I am a Type I diabetic with 27 years diabetes “experience” (one year 27 times) and thought I had got a grip on my condition. My diabetologist said my HgB A1C’s at 7% were supposedly “perfection,” that the appearance of small amounts of microalbumin in the urine was “not outside the boundaries of expectation” (???) and that it was normal to continue to gain weight as I approached 40 and beyond. The truncal obesity I complained about was explained to me as normal tissue (not fat) development relating to the continued use of the site for injections. Lots of variation of BG levels was explained as being “the nature of the beast” to which I was supposed to continue to try to monitor, monitor, monitor, which I was 6 times daily. Control would surely come. With the feeling I wasn’t getting to where I needed, with my Body Mass Index crossing over the 30 threshold, and the exercise program fueling the need for additional carbs with the lows requiring yet more CHOs and the highs getting more Humalog, I finally had had enough of this.
I purchased your book on recommendation from my trainer, whose other two diabetic clients went on the program and found they got tight BG levels while reducing insulin dosages 60+%.
That was last Saturday. It’s now Thursday. Following your program guidelines and instruction, I’ve gone 22 tests at 5.7 mmols/dl (103 mg/dl for my American friends) plus or minus 1.0 mmol/dl. I have NEVER done this, ever. And all this while I am still feeling my way on the insulin dosage adjustment, down from a combined Humalog/Humalin N regime of 70 units taken over four injections daily to 29 units total (a 60% decline). I expect to level out somewhere in the low 20s, which I will need to adjust downward again once I restart my aerobic rowing five times weekly.
I am completely satisfied with the new meal plan, restricting total CHO intake to within the 6/12/12 gram guidelines suggested, and am striving for zero. I am not hungry in the least, and in fact have reduced the protein intake at lunch and breakfast. Already I am losing weight, but again this is not my primary objective (absolute BG level control is) but it is a really nice side benefit.
I cannot wait until three months of this passes so I can recheck my HgB A1C’s, which I expect to drop into the low 5% level. I’ll also be interested to follow the triglyceride, choloesterol and lipid metrics you suggested. I fully expect my urinary microalbumin numbers to be nil. I can feel it.
Satisfied? This word hardly covers the elation and complete euphoria I currently feel. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. That the American and Canadian Diabetes Association does not require this book and your program to be mandated for basic teaching is beyond me. What can I do to help spread the word? How about setting up a section in your site for us “converts” to share our experience and start pummeling by email and fax the medical afficianados in North America to wake up and “smell the bacon?” (Web editor’s note: Visit the Discussion Forum to find “Personal Stories,” to read stories from other diabetics and to post your own.)
PS: For fun, I checked my BG levels before hitting “Send.” They were 5.4 mmol/dl (97 mg/dl). This is getting boring (OK, it’s getting easy. And fun.).
Sincerely,
Carson Wynne
Calgary, Canada
