It's 6 months now since I started on insulin. My Hb1ac has come down from 13.5 at diagnosis, to 9.6 last October and 8.4 just recently. I am disappointed that my BS has not come down further.
I am trying to eat a low carb diet and have eliminated potatoes, bread, pasta, rice and cereals completely from my diet. I estimate I eat about 50g carb per day from milk and vegetables. I exercise regularly at the gym, and am trying to walk every day. The gym usually increases my BS by 3 or 4 , but walking and gardening tend to decrease my BS.
My BS readings are generally above 7 during the day, usually between 7 and 10. I have increased my insulin and now take 10 units in the morning and 12 units with evening meal. But I still get hypos! For example, this week I have been working in the garden for about 1 hour at a time. I always eat a muesli bar or something similar before gardening, but I still hypo'd. Yesterday I did Pilates at the gym, then gardening, having eaten 2 muesli bars and had a latte coffee. I even had a little bit of bread with my soup at lunchtime. I hypo'd in the night 3.1, and treated it with a 1/3rd bottle of lucozade. I woke up with 4.3 (quite happy because I usually overtreat!) and after eating a no-carb breakfast of poached egg, 1 rasher of bacon, mushrooms and tomato had BS of 12.3!!! I did have a cup of tea on waking with milk and a coffee after my breakfast again with milk. Could it be the milk spiking me? I'll have to experiment and not have milk for a couple of days. I've been trying not to take so much milk and have a splash of cream in my coffee sometimes.
I lost 2 stone before diagnosis, and have managed to keep it off until just recently. I've put on about 5lbs. Maybe this is a good sign, and that I am beginning to control my BS. But, I'm fed up with that and don't want to put any more weight on!
I'm off on a big holiday in 2 weeks time, and am quite apprehensive about how I am going to cope with the long haul flights and time differences with my diabetes.
I'm pretty fed up with having to watch what I eat and worrying about hypos. Plus the worry that I have had high BS for a long time now and how that might affect me in the future. I hate this disease! One thing that might make it easier is to switch from mixed insulin to basal/bolus and I'm going to ask after I get back from holiday - I thought it would be easier to just have the 2 injections per day for the holiday.
Sorry for the long post!
