Diagnosed

I just got diagnosed on Friday with Diabetes type 1.  Given that this used to be called Juvenile Diabetes, and I turn 32 in a month, you can imagine this was *not* the news I was expecting to hear from my doctor! Most people are diagnosed much, much younger.

I have to admit, when the doctor told me the news I held it together for about 15 minutes as he explained how insulin works in a functioning body, and how I would need to administer pre-meal insulin shots (3 times a day, plus a bedtime shot!0 for the foreseeable future.  I did not shed a tear… until he said the words, ‘no snacks.’  This would not be the cause of tears for most people, but for me it was terrible. I love food. LOVE food! Granted, this no snacking policy is only for the next month, as my blood sugar levels need to stabilize so my doctor can determine my baseline levels.  In fact, for the next month I am restricted to:

• No snacking
• No exercise (I’m sad about this too. Good stress reliever)
• No desert
• No alcohol

Some of these will be harder to keep than others.

In case you were wondering just how bad things were: in a functioning body, the fasting blood sugar level is 90-100.  Mine was 301.  I am fortunate that I have medical insurance, and I have a doctor that so far seems amazing: I was diagnosed Friday and he had me call every day over the weekend and have him paged to check in; and he adjusted my insulin levels based on my feedback.  The good news is that the levels are gong way down: this morning I was at 119. The bad news is that I really don’t know how to eat.  Like, seriously.  I did not know lettuce had carbs.  Carbs are apparently going to be my be-all end-all for a while, since the amount of insulin I take pre-meal needs to be calculated based on the amount of carbohydrates that will be in my meal.  This will make eating out kind of tricky.  For that matter, it will take eating in tricky! Wish me luck as I learn to manage.

♥ The Diabetic Foodie