Reading, Reading, Reading

One of the things I’ve found since being diagnosed with diabetes is that there is a lot of information out there. Discussion forums, articles, med students who just learned something and wanted to share it. There’s no shortage of information for new diabetics, but damn can it be scary at the same time. With so many opinions and ideas out there, it’s hard to know which is the right when and which one should actually make you panic.

It’s hard for me to not look at some of this information and instantly send a message to my PCP. Trust me, I’ve been tempted, but I have been able to show some restraint. For now. I’m sure as it gets more confusing that I’ll have to be “that patient” for a little bit. Thankfully the office I go to encourages questions, so why not abuse the privilege a bit?

With all the information floating around, I did find one golden nugget: A book called Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. It has pretty good reviews and came highly recommended on a couple of forums I visit. I ordered the book on Saturday on Amazon Prime, expecting to get it yesterday. Because of the kind of luck I have with this disease, it was delayed until today. I guess I didn’t read the page count when I ordered the book, but it must be at least 12,000 pages. Just a little bit of light reading. If I’m not an expert in diabetes by the end, I’ll be surprised.

Test Strips, Where Art Thou?

Coming to the end of the test strips they gave me at the hospital, I knew it was time for a refill. My PCP put through a prescription for my local pharmacy (yes, my favorite pharmacy in the whole world!) and I received a call the same day asking for clarification as to which meter I was using. That was on Wednesday of last week.

During our weekly shopping trip on Saturday, I asked for my strips. “Well…” the technician said, “our distribution center doesn’t stock strips for your meter.” Oh, goody. On the plus side, he said they were calling my PCP to get guidance on what they wanted to do. Great, I said. I had a enough strips to get me through for a little bit, so I can wait a few more days.

I called today, and nowhere in my record was there any indication that they were going to be calling my provider. Really, pharmacy?!? Maybe it’s time to switch?

On the plus side, I learned that my provider really doesn’t care which meter I use and apparently consistency with the same meter really doesn’t matter that much. It matters to me, of course, since I bought a backup version of my meter last week so I don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving mine at home again.

Ultimately it doesn’t really matter. I can get 200 test strips for only $36 and while I would prefer to have it covered by my insurance, $36 is what I used to spend in a week just eating out for lunch. Since my diet is better now than it was a month ago, and I’m not eating out as much, I can afford $36.

Daily Summary

Overall today was pretty good. I started getting some Healthy Choice meals to eat for lunch. They have a good carb count which, along with an apple, falls perfectly into my lunch meal plan. The sodium is a bit high, but as long as I’m compensating in my other meals I think I’m still hitting my target.

My favored snack the past few days has been single servings of peanut butter. It’s good protein and tastes good. It freaks my wife out something awful as I’m sitting there spooning peanut butter into my mouth. I loved the snack as a kid and mmmmm is it still good! As a good, nearly-no-carb snack I’ve also been eating carrot sticks with some ranch dressing. Not too bad and it’s nice and filling.

My fasting sugars are keeping fairly stable, around the 100 mark the past few days. It’s nice to wake up and not feel like I’m about to shake out of my skin. I still think I’d like to be a bit higher, but I’ll get there. I’ve also started to re-check my sugars on a more routine basis (before/after meals) so I can get a good feel for where I am throughout the day. Looking forward to my next A1c…