Day 55

2:00 p.m.

BG looks good. Fasting BG was still slightly higher than I want it to be to test my oatmeal again so it is still on hold. 

Sent my Glucose readings to my doctor yesterday afternoon and his response was to stay with the same meds and routine, that being 500mg Metformin twice a day and test BG twice a day - fasting & once at 1.5 hour after a meal (random). So far - so good! :D

Here is an interesting article I read about the history of Diabetes - Scientists and physicians have been documenting the condition now known as diabetes for thousands of years. From the origins of its discovery to the dramatic breakthroughs in its treatment, many brilliant minds have played a part in the fascinating history of diabetes. Read the full article HERE.

Day 54

4:00 p.m.

BG good today. Finished with today's bloodletting and emailed my last two weeks to my doctor. I think they are pretty good. I had about three high's these past two weeks (since stopping the daily insulin injections), but they were caused by what one might consider "healthy" foods. I'm still working it all out, so hopefully those three highs will not cause any change in the current game plan.

I also did not test the oatmeal with just Splenda this morning because my fasting number was 105 and a lot of mornings it is in the 90's, so I want to give it a fair chance when I test it again. I will wait for a morning when my fasting number is better than today was.

Day 53

9:00 a.m.

BG is good. Didn't test the oatmeal today. Just wasn't really in the mood to force myself to eat it and especially knowing that it may spike my sugar again. And I will test it without the Splenda Brown, but I WILL have to put something on it. I've had pretty good luck with Truvia in making sweet tea so I will put Truvia on it. For today I just went with the tried & true Jimmy Dean. 

I was on one of my Diabetic Discussion Board sites yesterday and one of the threads asked " In reflection, can you remember when you became Diabetic? Not when you were diagnosed but when changes started happening?" I started thinking about it. I knew when I wasn't. I knew I developed Diabetes, certainly, between April 13, 2010 and January 17, 2011 because my BS was 96 in April 2010 and was 612 in January 2011.

As for recognizable symptoms I started having hypoglycemic episodes about 6 months before I was diagnosed - I had excessive tiredness for about a month before my Dx - excessive thirst for about 2 weeks before my Dx and blurred vision (to the point I had to be within 24 inches of a 22" PC monitor and was no longer safe behind the wheel of a car) for less than a week before my Dx.

My doctor stated that I had Diabetes for more than 2 weeks in response to a question asked or a comment made by my husband the day of my Dx. Of course I later understood his reply was based on my A1c being 12.46.

So, recognizing when? I can say, with what I now know about Diabetes, that I recognize symptoms from about July 2010 (six months before my Dx) - I just did not know they were symptoms of Diabetes. I actually suspected, at that time, that I was Hypoglycemic. Which, to me, was a reasonable assumption since my daughter was Dx'd Hypoglycemic 15 years ago and my granddaughter was Dx'd Hypoglycemic in November 2010 and I was having Hypoglycemic episodes. A reasonable assumption, in my humble opinion.

Well, okay, gotta get finished with a couple of things so I can get to my exercises.

Day 52

9:45 a.m.

BG is good (so far - lol), no, seriously, it is good. The only time I take a risk with it being elevated is if I need to test foods to see if or how much they affect my BG. Like tomorrow, when I test oatmeal again. But for today I had my Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowl so my BG is good. Probably going to have a big Spinach salad with strawberries, real bacon pieces, pecan halves and some shredded Manchego cheese with Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing for lunch. Either that or another BBQ since hubby bought 2 lbs of meat yesterday. Only thing is he will have to go but more buns today since we finished off what we had yesterday. We'll see. Whichever I have for lunch the other will most likely be supper so BG should not be an issue at all today.

And, it's my exercise mid-week off day, so even my legs will be happy today! Which is good because my head woke up not so happy. Started with being extra tired last night & falling asleep earlier than usual, which only leads to waking in the middle of the night & having a hard time getting back to sleep. And that just makes me lay that getting angry that my sleep is interrupted. So that is exactly what happened - I was wide awake from around 3 till 4 in the morning. Finally fell back asleep, but never was in a good sleep, still woke somewhat every hour or so till I got up at 8 - with a headache to boot. Hopefully it will get better, I haven't taken anything for it yet because it is a mild headache, but if it gets worse I will take some Aleve. I have to take so many meds as it is that I hate to add something ofr a headache if it is a mild headache.

Day 51

6:00 p.m.

BG was good at fasting and was blown by breakfast. And the thing is I ate what I thought would be a better breakfast option than the frozen Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowls, but it wasn't! And what is this better breakfast you ask? Oatmeal! Yep, suppose to be good for you oatmeal! Now, I will confess I did not eat that mushy horse feed plain, heck, I'm just a poor soul trying to figure out Diabetes, not a martyr! I did put some Splenda brown sugar in it to make it at least a little palatable. And it may well have been the Splenda Brown Sugar that did it since the package does say it contains some real brown sugar. So I will give the mushy horse feed another chance and use Truvia, but I really don't care if it fails the next test or not since I don't like oatmeal and I was only trying it as another possibility for breakfast. But that will be Thursday because I don't think I can handle mushy horse food 2 days in a row anyway. 

But, on the bright side - hubby brought home BBQ from our favorite BBQ place and I had two for lunch and my post meal BG was only 102! WooHoo! Love that BBQ.

Day 50

8:30 a.m.

Fasting BG was good.

Well, I woke up dreading that it was Monday. Poor Monday, it gets such a bum rap - kids hate it cause they have to go to school & parents hate it cause they have to go to work. Some grandparents dread it because they have to go to work also, but that's not my case. No. I dread it because it means exercise again. Six weeks of this and I am still not caught up in the exercise feel it, need it, love it, gung ho. No, for me it is still a matter of dread. Oh, don't get me wrong, I will do it, for my health, but I just don't look forward to it. 

I think today I will do a 20-minute Free Step and then 3 sets of the 10-minute Cardio for Beginners. That will help with the last 30 minutes since it takes me at least three to get close to be in sync with the girls on the DVD, so for the entire time I will be distracted with just trying to change from heel kicks to lunges. And forget about grapevines! That is an accident just waiting for me. I tried them a couple of times when I worked out to this DVD Friday and had no luck. I know "how" to do them, and at one time in my life I actually did do them, but that was 20 years ago in a Jazzercise class in a school gym where there was plenty of room to move around and I suspect that even then I may not have been moving in a straight grapevine from side-to-side but probably in a diagonal. Good thing there was plenty of room in that gym!

Okay, onward to my e-mail and other internet business before I get on with & get the exercising over with for today!

Day 49

2:00 p.m.

BG looking good. Had homemade hamburgers for lunch (yum) and BG tested good. I had a small serving of fries and ate 2 bites of baked beans. I would have eaten more beans and less fries, but hubby dear tasted the beans straight from the can and said they tasted good and didn't need to be "doctored". I always doctor baked beans unless they are Bush's Southern Pit BBQ Beans. Those are good straight from the can. Otherwise I add brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar and a little lemon juice (all various amount - never measured - just added by site). Well, lesson learned - don't trust Dear Hubbies opinion on baked beans!

Day 48

Ha! Missed another day! But, in my own defense I was tied up almost all day on a craft Blog-Hop that I was part of , and being part of it I felt an obligation to try to visit the other blogs on the hop. I just didn't realize when I signed up for it that there would be 130 some-odd blogs to hop. But it was a good Blog-Hop for a good cause - a group that collects handmade cards to send to deployed troops for them to write home on - provided to them free of charge.

Curious now? You can see my craft Blog entry here: My Craft Blog-Hop Blog Entry

Day 47

12:30

Fasting BG was good. 

I haven't tested for my second test today. I will test after supper tonight so I can see how a favorite casserole fares on the BG scale - enchilada casserole. I ran the recipe through and the numbers are pushing the limit, but I have logged my breakfast & lunch and I have enough allowance it today's targets to allow it, it is just a question of the glycemic index and how it will hit my sugars. We shall see.

And, the 6 year old granddaughter has gone home, so hopefully the quiet will help lower my stress level today and thereby reduce the stress effect on my BG. 

Today I tried a different exercise. First I did the 10 minute Wii Free Step then I switched to a Cardio program on a DVD that I recently bought. Cardio for Beginners. I worked through the basic 10 minute routine four times to complete a 50-minute workout. Sure glad no one is here to watch the comedic moves I make as I try to keep up and keep the rhythm. I am sooo uncoordinated - really rather embarrassing. Nope, I'm certainly not ready for a public gym or YMCA - not yet - not by a long shot!

Day 46

12:10 p.m.

My cereal failed the BG post exercise test. It was lower after the exercise, but higher than I need it to be - 162. I guess cereal is on it's way out. I will slowly finish off what I have in the kitchen, but I won't be replacing it with more cereal. 

And today, for the first day since my diagnosis I actually forgot to take my fasting BG test! But, in my own defense, my day has been slightly off anyway. Started off with a text message from my daughter that woke me and once I responded to her I sat at my desk waiting for her reply - which never came. When my hubby came upstairs from his basement Man-Cave I realized I had not started coffee yet so I immediately moved to the kitchen. Got the coffee going & went out to my carport to bring in some Pampered Chef things my daughter had dropped off. Got distracted looking at my new items and once I had those looked over good i moved right back tot he coffee pot and a new dilemma. This one surrounds the fact that my granddaughter was dropped off yesterday afternoon and this caused me to be further thrown off by knowing that within five minutes of waking she always starts asking for food. So now I was trying to decide if I should postpone my cereal test until next week when she will not be here. Obviously I decided to go forth with the test today. I just went ahead and prepared what I could before I started exercising so that when she woke and asked for breakfast I could easily finish it up in five minutes or less. As I prepared hers I also prepared mine except that for mine I went ahead and poured in the milk and doctored my coffee and proceeded to eat. It was not until I was about half way through my exercise that I realized I forgot the fasting test. Oh well, sometimes life happens . :/