December 5, 2006

Some Inspiring Stories

I answered a newbie on another board who had just been diagnosed, mentioning that I knew many people who had been diagnosed with blood sugars far worse than hers who had been able to get completely normal blood sugars.

The lady wrote back that reading that message had made her burst into tears which had not happened even when she'd gotten her diagnosis.

Only when she could believe it wasn't a sentence of death, or blindness, or amputation, could she begin to think about this huge change in her life!

With that in mind, I spent the day combing through 5 years of newsgroup messages, looking for inspirational tales. I've extracted excerpts from postings where people have reported that they have managed to get back to normal blood sugars often from very high initial numbers. (Normal in this case is defined as having an A1c of under 6%, or what people in the alt.support.diabetes newsgroup used to call "The 5% Club.")

The people quoted in these messages have used a variety of techniques to get to normal numbers, cutting carbs, testing blood sugar after meals, medications, exercise, and insulin. What they have in common is that they got there.

Here's the link to some of these stories. If you've been needed some inspiration I hope you'll find it here. And if you have an inspiring story of your own, please let me hear it!
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/16535158.php - The Five Percent Club

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the inspirational stories and your blog. I always check it daily for new tidbits and helpful insights.

Anonymous said...

Hello Jenny,
I was perscribed the regular metformin,last year 500mg, but I had alot of trouble remembering to take it with my evening meals. I stopped taking it because I felt it was worse taking it irregularly during the week and it was best to wait until I saw my doctor. He finally perscribed the metformin ER 500mg version and I still have the problem of knowing when I should take it because the doctor's info. of when it should be taken and the drugest instructions differ. I'm confused if it's okay to take it at any time during the day, or in the morning with my breakfast and with my blood pressure medication or do I have to take it with evening meals???? My sugar is the highest in the evenings but that's when I forget to take it so I'm hoping to be able to take it with my breakfast plus no one has mentioned what effect it will have, if any, with my blood pressure medication of Avapro 300mg
Confused in Florida

Jenny said...

If there is a differnce between what your doctor told you and what your druggist told you, you must call your doctor's office and ask to talk to the nurse. Explain your question and have her consult with the doctor.

With metformin most of us find very little difference in how it acts if we take the prescribed total amount each day. Splitting doses may make a bit of difference in when our blood sugar is highest, but not a dramatic difference.