Update on diabetes

I am diabetic and have been since I was 50, six years ago. Once discovered, it took months to stabilize my blood sugar level. The diabetes clinic a St Paul's kept insisting I increase my medication but I couldn't handle the side effects. I take Metformin and Januvia, and at first I was allergic to both, especially Januvia, which used to leave me curled up like an armadillo in pain half the night. It was a nightmare for me until the spring of 2008 when my sister, a holistic allergist, treated me and removed my allergy. Since then, I have been able to take them without consequences.

However, I had grown tired of Nature's constant wagging finger, always having to concern myself with everything I ate and pricking my finger for blood several times a day to check my levels. They were never quite good enough unless I starved myself, which would in turn worsen my muscular dystrophy and increase my risk of falling.

I would do comprehensive blood sugar testing between 3 and six times a day for a couple weeks every 3 or 4 months at first, but the results never changed much. Gradually the spaces between the testing grew farther and farther apart until I stopped testing a year and a half ago.

It was irresponsible, I know, but I was sick of thinking about it. Recently, though, I started worrying about it again, knowing that if the levels got too high I was at risk of losing my eyesight, having heart failure or amputation, etc. My dread of learning the truth kept me from testing again, but this morning I bit the bullet and started testing. To my surprise, my before-breakfast reading, always the highest of the day, which usually ran between 8.7 and 11, came in at 7.1, one of my best readings ever. My pre-lunch and pre-supper readings, typically between 6.7 and 8.0, came in at 5.9 and 6.1 respectively. Those are the levels of a healthy non-diabetic, so I must be doing something right.

What a relief! I'll keep up the testing a bit longer though....