how following the "doctor's orders" can make a difference in BSG readings.
In only a few days of getting back to taking my meds as prescribed and cutting back my carbs (again) my numbers are back down, and I am feeling better. I guess I was walking around in a "carb fog" and didn't realize it. The scale was even down a pound when I weighed this morning. I can bounce 3 to 5 pounds in a day, but I try only to weigh in the morning and no more than each morning. (Now, if I can manage to take the metaformin earlier in the evening so I don't wake up in the middle of the night with stomach pains. I thought it was the Vytorin and stopped taking it, but now I'm beginning to believe it is the metaformin.)
When my doctor first put the fear of god into me about how high my BSG had gotten, I was really scared. This was my third go-around with high BSG (gestational diabetes, and and then again in 1999 -- lost 20 pounds and everything went back to normal, hah hah). I took him and his instructions seriously and when I went back 2 weeks later, he looked at my numbers and started laughing. He asked me, "What did you do?" "I did what you told me to do."
If only everyone would, he said...
It's not easy to stay on track. And the U.of Chicago study mentioned the other day on Diabetic Daily is scary. Almost 20% of the participants would trade 8 to 10 years of life not to have to have to treat their diabetes?
I've not walked in a Type1's shoes. I've been lucky so far to be able to control with only one med, diet and exercise. So, I certainly will not judge the participants. I can only hope that I never feel that hopeless.
A bright point (which you will see if you go read the medical center's press release) is that "Those who had experience with a specific medication or complication saw them as having less of an impact on quality of life than those without such direct experience." We always fear the unknown, and often unduly.
(If anyone has access to Diabetes Care, the journal which published the study, that could send me the full-text, I'd love to read the whole thing. My access to the full-text won't be active until the January issue is published.)