Comment by Brian (bsc) on January 17, 2011 at 10:28am

Welcome to the community. I know you didn't come here because everything is just peachy. Diabetes is difficult, we all know that and share that with you. Please be patient, there is a lot that this community can offer, information and people you can talk to who understand what you are going through.

For some years, I've been drink flavored water. I have well water and I use a lot of the crystal lights, I buy them in bulk at costco and drink them at about half strength. I also buy large costco natural lemon juices and mix lemon juice and stevia for my own lemonade. There is nothing wrong with diet sodes, but I actually have come to believe that our brains crave sweetness, so even if you just drink just diet sodas you can still feek adicted to the sweet taste. I do think it is important to stay hydrated, if you become dehydrated it can make you sick and susceptible to DKA. And drinking diet sodas is by far better than that.

I do hope you stick around. We really are a good bunch.

Comment by Frances on January 17, 2011 at 11:09am

It shouldn't be that hard to find something to eat. All of us can come up with "reasons" why our diabetes should be hard to control. What steps have you taken so far besides trying to cut down on the sugar sodas?

Comment by Gerri on January 17, 2011 at 12:08pm

I've found that skipping breakfast makes BG higher. Not eating causes a continuation of the dawn phenonmenon. Know how it is being a student & working, but eating on regular schedule, as regular as you can, is important in managing diabetes.

Pizza is an incredibly difficult food to cover with insulin because it's a deadly combo of fat & carbs. The fat causes slowed digestion, so carbs hit much later & often after the insulin for that meal is gone. Ditch the pizza.

Check out www.bloodsugar101.com. It's a great place to start. Sliding scale is not accurate & outmoded. Counting carbs isn't difficult. You have to know how much insulin covers how many carbs. That's called your insulin:carb ratio. Doctors start patients out on a 1:15 ratio. One unit of insulin for every 15 carbs. From there, it's adjusted because everyone is different. You also need to learn your insulin senstivity factor. That's how much 1 unit of insulin lowers your BG to correct highs. A wonderful book is Using Insulin by John Walsh.

Comment by Alice on January 17, 2011 at 12:09pm

Water gives me a stomach ache. Mystery! My dad also. Try bottled water with electrolytes added, such as SmartWater. Drink slowly, goes down easy. H2O with electrolytes also got rid of late night charley-horses.

Comment by catlover on January 17, 2011 at 12:09pm

Perhaps you could find something other than pizza to have for lunch. Many diabetics find that pizza spikes their BS quite a bit. Maybe a salad or a tuna sandwich or a container of yogurt could be used in place of the pizza. Also, maybe you could pick up a book with carb values so you could select your food based on the amount of carbs that it has. It seems that you dealt with the problem of soda successfully, this can be dealt with as well. There are always going to be situations which arise regarding food and drink when you are a diabetic, but they can be addressed and handled successfully. As bsc said stick around we are a very helpful bunch of people who truly want to see you succeed.

Comment by MzBruner on January 17, 2011 at 12:39pm

I definitely plan on sticking around :) Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I'm going to talk to my doctor about instilling a carb/insulin ratio like I had when I was younger. That was the easiest for me to follow but since I've switched doctors they haven't given me a new one. I'm also going to take the advice and try a salad or yogurt for lunch instead of the pizza. All suggestions and advice are welcome and appreciated. Thanks again.

Comment by catlover on January 17, 2011 at 12:46pm

I forgot to say - make the yogurt a "light" one. Regular yogurt has too many carbs, "light" usually has around 15grams of carbs/ container.

Comment by stooovie on January 17, 2011 at 1:32pm

There's no such thing as perfect diabetes control. The ultimate goal is to achieve good enough control without sacrificing quality of life. There are few things you NEED to just give up - sugar soda is one of them. Period. No going around with that, sorry.

Right now, my BG is 16 mmol (288 mg/dl), because I had some beers. It's a really high BG, but there's little harm to your body if you do that only every now and then and your BG is normally in range.

Giving up pizza and similar foods that aren't recommended for PWDs isn't that hard. It's just food. You can have pizza from time to time, if you manage to work it into your diet and give yourself proper dose of insulin. Certainly not every day. That's really unhealthy for anyone, even people without diabetes.

Comment by Frances on January 17, 2011 at 6:22pm

Not to hijack, but do you really think a 288 causes no harm? I would have thought it would definitely cause microvascular harm.

Comment by stooovie on January 17, 2011 at 8:34pm

Well of course I do. But if your levels are good otherwise, there's no need to deprive Oneself of a guilt pleasure from time to time. You know, to reward yourself for good work. Being obsessive about BG levels and guilty whenever you eat a gram of sugar is much worse for your mental health (and therefore health as a whole) than an occassional 288. Real danger comes from long periods of elevated BG and/or wild fluctuation, not ocassional, isolated spike.

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