My Morning Blood Sugar

Why is it that I wake up with a great sugar reading in the morning, then my sugar shoots up a few hours later and does not come back down?  I like to think that I have good control over my JD, but obviously I don't.  I will wake up at 8am, test my sugar (100), then I will eat, do the correct amount of insulin for my food, then an hour to two hours later, my sugar will be 240.  >:-/ What happened to the insulin that I gave myself for the food?  Who knows.  This problem frustartes my everyday.  I took this problem up with my doctor (the one who has an attitue) and she acted as if she did not believe me or I was not telling her something.  I told her what she needed to know and she did not help me much-I mean she tried, but her advice did not work.  I tried raising my insulin formular for what I eat in the morning, but that caused my sugar to drop too low.  I also tried raising my automatic 'basal' rate in the early hours, but that did not work.  Ugh!  The problems!

What is my personal worry?

I do have a worry.  Secretly, I wonder if JD will shorten my life.  That is why I try to take as much control as possible when it come to my JD.  But, it is hard!  Sometimes things happen that I have no control over.  For example, when I am sick, my sugar is out of whack.  Will that affect my health in the future?  Yes, everything adds up.  I try to check my sugar as much as possible so that I could maintain some kind of balance, but my sugar still is of whack.  It frustrates me!

The other night around 8p.m., I had a dinner at Olive Garden (cannot resist!).  I had some bread sticks, chicken parmigiana,  and some salad.  I did the right amount of insulin for what I ate, had perfect sugar for about two hours, and then I went to sleep.  I wake up at 2 a.m. and my sugar is 380!!  What the.......??  I felt terrible and was so frustrated.  I did insulin to bring my sugar down, woke up an hour later, and my sugar was the same!  What happened to the insulin I just did?  WHO KNOWS...!  Eventually my sugar came down to a normal level, but it was so unnecessary.  I tried to rethink about what I ate that might have caused this spike in my sugar, but nothing I ate could have caused this.  Maybe a few bread sticks, but I always eat 'bread' and that does not happen.   

Frustration is all it is!  I just hope that I am okay for my future!

Thanksgiving for a JD

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  So, today is a day that comes every year when everyone stuffs their faces!  Well, what about the people who have JD?  Are they able to stuff their faces?  Well, I hope so, because I sure stuff my face, hehe!  As long as I make sure that I count the carbohydrates I eat for everything, which will be hard, I will be fine.  The reason why it is hard to count the carbohydrates for everything is because all of the food is mostly homemade, so I cannot just read the back of a food label and see how many carbohydrates there are under 'nutritional values'.  Turkey has no carbohydrates because it is protein.  Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, gravy, stuffing, apple and pumpkin pie, and everything else is loaded with carbohydrates, so I must be careful!  It seems that when I eat carbohydrates like potatoes, stuffing, pizza, bagels, etc., my sugar goes high hours later; I must check my sugar hourly today.

Have a great Thanksgiving, all!

Future offspring..

So many people think that my future children will have JD, but that is not true!  There is only less than a 3% chance that my offspring will have JD.  Diabetes Type 2 is a different story; that is hereditary.  What I have is not.  Like I said before in a previous post, the way I obtained JD was by CHICKEN POX attacking my pancreas.  Who would have know that CHICKEN POX would have affected me so greatly?!  NOT ME- or anybody around me.  My future offspring will only have a 3% chance of having JD.  This is a bit personal, but people who have JD and want to have children will have to be extra careful.  The first tirmester is the most critical because that is when the baby is developing what is most important.  Also, blood sugar readings must be *PERFECT* before and throughout the pregnancy.   If blood sugars are not *perfect*, the following can happen, miscarriage or an overweight baby with Diabates Type 2. 

Many JD's have healthy children, I will be one of those many woman. :)

Random thoughts!

Ya know, I have had JD for fifteen years and for the last fifteen years that I have gone to my Endocrinologist (JD doctor), they have been so nasty to me.  If I go three times a year to the doctor's for the last fifteen years, that is forty-five times!  Every single time, they give me an attitude as if I do not know what I am talking about with my JD.  Yes, they are the doctors, but I am the one who has been living with this disease for the last fifteen years-not them!  It just aggravates me that they think they know better than me.  Yes, they have had schooling but I have had first hand experience and hands on experience which teaches a person much more than schooling (IN MY OPINION).


If the doctors can just give me a little but more respect and credit, that would be great.  MAYBE I need to change doctors!

Blood Glucose Levels

I have not exactly gone into depth with blood glucose levels.  Now I will!  I have already covered what high and low blood sugar is called:  hyperglcemia which is when your blood sugar level is high and hypoglyciemia which is when your blood sugar is low. 


You might ask: How do you TEST your BLOOD sugar?  Well, I have something called a blood sugar kit that I use to read my blood glucose levels.  In the 'kit' comes a finger pricker, blood glucose strips, and a blood glucose meter.  The pricker is what you use to 'stab' your finger.  It is a small needle that pricks your finger so a droplet of blood can come out.  The blood glucose strips are stuck into the meter.  The strips literally suck the drop of blood off the tip of your finger and the meter reads the amount of glucose in your blood.  I have a blood sugar kit called One Touch Ultra.  This kit is linked with my insulin pump, so everytime I prick my blood sugar and the meter reads it, the number gets transmitted to my insulin pump.  This is great because I can automatically just program my insulin pump to do the amount of insulin for the correction of my high blood sugar level.  I do not have to program what my blood sugar is into the insulin pump.


If my blood sugar is say.... 214, my meter will read and it it ill be transmitted to my insulin pump.  All I have to do is press the ACT (enter) button on my insulin pump and it will pump insulin into me.

HYPERGLCEMIA

Hyperglycemia is when my blood sugar goes TOO HIGH!  It is dangerous for blood sugar to go up.  This can cause more physical problems for the future.  It is one of the major causes in Juvenile Diabetics.  I consider my blood sugar high when it is above 180.  High sugar levels are determined by you doctor.  Once it is above that reading, insulin must be used to bring the blood sugar level down.  Some symptoms are:  high blood glucose, high levels of sugar in the urine, frequent urination, and increased thirst.  Hypergycemia happens when the body has too little insulin or when the body can't use insulin properly. When my blood sugar is high, I do the following:  give my self insulin (how much denpends on how high the blood sugar reading is)or exercise.  When I have high blood sugar, I test my urine for ketones.  Ketones are produced when the body burns fat for energy.  Too much of this is not good and causes ketoacidosis which can cause life threatening problems.  Some symptoms are:  shortness of breath, breath that smells fruity, nausea and vomiting, and very dry mouth.


Future problems from ongoing hyperglycemia include:

• Eye problems
• Diabetic kidney disease
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Nueropathy (nerve damage)
• Slow-healing cuts and sores
• Decreased vision
• Nerve damage causing painful cold or insensitive feet loss of hair on the lower extremities
• Stomach and intestinal

SO, in order to stay as healthy as possible and have good control over your blood sugar readings, one must check blood sugar a good amount of times each day, exercise, and do the appropriate amount of insulin.