Diabetes- Type 1

Exercise and I never liked each other.

Exercise is supposed to be good for a diabetic.  Lower bloodsugars, loose weight, make you feel good.

Exercise for me: roller coaster of lows/highs/lows, gained weight, and felt like crap from the roller coaster ride.

With my new Dexcom and my diabetic educator, exercise is back on the daily menu.

Tips I Learned about Exercise:

-Exercise in the morning, before you have any boluses in your system.  If you have bolused in the last 4 hrs, be careful exercising.  My sugars bottom out quickly!

-Exercise for less than 30 minutes (light to moderate)- not a lot to change.  Bolus normally for breakfast, but watch out 6 hours later when your sugars will drop.

-Exercise for more than 30 minutes- be prepared to sip on watered down juice or gatorade for 10-15 g of carbohydrates.

-Anaerobic raises bloodsugars (weight lifting).

I have been biking for an hour in the mornings, pushing for 5 days a week.  I also have a 7 minute workout (jump jacks, planks, lunges, etc) and trying to get 10 good pushups in a day.

When you and Exercise have been at odds as long as I have, this will be quite an undertaking to keep up.

Overeater: Food is a Friend.

Chefs: Food is a Job.

Valentine’s Day: Food is Love.

Diabetics: Food is the Enemy.

I have been diabetic going on my 4th decade (31+ years).  Over 30 years ago, table sugar was evil.  You could make “sugarfree” pumpkin pie using sweetener and 2 cans of apple juice concentrate.  (Note: a regular pie had few carbs and less impact on bloodsugars than that crummy tasting “sugarfree” stuff.)

Fast forward, carbs are the devil.  Diabetics can eat bacon, cheese, butter, but not bread, cake, or potatoes.  Oh wait, diabetics should only ever eat salads (just lettuce).

The fads of diabetic eating come and go.  But for a diabetic, one thing says the same “Food is the Enemy”.

Food makes your bloodsugars go high.  Food makes you fat.  Food makes you at a higher risk for mind-blowing complications.  Food is the devil.

Unless the food is locally raised, fresh, and in season.  In the middle of winter, staring at the wilting produce and bags of cheap, frozen green beans, “good” food is still out of my grasp.  Of course, I could make the 150 mile drive for a couple of fresh zucchini in the “big town” grocery store.

Three decades of type 1 diabetes burns into your brain the unworthy nature of your broken pancreas.

*You are not worthy to eat when your bloodsugars are high.

*You are not worthy to eat when you are above your ideal weight.

*You are not worthy to eat food that makes your sweet tooth sing.

*You are worthy to eat 15 g of glucose tabs when you are low.

*You are not worthy to eat more for lows, or pay for the rebound later.

*You are not worthy to eat when traveling, stressed, or have stomach nerve damage.

Food is the enemy and you are not worthy.

I have been working with my diabetes educator to try to get better control of my blood sugars.

After keeping track of detailed records, I am somewhat depressed with the results.

Marcey says I need to eat better, take better care of myself, eat a “real” meal for lunch & dinner (haha- she calls “supper” “dinner”).

She did not consider my tortilla shell with Nutella a real meal.

She did not consider my yogurt a meal.

She did not consider my peanut butter sandwich a real meal.

She did not consider my fruit snacks a real meal.

With all the high blood sugars I’ve had the last several weeks, I neither feel like eating or feel I deserve to eat.

eek! I realized…I’m one of them- the 8 out of 10 diabetics that have an eating problem.

I feel the need to recite “Hello.  My name is… and I have an eating problem.”

*High bloodsugars= I don’t deserve to eat right now.

*Low bloodsugars=I can eat all the junk food I want.

*Carbs= I love eating you now, but guilt will eventually kick in.  I will vow to eat only proteins from now on- eggs, fish, steak, hot dogs… I have canine teeth and I plan to use them.

*Fresh veggies and fruits= I don’t deserve to spend the money to buy them.  It should go to something more important- like blood testing strips or insulin.

*Diet Dr. Pepper=no sugar, but caffeine , which can raise your bloodsugars.

*Diet A&W= the only guilt-free thing I can eat (no sugar, no carbs, no caffeine, and a little flavor left)

Hmmm, she didn’t consider Dt. A&W a real meal either.

Diabetics: have you ever had a really, really bad day?  That finger stick reveals sugars in the 240’s.

You bolus.  The next hour you are 289.

You exercise.

You bolus.  The next hour you are 312.

You stop eating for the rest of the day to try to figure out what in the world is going on.

You rage bolus.  Eat a bowl of ice cream and the rest of the Easter candy.  And take a nap.

You are 114.  Yeah!  You feel the numbers level out.

The next hour you are 280.  You feel the ketones cause the neutral pH of the blood to sway- proteins start to unravel, losing their quaternary and tertiary structures.

When you pull your infusion set, everything makes sense.

Usually, I have blood in the tube, or a slight kink when bloodsugars go astray.  Surely a 45 degree kink in my infusion tubing would have caused havoc…

The crazy thing is- I didn’t have any problems with this set.  My bloodsugars responded to boluses.  My basal was fine.

But seriously, how did this ever happen?  Maybe my six pack made the needle bounce back (harhar!).

I have been working with my old diabetes educator who moved shortly afterReeRee was born.  Like 13 hours (one way) away.

I was in a bubble by myself- dealing with my diabetes.

I was sick of not being able exercise for fear of the lows (50-) followed by the extreme highs (300+).

I was physically tired from the brutal swings, it was (and still is) exhausting.

I have been stalking Marcey for a while, because she is the only person who can make sense of my numbers.  After 30  years of living with the disease, it wasn’t getting any easier.

She is now doing distance clinics!  Perfect for me who dreaded (but considered) the 13  hr drive one way.

Marcey, for whom I love her positivity, sounded thrilled that “I was motivated”.

Hmmm, I thought to myself.  I thought I was at the bottom of the hole I had dug myself into.  Looking up towards the sky…

Goals:

• to stabilize bloodsugars to avoid the up and downs (we are getting closer on this- with just evenings to figure out)
• deal with my stomach emptying slowly (diabetic complication- you’ve heard of diabetics with nerve damage in their feet.  I have it my stomach… and maybe my brain.)
• add exercise.  I haven’t broke a sweat in years.  Thinking of breaking a sweat is making me go low.
• have a sick and broken pump plan.  What to do when the flu hits?  What kind of shot units do I give?

Looking into my crystal ball, I see a lot of work cut out for Marcey and I.  Problems?  Marcey would call these challenges!

I now have two people in my “diabetes bubble”.  Not being alone is a wonderful thing!

I always thought old people were crabby, because they were old.  I was wrong.

I have been meaning to write about my “frozen shoulders” for a while.  My arthritis flared up last night, and “Frozen” the movie makes all things frozen popular. LET IT GO! LET IT GOOOOOoooo!  (ReeRee can really blast out this song.)  LET THE SUN SHIIIINNE ON THE SNOOOOOOOW!

It has been about 2 years since I had the symptoms.

• sudden pain
• sudden loss of muscle contractions in my arms (like when I was pushing myself up from playing on the floor with baby ReeRee & I would fall into a heap)
• eventually, I couldn’t reach up.  The cups were too high to put away in the shelf.  You could have taped a million dollar bill to the top of a door frame, and I would have had to get a chair to get it.

I went to the local physical therapist (a mere 45 miles away).  She moved my arms around (or as much as she could, because I would finch and muscles would tighten down).  Then she left the room and called a doctor.  When she came back, she confirmed the diagnosis “Adhesive capsulitis” or frozen shoulders.

Adhesive capsulitis is an auto-immune disease that attacked the cartilage in the shoulder joint, causing it to become a tight, tangled mess of scar tissue.  Your once fluid joint is tightened down until movement stops.

Go figure- my body already destroyed my pancreas, why not my shoulder collagen?

For 10 painful sessions, the PT tried to break out the scar-tissue by stretching my arms.  By this time, I ached all the time and I started feel mean.  If I hurt this bad, why shouldn’t everyone around me feel the same way?

Then my insurance had maxed out her visits to ten and she suggested seeing a doctor.

To make a long story short, the doctor knocked me out, then physically broke out the scar tissue so my arms were able to rotate again.

Two non-cutting surgeries later, my scar tissue has been broke out.  The doctors warn that this disease has a tendency to come back every 3 years, so I am due for it back next year.

I try to ignore the fact I have a type of arthritis, but when weather systems move in (like these rain storms), my joints are painful and my bloodsugars tend to run higher.

So if you have the symptoms of frozen shoulder, don’t wait (for 9 months) like I did, thinking I had pulled a muscle.

Old people are crabby because they have arthritis and they hurt.  Not because they are old.