Three Bits of Good News!

Today was another important day, mainly because I had my first appointment at the Lifestyle Center. Specifically, I met with Julie, who is an incredibly patient, knowledgeable, and kind diabetic nurse educator. I started off by filling out 6 or 7 pages of health, diet, and exercise history, then she checked my weight and blood pressure, and finally, we had the actual consultation. Of course, she looked at my blood sugar readings from the last week, and we talked some about exactly how my body is falling apart to cause type 2 diabetes.

Again, it's a little weird to be on the other side of the table. I mean, I don't know how many times I have done teaching for new diabetics while I was in Critical Care. But now that it's happening to me, I'm finding that there are some major holes in my knowledge base. While I am pretty much on top of the pathophysiology and pharmacological treatment of diabetes, along with being exceedingly skilled at stuff like checking blood sugars and giving subcutaneous injections, what I lack is the real, practical knowledge of how to manage this disease.

While I generally knew the type of diet that I'm supposed to eat, actually building a menu and making consistently good food choices just wasn't connecting in my brain. And that's where Julie just excelled in our time together. She gave me general guidelines for meals and snacks, as far as servings and serving sizes of different food types. But more than that, she also gave real, concrete examples of what meals might look like (quite literally, since she even used some fake, plastic food as visual aids). Before I left, she even had me put together a couple of meals, just to make sure that the information had taken root in my brain.

We also got me signed up for the series of diabetes classes that Gwen and I will be coming to in September and October. I'm really glad that she'll be able to come with me to those, because most of these changes are going to be for the both of us (and Samantha as she's growing up).

But there's a little more good news about today! As I mentioned in my last post, my fasting sugars have been down about 100 points from where they were pre-medication. Tonight, when I checked it a couple of hours after supper, my sugar was down to 116! I was pretty blown away, because I had no idea that my glucose might get back into the normal range so quickly (especially after a meal). I ate a bedtime snack (of peanut butter and vanilla wafers), and I'm interested to see what my sugar will do overnight.

And finally, the last cool thing is that we are leaving for vacation tomorrow! Gwen and I have been packing all evening, and we take off for North Myrtle Beach just after we all wake up and get ready in the morning. Since we stay in one of the oldest freaking hotels in town, however, I doubt that they will have internet access (we're probably lucky that they have in-room telephones). If that's so, I obviously won't be able to post anything before next weekend.

So, armed with my new-found knowledge about meal plans, I'm throwing myself neck-deep into the fire as I will be faced with all kinds of culinary temptations while on vacation. Wish me luck!