[Diabetes-talk] Diabetes management strategy. Was Re: raw peeling fingers.

Tue Oct 5 06:17:50 UTC 2010

      Hi there.

You are right. The "fits one, fits all"-approach does not work for 
everyone, and that is why I am not too hung up about people having the 
same sorts of blood sugar levels as I have, but good as my readings are, 
I do have another problem: I tend to suffer from hypoglycaemia, and even 
if I try and manage my sugars at a higher level, this problem does not 
go away at all. In my case, I tend to have a tendency for my sugars to 
drop either in the late morning or in the course of the afternoon and 
especially if I have a low fasting sugar, I go badly hypo. I think my 
lowest reading I ever had, was 41, and while I was fortunate not to fall 
into a coma, I nearly died. That is how terrible I felt.

The nursing sister who helps me inbetween visits to the diabetologist, 
tells me that 45 and below, is coma territory. And so I have to manage 
my sugars with that in mind. Fortunately, this does not apply to every 
diabetic either, but the drawback for me is the fact that because of the 
circumstances, the variety of diabetic friendly snacks even, that I may 
have in the course of the day, is limited as I have to make it my 
priority to take slow release sugars such as can be found in apples, for 
instance, onboard in order to try and counter the effects of hypos. I 
know that this is not relevant to this post, but I want to share in 
separate posts, some of the ideas I have regarding diabetic counselling: 
how I have tried to help myself, and some of the strategies developed 
from my own experience, that I have used to help others.

Michael Park
"I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).

We support NVDA, a free screenreading program for the blind, giving high quality computer access to many commercial applications, as well as portability.

On 2010/10/04 18:35, d m gina wrote:
> I keep something with me, just incase lunch isn't at the time shared.
> Now for me to have the numbers where you are, is a bit low for me.
> I watch in the winter months where I would chect and see where they are.
> Thanks for sharing.
> What I am trying to say is in the winter months my sugars drop 
> quickly. they don't understand that one, I don't either, but we just 
> go with the flow.
>
> Original message:
>>   Hi there.
>
>> I have read this thread with much interest. Personally, and judging from
>> my own experience, it is necessary to test at least three times a day,
>> and I say this for the reason that it is important to try and keep
>> sugars stable rather than low.
>
>> I must say that I am not too excited about people who say that your
>> readings should be this or that, for as I understand it, the damage that
>> is rendered to the body through diabetes, differs from person to person
>> and from circumstance to circumstance. Testing at least three times a
>> day not only gives you an idea of the pattern according to which your
>> blood sugars move, but in my experience, it also gives you an idea of
>> what levels would be suitable for you.
>
>> The nursing sister I mentioned in my previous post, who actually helps
>> me to monitor my condition, is herself rather dogmatic about fasting
>> sugars. According to her, a good fasting sugar should be anything
>> between 90 and 110. Now this system works well for me, but I have
>> encountered situations where I have helped other diabetics, where the
>> patterns suggest that they should have sugars over 110 for fasting, for
>> the simple reason that they cannot get them down to those levels.
>
>> I disagree with the dogmatic statement that sugars in a diabetic should
>> specifically be one thing under certain circumstances and another under
>> other circumstances. I have often argued the point with my nursing
>> sister friend, not because I cannot maintain those levels myself, or
>> because I have to starve to death in order to keep to those levels (and
>> incidentally, I don't starve when I maintain those levels), but I have
>> counselled folks before today who simply would find it impossible to
>> maintain their sugars at that level.
>
>> Regular testing is important also because the process of identifying
>> movement patterns in blood sugar levels and stabilizing sugars, can take
>> up to six months to accomplish.
>
>> The other important factor is to be able to learn to listen to your
>> body, because you may find yourself in situations where your glucometer
>> is not available to you and you need to take action because your sugars
>> fall too low.
>
>> The other day, I attended a seminar and was told before hand, that lunch
>> would be served at 12 noon. As it turned out, lunch was served a full
>> two hours late and because my sugars are by nature very volitile, I fell
>> into a hypo and was useless to the conference for the course of the
>> afternoon proceedings. Needless to say, I had somewhat to say to the
>> organisers, for this was a conference geared to the disabled and I had
>> gone to considerable lengths to inform them of my condition, and to my
>> mind, my informing them, simply fell on deaf ears. Furthermore, the lack
>> of consideration was highly embarrassing to me.
>
>> Being able to listen to my body tells me in advance whether I am going
>> to go hypo or not and I know that my chances of going hypo are
>> particularly good if I have a fasting sugar below 90.
>
>> I have got this down to a fine art so that I can estimate my blood
>> sugars to within 10 points before I even get to pricking my finger. This
>> morning, for instance, I guessed that my fasting sugar would be 86 and
>> sure enough, my test showed that it was 88--a reading which is lower
>> than acceptable.
>
>> Again, I personally take issue with people who say that your HB1c3
>> should be at a specific level, for the simple reason that hB1C3 is based
>> on your actual sugar levels and in my view, it is difficult enough to
>> determine what those levels should be, let alone, what one's HB1C3
>> should be.
>
>> I will probably have mine taken when I go to the diabetic clinic on
>> Wednesday, and my guess is that my HB1C3 is going to sit between 105 and
>> 115, somewhere.
>
>> Finally, I would be inclined to think that if your friend is not
>> testing, that it is highly likely, given the circumstances, that her
>> sugars are well out of control. My experience in the time that I have
>> been counselling folks here, is that the ones who don't test, are the
>> ones whose sugars are invariably out of control.
>
>> The consolation prise for your friend is that if she can test regularly,
>> and if she is given proper counselling, I believe that she could learn
>> to listen to her body and hence the fact that testing might eventually
>> have to be done less frequently.
>
>> It goes without saying that I am making the catagoric assumption that
>> the person concerned, is adhering to some sort of diabetic compliant
>> diet, at least.
>
>> -- 
>> Michael Park
>> "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them 
>> in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, 
>> and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not 
>> forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).
>
>> We support NVDA, a free screenreading program for the blind, giving 
>> high quality computer access to many commercial applications, as well 
>> as portability.
>
>
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