Mrs. D. you asked:

"Are you using RX drugs?"

Only Lantus and Lisinopril. Hard to believe in this day and age. All of my friends take 10 pills a day and various injections of this or that. I think it's my sprouts that are saving me. I really do.

Melody

I found this page today...and find it answers some of your questions, Mel.

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/16422495.php

The bottom line is that people vary. There is no one answer.

Mrs. D.

Hands down the BEST article on Diabetes I have ever seen. I especially loved the following paragraphs:

"It takes work and study to bring diabetic and prediabetic blood sugars down to the normal, truly healthy levels. If you rely only on pills and do nothing else, the only blood sugar levels you will be able to get to are the much-too-high "good enough for a diabetic" levels which, as you can see elsewhere on this site, are "good enough" only if you think neuropathy, retinopathy and a heart attack are "good enough."

Though your doctor may think you are too lazy to do the work needed to get normal blood sugars and may not bother explain to you what it takes to achieve normal numbers, people with diabetes CAN and DO attain these normal blood sugar numbers. You can, too. If you want some inspiration, check out this page: The 5% Club: They Normalized Their Blood Sugars and So Can You.

Can't wait to further explore the other links in this article.

I'm sharing this with all of my diabetic friends. And I have many. I have one friend who takes 1 shot of Lantus 80, 3 shots of Humulog, oral pills, AND MANY OTHER MEDS. And when she wakes up, her sugar is 281????.

Yesterday I explained about the Fenugreek Tea. I said "what have you got to lose?, you just might wake up and it could be under 200, and that would be a start, you really need to get your a1c down from 10"

She was interested. I gave her some seeds. I then spoke to her in the evening and asked "did you make the tea?" and she said "no, I'll do it tomorrow, I'm going to watch a dvd". I said 'but that takes 5 minutes and this is your life we are talking about". She said 'Oh, I don't care I want to watch tv"

So I said "okay, have a good night and that was that".

Why a person who after 4 shots, and oral meds, wakes up to find her sugar is 281 and she's not scared. I HAVE NO IDEA. I just don't get it all all.

Melody

Mrs. D.

One quick question before I do the binge thing tomorrow. I know we discussed that it could be one meal (even though people do a binge weekend.

Can I do a binge day? What confuses me is that I'm not sure if I should be adding carbs to my breakfast lunch and dinner.

I know what I'm having for lunch and for dinner. The only carb for dinner will be the potato. The steak and wine and veggies will balance it out, the steak is fat, the potato is carb and the wine is the wine, and since I never eat this way, I call it a binge.

Now the breakfast, here is where I get confused.

I want to have a completely different Monday than I do the rest of the week. So Monday (let's call it Melody's binge day), I'm not sure if my breakfast should be carbs or the Atkins method.

So if I binge on Monday morning, do I have a well toasted scooped out bagel with cream cheese (Haven't eat one of those in YEARS), or do I have 2 eggs with a slice of cheese and some bacon). No carbs in that.

Because I'm diabetic and this is one day, I'm not sure if the binge should be a carb binge or an Atkins binge.

Once I get this down pat I'll know what I'm doing. But tomorrow morning is the first breakfast of my weekly binge thing.

I don't do cereal, oatmeal or french toast. With syrup (yuck). Haven't eaten that in years. I could do oatmeal, but that's a binge?? Don't think so. I'm supposed to shock my metabolism. Wouldn't bacon eggs and cheese do this? And no carbs, so it wouldn't spike blood sugar, right?

This is the last question I'll ask on this binge thing. Once I know what I'm doing, I'LL DO IT!!! lol

Thanks much

Melody

I think the answers will come with your testing that day and the following.

You could do 1/2 bagel...for that breakfast with eggs and some meat of your choice.

I am testing my blood sugars in preparation for the Glumetza to start. I am finding a huge "dawn phenomenon" effect. My highest sugars are then. Then I go down the rest of the day to 120-102.
This must be why my A1C is 6.2.

Today I am 10 pts higher at every reading than yesterday. And eating mostly the same things. And I get really hungry at 4pm-6pm, so I am doing nuts then, to take the edge off.

I had a small piece of steak and one serving of lentils, and some beets (this was a very filling meal)... and today I was at 150! (no night snack).

So I've been looking up dawn phenomenon, and they say to test sugar at 2am or so to see if it is elevated. It not, then it is dawn, if it is, then something else is going on. (we eat dinner around 6:30 to 7pm).

If my "dawn continues" I will take the Glumetza at night only to start. I am to do 500mg a day, to see how the side effects are.
I'll do that for a week and see how the fastings are. I won't test so many times a day since I see a definite rhythm with my daily tests.

As far as you are concerned, don't forget the lemon juice or grapefruit...it is THAT which opens the receptors for the treat meal.

Keep your portions reasonable, and you should be okay I predict. I am suspecting this "treat day" is more for weight loss than sugar control. I'd keep the breakfast as uncarb as possible. (you have some dawn carbs already when you wake up) But try a modest carb lunch, see what happens, instead.

Okay, what do you mean I have some dawn carbs already when I wake up? What does this mean?

And I know all about dawn phenomenon. Had that for years when I went to the Accord program and even after.They explained the liver dumping. I never really understood it until I did a lot of research. Only the past 6 months or so (and I don't know why), but the fenugreek is really doing a number on the dawn phenomenon. Try making the tea from the seeds. Let is steep for a while and drink a half cup before bed time (I cannot believe that I am giving YOU advice). lol

Oh, I wasn't actually going to test my sugar on the day of the binge, didn't want to accidentally blow my mind. But I've gotten really good numbers lately so I'll continue to test. It's a mind thing for some people. They don't want to see the high numbers so they don't test.

But I have been very lucky in my numbers so yes indeed, this is a weight loss thing so I have to see where this takes me.

Since a bagel is 55 grams of carbs and a roll is NOT 55 grams of carbs, I think I'll have a bacon and egg on a roll tomorrow morning. That should be a little bit of a binge. I can't order one half a bagel with an egg and bacon. I'd have to pay for a whole bagel. And since having a roll has never impacted my sugar, well I'll have the roll.

Lunch will be no carb but different and you know what my dinner will be.

Just tell me please why I have dawn carbs going on?

And do try the tea, hey it's working for everybody that I know.

Melody

You always posted about your morning sugars... I thought you had the "dawn" thing going.

I am going to look for further information about the fenugreek.

But I did find this about alcohol:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/con.../3011.abstract

This is something I would enjoy doing!

I would test your blood just before you eat lunch, and dinner. This will show the effects of the carb you ate the meal before on your glucose.
That will suggest whether you can have the carbs at all. If it goes down before the next meal, you are handling them okay.

Well, for the past two weeks, (when I had the egg on a roll), before Lunch I would test and it was 104, but no higher than 120. For the past week, my morning reading has been 75, 78, 98, etc. I dropped one point of the Lantus (actually 2), and now I'm on 12 and one half.

But I'll check tomorrow. I believe that because I drink the Fenugreek tea, that's why I'm 75 in the a.m. I used to be 180. No more. Not since the Fenugreek. Actually not for a while, and I have no idea why. Maybe I lost a few pounds. You know how I eat. I don't cheat. And I walk. My clothes fit me much better. I'm scared to weigh myself because I don't like what I weigh but I'll do that some day.

The dawn carb thing, oh that's what dawn phenomenon actually means, that I have morning carbs in my system? Never saw it like that.

And do look into the Fenugreek. It's cheap, the Indian stores sell it. It's called Methi seeds. Just get a pot, add a few cups of water, throw in a teaspoon of the seeds, bring to boil, let it simmer for 10 minutes or so, and you'll see the color of the water. Pour into a cup and well, I keep it out all day. I just sip it once in a while and the most important thing I do is take a few sips before I go to sleep. So far it's doing the trick.

Best of luck.

Melody

Well my 3 dawns fasting have been 143, 134, and today 150!

From then on my sugars are pretty good. Today before dinner was 108.

I've been reading about the two causes of Fasting highs.

The Dawn factor

Somogyi Effect

here is a link explaining them.
http://www.libraryfordiabetes.com/ne...cfm?NewsID=233

Tonight I had shrimp and butternut squash.

I'll wake up and take a reading around 1-2am and see what is happening.

I took hubby's Fasting today and it was 82. So the meter does seem to read accurately. I ordered from Medco some control solution to test it out. Do you ever check yours?
I have a One Touch Ultra mini meter.

I check mine from time to time. I also take Alan's and it always coincides with his blood tests (he gets one every 3 months). His is usually 80 to 85. The man always says "If I was diabetic, they'd pay for my shoes and orthotics"

I now have a Bayer meter.

Oh, while I did the research about Fenugreek I did read about if one takes a thyroid medication, one should not take too much fenugreek because it interferes with T3 to T4 conversion (I hope I got that part correct).

But they always mention that side effect, if a person takes A HUGE AMOUNT of the stuff. I just take a teaspoon and make tea. I have no thyroid problem (that I know of), Never did. Never had anything show up in a blood test. Funny, my mother had a thyroid operation when I was 14. She had a tumor. I have no idea if she took any medication after that. She never mentioned this to me. My son is on Armor. Funny, it seems to have skipped me.

Thank god all my parts are still functioning and I'm losing weight and controlling my blood sugar. I know, as we age, this will change, but I always hope for the best.

Melody