Saturday, December 3, 2011

How Was Your Thanksgiving?

Diabetes can make Thanksgiving challenging. Which is surprising, you know, because it makes everything else SO EASY.

Anyway, this year we went over to a friend's house, which was lovely, because then I didn't have to clean. I still had to cook some stuffing, but that's OK, because it's one thing I can cook, and it's divine. Really.

Well, I bolused and ate the main meal. (and by "bolused" I mean "guessed completely" because I wasn't about to ask people exactly how much sugar they put in their yams and apples. Turns out: a lot).

An hour later they brought out the pie. Often I skip the desserts completely, because the GUESSING! Oh, the GUESSING, which leads to the SWINGING, which leads to the MIGRAINES, and leads to ALL CAPS, and my husband has to put up with my WHINING. But this is Thanksgiving and pie is required. The end. Well, I checked my sugars and saw slightly over 200. Oy. I guess the mealtime bolus was what we call "not great."

A GOOD diabetic would have waited until her sugars came down, or politely declined. A BAD diabetic would have just bolused more and attacked the pumpkin chiffon pie.

And as I ate piles of sugar with a starting bg of 204, I thought "May God have mercy on my kidneys." And He did. Because an hour later, I was 103, and the sugars stayed stable the rest of the day. But for the record, I have never taken more insulin in one day than I did this year on turkey day for one meal.

Pie. It's what helps. Who knew? How was your day?

5 comments:

  1. I totally understand the difficulty of controlling blood sugars around Thanksgiving.

    I'm Type II and something that my educator told me about is that drinking diluted vinegar (or lemon juice, or lime, etc.) can help bring down high blood sugars. It tastes nasty and makes me shake and shiver and about gag. But it does bring my sugars down 10-20 pts in about 30 minutes. Not sure if that is helpful to you or not.

    Glad your pie was yummy and didn't send you off on roller coaster land.

    Cynthia

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  2. You sound like my husband...except for the testing beforehand. If I am lucky, he tests once before the meal. Then it is wild bolus's until he feels like he is back in range again...Nice huh?

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  3. Sara - Usually I'm good! I promise! I don't like guessing. But the holidays make you do what you have to do.

    Cynthia - I have never heard of that. I wonder why it works - drinking what is essentially acid. Changing the ph lowers sugars? That is intriguing. I midht have to try that, although it does sound kind of gaggy.

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  4. It is gaggy...colder is better (and apple cider is an improvement over white) and it is more tolerable if it is REALLY dilute...but it drags out the gaggy-ness. So sometimes it is a toss-up but it does work.

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