DFAN/OneStep
Online Diabetes Newsletter - January 1999

The New Year is here and we at DFAN want to start it
off in a good way! Our new website is now up and
running. We’ve kept it simple, but have given it
a new look. The new URL for our site is:

http://pages.prodigy.net/dfan/dfansite

Please visit our website often and recommend it to anyone
you think can benefit from the information we provide.

I’m pleased to present three articles this month, written
by people just like you, dealing with diabetes on a
day-by-day basis. All the articles are well written and
please free to respond if you have
any tips or wisdom you think might help (in the case of
the first article). Also, our DFAN Children’s Writing
Contest is underway. If you know of a child with diabetes
you think would like to participate please let them know
about the contest.

As always we need your articles, stories and poems! They
don’t have to be long and they don’t have to "sound"
professional…just tell us your story, give us your comment,
and share what you want to share.

Send your stories, articles, poems, comments and questions
to:

belve@... -or- dmmteam@...


_____ARTICLE_____

Seems Hopeless
By Jodi Simpson

This is my first year with diabetes. I have found that
some days are harder than others. Thanksgiving was
not hard at all, so I thought I could handle anything.
Wrong!!!

I went to a friends for two days to bake. We made about
ten dozen cookies, five or six different bars, five different
types of bread and a lot more. The first day I did really well.
I would just lick a little dough to see what it tasted like and
my blood sugar was just about normal (or at least what I have
been running). The second day we made this new bar and I
just had to taste it. It was good!. I had a cookie, then I had
to have a taste of this and a taste of that. My blood sugar was
sky high. Thank God it went back to normal, but I found that
by having a lick of the cookie dough I was okay, but as soon
]as I tasted it, I could not stop myself.

Moral of this story? Don't give in. You can not stop all of the
time, I was lucky and my blood sugar was back down by the
next morning. I did not eat any more the next day, but NOT
everybody is going to be able to do this. It has been hard. I
struggle all of the time. I never know what is going to happen.
I am supposed to eat three meals and two snacks a day. I find
that I can not eat the breakfast that they want or the afternoon
snack. Is this hurting me? I don't know but I bet it is. I have
lost about ten pounds, I started out at 250. I feel a lot better,
but I am having a hard time. I just don't feel like walking, it
hurts my legs to much and I can not tolerate the cold any more.
I use to love the cold, but know I don’t. My feet start to hurt,
so bad, I feel like I am falling apart. What next?


_____DFAN Kids Diabetes Writing Contest______

Want to try to write a diabetes related story or poem?
Well, if you have one in your mind send it to us and
you might win our annual Kids Writing Contest! You
can write about something that has happened to you or
make up a story or poem about diabetes.

Your entry doesn’t have to be long. It can be as short
as one word or as long as you like. If you can’t write yet
ask a grownup to help you.

Here are the prizes:

First Prize: $25 Toys "R" Us Gift Certificate

Second Prize: $15 Toys "R" Us Gift Certificate

Third Prize: $10 Toys "R" Us Gift Certificate

The deadline for submitting your stories and poems is
January 31, 1998

To send us your entry, or get more information about our
contest write to:

dmmteam@... -or- belve@...

DFAN Diabetes Kids Website:
http://pages.prodigy.net/dfan/kiddm.htm


_____ARTICLE_____

Learning All Over Again
By Toni Fuller

I had a youngster in my kindergarten class with
diabetes. I began to read everything I could find on
the subject. The more I read, the more I thought, "Hey,
that sounds like me...that does sound like me!" So I
went to the doctor, and sure enough...diabetes, type 2.
What in the world did that mean? It meant that the
doctor said, "Here is a diet. Follow it." What a lot of
help he was! Years later another doctor put me on 5 mg.
of glyburide after I went in for a yeast infection! Another
diet! An admonishment to follow it! And a pill to take!
WOW! So much help and support!

In 1986 I moved to Austin, TX (which I believe to be
"the Health Capital of the World!") I read a lot about
nutrition, lost 60 lbs., exercised on a regular basis and
went off medication! Remember I called Austin the
"Health Capital!" Everyone jogs, walks or rides bikes!
Most eat right! The town is full of health grocery stores!
What a place! But alas, all good things come to an end.
We moved back to the Dallas area with no jobs and no
insurance and lots of deaths and stress in our lives. I regained
20 lbs., got neuropathy in my feet (which I thought was a
pinched nerve!) and after getting insurance went on more
glyburide than ever! That didn't work. Soon I was on triple
therapy oral medication!

Finally I got into a year-long education program called TEAM
Baylor. The educators suggested that I was doing everything
right, but after 20 years my pancreas had given out! I found a
wonderful endocrinologist and began insulin therapy immediately!
After 6 weeks I feel like a different person. So much energy that I
look for things to do! (I have gained weight, but it seems, as of
today to have leveled off and I have actually lost part of it!) With
education and the proper doctor, diabetes is a manageable problem
that you can live with! My blood glucose level went from an average
of 239 six weeks ago to an average of 123 this morning! What a
blessing to get the help you need!

Postscript: The neuropathy is almost non existent! As
long as I keep my blood glucose levels low, I have
almost no pain. (If they ever do go up, as they do
every now and again--remember--I am still learning)
the pain goes away after the blood glucose levels are
normal again. My average is now 110! The weight gain
has leveled off, but I haven't lost any of that gained! I
am learning to deal with "hypos." which I had never had
before! I'm also trying lots of new foods and researching
all the time!


_____POLL QUESTION_____

There seems to be a difference in the way some people talk
about how they take care of the diabetes in their life. One
phrase used is "controlling diabetes" and another is
"managing diabetes". Which phrase do you prefer and
why? Send your poll responses to:

dmmteam@... -or- belve@...


_____ARTICLE_____

AN OUTPATIENT EXPERIENCE
Michelle Schlight

I have Dequervain's tendon-something in both of
my wrists from a fall down the last two basement
stairs in June, and therapy, Motrin and time did not
make the intense inflammation of the tendons in my
arms (or the severe pain in my wrists) diminish.

When the mobility started to decrease (and my
complaining to increase!) the doc decided that
surgery to release the pressure was in order. The
day before the surgery, I got a call from the Intake
Nurse, who asked a LOT of pre-admission questions.
(Any removable crowns, bridges, caps in your mouth?
Do you wear contacts or glasses? Heart disease? etc.)
When they got to the question of Diabetes?, they had
to stop. 'What, 30 years?' I could hear them thinking
OH NO.......)

When they got to the 'Don't eat anything after
midnight...' part, I stopped them, since the surgery was
after 1 PM. I mean, if they can perform surgery at 6 AM
on a 'no eating after midnight' order, then it makes sense
to me that I should be able to eat a light, early breakfast....
Actually, I told them that my blood sugar naturally goes
up around 9 AM , and that I planned to take a few units
of regular (Humalog, actually) if it got to 180. That I did
not want it to be higher than 150 when the surgery
happened, etc. The poor nurses, they got all excited, and
decided to set up an appointment with the anesthesiologist
for me. I explained to him that I understood that he
did not want a low to occur during surgery, but that I didn't
want my blood sugars to be 200+, either. I told him that I
would really like it to be under 150, so that I could have a
better chance of healing properly, etc. (A max of 150
works well with the operating room people, without being
too high, it lets them feel safe, without terribly! increasing
the chances of not healing)

Well, although the nurses were in the dark, the doc and the
anesthesiologist felt that they could do a good job. They
asked me to please bring my Humalog (this is outpatient,
remember!) and they'll check my blood sugars frequently.

When I got there, sure enough, as soon as the papers were all
signed and in order, they checked my blood sugar, and
continued to check it immediately after the IV went in and again
as soon as I got out of surgery. They didn't use a glucose IV, and
I was told they checked it during the 45 minute surgery time.

Before the surgery, I had one of those nerve tests done (to rule
something out) and I got a 'non-diabetic' scoring!! In the operating
room, since I was not completely knocked out, I listened
to the doc talking about the nerve results; I also overheard the
doc talking about how badly inflamed the tendons were, about
how good my circulation seemed ('after 30 years with diabetes...')

My blood sugar was less than 130 when I checked in, and
just over 130 when I left a few hours later. Everyone involved
was AMAZED that a diabetic was concerned, knew what they
wanted, and demanded it. When the nurse called the following
day, she was surprised that I hadn't needed any 'serious' pain
medicine that I had only taken the Motrin for inflammation.
When I visited the doc for the follow up a week after the
surgery, he was surprised at how well everything was healing.
I reminded him that the blood sugars were the key to good
healing.

Well, I felt pretty good about my experience there, caring nurses,
people who listened to my concerns, even when they couldn't
believe them! (who ever heard of a diabetic caring about their
numbers during surgery) until this weekend.

I am going in on Monday to have the same release surgery done,
as well as surgery for a trigger thumb and ring fingers. (All
caused by the same fall down the stairs, catching the hand in
the rail!) I got the pre-admittance call and went through the same
zillion questions, but when we got to the don't eat after midnight
part, and I told them that I would be checking my blood sugar to
make sure it didn't get too high, the nurse lost it. I explained
everything (at least I thought I did!) explaining that I would only
take Humalog-Regular if my numbers got close to 200, because
I wanted them below 150 during surgery, etc. She seemed to
understand, and I left to pick up a high schooler who had
stayed after school. En route, I got a call on the cell phone
from hubby that they had called back. I called them back and
no one knew who or why they had called. A half hour later,
I got called by hubby (who hates phones and is struggling
with a teenager’s volume of phone calls!) that once again
they were calling, but this time with distress about the
insulin thing. Seems they were concerned about me taking
the entire amount of Humalog, and not eating, going into
insulin shock, etc. By the time I did all this DARN calling,
I was heated. What kind of idiot did they think I was?

Well, my husband and mother will both be there
and I know I can demand what I need, but after
such a good visit 2 weeks ago, what a
disappointment!!

PostScript: the surgery went well, the nurses
that were there the day of the surgery were exceptional,
and again, my blood glucose levels were kept very
normal. The cuts are healing nicely, and I am doing
physical therapy daily to stretch my wrists and fingers,
gaining mobility everyday! However, I did learn from
the surgeon that DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis (like
Carpal Tunnel) is MUCH more common in diabetics
than in the regular population. That was news to me!

You can reach the author of this article by writing to:
schlight@...

DFAN Websites:

DFAN Angel Network:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Resort/3146/angel/

DFAN Kids Diabetes Webpage:
http://pages.prodigy.net/dfan/kiddm.htm

DFAN Diabetes Webpage
http://pages.prodigy.com/dfan

DFAN Diabetes BookStore:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Resort/3146/bookstore/

DFAN Charcot Foot Site:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Resort/3146/charcot/

Copyright 1999

Belver Ladson
dfanish@...
DFAN Website: http://pages.prodigy.net/dfan/dfansite
DFAN Diabetes Kids Website: http://pages.prodigy.net/dfan/kiddm.htm
Diabetes Angels http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/resort/3146/angel

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/dfan-newsletter
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com