Diabaker

A (Not So Brief) Introduction

March 15, 2012 by diabaker

Hello all! Welcome to my mind and vision. This blog was first started to try to speed up my acceptance of a type I diabetes diagnosis, but honestly I’ve spent the past three months scowling at it from the other side of my laptop, wishing that this wasn’t going to be my life.

Diabetes is an interesting animal of a disease if I’m using the most positive word. When you think you’ve got it down, you do something that seems harmless (like eat a fun-sized candy without taking insulin or drink a coffee with creamer) and two hours later you’re staring down at a 250 blood sugar reading wondering how you didn’t see it coming. I’m a newbie at this, so I guess I shouldn’t be so hard on myself when I get that kind of reading, but high blood sugar seems to make everything so much more melodramatic. Everyone and everything annoys me, the smallest emotional trigger sends me into an episode of hysterical sobbing, and all I want to do is lay on the floor and mourn over what feels like an inevitable future of kidney failure and heart disease. It’s ridiculous. I know this when I’m at a normal blood sugar, but somehow in those highs my world comes to a crashing halt. Thankfully as I get more of an understanding on this beast, I’m having less highs and more control of my emotions. I can assure you my friends and family are waiting with their fingers crossed for the days in which I master my blood sugar so that they don’t have to deal with the emotional train wreck I become when I feel like I’m failing.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this disease, it sucks. Trying to do something for your body that everyone else’s bodies do naturally is exhausting. It’s not the sort of thing that can be fixed or regulated without a conscious effort–at least not yet–and there’s a lot of scary information out there that makes it feel like having this disease will ruin your life. Trust me, I have days when I buy into that sentiment. Today, for example, I laid on my floor and cried over the fact that on my 21st birthday I won’t be able to be a carefree college student. After I shed my tears, though, I got up and kept on living because what else can I do? And you know what? Pressing on seems to help. Now I’m writing this with an optimism I’m becoming more and more capable of.

In future blog posts, I’ll post recipes or perhaps reviews of items as I try to manage my diabetes. In this post, though, I wanted to get people acquainted with the disease. Here are a few facts about diabetes:

1. There are two types of diabetes: type I and II. Type I is insulin-dependent diabetes that occurs after your body attacks its own Islet cells (the cells that produce insulin). Type II is an insulin resistance that is often (but not always) caused by certain eating habits and lifestyle choices which cause the pancreas to become tired and one’s insulin to become less effective. Type II diabetics often take oral medication and limit their carb intake to control or possibly reverse their disease. Type I diabetics must take insulin with every meal and snack to allow their bodies to use the glucose they ingest rather than have it sit in their bloodstreams. I have type I.

2. A normal blood sugar is 80-120 for a non-diabetic. Diabetics strive to stay in this zone, but anything under 140 is considered a success.

3. Because diabetics have to do something that is supposed to be done naturally, it is a delicate balance between taking too much insulin or taking too little. If you take too little, your blood sugar will be high after eating something. In contrast, if you take too much your blood sugar will go low. Low blood sugar needs to be corrected ASAP in order to avoid all those scary complications like seizures or a diabetic coma. High blood sugar causes health problems in the long run, so it is important to control on an ongoing basis, although a few high readings aren’t catastrophic.

4. Type I diabetics can eat most of what they want. They need to know the carb amounts, though, so they can take insulin.

5. Everyone takes a different amount of insulin for carbs. I, for example, take one unit of insulin for every seven grams of carbohydrates. Others can get by on less insulin for more carbs. It’s all about finding your own carb ratio and giving insulin accordingly.

6. Diabetes is NOT a death sentence. This is the point I want to drive home and one I often have to revisit. With all the talk in the news of the complications of diabetes, people often neglect to realize that those complications arise if one does not control one’s diabetes. I’d like to point out that negative health consequences occur when anyone lives a reckless lifestyle, not just diabetics. With a well-managed blood sugar, diabetics can live long and healthy lives.

7. Lastly, diabetes is a marathon not a sprint. Yeah, a cliche, but it’s not something that will go away. I’m trying not to obsess too much over each and every blood sugar reading, because I know I’ll get burned out. I’m trying to understand my disease and to look at the big picture. Sure, I sometimes eat a handful too many of popcorn and have my blood sugar run high, but for the most part I’ve got a good handle on it and that deserves to be commended.

This has run longer than I intended, and I’m well aware that this isn’t the sort of post that’s likely to be amusing (which is the aim of my blog in the future), but I felt that I needed to give a little context. Whether you’re diabetic or not, these recipes will hopefully be well worth a try. This is it for now and so I’ll leave you with this: While positive thinking can’t cure everything in life, it makes the ride a lot more enjoyable.

Through sticks and insulin,

Diabaker

XOXO

Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 34 Comments

A (Not So Brief) Introduction