Diabetes Weblog

Hello all,
This list appealed to me because I do not use drugs at all, and am
always on the lookout for ways to help my health without those "sweep it
under the carpet" approaches. Sooner or later you trip over the hump in
the carpet and land on your face anyway
My email intro here is longish - I hope not too long but maybe get
some green tea or whatever works for you, then read.

I am type II and do currently have dependence on insulin. I had high
blood glucose a long time which doctors totally ignored believing my
other health issues were so severe that this was "nothing" and "just a
side effect of the main issue".
I wish I had known. Well I did not and finally in Nov last year, the
new endocrinologist asked me what diabetes drugs I was on (based on my

blood values) and I said "Diabetes? No I have cushing’s syndrome and
MEN-1 syndrome, not diabetes. The high glucose is just a side effect."

Thankfully she set me straight and pointed out the damage I had from
glucose already and that being a "side effect" was no excuse to ignore it.
She wanted me on meds immediately, but I asked to use diet alone. She
said I had a month to get BG under 120 at all times. So it was decided I
would see if I could control it by diet alone - an almost zero carb
diet. It helped but nowhere like enough. So as of a couple weeks ago I
am also using Novalog insulin before meals. This is better than the
drugs and I can’t manage with no control - I hope to find others besides
the ones I am using currently:
alpha lipoic acid, chromium, vanadium for example.

I am at the stage where I do not yet know how much insulin to use, how
long before eating is best time to inject and how much I need per meal.
I hope to get off insulin again but for now I need it, and use Novalog:

I can’t find data on how long Novalog takes to kick in so as to take it
at the right time. Experiments are not yet telling me this. It is
complicated by the MEN-1 syndrome and kidney defect. The MEN-1 involves
unpredictable hormone production from tumours so for example tonight
when I took 2.5 units of insulin with BG at 106 then waited 20 mins to
see if it was starting to drop yet and I should eat, it read 119. Now I
know the insulin did not put it up, but the tumours must have been busy
instead. Mostly it is the cortisol producing ones that cause big hassles
as cortisol causes all the insulin to be insulin-resistant type and also
turns muscles to glucose.

Maybe someone else uses Novalog and knows how long it usually takes to
become active in dropping BG, and how long from injection to maximum
peak action would also help me. With my tumour situation I can’t test it
out for myself.

My kidney defect also messes with my attempts to control BG. It’s an
inherited defect and was not really a hassle till I got the current
tumour issues. BAsically I dump all my potassium and magnesium out all
the time and retain sodium (instead of the other way round). So I can
not eat any salted anything, and must stay below 1000 mg sodium, per
day, and I need to take in huge amounts of potassium and magnesium every
few hours so as not to dehydrate and collapse.

Dehydration and diabetes though are interrelated as my kidneys pump out
fluid when my glucose is high, aggravating the tendency to dehydrate. It
has landed me in the emergency room a few times despite my best efforts.

So basically I NEED to figure how to control my glucose despite some
factors that are hard to manage in that they are unpredictable to a
large extent.
There is no home test for cortisol, potassium or magnesium - I need a
MagicMeter :-)) I guess mine is on backorder pending invention :-))

SO I have to make do with blood pressure, whether my skin is wrinklier
than usual, and more finger sticks than usual, sometimes every 5 mins
for 20 sticks when I start to feel weird - and there is no insulin that
responds fast enough - I am chasing it most of the time. But it would
help if I could predict peak times.

I hope to learn more about how insulin works to help that - I’m really
new at it. And I hope to learn other natural insulin beaters or any
other tricks and techniques.

At the moment I have a sinus infection which is playing games with my
glucose and so it is worse than usual trying to get it anywhere decent.
(It’s another side effect of the cortisol to cause a non-existent immune
system and a propensity for serious infections but the kidney defect
means no antibiotics allowed.)

I use homeopathy, nutrition supplements and as much good humour and
determination as I can muster to make things work. But basically I am
not well enough to work much or for long (which I would like to change)
and I do some email consulting in veterinary homeopathy. My hope is to
become well enough to be self-sufficient again, and I am ready and
willing to do whatever that takes - if/when I can just find it :-)))
Hence I am here
I am making some progress. I had gone up to 300 lbs weight due to
cortisol and have taken time to get down but am now 227 on the way to
first milepost of reassessment 195. I am 6 foot 3, and not sure what an
ideal weight would be. So I figure at 195 I shall get critical and
decide then Last week when I broke the 230 mark, I rewarded myself with a new outfit
- I do that every ten pounds And I put "ten pounds" aside (converted
to however many dollars I can spare that is at least ten pounds worth)
to spend on a vacation or new wardrobe or whatever takes my fancy
provided it is for me and for fun, when I am ideal weight.

When I am healthy and working full time, then I shall start writing my
book on cat health and homeopathy :-)) It’s a goal that keeps me aimed
in the right direction.

Intermediate goals:
* Weight loss to ideal weight.
* Hb A1c between 4.2 and 4.6
* BG managed between 80 and 90 (for reasons as described in Dr
Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution.)
* LDL under 100 or preferably under 80. (My other lipid values are good.
LDL now is 118 down from 198 in Nov 04).

So that was an awful lot about me. I am really looking forward to
meeting other health-minded folks here and learning some new ideas.
I may have some to share too I hope - time will tell.

Thanks for reading all this!!! I hope you all have a great weekend!
Namaste,
Irene

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 6:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.