Diabetes

On April 15th, 2014 I was told that I have Type 1 diabetes, LADA. I denied that it could be real for a couple of days, and then found a GREAT dr to help me through it all.

I take regular comprehensive blood tests every spring, so when the nurse got my results, she called and requested, or demanded, that I get into a dr that day. I was in no rush, but she was very persistent that I get in that day. I did. I hated the office I found on short notice. So I cancelled my follow up appt with them (they told me I had Type 2) and called a dietician instead. I thought that maybe something I was eating was spiking my numbers. One symptom of diabetes is that you get very thirsty. Another is that you are very fatigued. To combat both, not knowing it was diabetes of course, I was downing Dr Pepper like crazy. I went from about 12 oz a day to about 44, so I thought for sure that could have caused it. Now I see how stupid they must have thought I was. The dietician was so wonderful and nice, but referred me to the lady I see now.

I called the number she referred, and Alicia answered the phone, and referred to herself as Alicia. I later learned that she is a Nurse Practitioner, with 25 yrs experience. Chet asked if it changed anything for me to learn that she was not an official dr. NO!!! I would go to her no matter what her title. She is a small office with just a receptionist and her. She is soooooo down to earth and fun. She is a total spaz, and I LOVE her. She was diagnosed when she was 17. She understands all the symptoms! And all the cravings! And all the mental crap.

First I had to detox. Chet and I sat down with the boys that night and told them what we just learned. They were very interested in it all. I hid nothing from them. They still like to watch me give myself insulin, and they LOVE to watch and even help me, check my sugars. Colby asks me at least once a day every day if he can check his sugars. I have let each of them check once, and Colby a few more times since he is always home and sees it triple what the others do. During detox I was eating less than 50g carbs. For anyone that has counted Carbs, you know this is next to nothing. I asked the boys not to say anything while I wrapped my head around it all. They were SPECTACULAR!!! As far as I know, they told NO ONE! Unbelievable right! 5 boys, and they kept the secret for over a week! At about a week, I had a breakdown. I cried all day I think. Everytime I tried to even function, I would cry. We called our best friends and asked if they would come over that night and give me a blessing. I couldn't even tell them without just crying. It was the first time to tell anyone, and I was struggling. It made it even more real. That was a Wednesday night.

Thursday, I woke up and was a whole new person. I was still starving and struggling to find things to eat, but I had a much better attitude. I tried some recipes from a few blogs, and decided that I hated them all. My better bet was to eat very small portions of things I loved. I went down the candy isle at Walmart and looked at the carb count on every single candy I like. I found that peanut butter m&ms were the best, and I LOVE them. So now when I need a boost of any kind (mental, physical, emotional) I will eat 8 of them.  But that doesn't feel your tummy. I could feel that my stomach was shrinking. I called and made an appt to go in and see Alicia again. I sat with her for 75 min (how wonderful is she! I never feel rushed and don't mind when I have to wait to get in to see her because I know that she will never hurry the person along. Luckily, I have only had to wait once in about 10 viisits). My first question to her was, "What do you eat? I am STARVING!" (After telling my sister, she said so... you can eat protein that you hate and veggies that you hate! She summed it up pretty well!!!) She gave me great ideas and helped me calm down a lot! She told me to start eating 150g. She looked at Chet and said, "Take this woman out for a cheeseburger! And she can eat half the fries." I've never been so happy to eat out! I savored every minute of that meal. And things have been great ever since!

I'm still learning like crazy. I still have to check my numbers about 7 times a day, to see what happens. Like, if I eat a grapefruit for breakfast, my sugars will over double. But if I eat a scrambled egg with it, and just half, then I am ok (and fuller too!) If my numbers are high when I wake, then I can only eat one piece of bread on my egg sandwich (another thing I did was to walk up the bread isle and check EVERY loaf of bread. The days of me making bread are WAY gone. Too much else to calculate and do and worry.) So every day I learn a little more about how my body reacts. I have slowly moved into more insulin as I learn more. My first a1c was 11.6, which said slow suicide on the chart. The goal is to get it down to 5ish. It takes a while to get the numbers adjusted. At first when I would get below 100, I thought I would for sure pass out. (That's the normal 70-100) My body was used to much higher. Now I am finally adjusting a month later.

I have learned to cook veggies so that I love them. I went out of town for a couple of days and couldn't wait to cook my veggies again. I could tell a huge difference, and I was still really careful while I was gone. But there is a big difference between eating to stay under on carbs, and eating a full rich diet that makes you feel full and happy while still under carbs. It's crazy. Chet said I REALLY am changing! It's good! Since my Wednesday breakdown, I have done well. I haven't had a breakdown since, and I seem to have found myself enough snacks and meals to be very happy! I have learned when I can splurge and eat my 8 m&ms, and when I cannot. I am sure there is so much more I will learn, but I am grateful for where I am right now too. My pancreas is still producing some insulin, and so we are trying to preserve it as much as possible. The cost of insulin is insane, so the less I have to take, the better. Eventually I will be able to eat whatever I want again, and just use insulin, but I hope to make full life long changes!

Fiesty

The boys favorite chips are Cool Ranch Doritos. I never let the babies eat their chips, because we save them for their lunches. I buy a bag a week and then seperate them into baggies for them. Well today I let Colby pick a snack from the lunch bucket. This was quite a big deal. He picked a bag of chips. After eating about 3 chips, he brings me the bag and says, "Nevermind Mom. These chips are too fiesty!" I about died laughing. I never use that word, so I don't know where it came from! Too cute the words they come up with!