Today was  my first day back to work since I was admitted to the hospital. It went about as well as you would expect. My good friends, those who were with me (either physically or in spirit) since I went to the ER, gave me the kind of grief I would expect. Just enough to be funny, just shy of being asses about it. My other colleagues treated me with the expected level of respect, telling me how good I looked, that they were glad I was still alive, all that stuff.

I’d say the hardest part about today was avoiding the snacking that I’ve become accustom to over the past 17 years. Usually when I’m at my desk I can have a light snack, be it a piece of candy, maybe some chips, whatever I wanted to eat. Granted I wouldn’t gorge, but it was nice to have the freedom to reach over and grab something.

I was really tempted today when I went into my director’s office to see give her an update on how I was doing. In the middle of her office she has a table, on which is a bowl with candy. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, small Snickers, and other little candies were just laying there, begging to be eaten. Previously I would have just grabbed one of the candies and taken it back to my desk. Almost out of habit I reached for one today, then had to stop myself. This is really going to be a challenge, changing years of built-up behaviors.

To be fair, I have a great support system. One of my best friends at work (in spite of the fact that we give each other non-stop grief), who used to have a drawer full of candy, willingly purged his candy supply while I was gone. He knew I liked to sneak over when I was feeling a bit hungry and snag some candies, and knew that getting rid of them was for my benefit. Got to love good friends.

With that being said, I noticed that I wasn’t really as “snacky” today. There was the habitual need to grab something, sure, but I wasn’t actually that hungry today. Nor was I that thirsty. It used to be (prior to my hospitalization) that I would always have a cup of water next to my computer, a cup that I would be refilling once every 30 minutes or so. Today I drank maybe one cupful. I guess there really was a problem!

Today was the first day since I was discharged where I had to take more than one dose of insulin before a meal. Before lunch my sugars were at 177 and before dinner it was at 182, both of which forced me to take two units of insulin each time. There was a point, too, when I felt my head starting to hurt a bit around two or three hours after lunch. Taking a look at my sugars, I found that I was around 200. Ouch! Taking a walk around my office for a few minutes seemed to help a bit, but it was definitely a bit high today.

For the past few days I’ve been taking my snack at night before my bedtime sugars, which I’m wondering might have caused my nighttime highs. Today I shifted my snack to the morning to see what impact that might have. Nothing big, just two carb units. It could account for my high pre-lunch numbers, but probably not my pre-dinner numbers. For my nighttime snack I found something that is high in protein and basically a “gimme” with the carbs. I’ll say that the snack made me pretty full for the night.

Speaking of food, I have a couple of new diabetic cookbooks. My wife and I made one of the recipes this evening using chicken, green beans, broccoli, and bow tie pasta with some mayo and pepper mixed in.

The prepared meal was about 30g of carbs, so coupled with my 16oz of milk and two small cookies, I hit my carb target for the night. I felt pretty full afterward, too, which was always one of my concerns about cooking in a diabetic lifestyle. And for those who are worried, that’s a salad plate, not a full dinner-sized plate (the perspective of the picture makes it look bigger); I had about 1.25 cups of the pasta.

Overall a pretty good day. A little tiring, but it’s about what I expected it would be…