Rustled Up Random Dinner

"What'll I have for dinner?", says I. Looked in the press. Leftover carrots and a parsnip and yellow bell pepper. There were also a couple of sweet potatoes  in there that I had originally intended to steam. So I decided to rustle up something.  I googled baked sweet potatoes instead of steaming. Mixed some herbs with olive oil and brushed them over the skin of the potatoes. Baked them at 190°C (325°F) for an hour. While this was going on I threw a couple of tablespoons of ghee in a pan on the hob at a medium heat. Fried a couple of rashers for meat. Then I added a little bit more ghee and added the chopped leftover vegetables to the pan and stir fried (dunno how long). When they were done I added a layer of baby spinach, covered the pan, turned off the hob and let the steam wilt the spinach for approximately 5 minutes. I added 2 chopped avocados to the plate. I plated the vegetables and rashers and shortly after the timer sounded for the potatoes. The meal was so big hat I ended up saving one of the sweet potatoes for dinner the following day.

Controlling Blood Sugar

I had been struggling with hypos for a few days, including my first hypo at work. I wasn't over exerting myself on that day. In fact it was one of the quieter days at work. I was doing my usual 4, 4 and 3 units of fast acting insulin before meals with 8 units of background insulin at night. But the lows kept coming even when I reduced the doses. I deliberately didn't take any insulin with my breakfast the morning I was going to yoga and had a single glucose tablet just before the start of class. I tested myself after yoga and was 6.5mmol/l so I was good for the walk home too. I asked about the pros and cons of this strategy but didn't get much response to it on a diabetes group on Facebook. One person was encouraging though and another person said they check their blood glucose after meals.
I haven't learned carb counting and exactly how much and what type of carbohydrates will affect my blood glucose so decided to see how I am about 15 minutes after each meal. It is a strategy that has stabilised my sugars so far. I don't know if it'll be good or bad on my body long term but it seems to be ok  while I'm still in the honeymoon period. Depending on how active I expect to be, I'll take 2 units of fast acting insulin if I'm 8mmol/l or above, or none if I expect to be very active. I'll take 3 if I'm 9 or above even if I expect to be active and 4 units for anything above 10. I've had one hyper reading of just above 12mmol/l since I started the strategy but there have been a couple of days where I took no fast acting insulin because I was always somewhere between 5 and 8. I kept taking the 8 units of background insulin at night though.
My diet needs improving though. I have still been having the odd sweet here and there and snacking on stuff that might not have the best nutrition.
I was running low on needles for my insulin pens so had to arrange a prescription for them. As I was in the doctor's I also arranged to have lancets and ketone strips added to it. I tested before supper this evening because I snacked between dinner after work and supper. I read 7.6 but wasn't sure if I would take insulin because I was about to eat. Then I remembered I had ketone strips and decided to try one out. My thinking also was that would decide whether to take insulin or not. I had a photo but sometimes blogger acts funny when trying to add photos on the Android app. Anyway it was one of my glucometer reading 0.0 ketones with the strip still in it. My thinking then was that it's ok for my glucose to be a little bit high going to bed. Better that than a hypo. So obviously I didn't bother taking insulin. I'll take my usual background insulin before bed though. I have an appointment with the diabetic nurse in a couple of weeks and I'll tell her about this strategy and see how she reacts and advises me. That'll decide whether or not to continue with it beyond the appointment.

Back To Work

First week back at work since diabetes diagnosis and it's been ok. Not too hectic and not too harsh on my blood glucose levels. There have been times when I was well within range when I tested myself at lunch but I still took my normal insulin dose for that time because a) the work I'd be doing wouldn't be too physically demanding and b) the temptation to have a little snack in the afternoon would arise and sometimes it'd be a bit sugary. So I would still want the insulin to keep me stable. That's the way I looked at it anyway. I'm still learning though. Maybe that's why I'm coping well - treating it as a learning experience. I've felt fine so obviously the amount was ok. Although I noticed that sometimes I'd feel fine with higher than normal glucose levels but feeling almost like I'm going hypo if I  dropped from 9 or 10 to 5mmol/l.
The nice people in work were glad to see me back and out of danger and, a bit late I know but, they had a get well soon card ready for me when I got back. They didn't have the opportunity to give it to me in hospital or my 2 week recovery period afterwards but I loved the sentiment all the same. I chose the right week to return because if it had been a busy week one of my co-workers was on holidays this week and and an excessive workload could've caused a few hypos. Next week it'll be a bit busier because we have to prepare for new stock coming in at the end of the week and the busiest day when we have to unload the truck, sort the stock and put it away. That'll be a better test of how I'm managing my diabetes.
I've noticed I'm most likely to go hypo if I go for a walk at night, say after 8pm. So I won't get much done on a work day evening. That could get frustrating because of things like Tuesday night was usually cinema night for me last year or of I need to go to the shop for something before they close. Speaking of frustration,  I'm fine with taking insulin. I don't mind injecting myself. But I don't think I'll ever feel good about testing myself. The strips don't last long and it's even more frustrating to waste one due to not drawing enough blood. Drawing blood every time is awkward and inconvenient. I hope I can learn to give my diet an overhaul to suit diabetes. Coeliac took a long period of trial and error. But I'm managing to get back to my meal planning strategy of last year so hopefully that will free up the time to find out what food works best for both coeliac disease and diabetes.

2 Weeks In

Well it's been just over 2 weeks since diabetes diagnosis and 9 days since I got out of hospital and you can probably tell one of the difficulties I've been having from the photo.
I went hypoglycemic 3 times in 4 days at night before I was due my long acting insulin. So I did what I was told to do when I went 'hypo'. I took some glucose tablets, rested for about 15 minutes and then had something to eat to keep my blood sugars up. The 3 times I went hypo were the 3 times I went to the shop in the late evening. It was frustrating for two reasons. First of all it was when I was winding down before bed time and I don't want to go to sleep hypo as it could be dangerous. Secondly I took a 20 minute walk to the hospital for an out patients appointment and was still high (11.7) when I tested myself before the walk home, yet the much shorter walk to the shop that night sent me hypo.
The diabetic nurse said apart from the two hypos at the time, it looked like I was controlling my sugars fairly well considering how new it is to me. She hooked up the glucometer to her computer to see my figures. She said to reduce my evening insulin dose to try and prevent the lows so I did.
I had a theory as to why I was going low. I haven't been looking after my diet as well as previously and the starchy foods are taking their toll on my coeliac gut. But I stress that I never deliberately ingest gluten. So things started to get a bit runny (hence the photo) and I wasn't absorbing nutrients from food efficiently. But last night I didn't go to the shop or any sort of walk outside after supper and I was high again testing myself before my night time insulin. So the walking at night must have been much more of a factor than my diet. I also took one glucose tablet as a preventative measure and that probably gave my sugars more of a spike than just supper and resting for the evening.
The plan is now to get back to the meal planning strategy I had last year and improve on it. Sometimes it's hard to have the motivation and energy to cook though. I'll persevere. I managed to spend the day cooking when I was totally fatigued in the week before diagnosis so I'll just need to channel that determination again and keep control of my energy and blood glucose levels.

Why Sugar Tax Is Bad For Diabetics

In Ireland there is a new sugar tax in a bid to combat an obesity epidemic. I won't delve into the politics of that side of things. I just want to say why, in one way, I think it's a bad thing for type 1 diabetics.
In order to seem healthier soft drinks manufacturers have been selling 'diet' drinks with artificial sweeteners to lower the calorie count for years. Now that sugar has a worse reputation than calories and fat these sweeteners have been creeping into mainstream soft drinks. The main one is aspartame. In a lot of labels where this sweetener is listed as an ingredient it is followed by "contains a source of phenylalinine. Over consumption may cause a laxative effect". Not something you want to be consuming if your gut has been damaged by coeliac disease and you struggle with ibs if you eat the wrong food. I have also read reports on studies that suggest artificial sweeteners might be inflammatory and trigger an autoimmune response. They are certainly a no no for the autoimmune protocol diet. They confuse the body because when you taste the sweetness it primes the body to be ready for sugar but the spike in glucose and energy never comes. I have found that I need to pee a lot more when I drink stuff with aspartame in it and I cannot stray too far from a toilet if I drink too much, so I avoid it altogether now.
When I was small Lucozade was a fizzy drink you gave to sick people. It crept into the mainstream soft drinks market more and more as I grew up as energy drinks started to take off. My brother has almost twenty years experience with diabetes and it is his go to option when he goes hypoglycemic. In recent years the recipe has changed. The amount of glucose has decreased and aspartame has been added. It still has plenty kick to get you out of a hypo but I'd rather not consume it at all now that aspartame is in it. Would it not be possible to make the original recipe available to be sold alongside their glucose tablets in pharmacies and health food shops without the sugar tax? Why should diabetics be victims of the sugar tax everytime they go hypoglycemic?

Welcome Post

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog. I had a gluten free blog but I stopped contributing to it by procrastination and then a recent life-changing event prompted me to get rid of it and set up this one instead. I have a history of autoimmune diseases. In my teens I developed the symptoms of what I've seen online named as Grave's disease but I was never given a name for the condition I had. I was treated with a drug called neomercazole until my early twenties when it went into remission and subsequent tests for thyroid function have always come back normal.
At 38 years old a blood test came back positive for Coeliac disease after over a year of health issues and IBS. It took quite a while to get on top of a gluten free diet and coeliac lifestyle but I persevered and, apart from a few bad dietary habits, I knew what foods suited me and what didn't. I always tried to remain positive and looked at coeliac as a blessing in disguise in a way because my diet changed for the better and my taste in food changed to liking healthier food that I couldn't bare before.
Then at the end of 2018 I got a devastating diagnosis - type 1 diabetes. It still hasn't fully sunk in. Whereas coeliac was a blessing in disguise, diabetes is definitely a curse. I spoke about my diagnosis in an older blog but that no longer exists so I can't link to it anymore.
So now I have developed the holy trinity of autoimmune problems - Thyroid, coeliac & type 1 diabetes. The lesson here is look after my gut health and because of a history of autoimmune diseases stay the heck away from grains, especially gluten-containing ones, and be wary of inflammatory foods such as sugars and nightshades.
One more thing. If you're looking for a post about something specific you can browse the labels column on the left (main website only, not on mobile) and clicking on the most relevant one should help you find what you're looking for.