I know of type 1’s who eat Dreamfields with success. So this is not to discourage you, but to encourage you to test six hours after eating as well and try to see if you experience any rise in BG.
Elizabeth, I would just add my voice to agree and say “Awesome A1c!” Obviously, there is more to good control than an A1c (number and severity of lows, BG averages and standard deviations), but if this A1c is the result of overall better blood sugars , then I say HOORAH!
I was a math major (and I also know nothing about accounting!) and I showed up to my first endo appointment with a log of blood sugars and different calculations of averages and standard deviations. My endo was impressed and guessed what i was studying 
She also told me to calm down or that I would drive myself crazy!
One year later, I had to right a paper for statistics with a regression analysis that explained one variable based on five others. My professor recommended that I try to “model” my blood sugars. I told him that there were WAY too many variables that determined it.
I support the dreamfields idea, but as noted some find it still causes a marked blood sugar rise and overcooking or reheating disrupts the “protection” of the carbs. What I have done is found several no/low carb replacements for pasta. They are not pasta,but they allow comparable dishes. The best ones are shirataki noodles and spaghetti squash, both of which are effectively zero carbs. I’ve also had very good experiences going to italian restaurants and getting dishes served on veggies rather than pasta. I’m not saying that you should give up pasta, but you may find that centering the meal more around dishes served on these alternates and considering the pasta as a side dish can really help.
You are one smart gal. I am sure you will get things under control. I too come from a family of diabetics, not type 1, some sort of type 1.5 or 2. I do think that more and more links to genetic tendencies are being identified in diabetes. I’ve already started to develop complications after only a few years even though my blood sugar has been controlled well within recommended bounds. Everyone is different. I’d rather not play russian roulette that I can just not worry about things for 30 years.
I don’t know where you are from but here in Texas a few grocery stores carry it - Kroger is one. You can also order it online.
Doctors are afraid of pushing low low A1cs because they don’t want us to risk being too low and falling into seizure or insulin shock comas. Doctors have to err on the safe side and recommend A1c between 5.5 and 7.0 (atleast that what my doc has been talling me- I take what I can from him and work with what else I can research)
Basically, like what many of other members on here have replied: If you are not experiencing roller coaster BGs with low lows and you feel pretty good, then don’t worry about your A1c. The closer to “normal” the better, but you have to be careful not too go too low too often. Having a few 30s and 40s will lower your three month A1c, but it does nothing to help your body.
Having a low A1cis fantastic (great job!) but being low, you have to be more careful that it does not slip too low.
Wow, that is a tragic story, Elizabeth.
I wish I could say that I am as brave as you are.
I don’t know what to believe when it comes to complications. It seems like no one is willing to tell it “straight”. They either beat around the bush, or they exagerate to scare me. So, I’m just maintaining the tightest control that I can and hoping for the best.
I know it doesn’t mean much from a stranger, but I’m really proud of you. Your A1c makes me want to figure out a way to be a “better T1D” myself. I have to figure out what I’m doing that isn’t working so well and get tighter control.
“I don’t know what to believe when it comes to complications.”
The problem is that A1C is a very good predictor of complications for large groups but not for individuals. There is always the D with 6% A1C who has complications and the other D with 8% A1C who does not have any complications. Improving A1C only improves the odds. Like playing Russian roulette with 1 bullet instead of 3.