Well, I cancelled my dentist appointment this morning -- it is ugly, ugly, ugly out there. Snowing and blowing like mad. I'm definitely going nowhere today. It's beginning to look like the predicted foot of snow may be even more. Apparently, my section of the Province is definitely getting the worst of this storm.

Doctor appointment yesterday was a big fizzle -- my chest noises were nice and quiet while he was listening (maybe I should invite over to listen to me when I try to get to sleep at night). So he put me on a Flovent inhaler (usually used to control asthma) and scheduled me for a chest x-ray on the 16th followed by a return appointment with him on the 30th.

Regarding those bouncy BGL numbers, his only suggestion was to keep increasing the Lantus. I don't think that is the answer, but we'll see where things are by the end of April.

Speaking of BGL . . . I shot up 20 units of Lantus last night (bedtime reading wa 12.7/229) and FBGL this morning was 8/144 . . . wonder what things will look like tonight and tomorrow morning -- this is an interesting adventure, if nothing else.

ACTIVE . . . it was likely the stress of the upcoming dentist appointment . . . stress, especially about the expectation of pain, can be horrendous for the BGL.

VERMONT . . . there are different schools of thought on the carb-counting issue . . . the CDA (Canadian Diabetic Association) provides listings for carb counting with the fibre already discounted and I tend to count both (total carbs and total fibre) and then subtract the fibre.

Basically, the problem arises because the two major types of fibre react differently in the body -- insoluble fibre (wheat bran found in breads for example) passes through the body completely undigested and it is the one usually referred to as being great for bowel health -- soluble fibre (fruit pectin among others) is digested partially and slowly so it does help to control BGL while helping to keep you feeling full. Vegetables, especially the low-carb kind, tend to contain both types of fibre. One thing to watch out for is Sugar Alcohols -- a lot of food nutrition labels tend to subtract it from the carb count. However, the CDA recommends discounting only about 50% of those kind of carbs. Of course, too many sugar alcohols (neither sugar or alcohol, BTW) do cause other problems too (gassy or runny tummy syndrome).

Hope the rest or you have a great day with lots of sunshine and absolutely no snow. . .

Good morning. We have sunshine and above freezing temps - sorry about that, MLinda. Also sorry your doc appointment didn't resolve much. I got diagnoses with asthma years ago, got an inhaler and used it for a while and the asthma has disappeared.

Vermont Chick, I've never done the net carb thing. I just keep my carbs in my range and work at getting the fiber to 20-30 grams per day. There is bowel cancer rampant in my family so I am very careful. Um...why did your furnace crap the bed? I've heard of pets doing that but....

Weight still 203 from the weekend but BGL was fine at 5.1/91.8 - at least I'm getting it half right!

HA HA..regarding the Furnace crapping the bed...it's an expression. my family is from Boston, and that's an expression you use to say something either broke or failed...ie: "my car sh*t the bed." LOL.

I guess they don't use that in Canada!

. . . the closest I've ever heard to that expression up here would be "the furnace crapped out" last night.

Hi everyone..sry i couldnt post yesterday computers where down,lost power for about 4 hrs ..our Mt Redoubt erupted sunday nite..i could smell the sulpher oder but no ash fallout..its about 45 miles from my house..my sl was up this am 164 ouch..i ate a choc chip cookie late last night..dumb dumb that i am sigh..sry meowee u didnt get the answers that you wanted from your dr..ruth i also have asthma and use an inhaler..mostly im allergic to smoke and my dh smokes out side but it follows him in .. anyways ttfn and for all rosey

Well it is official -- although I don't know how they can actually measure snowfall when it was all falling sideways because of the wind -- apparently we did not get the 12" originally predicted; we got 16 inches of the stupid wet white stuff. It is still very cold and very windy nd ver overcast.

ROSEY . . . did you check Amazon fror seated exercise DVDs? I imagine they would have a few. Glad the volcanic erruption was kind to you. Would imagine any ash would be very hard on your asthma.

I hope a few weeks with the inhaler work the same kind of result for me as for you RUTH, but I don't think this is asthma anyway. No change yet, but, of course, I imagine it will take longer than a couple of days to notice anything.

BGL is still weird . . . 5.6 / 101 at bedtime last night so I only took 12 units of Lantus and still woke up with a 7.6 / 137 this morning. Somehow I don't think an extra 8 units would have worked out too well. Something is definitely going on in the middle of the night (although I was up by 5 am this morning).

Anyway, hope everybody else is having decent weather with more warmth and sunshine than we've got -- I need some vicarious Spring.

Volcanos... 16" of snow... It's official, I have no business complaining about the weather! Glad to see everybody hanging in their.

Last weekend 4 policemen were murdered in my home town (the man who raised me was a detective and the police force was a big part of my life growing up). It has had the effect of my really craving home town foods. I have to stop eating italian deli! I feel so bad for the families and the whole community.

That being said. I also need to focus on getting more movement/exercise into my life. I talked with my Diabetes Educator last week and she wants me to check in with a phone call in a few weeks. I want to have something positive to report Any ideas or strategies for getting support around it? I have very severe arthritis and get discouraged pretty easily.

Stress is still pretty high but better than last week. Thanks for listening!

DCM

Good Morning . . .

Wowee the sun is actually shining right now and the temperature is expected to get a wee bit above the freezing mark today. Hopefully melting can begin.

DCM . . . my arthritis keeps me moving pretty slowly too . . . have a look around the internet for chairbound exercises.

Bedtime BGL was higher at 7.8 / 140 so I went with 17 units of Lantus last night and woke up with a 7.7 / 139 -- hey, at least it is stable; now if I can just get it down to below the 7 mark (below 125) and get it to stablize there.

Have good day . . . see you later . . .

Nope, we have no right to complain about the weather but that probably won't stop us!

Didn't have any carbs for dinner last night and had a 3.2 (57.6) this morning. A slice of ww toast with peanut butter seems to be fixing that - carb/protein/fat. I'll be sure to have carbs with dinner tonight - maybe a sweet potato or some ww couscous with my lamb and green beans?

Ruth are you becoming the epitome of a carnivorous being? -- no vegetables even???? I often skip 'starch' at dinner but I eat so many 'low-carb veggies', I can make up for it. I'm the Queen of the gigantic salad. Wait until you see my personal salad bowl.

wow...57...that is low! Do you take insulin? I had a bad day yesterday. I didn't do my exercises (I fell asleep), and I had a weight watchers sundae which was a huge mistake. i guess even if it is weight watchers, it doesn't mean that it's good for my blood sugar

I cannot wait to meet my diabetes educator...I hope I have lots of good things to tell her. I've lost about 17 pounds since my diagnosis, making me just over 50 pounds total.

I am hoping and praying that as I lose weight my blood sugar will be easier to control, and that I will be able to be a little more lax on the carbs.

For now I have been keeping them at 40% of my calories. I am relieved to see that the American Diabetes Association recommends you keep them 50-60% of your total intake.

Of course that should probably mean I need to just eat more fruits, but of course I want to go for the bread!

Here is a funny story: today I had some WONDERFUL cantaloupe, and it was absolutely heaven. It was just what I needed. Well...I went onlien to see how many carbs were in it..and was floored to see it was 45 grams. I nearly had a heart attack, until it occured to me that figure was for eating an entire melon

On a more personal level, I have been working on my teaching certification. I am an elementary school teacher, and I didn't major in teaching in college, so I am taking an "alternative" path...which means I have this ginormous packet of "competencies" that I need to document. I have all my progress saved to my computer...so I am thinking I need to go and buy a flash drive today!! Boy would that suck if my computer crashed!! (That has happened before....)

Have a great day, ladies!!!

Mel

No RUTH does not take insulin. Lucky Lady. She is well controlled by her eating choices and I think she takes Metformin. Sure she'll be along to correct me soon, if I'm wrong.

MEL, I think you need to learn about slow-acting carbs versus fast-acting carbs. Unfortunately, diet-friendly is not always diabetic-friendly. The less refined a grain is, and the more natural and unrefined a fruit or vegetable is, the lower the Glycemic Index and therefore the more diabetically friendly it is.

The CDA says the same thing as the ADA, but I have to admit that I think 40% is a better goal too; at least for me. I'd suggest that you just try to stay under the 50% mark and stay away from anything highly processed if you can.

Meowee, I simply forgot to eat my lovely home-made veggie soup because I ahd a phone call during dinner. I really am not becoming a complete carnivore.

Mel, I take 1500 g Metformin daily and 2.5 g of glyburide at bedtime - not insulin. I am really focusing on whole foods and very, very seldom eat desserts of any kind, particularly the frankenfood ones like ww desserts. Fruit and yogurt is my dessert of choice.

Frankenfood Haven't heard that one before.

Meowee - Yeah, I pretty much knew the sundae was a bad idea as I was eating it. However the portion was small, and it was less than 30 grams of carbs. You are right, it was probably fast acting carbs. I need to look into maybe some south beach diet treats.

There are some weight watchers chocolate muffins that have five grams of fiber in each one, so I think those would be a better idea...