In which I am royally f&cked

[Sapphire Silk]

I HATE doctors who say 'lose weight' or 'lose X kg in Y months', and don't give you any advice on how to do it. If I knew how to do it (in my situation), I wouldn't HAVE my pudge! I run a Red Queen's Race just to maintain my weight where it is!

5. It's your life, not your doctor's. Work out a new way of life that YOU can sustain, and that fills all your needs - mental, physical and emotional.

Number 5 is the answer to number 4. Everyone is different; a different mix of exercise and dietary changes are what is required.

What physicans should do is recommend a meeting with a dietician to discuss the latter and a physical therapist to discuss the former.

[Food Lady]

When you change how you eat, avoiding some foods really can cause you to lose cravings for them. I spent a good ten minutes straightening the candy endcap today and absolutely none of it tempted me. I do have the occasional sugar craving, but I see bags of candy all day every day and don't really want any. Of course, there are some foods that will tempt me until I die, like donuts and danish. And sometimes I have a momentary craving, like seeing my favorite white bread at the gas station tonight and wanting it, almost tasting it in my mouth. But after I left it took all of 2 minutes to get over it and will not think about it again until I see it.

[kmariem]

...But not in a good way.

So...I have diabetes. I can't believe I even just typed those words.

<snip>

Any pro tips on living with this? I would really appreciate some moral support and practical advice.

Especially the first few months, make note of what is your worst trigger for a blood sugar spike. For me, it's potatoes. Which is obnoxious, as they're my favorite food group, other than Bacon. Oh, and pizza. Pizza is exceedingly bad because it makes both my blood sugar and my blood pressure spike, so I've had to eradicate pizza from my diet entirely (potatoes are ok, once in a great while, as long as the rest of the day has been decent). I got hit with the trifecta last year all at once: diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol *sighs*

[MoonCat]

kmariem, yeah, that's a bummer! Still, it IS possible to make changes. I'm learning. I have an appt. with a pharmacist specialist to discuss the metformin and I'm still angling for a dietitian appt. I'm looking into the types of exercise that will work best for me through the winter...I'm still walking; and I have noticed that my slacks and jeans feel looser around the belly. Retaining less water? Dunno.

Seshat's points #2 and #5 - a big YES to both

I'm finding that I have to seek advice, read, think about things, and keep consistent in my eating and exercise habits (actually I'm forming NEW habits to replace the old ones). And I have to take control of this as much as possible. It's like when I had the frozen shoulder (common ailment with diabetics, BTW). I had to go online and find my own orthopedist and physical therapists. It took over a year but I now have most of my range of motion back, the pain is gone, and I can use that arm again. Diabetes is a serious thing, but I'm still me. I have to work at this. And I will.

[Seshat]

Something to research: Glycaemic Index and Glycaemic Load.
Eating according to the advice you'll find googling and bookshopping/librarying those two keyphrases helps many (but probably not ALL) diabetics.


As for exercise: it doesn't have to be formal exercise. It has to be activity. Gardening or walking the dog or beachcombing for shells are all perfectly valid forms of activity.

If you do choose to use informal forms of exercise, it won't hurt to get yourself some sort of meter to wear: a pedometer is fine if it's a walking type of activity, if it's something like gardening you might find that something that tracks how much time you spend at 'activity' levels of heart rate is more useful.

Consult with a physiotherapist or other medically-trained exercise specialist before shelling out for any sort of meter, though. And a physiotherapist or occupational therapist can help you find tools which will help with your chosen activity.
For instance, if you have bad knees, you may find it useful to set up a raised garden bed or to use a garden stool.
With walking, there are special fabrics (and other stuff) which reduce the risk of chafing and other skin damage: sedentary people like me often don't know about them, active people like Bast do; and the medical/exercise combo specialists should too. (BTW: chafing, blisters etc can be fixed as well as avoided. Ask!)

Well, all sorts of etc etc etc info that means DO contact dieticians/medical-exercise-combo people.

[MoonCat]

Seshat, yeah, I'm not the formal exercise type of person. I like walking, though, and it's generally a safe activity. I do have a pedometer; I bought it last year when I was first warned that I was pre-diabetic. Doctors recommend that you walk at least 10,000 steps a day. Well, last year I mananged to do that a number of times. It needs to be recalibrated, though. The battery ran out and lost my stride info. I'm going to reset it.

Good advice on the fabrics and stuff. I need new sneakers. I'm walking every day anyway, of course, not using any of this as excuses to not move around.

I've found some interesting info on the glycemic index. Have to say, if this had to happen at least it's easier to find info online!

[wolfie]

Gardening or walking the dog or beachcombing for shells are all perfectly valid forms of activity.

Does Dawson's Creek "walking the dog" count?

If you do choose to use informal forms of exercise, it won't hurt to get yourself some sort of meter to wear: a pedometer is fine if it's a walking type of activity

Also, if your walking type activity will be interrupted by non-active times, make sure your pedometer won't give a false positive. I tried using a pedometer, and while it was OK with my car, the slightly different seating position in my truck resulted in every bump in the road being registered as a step - so I'd have to put it on every time I got out of my truck and take it off every time I'd get in.

[Seshat]

Walking/running magazines, websites, books, and heck, clubs/organisations, will have a lot of information about preventative and curative care. I don't know the names of the fabrics, but having lived with Bast, I now know which shops in my city to go to to get a specialist to talk to.

Oh! Get a podiatrist!

Diabetics can easily develop problems with their extremities; and you pay a lot less attention to your feet than your hands. If walking is going to be your primary form of exercise, you need someone who can give good attention to your feet.

The podiatrist can give you information on what you, personally, need in a walking shoe; as well as a specialist's medical check of your feet (and legs, though they focus on the feet).

[MoonCat]

Walking/running magazines, websites, books, and heck, clubs/organisations, will have a lot of information about preventative and curative care. I don't know the names of the fabrics, but having lived with Bast, I now know which shops in my city to go to to get a specialist to talk to.

Oh! Get a podiatrist!

Diabetics can easily develop problems with their extremities; and you pay a lot less attention to your feet than your hands. If walking is going to be your primary form of exercise, you need someone who can give good attention to your feet.

The podiatrist can give you information on what you, personally, need in a walking shoe; as well as a specialist's medical check of your feet (and legs, though they focus on the feet).

Yeah, I've heard that. The doc's office has posters up with info about that. I never thought it would apply to me . I wonder if my mom's podiatrist is still around? He was fairly young so he's probably still practicing; nicest guy ever, he even sent my mom flowers after he did foot surgery on her.

[Seshat]

Eh, noone has perfect feet, and noone has perfect legs and pelvises either. It probably wouldn't hurt for everyone to see a podiatrist, if only once every decade or so.

And for women, probably after each pregnancy (even a c-section), because the cartilage-softening hormones that enable the pelvis to open for birth also soften the cartilage everywhere else. So all the weight-bearing joints change every pregnancy.


Preventative podiatry! Whoo!

[NecessaryCatharsis]

And for women, probably after each pregnancy (even a c-section), because the cartilage-softening hormones that enable the pelvis to open for birth also soften the cartilage everywhere else.

I never knew that, that probably explains why my custom fit earplugs didn't fit after pregnancy, I thought that the inside of my ears had just gotten fat, like everything else.

[wolfie]

And for women, probably after each pregnancy (even a c-section), because the cartilage-softening hormones that enable the pelvis to open for birth also soften the cartilage everywhere else. So all the weight-bearing joints change every pregnancy.

In cases of miscarriage, how far along would a woman need to have gotten before the cartilage-softening would warrant a check? Presumably a stillbirth at full term would warrant it, while a miscarriage at 2 or 3 months probably wouldn't, with the dividing line falling somewhere in between.

[Seshat]

Sapphire Silk probably knows, I don't, not for sure.

Third trimester, check with your midwife or obstetrician but expect to have cartilage changes.
First trimester, check as above but expect no cartilage changes yet.
Second trimester, check but I don't know what to expect.


Necessary Catharsis: yes, that's probably what happened. The body makes the cartilage-softening hormone so your pelvis can spread (rather than ripping along the cartilage-joint!)
But it's not a very .. ah .. selective hormone. So yes, cartilage in the ears could well change.

[Sapphire Silk]

I honestly don't know anything about cartilage softening. Ask a nurse-midwife or an OB-GYN.

[raudf]

It's the hormone Relaxin that causes both muscles and joints to loosen during pregnancy. For the last two trimesters, I had to have a cane to walk, due to the one of my hips not wanting to stay fully in joint. Yep, had the discussion with the OB-GYN on it, because it was painful!