Report on my 4 days in the Hospital

I am doing this to help others.
1. I have type 2 diabetes
2. I gained weight after moving to Idaho
3. I showed my doctor today that I had bought and eaten 30 pounds of chocolate fudge since January 1. I had quit eating it late in June.
4. Thursday as I was typing here on the forum, I felt pain in my abdomen. It was pretty sudden. It was high enough that from Thursday and Friday I was getting morphine regularly.
Saturday and Sunday I called off being given morphine.
6. I was hospitalized on Thursday to clarify.
I take medications for high blood pressure. But it soared in the hospital. They took me off of my regular medications and fed me intravenously.
So what is my point here.
I urge everybody to put in effort understanding carbohydrates. I was virtually taken off of those by the doctors that treated me.
I was under the impression high carbohydrate diets were good.
So no they are not good. Complex carbohydrates are fine.
I am not totally off of potatoes yet but cut way down.
Tonight it is white fish in only enough to get 14 grams of protein (which is great) plus cauliflower for my vegetable. No bread and no after meal beer.(I would maybe 3 times per week have 1 12 oz beer.)

Any message here is good health for all posters here.
I will soon see a dietician who specializes in diabetes. They gave me insulin at the hospital but told not to take it now.

 

Sorry to hear of your ill health.
Sugar is the devil in disguise.

 

I seldom had sugar. The Fudge was the exception. But this attack was long past my eating sugar.
Carbohydrates give you a hell of a dose of sugar. It was not that I consumed a lot. But I have cut back anyway.

Corn and peas were I believed ok. I quit those due to the sugar.

 

I've always craved corn and peas as a sugar fix. To me both of those might as well be candy.

Sorry about your health but so glad you are taking steps to bring you back where you should be.

 

I wish I felt that way. LOL!

 

Try replacing potatoes with sweet potatoes? I am not diabetic so I am not an diet expert nor am I on any meds.

 

Congratulations on your turn-around. Good luck.

 

Glad you are well now

Try to get in to see s Diabetes educator if you have them over there

 

“Sweet” potato is a good substitute as it has a lower GI than normal potato

But! It depends on how they are cooked https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sweet-potato-glycemic-index#sweet-potatoes

 

A couple times per week I have an 'everything smoothie.' Banana, avocado, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, black currants, broccoli or kale, peach or plum, carrots, probiotic kiefer, raw eggs, whole milk. I use it to wash down a handful of vitamin suppliments including zinc, selenium, iron, magnesium, iodine, beat extract, A, C, D, E, K, coral calcium, fish oil, turmeric, etc.

Also a couple times per week I have my 'vegetable dinner' consisting of peas, carrots, corn, chickpeas, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, red beans, white beans, brown beans, asparagus and prolly other stuff all cooked on top of a half pack of bacon.

I also try to eat a few pounds of steak- flat iron cut, extra rare, every week.

I drink no soft drinks, always use honey instead of sugar, and I'll choke down an expired gas station egg salad sandwich before I'll even consider going to mcdonalds.

My main goal is adequate nutrition through variety and healthy gut flora. I find that as long as I maintain the above regimen, I can eat whatever junky crap I want the rest of the week- cookies, bratwursts, loafs of garlic bread, crackers and nutella, not a small amount of Johnnie Walker... while maintaining a healthy weight and figure, rarely if ever getting sick, feeling good and having no medical conditions (I have some minor, common skin problems that are at worst annoying and I've had them my entire life). The theory is that the human body is pretty good at processing out toxins and regulating itself provided that it has all the 80 (or some say 90) 'essential' vitamins and micronutrients that it needs to do so (as well as the diverse gut flora necessary to extract them), and many of those nutrients are reduced or absent in the modern American diet because food here is grown and processed prioritizing efficiency over nutrition, and most of the preservatives we use to prevent 'food poisening' lawsuits also neutralize the beneficial bacteria in our gut causing us to not be able to extract what nutrients our food still has in it (which is why 'fecal transplants' are now a thing).

 

I planned to study that very potato. We get too soon old and too late smart.

 

I will show this to my diabetes diet specialist.

Bread if off my list. Flour products off my list. Small amounts of milk okay.
I spent 99.9 percent of my life feeling fine too.
My doctor wants me to quit eating strawberries and no corn or peas.

 

I plan to ask the specialist when I see one, but at the moment any potato is off my list of things to eat.
These suggestions give me plenty to think about and research.

 

At my age, saying one is under the care of a doctor is no joke. My doctors, even at the hospital said my appearance is good.
My son told me when he picked me up that the day I was admitted to the hospital I looked bad.

 

@Robert

I have Type 1 Diabetes, so I have to monitor my carbs so I know how much insulin to take.

I would recommend the Glycemic index, as several others have mentioned. Here's a link: Microsoft Word - Low Gylcemic Meal planning.doc (nhrmc.org)
When I was diagnosed, this guide to foods calories/carbs was priceless. Books | CalorieKing

If the doctor recommends taking insulin, there are methods of using insulin to your benefit, and it actually opens the food selections up, if you are willing to put the time and effort into it. I use an insulin pump, and it is the best thing since sliced bread IMO.

Being diagnosed with diabetes is not the end of your life. Yes, it brings changes, but if it helps you become a healthier you, then it ain't all bad.

 

Yeah, it's a problem. I remember I started feeling pre-diabetic years back when I was drinking soda. I quit it and recovered pretty quickly, and have almost never touched it since! And that was my main source of sugar.

 

I too am a type 2 diabetic. Three years ago, I developed a foot ulcer that got infected, and I was hospitalized in order to get an IV picc line for seven weeks of daily IV antibiotic infusions. The doctors initially thought that my diabetes was out of control, but my a1c was 6.5, so they decided that I had not noticed the wound because of the neuropathy. I was very lucky; the antibiotics and wound care saved my big toe from amputation. Now I see my podiatrist every three months and obey his orders not to walk around barefoot the way I used to.

While at the hospital, I was on a “carb control” diet, and was surprised that my meals, which were actually quite good (that hospital is known for decent food), included some carbs.

 

I got as follow up call around an hour ago that took her 40 minutes to finish. I got to ask her some questions brought up here. She is sending to my regular doctor questions on using insulin. He did not seem to want me using it daily for now.

I was educated in the Glycemic index when first diagnosed with type 2 a good 20 years back. Due to my type 2 being largely controlled I tended to forget those lessons. Now I must get smarter as you are about this.

 

I was at St. Alphonsus in Boise Idaho for 4 days. Fortunately no problems with the feet. I do have some mild edema though.
I had but 1 meal there and it was lunch. I was released prior to dinner. Lunch was modest and included noodles. That surprised me. The sauce for the noodles was okay. I can't judge their food based only on one small meal.

 

I do not drink carbonated soft drinks.

 

Robert

you might find this useful although some of it is pretty deep as it was written by GPs for GPs..

https://www.racgp.org.au/getattachm...diabetes-A-handbook-for-general-practice.aspx

 

I truly appreciate the help I am getting and also like the stories by those who also have diabetes.

 

No problems but for those who think type 2 diabetes is just about lifestyle and bad diet this study might come as a shocker

https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12902-018-0310-y

You might have seen BPA FREE on your plastic water bottles - this is why. It is now almost world wide as a pollutant.

 

Sorry to hear about your recent health problems. I too take meds for T2D and BP. Have had them under control for several years now. When I was first diagnosed T2D I as pretty anal about measuring stuff and counting carbs but over time just learned what foods did what and how to regulate quantities. For instance I used to cook big Idaho potatoes now I cool small fit in the palm of my hand red potatoes. While potatoes are starch and thus carbs they also have lots of good stuff in them too. Have substituted a lot of starches for other veggies and do a lot of saute'd and roasted including cauliflower which I hated as a child but love now!!!

Eat lots more nuts instead of candy at night but about three Hersey's dark chocolate kisses is fine and dark chocolate has to great health benefits.

Beer is not so high in carbs as people think and the alcohol in beer offsets glucose production. Ask the dietician about how alcohol processing in the liver superscedes glucose production by the liver. In fact as a diabetic you have to more concerned with LOW sugar levels when you consume alcohol. I've seen several instances throughout the years where someone just passes out sitting in a bar. Each time fortunately there was either a nurse or EMT there and they quickly got the person a Sprite or orange juice to get their blood sugar levels UP.

My preferred is Coor's Banquet, original



So three beers a night is about 2 units (15 grams) of carbs. Eat something with fibre and your absorbtion of those carbs will be lowered. Interesting that the NA Coors actually has MORE carbs.

I started out testing all the time. Now I get an A1C home test kit about once a month and see how I'm doing long term and lately around 6.8 (doctor got 6.3!)


My BP is notoriously higher at the doctors office or hospital, really just one time on the latter of a colonoscopy and the nurse noted to the anesthetist but she said go ahead she would monitor and if necessary give something for it. And yes I should exercise more than I do although sometimes when here I am on my stationary bike getting in 30 minutes.

Good luck and hope they got you fixed up. My area has a two day course for diabetics I went to when I first found out and I learned a lot there.

 

You mean no brown sugar poured all over............................