Type 2 Diabetes Survey

I just took a survey regarding Type 2 Diabetes regarding glucose monitoring. Again, I find myself frustrated because I am not a typical Type 2. I've always exercised. I've always followed a fairly decent diet. Heck, thanks to my Ironman training I now weigh 1 pound more than I did in college when I played volleyball at Western Illinois and THOUGHT I was in the best shape of my life.

Why am I Type 2? Because my pancreas sucks and can't produce enough insulin. Sorry, but it's true.

Anyway, back to the survey which asked about how often I monitor. Well....I know I don't monitor enough. I should monitor daily, several times a day. Before and after meals to see how the carbs affect my blood sugar. Before I exercise to make sure I'm not going to damage my kidneys and after my  workouts to understand the impact of the exercise on my liver and pancreas, but let's face it. Monitoring is expensive.

50 test strips cost over $50/bottle. If I tested as much as I should in order to truly understand what is going on inside of my body I would go through a bottle every 5 days. Really? Does that seem affordable to anyone?

Here is what I do know about my body. My fasting sugars tend to be high in the morning, but especially during my periods. Noted. Carbs are not my friend. I try to stick with a meal plan where I eat protein first, then veggies and then whole grain non-processed carbs. It's not always easy and honestly some days I don't even want to try.

I know that my body reacts differently every day to the various types of exercise. Last year Cheryl & I did the Abe's Amble 10k in Springfield. A hilly course. When we got back to my car to test my blood sugar, it was over 300.....WTF. I mean really!!!

In my ever expanding useless knowledge of what is going on, I've found my liver is dumping glucose into my system because it thinks my body needs it. However, my pancreas is an epic fail and can't keep up. Therefore, high blood sugars. Grrr. I even had a Constant Glucose Monitor for 3 days back in 2010 hoping I'd learn something about my body's reaction to exercise, but I even feel like that was a failure. I needed to keep a detailed log of what I was doing when to understand the charts and graphs. Sure I can look at it and say oh yah I exercised here, but at what point in the exercise did my blood sugar spike?

This is how I'm feeling today. Look out!

OK enough. A little vent and rage going on today. The mysteries of my body and life are kicking me in the butt today. I just needed to get it out of my system so I can re-focus on the things I need and want to do today even though I really just want to curl up with a cup of coffee on my back porch and watch the storm clouds roll in.