Sugar Turned On Me

I’ve been writing this blog now for 2.5 months. During that time I’ve become more knowledgable about diabetes and details of living life with the disease. Some of that knowledge came with finding out that some of the things I’ve said previously in this blog could be clarified and expanded upon. I’d like to revist some previous entries and point out places where I could have said more.

• The First Poke is the Deepest: In this I discussed taking one’s blood, the problems I’ve had with it and tips I’d learned to help ease the process.  I would like to add one that my wife showed me: When you pick the place on your finger you’re going to use, massage the spot. Just use two fingers, almost like you’re going to pinch yourself, but using only enough pressure to gently roll the skin around. The result will be less pain and an easier sample.

Also, use a fresh lancet every time. I read about someone who was taking their blood something like eight times a day, getting callouses and often not getting any blood at all. When she asked other people’s advice, it turned out she’d been using the same lancet for a year. Apparently some people reuse lancets multiple times, sometimes until it becomes dull. Someone pointed out in the discussion, there’s a reason they come in boxes of a hundred or so. Use a new one every time.

• A Little Spicy Red Number : Cinnamon does in fact lower blood sugar. Something I was unaware of at the time I wrote about it, however, is that if you’re already taking meds for blood sugar, at least one study has shown cinnamon to provide no additional benefit. So if you’re on medication and adding cinnamon, do some experimenting and find out if the extra supplement is helping or not.

• Tommorow’s Lunch: Fish Stew: In this recipe, I recommended Dreamfields pasta because it works as a low-carb alternative to regular pasta and I’ve had good luck with it. I later found a discussion of the product in which they pointed out that some people have seen their blood glucose spike using this stuff the same as if they’d used the grocery store’s brand. Turns out that if you cook the pasta in a tomato based sauce (which is the preparation I’d recommended here) then it counters the effect of the additional dietary fiber. So, if anyone’s tried this and had a bad experience with it, I apologize and recommend trying it again, but cooking the pasta in water and then adding it in afterwards or at the time of serving.

I don’t want anyone who reads this blog to think I’m holding myself up as an expert. I’m someone with a condition, sharing my experiences about that condition here in the hope that someone reading it might feel less alone or concerned than they did before. I do check my sources and do a bit of research if I have any doubts, but I’m still learning. Discovering what I don’t know is part of the process of becoming a healthy diabetic and there’s always more to the story.

Remember, if there’s anything in this blog, on the internet or anywhere else for that matter that you hear relating to diabetes or blood sugar and you have any doubt of its veracity, please check with your doctor or at least a second source. If you have any questions or just want to keep me honest, add a comment. And if you find what I put here useful, entertaining or helpful, please let me know that too.

After all, it’s not like it’s just our bodies that need checkups. Sometimes it’s also what we have learned.

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