Well, right after Urban Cowboy's diagnosis, his physician signed us up for Diabetes Education at the hospital. We were looking forward to the class and learning more about managing this disease. Meantime, we continued to do research and determined that we would lower our daily carb count on our own. Our first step was to lower to 100 grams of carbohydrate per day, and once we were on board with that, we decided to lower our daily carb count to 80 grams.
So when we went to visit the dietitian, we already were counting carbs and staying under 80 grams per day. We were so proud of ourselves and we thought everyone else would be patting us on the back! Boy, were we wrong.
The dietitian was nice....but nicely told us that was too low, that Urban Cowboy needed carbs for energy and we should not go below 130 grams per day. Well....at 80 carbs per day, Urban Cowboys blood glucose was still in the 120 to 140 range most of the time. We thought that was too high. We had already read that the complications of diabetes -- kidney disease, retinopathy, neuropathy and poor circulation to the feet -- were all caused by high blood sugar. #avoidcomplicationsofdiabetes, #nopatsontheback
To be honest, we eventually decided that was too high to avoid complications. And since we began this odyssey with a stroke, we figured there was already some blood vessel damage from the elevated blood sugar so we continued our quest to lower blood glucose levels.
In another conversation with Urban Cowboy's primary care physician, we wanted to be able to test blood glucose several times a day in order to get tight control. We were willing to pay for the test strips that go with the glucometer if we had to, but we also wanted insurance coverage if it was available. His physician balked however, claiming that he didn't need to check his blood sugar that often and that insurance would not cover so many test strips.
So, Urban Cowboy called our insurance company to find out their thoughts on covering test strips. He was told that they would cover 6 per day no questions asked. So Urban Cowboy called his physician again and asked for 6 strips per day. And when the doctor said insurance wouldn't cover that many test strips, Urban Cowboy was able to say that "yes, they will cover 6 per day". So then doc says that Urban Cowboy's fingers would become infected with pricking them so often! Urban Cowboy may have raised his voice then. He got the order for 6 test strips per day! #checkinginsuranceforteststrips, #checkingonphysicianswhotreatdiabetes
So far, we were not doing well with professional advice, but we still had the classes to go. There were three classes on three consecutive weeks.
Again, we were proud of our success to lower our daily carb count to 80 per day...and at this level, blood sugar was under control most of the time. We were appalled to find out that very low carbohydrate way of eating was never mention in class, except by us. And each time we brought it up, we were corrected by the nurse and the dietitian that taught the class. And we wondered why newly diagnosed diabetics were not offered the option of very low carbohydrates. It is possible for some diabetics to stay off medication by eating this way. To us, the main question was..."Why would you eat something that your body can't process?" If a person is allergic to peanuts, we tell them to avoid peanuts. If a person is intolerant of lactose, we tell them to stay away from dairy products. So why does the healthcare system tell people with diabetes to eat lots of carbs?
We found out this was a complex question with a complex answer. The answer has elements of history, big companies that donate lots of money to the American Diabetes Association and people who don't want to hear that they can't eat cake! #adiabeticshouldn'teatcake
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