SOMETHING TO SHARE

[Guest guest]

Wanted to share with you all what came out of the meeting with my diabetes

doctor yesterday. First of all I have lost another 24 pounds since my last

vist on April 9. That is 24 pounds in about 8 weeks! And the only thing

different I am doing is using a computer program to track my food intake. I

can plan ahead and see what my totals will be for the day. Thus I can change

intake to what I need to meet the certain goals I have set. So that is a

total of 34 pounds since March.

Then I would like to tell you about my HA1C. After the flu and suffering

injuries from falling down a flight of stairs while going hypo, my last HA1C

was 8.1%. But through alot of hard work (I think YOU can all identify with

this) and strict diet control I have brought it down to 7.6%. My doc wants

me between 7.2% and 7.4%. and we both think we can get there with a little

more fine tuning of my evening insulin. The bad thing is in order to achieve

this fine tuning I have to go to 3 shots of insulin a day (YUK). BUT my

doctor is VERY PLEASED with my progress and most importantly my attitude.

Over the month of May (31 days) I have had 17 mornings with blood sugar

levels over 150mg/dl with some in the 200s. My doctor wants morning fasting

BELOW 120mg/dl. I have heard alot of you talk about this morning high blood

sugar event where the insulin is almost gone from the system and the liver

kicks in and raises the blood sugar levels. Am I right? I think some call

it the Dawn Phenomena. Well that is what the doc said was happening. I

jumped in and said what about the long acting insulin? He smiled and then

named the insulins (all I remember from you folks was L). Then he said the

only problem with long acting insulin is that there is no certainty that the

insulin will be gone in 12 hours. He said there are studies showing that the

insulin can effect blood sugars for as long as 36 hours. Tie that into the

other 2 insulins I am using and there is a strong possibility of more

dangerous HYPOs. And that is something we don't want because we are just

know getting the lows above 50mg/dl instead of below that mark.

So, how does this sound for a plan? (And I really do want to know what you

think). Humalog before breakfast and dinner on a sliding scale from 0 to 20

based on my blood sugar BEFORE those two meals. Then NPH before breakfast at

24 units. Then NPH at 10 PM starting at 4 units. If I get high blood sugars

(above 120mg/dl) in the morning two days in a row, I increase NPH by two

units until my morning highs are below 120mg/dl. How does that sound??

I don't know if he likes what I am learning on the internet and in these

groups. He was very quite when I explained some things I had heard from some

of you all. Then I told him I had learned that ALL diabetics ae different.

What might work for one, might not work for the other EVEN if things are the

exact same for each of them. That is what he was waiting to hear. He jumped

in and reenforced that diabetics are different. He knows I use the internet

but he also knows that I trust him 100% and that he and I (we) are running

the show and that he will do the best for me. (A million times better than

the military doctors I have had in the past).

Sorry this took so long. Wanted to let yu all know what was going on with

me. I have been quite for a while BUT still reading all that you folks say.

Thanks for listening AND

God's Speed.

***Robin***