this weekend brought with it a revelation, one that had me walking into a completely different world. a world better than the one i'd been in (whether i was fully aware of it or not) since the early 90s. no love found, and no, no love lost.
the revelation was that my type 1 diabetes could be brought under a tight level of control.
the revelation that i may actually be able to reverse some of the damage my illness has inflicted upon me.
the solution is one which, by some irony, is blindingly obvious to anyone without diabetes.
tell someone you have diabetes and likely they'll think: "you poor thing, you won't be able to have any sugars now"
and that's what i thought when i was told, at the age of 11 that i had type 1 diabetes.
lead down the wrong path
however, what i was then taught was that i could, and should, eat like a normal person, just so long as i did my injections.
my type 1 as a child was relatively simple but as i grew into adulthood things got steadily more difficult, to the point where i was firing off shots of insulin that could hit any target in a very random fashion. in short, my levels were all over the shop.
where's the right path?
and then this weekend, i read in full Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution which said the complete opposite of what i'd been taught. he put it to the reader that all one needs to do to get their control to manageable levels is to stop so eating such a ridiculous amount of carbohydrates.
with insulin you're trying to hit a target level. the more carbs you eat the more insulin you need. it's like trying to hit a target with a rifle. for small ranges you're going to have a much better chance of hitting the target than if you're a long way back from it.
similarly with hitting your target sugar levels, you've got a far better chance of hitting the target levels if your carbs and insulin are small amounts.
busting out of vegas
so with this in mind i can get out of the losing lottery i was playing for all these years. damage has been done and i owe a large debt to my body, but i've now got a chance to halt and possibly even recoup some of those losses.
all i've got to is make sure i don't overdo the carbs. avoid eating the sugars, just like i thought i should be doing all those years ago as an 11 year old.
it feels like i've climbed a mountain for nothing but now i've at least got the chance to run back down it, to a place of safety.
Showing posts with label complications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label complications. Show all posts
Monday, 16 February 2009
Monday, 9 February 2009
that's what you get
So what would've happened if I stayed getting the numbers I was getting in December?
If I'd carried on how I was, I would be really risking some seriously horrible stuff happening to my health and well being. One thing that happens when you have consistently high readings over a number of years is that you start to get haemorrhaging of the blood vessels in your retina - a condition called retinopathy. As more vessels burst, you start developing black spots on your vision that you can't shift. You'd need some serious-ass surgery to sort it out which is beyond the means of most - if it exists at all?! If several of them bood vessels start to burst, you're on a one way ticket to blindness.
Ouch.
...and it gets worse
High blood sugars don't just hurt your eyes, they will really fuck around with your kidneys, your heart and, scarily, your nerves.
Keep the blood sugars too high and I'll be asking for big trouble. Your nerves are really important. They're a big factor in controlling digestion for instance. When the nerves have been degraded by consistently high sugar levels, they cause a constant alternation between constipation and diarrhoea. This condition is called neuropathy.
When you read about some of the sufferers in their 20s and 30s it's hard to accept. The stories are beyond heartbreaking, they're heart stamping. I don't mean to venture into hyperbole but if you read what some people are going through, you'll understand what I'm trying to describe.
The sad thing is that there are loads of people, often teenagers who are struggling so bad to keep themselves controlled that they're heading straight down the railroad to this real-life hell.
I was riding this very track until this January and it's only will power that'll keep me away.
If I'd carried on how I was, I would be really risking some seriously horrible stuff happening to my health and well being. One thing that happens when you have consistently high readings over a number of years is that you start to get haemorrhaging of the blood vessels in your retina - a condition called retinopathy. As more vessels burst, you start developing black spots on your vision that you can't shift. You'd need some serious-ass surgery to sort it out which is beyond the means of most - if it exists at all?! If several of them bood vessels start to burst, you're on a one way ticket to blindness.
Ouch.
...and it gets worse
High blood sugars don't just hurt your eyes, they will really fuck around with your kidneys, your heart and, scarily, your nerves.
Keep the blood sugars too high and I'll be asking for big trouble. Your nerves are really important. They're a big factor in controlling digestion for instance. When the nerves have been degraded by consistently high sugar levels, they cause a constant alternation between constipation and diarrhoea. This condition is called neuropathy.
When you read about some of the sufferers in their 20s and 30s it's hard to accept. The stories are beyond heartbreaking, they're heart stamping. I don't mean to venture into hyperbole but if you read what some people are going through, you'll understand what I'm trying to describe.
The sad thing is that there are loads of people, often teenagers who are struggling so bad to keep themselves controlled that they're heading straight down the railroad to this real-life hell.
I was riding this very track until this January and it's only will power that'll keep me away.
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