Thursday, October 13, 2011

Clearing up the Unknown ....

Ok, I think I may have somehow gave the impression that hubby's diabetes is out of control.  Yes, in a way it is but not because he is not eating properly.  He follows a very strict diabetic diet.  Unfortunately, with his pain level so high and no relief it throws his blood sugars out.  He's been diabetic for over 20 years so knows how important it is to look after his diet. 

Diabetes is a strange affliction.  When he is going to get sick his body gives him a sign by increasing his blood sugars.  It does this as a reaction to the change in his immune system.  So in order to get diabetes under control you have to get the rest of the body to cooperate.  Much easier said than done when the doctor's won't listen and give him something for pain relief.

Here is an example:  Today he got up and had breakfast, pre sugar level was 6.5 which is average and good for him.  We went to run a few errands and get our passports renewed.  This involved doing a fair amount of walking, which is extremely difficult for him.  He had his morning snack of fruit and by the time we got home for lunch he had a major migraine and he could hardly walk.  Pre lunch blood sugars at 16.  This was not due to his not eating properly but rather due to his body reacting to the pain from walking and the headache.

Once he had lunch and managed to rest for awhile, they returned to normal.  So as you can see diabetes is not a disease that effects everyone the same.  If you would like to check out the Plant Diet you can go to http://www.drmcdougall.com/ and read through the propaganda and view the sample diet.

His current health issues have nothing to do with his diabetes other than at times the pain makes his blood sugars wonky.  Believe me we are very careful with what and how much he eats.  We follow a diabeteic guide to meals to the T, as it is so important.  Unfortunately, his doctor does not seem to know anything about it especially since he recommended this plant diet.

As for getting another opinion we have done that numerous times and now they are fighting about what they think the diagnosis is.  He had blood work done today to test for liver disease, lupus and autoimmune disease.  We'll get the results next week.

I had a great day today as I was able to spend the afternoon with my granddaughters.  I hadn't seen Alex since her baptism in June and now she is walking.  But they both had lots and lots of hugs and kisses for Nana.

Got lots of exercise today just walking from place to place trying to get passport renewals done.  Our city is getting so big and they moved the Service Canada office so we ended up driving all over to find it.  But they are off and hopefully we'll get them back in a month or so.

Last day of holidays tomorrow, time went by too quicky.  But at least I have finally learnt how to sleep through the night again.  In fact lazy old me didn't get up till 8:30 this morning!

2 comments:

  1. I have never heard or read of pain increasing the levels in diabetes. That is heinous and sounds unmanageable. I do understand exercise can change the levels, but didn't realize pain did the same thing.

    It is sad that you are doing everything you can to a T and yet no one can do anything or help you.

    I don't know what to say.

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  2. Tessa, I am sorry also. I wish I could solve it all for you both!
    I was just thinking that new research has shown that often going on a plant-based diet can help people with diabetes manage better -- I've read so much that the standard diet given to diabetics is lacking and lower GI foods (plant based are usually best) can have awesome results. Just an idea. Sometimes those hokey things have amazing results but they're called hokey until science embraces them - which is often way down the road because there's no incentive for drug companies to promote these things. I know this for a fact with my gluten-free diet for celiac.
    PS I know a person who was having PSA issues and went through the gammit of prostate testing - went on a plant-based diet - as recommended by his specialist - and his next and subsequent tests were all normal, in fact, amazingly normal!
    Dawn

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