Each month Dr. Levy-Kern smiled when she read my logbook showing a much lower blood sugar level than the previous month; or frowned when the glucose level rose.
In addition to daily pricking my fingertips, Dr. Levy-Kern ordered a hospital glycated hemoglobin blood test, or HbAIC, which gave a three to four month average blood sugar reading.
She explained that HbAIC tests measure how much sugar is attached to protein in the red blood cells, which have a life-span of three months – hence the three-month averaging of sugar level in the blood as determined in the laboratory.
I discovered that pricking a few times daily is truly meaningful. In the morning before breakfast my reading is mostly low; after lunch my blood sugar surges higher than expected. Before dinner the sugar level can be normal but after dinner, the glucose also surges within two hours.
Controlling Fluctuations of Diabetes Blood Glucose, Healing and Preventing Nerve Damage with Baby’s Milk
In the beginning it annoyed me no end to prick my fingers. I realized, however, doing so made me aware of the fluctuating glucose level which I had to avoid and control to prevent complications that could damage my body organs. The fluctuations of my glucose levels in different hours of the day made me realize that pricking my fingers just once daily was a grave risk. I began to appreciate the value, even though it depressed me immensely.
By this time I had a new family physician, Dr. Thomas Scuderi, who also treats diabetics. I explained my feelings to him. After examining me and reading my logbook which reflected stable glucose levels, he finally reduced the finger pricking to three times a day; then twice a day. However, even pricking myself once a day became exasperating for me. I simply couldn’t do it any more.
He finally agreed for me to prick my fingers three times a week – once every other day – on condition that on those days, my glucose level remain stable and that I strictly observe my Food Exchange Plan. I gratefully agreed.
As ordered, I strictly observed my food intake, dutifully took my prescribed medications and exercised moderately as required.
When I detected low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), I immediately pricked my finger. When the meter showed low blood sugar, confirming my suspicion, I took two glucose tablets which I keep with me everywhere I go during the day and on my side of the bed at night. Their melting in my mouth reduces my weakness and stops my profuse cold sweats and makes me feel warm again. Low glucose (hypoglycemic) makes me hungry and thirsty but the glucose tablets reduce my weakness and recharge my energy. As a result, I could easily go to the kitchen for toast, unsalted crackers and a half glass of orange juice.
During hypoglycemia attacks which happen often in my sleep, I can hardly get out of bed to walk to the kitchen for those unsalted crackers and orange juice.
How do I detect hypoglycemia when I am deeply asleep? Cold perspiration soaks my pajamas and wakes me up.
When I continue feeling cold all over even after taking glucose tablets and wearing extra clothing, I call Dr. Scuderi who usually asks me to report to his clinic for observation.
When I detect high blood glucose (hyperglycemia) by heavy-labored breathing when I am not doing anything; nausea; body aches, I immediately prick my fingertips to see if my blood sugar rose very high. When it does, I immediately take water preferably, followed by a couple of hours of rest and sleep. When I wake up feeling my blood sugar is still high, I prick my fingertips to see how high. I always make a doctor’s appointment when the blood sugar remains high. On a few occasions while under observation at Dr. Scuderi’s clinic when my blood sugar remains high (over 250 mg/dl), I was given insulin injection which lowered my blood glucose in one to two hours, after which I felt fine again.
Controlling Fluctuations of Diabetes Blood Glucose, Healing and Preventing Nerve Damage with Baby’s Milk
Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) happens over hours and days. It gives you time to observe symptoms and call for help.
Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) happens fast, leaving minutes to an hour to attend to it. Unattended low blood glucose causes coma or death but it is preventable. Low blood sugar is more dangerous than high blood sugar. The danger of low blood sugar is the main reason I refuse to take the mildest sleeping pills during nights when sleep eludes me. What if my blood sugar went dangerously low? I might not wake up at all.
Hyperglycemia happens over hours and days, giving me 24 hours to observe my symptoms and to call my physician or rush to the emergency room when my blood sugar does not go down to an acceptable level after all the precautions detailed in this book have been observed.
Both high and low blood sugar are dangerous when neglected. My response to both is eternal vigilance. My body warns me. Testing my glucose level confirms those warnings mentioned in this book and I heed them.
During a monthly consultation in the earlier years, my diabetic specialist assumed, correctly, that I had been diabetic before I was medically diagnosed. Therefore, very high blood sugar for years, which led to the phone call from Dr. Klepacki, possibly caused nerve damage or diabetic neuropathies which caused the painful tingling in my hands, legs, thighs and all-over aches and pains.
My family physician and diabetic specialist, in consultation with each other, referred me for a general physical examination, consisting of more X-rays; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); ultrasound of my arms, shoulders, legs, eyes, ears, nose, throat and thyroid glands; urinalysis and cholesterol to discover the causes of my aches and pains and possible undiagnosed illnesses.
Those exams revealed no organ damage. However, my diabetic specialist concluded that my aches and pains were due to nerve damage in the periphery of my legs, brought on by my diabetes. Neuropathies are difficult to treat, much less prevent when patients don’t fully cooperate. “There she goes again,” I thought ruefully, biting my lips to prevent myself from arguing.
I knew what she meant. She meant that my aches and pains or nerve damage were because I stopped pricking my fingertips 4 to 6 times daily. She argued against reducing those prickings as allowed by Dr. Scuderi to once a day even when my logbook consistently showed a stable glucose.
I believe that these aches and pains had been with me for a long time before I was diagnosed as diabetic.
How can these neuropathies be prevented now by pricking my fingertips?
Why won’t she just remedy my problems?
I just suffered in silence morosely.
CHAPTER II Exercise
My family physician and diabetic specialist could not overemphasize the importance of regular exercise, light or moderate, and especially walking even only 20 minutes around the block to prevent leg muscles from stiffening and to avert nerve damage to the periphery of the legs.
How did nerve damage affect my legs before I was diagnosed with diabetes if exercise would avert it? I did a lot of walking from the house to the bus stop and back home three blocks away while commuting to work. There was no public transportation near Hazlet, where I live. People in neighboring areas catch the New Jersey Transit train in the next town. Trains that stop at the Hazlet station pick up passengers from every little station. One cannot ride these trains and arrive on time for work. There were buses that went mostly to New York City, but they pass the highway one mile away. I used to work in Newark, New Jersey. Going there by bus was very cumbersome. From New York I had to take a bus to Jersey City which came every half hour, then wait twenty minutes in Journal Square for the bus to Newark.
To avoid this hassle, we commuters from Hazlet petitioned the Academy Bus Company to provide service to Newark. A single bus was provided from Hazlet at 6:15 A.M. and from Newark at 5:45 P.M.
In Newark, the bus dropped