1 mo. followup on diabetes and cholesterol

[Guest guest]

I wrote the following, thinking I was posting to this group and

realized afterwards that I had actually posted to the CR society

list. Anyway, I'm reposting here in case anyone doesn't follow that

group. I wanted to thank everyone here at @,

especially, for the tremendous amount of information and

encouragement I've been given so far. Anyway, here's the post:

In case anyone was wondering how I was doing, I'm

doing well. I have some questions for the group which

I will put in a separate message, so they don't get

lost in the middle of this (possibly boring) summary

of experience to date.

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I significantly cut back my calories and then my

insulin just over a month ago (I think Jan 13). I've

mainly been following a one meal a day program -- a

small dinner -- supplemented with *small* snacks of

veggies, coffee ;-}, and vegan protein " jerky " if I

get too hungry or (more often) my sugar appears to be

going too low. I've attempted to keep total daily fat

consumption below 10 grams. My GUESS is that my

average daily calories have generally been below 1000.

I'd like to be tracking more carefully, but the

nutrition software I've tried so far appears to

seriously suck (more on that below).

I don't know exactly what I weighed at the beginning

(I know, not very scientific) but I would have guessed

approximately 170 (too much tummy fat, though only

obvious when I'd slouch). As of last Wednesday, the

gym scale said I was 162 -- so the weight loss seems

to have been much less than I would have expected

given the low calories . . . I still have some tummy

roll, but significantly smaller.

Good news: My typical insulin use has plunged from

probably (35L+18R+15R+18R+6=92) to (18L+8R+10R=36).

My " average " 15 day sugars (per my meter) fell during

the period from about 195 mg/dl to about 135 mg/dl. I

still have too many high excursions and, as mentioned

below and as feared, far MORE low excursions.

I went in for a cholesterol check about a week ago

(they wanted to put me on cholesterol medication). My

nurse told me not to get my hopes up that my diet

would make enough difference. My total cholesterol

had fallen from about 280 to about 180 (sorry, don't

have precise numbers here) and my LDL was down to 107.

My " target " (since I'm diabetic) was set as 100 . . .

but I suspect the progress was enough that they are

rethinking what to do with me . . . the instructions

said I should come back in August and " not get my

hopes up " but made no further mention of putting me on

cholesterol medication. My guess is I'll have total

cholesterol closer to 150 by then.

I've had a lot more *low* blood sugars than is safe,

often with symptoms that the low sugar is affecting

brain function, e.g. numb mouth, change in speech

patterns, disorientation, and -- on maybe 2 occasions

-- severe hypoglycemia (40 mg/dl per my meter) with

vision impairment and serious fear I was going to go

unconscious.

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I obviously need to get both high and low sugars under

much better control. That is, as I originally feared,

likely to be difficult from here and, frankly, I think

my options are limited. I've tried to be very careful.

I will probably visit an endocrinologist within the

next week. I'm expecting him/her to suggest I change

my diet; I intend to be politely non-compliant --

maybe the M.D. will be more tolerant of my diet than

I'm anticipating.

I will doubtless talk to the M.D. about switching to

an insulin " pump " . However, I think that might not

make enough difference to be worth the switch; in any

case I'm SURE it will not get my average blood sugars

to, say, 90, where they NEED to be for me to

completely arrest and hopefully reverse the neuropathy

and lower leg atrophy/lack of healing problem which

has progressed over the last 10 years (I've been

diabetic about 33 years).

The pumps are all " stupid " -- they have no ability to

monitor blood sugars and make fine adjustments. I

think a " smart " pump should be close to being

available, but I've thought that for twenty years.

I'll follow up with another post regarding some needed

advice. Most of all I need a GOOD nutrition software

package. Walfords DW package has too many bugs and the

nutribase program doesn't appear to track my actual

diet (it only gives nutrition info on typed in selections)?

---

P.S., The problems I've had with the DW package include frustration

in using it to record *daily* logs of food eaten, problems editing

the database to delete all the junk " meat " products so I can find the

vegetables more easily, the database telling me that raw brocholi has

CHOLESTEROL, and the database accepting my user entered food . . .

but then having a fatal error every time I try to use the database.

I'm going to toss out the several hours of work I've invested in

personalizing the DW database and try again with a fresh download,

but I'm not pleased about this. Does anyone know what format the

database is in? That is, might there be a better/faster tool for

directly editing the data?