You can't eat that

My husband and I co-own a children’s performing arts academy with his brother and our sister-in-law. We just completed production week for our two spring musicals. These weeks are very intense for us and amount to working about 140 hours in nine days. This time it was around 160 hours. In a different post I will go into the details of how this affects my body. But for now I will just say, it is the reason for my lack of posts over the past two weeks.

In my last post I spoke about my diabetes diagnosis and in this one I will begin to talk about my treatment and my life with the disease.

As I mentioned in my last post, the ladies at The Endocrine Group spoke to me about ‘carb counting’. One problem for those who have diabetes is the misunderstanding that “as long as it is sugar free, I can eat it.” The problem is that not everything that is “sugar free” is free of carbohydrates. It isn’t just the simple sugars that cause the blood sugar to spike, but also the complex carbohydrates.

A brief lesson on the difference between the two:

Simple carbohydrates are easily, and quickly, digested. Simple carbohydrates very often contain refined sugars and do not contain as many essential vitamins and minerals. Fruits, juice, sugary candy, yogurt, plain sugar, and milk are examples of simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates cause blood glucose levels to spike soon after consumption.

Complex carbohydrates take longer to break down, making the digestion process slower. They generally contain fiber, vitamins and minerals. Complex carbohydrates include vegetables, cereals, breads, legumes, and pasta. Complex carbohydrates take longer to absorb into the bloodstream, therefore the glucose levels do not spike immediately after consumption.

So, let’s take a look at a bag of Hershey’s Sugar Free Chocolates. One serving of the miniature sugar free bars contains 24 carbohydrates. This is the same as consuming eight ounces of orange juice. Now, someone who is diabetic would obviously take insulin for the orange juice, or perhaps not even drink it. However, they might not know to take insulin for something labeled ‘sugar free’, even though it has the same amount of carbohydrates as the orange juice. Do you see how this could be misleading? More than misleading, it really confuses the general public and solidifies their belief that diabetics shouldn’t eat sugar.

The treatment for Type 1 Diabetes has really changed over the years, but not a lot of people realize it. I find this frustrating and I get soooo tired of being asked, “Can you eat that?” in a way that sounds like I am poisoning myself. I know those asking the question really have my best interest in mind and genuinely do not want me to eat something that could harm me. However, I just want to scream, “I’VE BEEN LIVING WITH THIS DISEASE FOR OVER 10 YEARS. DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF?!?!?!?” I always refrain and instead try to take a moment to educate the nagging concerned individual about diabetes and carb counting. If you have ever asked me this, please don’t feel bad. No hard feelings.

A couple of nights ago I went with my parents to Neuro Night. Neuro Night is hosted by the Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience. It is a monthly series featuring professionals from the community. Each month they focus on a different topic and this month the topic was, “The Brain and Diabetes.” One of the speakers told a story of a 15 year old boy with Type 1 Diabetes. He said the boy nearly starved at boy scout camp, because every time he would try and eat his leader would say, “Son, you can’t eat that. You are diabetic.” This is another example of how the treatment for the disease has changed, without the rest of the world realizing it.

Carb counting is a pretty accurate term. You do exactly what it says: you count carbs. The ratio varies from person to person. For every 15 grams of carbohydrates, I take one unit of insulin. This is really easy to do when eating packaged food. All you do is look at the label and do the math. It becomes a little more complicated when eating out or cooking at home. I have learned to guess pretty accurately on most foods. You learn over time how many carbs are in mashed potatoes, a piece of bread, strawberries, etc.

I have an insulin pump, so I can actually take as little as a tenth of a unit of insulin. This allows me to be very precise in the amount of insulin I take. There is a lot to say about my pump, so I will leave it for another post.

diabetes diagnosis

Flashback to 1992. It was September. I was 13 and in the 8th grade. One of my closest friends, Chelsea, had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes several months before. We were musical theatre kids and I remember her mom coming to rehearsals and giving her a shot backstage. I thought being diagnosed with diabetes had to be one of the worst things imaginable. Remember, I was 13 and also thought getting braces would, “ruin my life!”

That September my mom received a phone call from one of our teachers. Chelsea had passed away. My friend, who was so young and immensely talented, was gone. Just like that. In an instant her life was over. She had the flu, which affected her blood sugars and she died from complications. This was my mental image of diabetes for a long time. Death.

Skipping ahead many years, and several thousand diet cokes later, to the spring of 2000. I was 20, in my junior year of college and not feeling so great. For a month, or so, I couldn’t keep enough liquid in my mouth. I would drink anything near me, suck on candy, eat ice cream, etc. I tried it all. I had to go to the bathroom all of the time and was having terrible lower back pains. I stayed home from class, because I could hardly get out of bed. I finally made an appointment with the doctor when I realized I lost seven pounds in a 24 hour period. I knew something was wrong at that point.

I went into the doctor and he drew some blood. He called me back the next day and told me he would like me to come back in. I met my mom there, with a very sugary smoothie in hand, and they gave us the news that changed my life. I had Type 1 Diabetes. Death.

The doctor left the room for a minute and I teared up. All I could think about was Chelsea. I knew I wasn’t going to die from diabetes, but it had been my mental image for eight years.

Those with Type 1 Diabetes do not produce enough insulin to control their blood sugar levels. Basically, insulin is like a key. The body uses glucose (sugar) as fuel and without insulin to ‘unlock’ it, the body resorts to using fat as fuel. This leads to diabetic ketoacidosis and sugars begin to spill into the urine and major weight loss occurs. This is what happened to me.

A normal blood glucose level is between 70–130 mg/dl prior to eating. Mine was almost 700 at the time of diagnosis. For years, those with diabetes just took their insulin at specific times throughout the day. They had to be very careful with what they ate. They couldn’t eat anything with a lot of sugar, as it would spike their blood sugar. Thankfully, things have really changed.

My PCP connected us with a group of doctors called, The Endocrine Group. We met with a nutritionist and a nurse first. They both were Type 1. They spent time explaining the disease and how it would affect my life. They taught me how to “carb count”, which I am so thankful for.

More to come later…..