I am so excited, I woke up extremely early (I'm five hours behind UK), couldn't get back to sleep, and ended up wandering through the flat in the middle of the night, singing
La donna è mobile.
Just to clarify, the reason I apologized at the top of this thread for being "obnoxious" is that there is actually a sticky thread called "Share Your Progress" in the sub-forum, "Success Stories and Testimonials." Starting my own thread here just struck me as a bit "showy." (But I am not alone. There was a lovely thread recently started by someone -- or by his spouse -- who had good results from low-carb and was actually told off by his nurse!)
In the end though, each of us is an "experiment of one" -- especially right at the beginning, when the outcome
appears to be in doubt. But as someone very wisely said somewhere else on this forum, those who succeed at this low-carb stuff end up with very similar stories, so similar that it gets almost boring. And that is actually wonderful. I've had quite enough medical excitement since my diagnosis, thank you very much.
For those who are reading this and who are just starting their journey, please know that I do not self-test my blood glucose (BG) levels. I relied solely on the elimination of a large list of common carbohydrates from my diet, plus individual research (via food labels or on the Internet) whenever there was any doubt. After the first few weeks of great fear and anxiety, this was quite easy to do. I think in all fairness it was harder for my dear wife than for me, because she does most of the cooking. (Mind you, she does actually like the low-carb food, and wanted to lose weight, and did lose 5KG ... and counting.)
For newbies who may be reading this, there are downsides if you do
not self-test BG levels at home:
- You may be eating "stealth devil foods" that really spike your BG but you won't know it. These daily spikes may be damaging your health even if your regular HbA1c results are "good." (But there does seem to be some debate about how damaging these daily spikes are, if you are keeping your A1c to "non-diabetic" levels in the long term.) It is a calculated risk.
- If you are anything like me, you will suffer "HbA1c anxiety" in the days or even weeks before your regular blood tests at the clinic. My latest one was almost unbearable because the lab "lost" my blood sample (!!!) so there was a two-week delay and I had to go back to the clinic for them to take a new sample. Mind you, I think it is likely that even the "self-testers" also suffer from "A1c anxiety."
I am a big control freak in my "normal life" and was worried that self-testing would turn into an obsessional thing. So for the time being, my decision is
not to self-test until and unless my Type 2 diabetes "worsens" and needs tighter control.
Again, for newbies, and addressing particularly those whose T2D profile might be similar to mine (i.e. a candidate for the "low-carb" therapy with no drugs, or minimal drugs): in the long term it is much easier than it seems at first. This is another one of those relatively "boring" facts, but at the beginning, it is not boring at all and in some ways extremely hard. There is so much to get one's head around, and many of us start out with a complex mixture of fear, ignorance, denial, even anger.
It does get better. Much better. Please take my word for it, and the word of many others like me who succeeded. If you have questions, or just want support, or just want to vent, this forum is fantastic.
