Modified ND for (at least) the last 19 lbs to my weight loss goal

Well, balderdash.

I am, again,on the verge of dumping the practitioner close to home and heading about an hour north. I don't need the stress that accompanies an incompetent administrative team.

Procedure scheduled for tomorrow - 5 minutes from my office. I planned my day, and notified my students of my availability (the day before the exam that counts for 34% of their grade) based on a 5 minute travel time.

My spouse got a phone call today (the first sign that they are still incompetent - I've given them my work number + the hours for when they are to call there, and it was within the hours I'd told them I would be at work. Not once, but three times in the last week.). They were calling to schedule me for the procedure tomorrow - at a facility an hour away from where I work because it would be more convenient for me (second and third sign that they are still incompetent - I have not worked in that city for 3 years, and they had already scheduled me three days ago.) I called back, not terribly gracefully I'm afraid, read them the riot act, and asked them to change it back. They promised a return call within minutes.

An hour+ later, no call. We called them back (my spouse, since I was about to be examined by my second opinion doc), and they informed her that they were ignoring her request for rescheduling (I asked them to set it back up locally), since they had spoken with me earlier and I had approved going to the distant location (that conversation was actually with her - and she made it clear that she could not set the appointment up for me).

I like the doctor close to home better - but I can't tolerate the stress their administrative bungling causes me. As long as people are competent, I can handle most any medical adventure. BUT incompetence pushes me past my reserves. And it shows in my blood sugar. After an 18 hour fast (ending around 5 PM), I had a 16 net carb meal - which should have put my BG barely topping 5.56. It was 8.4. The first reading above 7.8 in 5 months (since just after diagnosis). We'll have a very frank discussion on Monday.

(On a more positive note - everything we're learning about the tumor so far gives me the best prognosis possible. Chemo is extremely unlikely, unless something absolutely bizarre turns up on tomorrow's test.)

Week 5 begins!

Last week was a horrendously stressful week. I started the week with a breast cancer diagnosis bright and early Monday morning (see the morning reading for Week 4, Monday). That was followed by a week of tests. More often than not, bad information from the scheduling doctor's office made those tests more stressful than the diagnosis itself. (I'm pretty good at managing bad medical information, but bad medical information + incompetence sends my stress (and anger) levels through the roof. A meal with a relatively small carb content gave me the first abnormal BG reading in months.

Aside from predicted responses to stress, things still look like I am moving toward remission.

I have to have two challenging conversations with the doctor this morning. The first is about making sure we can work together - i.e. she must find a way to make her staff behave or create a work-around. I want to stay with her, but I can't tolerate the level of communicative/administrative incompetence I have experienced so far. The second is about diet - and whether I put myself at risk for impaired healing if I continue this diet until surgery or close to surgery.

There will also be the less challenging (for me) conversations about actual treatment. I'm expecting it to be the week of May 16 - time enough to get genetic tests back and make the difference between lumpectomy and bilateral mastectomy. Then there's always the chance of a wild card: the MRI may show unexpected additional/metastasized cancers. . . .

Without further ado, here's the collection of data so far, with Week 5's template added in. I'll complete the weekly high, low and averages for the 4th week later today, if you want to check back.

Week 1 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 5.28 mmol/l W: 5.06 Th: 5.39 (highest in months) F: 4.44 S: 4.39 Sun: 4.44
Week 1 - Starting weight: 150.2 lbs - Ending weight: 147 lbs
Week 1 - High for the week: 7.72, Low for the Week: 4.06, Average for the week: 5.5

Week 2 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 5.11 mmol/l Th: 4.79 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.6 mmol/l
Week 2 - Starting weight: 147 lbs - Ending weight: 144.8 lbs
Week 2 - High for the week: 6.83 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.5 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Week 3 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.61 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 4.67 mmol/l Th: 4.9 mmol/l F: 4.5 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.66 mmol/l
Week 3 - Starting weight: 144.8 lbs - Ending weight: 142
Week 3 - High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.9 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.5 mmol/l.
Note: High stress precipitated by early stages of cancer diagnosis.

Week 4 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 4.83 mmol/l W: 4.61 mmol/l Th: 4.67 mmol/l F: 4.67 mmol/l S: 4.67 mmol/l Sun: 4.33 mmol/l
Week 4 - Starting weight: 142 lbs - Ending weight: 140.8 (2 lbs from a normal BMI!!!)
Week 4 - High for the week: 8.39 mmol/l (in the wake of incompetent administrative stress) Low for the Week: 4.33 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Note: Formal breast cancer diagnosis came on Monday, before my fasting BG reading. Might be why it was a bit higher!

Week 5 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.89 mmol/l, T: 5.06 mmol/l W: 4.83 mmol/l Th: 3.83 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 5.39 mmol/l Sun: 4.61 mmol/l
Week 5 - Starting weight: 140.8 lbs - Ending weight:
Week 5 - High for the week: mmol/l Low for the Week: mmol/l, Average for the week: mmol/l.

Weight loss on Low Carb/Moderate Protein (179 days): 47.1 lbs Average BG 6.0

Weight loss on 800 Calorie Mediterranean Style food with 16:8 intermittent fasting (28 days): 9.4 lbs Average BG 5.39 mmol/l (lower, even after the breast cancer diagnosis - which came in bits and pieces starting the middle of week 3, to the first day of week 4)

Another high (relatively) carb meal last night - this time 30 net carbs (largely chick peas), with absolutely normal blood sugar. Peak was 5.33 (up from pre-meal level of 4.61. Yay!

Daytime response is not so predictable. My 10 carb lunch elevated by BG from 4.7 to 5.9.

Plugging along. Hoping remission hits before I have to change my diet for surgery . . .

Brunneria said:

Hi, I am sorry. Haven't seen your posts this last week. I flagged to 'watch' the thread, but didn't get any notifications, and thought you had gone silent.

Instead, you have been wrestling with unnecessary hassle and stress, but have a sort of optimistic diagnosis. if you know what I mean.

Anyway, been thinking of you.

How did the conversations with the doc go? And how do you need to change your diet for the surgery?

Click to expand...

Thanks for thinking of me.

It's about the best cancer diagnosis I could have. (Aside that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln ) We're waiting on genetics - and, since I haven't heard from the testing company, it looks like insurance approved it (or approved all but $100 of it). So - another week or two until I have that additional bit of information.

The conversation with the doc went pretty well. She has no control over her staff, since they are employees of the hospital (that also employs her). More bungles since the original set - but only 20 miles apart for appointments they tried their darndest to set up back-to-back. (Good thing they didn't succeed.) But they have assigned a nurse navigator for the entire cancer treatment part of the world. She has called nearly every day to make sure that I have accurate information. For the most part, that works - and I know very clearly at least one of the employees I cannot trust, At least if I know, I can follow-up to make sure that what I've been told is accurate..

Also had a conversation with the doc about needing to know her opinions while they were still at the art stage, rather than the science certainty. She protested that it wasn't fair to me - and I countered that what wasn't fair to me is for her to withhold things she's pretty certain about - based on her experience - until she is dead certain. For example, she was pretty sure when I first saw her that it was ductal cancer. That has now been confirmed. I spent the weekend between first seeing her and confirmation a good bit of a week later doing ineffective research because I couldn't narrow the universe as much as I could have, had she clearly told me what she was thinking. The jury is still out on whether I got through . . .

The nurse navigator touched bases with the dietitian, who mostly said eat nutritiously but not necessarily more. After I went into a bit more detail about exactly what I'm eating, the nurse navigator said she'd have the dietitian call me. She hasn't called - and I'm not pushing very hard right not to reach her.

Week 6 begins! Three more to go, and it looks as if I'll be able to finish the 8 weeks.

1.1 lbs until I have a "normal" BMI. (Normal is in quotes because, even though I choose to use BMI as a measure for me - it fits well - it is not a good measure for everyone. In addition, even though I prefer to be within the range designated as normal, for much of my life I haven't been. I've always beem fit (most years since 1994 I've participated in a 2-day, 150 mile bike ride, for example), and until last October I've had no weight-associated health concerns, so I reject the idea that what is designated as normal is actually normal, or essential to health. . . . stepping down off of my soapbox, now. . .)

Last week was challenging - the stress shows in 1-2 days of higher than anticipated BG readings: Informing students who depend on me for the next 3 months that I will be at less than full speed during that time; I managed to have too many balls in the air, dropped one, and got my fingers smacked, etc.

This week I have a full set of doctor's visits (plastic surgeon, radiation oncologist, and an "All you ever wanted to know about breast cancer" session), on top of more student meetings, a strategizing session to plan for my absence/less than full presence, and job interviews with 4 candidates to be my new assistant. I'm also making my breast cancer diagnosis more widely known in real life - which has it's own set of challenges. Congratulations on your weight loss . . . wait . . . it isn't because of the cancer, is it? Not to mention the dreaded "cancer face," and other weird responses when cancer enters the conversation (thanks to my friend Peterson Toscano for that very timely reference.) That, and a few hundred papers that all have to be graded in the next 2 weeks. No pressure!!! I will not be surprised if my BG is a bit higher again this week.

I'm fine (physically and emotionally) - except when I'm not. And "not fine" seems to appear at random, just to poke fun at me and mess with my progress toward diabetic remission by giving me stress-out BG elevations.

The diet? easy-peasy. I wish I had more time to prepare foods - so I am not eating as much variety as I would like. But I have discovered that even off-season pomegranate kernels in yogurt are 1000 times better than the frozen kind I had been using.

The numbers so far:

Week 1 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 5.28 mmol/l W: 5.06 Th: 5.39 (highest in months) F: 4.44 S: 4.39 Sun: 4.44
Week 1 - Starting weight: 150.2 lbs - Ending weight: 147 lbs
Week 1 - High for the week: 7.72, Low for the Week: 4.06, Average for the week: 5.5

Week 2 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 5.11 mmol/l Th: 4.79 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.6 mmol/l
Week 2 - Starting weight: 147 lbs - Ending weight: 144.8 lbs
Week 2 - High for the week: 6.83 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.5 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Week 3 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.61 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 4.67 mmol/l Th: 4.9 mmol/l F: 4.5 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.66 mmol/l
Week 3 - Starting weight: 144.8 lbs - Ending weight: 142
Week 3 - High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.9 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.5 mmol/l.
Note: High stress precipitated by early stages of cancer diagnosis.

Week 4 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 4.83 mmol/l W: 4.61 mmol/l Th: 4.67 mmol/l F: 4.67 mmol/l S: 4.67 mmol/l Sun: 4.33 mmol/l
Week 4 - Starting weight: 142 lbs - Ending weight: 140.8 (2 lbs from a normal BMI!!!)
Week 4 - High for the week: 8.39 mmol/l (in the wake of incompetent administrative stress) Low for the Week: 4.33 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Note: Formal breast cancer diagnosis came on Monday, before my fasting BG reading. Might be why it was a bit higher!

Week 5 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.89 mmol/l, T: 5.06 mmol/l W: 4.83 mmol/l Th: 3.83 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 5.39 mmol/l Sun: 4.61 mmol/l
Week 5 - Starting weight: 140.8 lbs - Ending weight:140.0
Week 5 - High for the week: 7.05 mmol/l (High stress day) Low for the Week: 3.83 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.44 mmol/l.

Week 6 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.17 mmol/l W: 4.56 mmol/l Th: 4.5 mmol/l F: 4.89 mmol/l S: 4.72 mmol/l Sun: 4.44 mmol/l
Week 6 - Starting weight: 140.0 lbs - Ending weight: 138.0
Week 6 - High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.94 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.28 mmol/l.

Weight loss on Low Carb/Moderate Protein (179 days): 47.1 lbs Average BG 6.0

Weight loss on 800 Calorie Mediterranean Style food with 16:8 intermittent fasting (42 days): 12.2 lbs Average BG 5.39 mmol/l (lower, even after the breast cancer diagnosis - which came in bits and pieces starting the middle of week 3, to the first day of week 4, with added stress associated with too little time to wrap up affairs before surgery mid to late May)

Brunneria said:

Good going!

Are you going to get some proper downtime at any point?

I get the need for dealing with, or handing off all responsibility, and definitely get the need to provide presence for students at their critical periods, but you will factor in your own critical down time, won't you?

Click to expand...

I had scheduled proper down time for August, before all this hit. I was planning a dive trip to either Florida or Cozumel. That, unfortunately, has had to be put on hold, since my version of downtime is not compatible with the stage of recovery I expect to be at, at that stage. That means the next time slot for proper down time is - you guessed it - next August.

My life is dictated by dates that have been fixed for decades (two exams a year, always starting the last Tuesday in February and July). Literally, access to jobs to repay the $100,000 tuition bills they have accumulated rests on passing those tests. Interviews this week may result in an assistant being hired (including one who could be up to speed fairly quickly), but all hires have to be approved on high by folks who take summer vacations - so it is a race against the clock to decide on one, recommend the hire, then get it approved before the hiring body vanishes.

As for finishing out the semester, it would take anyone else at least twice as long to get up to speed to finish what I will barely be able to finish in a little more than 2 weeks. (That's not a guess - I had a mini-assistant this year. I had hoped she would be able to take about 1/3 to 1/4 of the 1000 papers for the semester. She took very little training (yay!!!). But her speed was slow enough that she has only managed about 1/6 of the papers. I am grateful for not a net loss of my time - which I feared. But not enough help to be useful this next crunch-time.) I have some grading short-cuts that I am reluctant to use, but I suspect I'll need to.

My current best bet for mostly down-time will be right after surgery - it will be mid-June before the demand hits its peak. The only real challenge is that I use the early part of June to grow the demand so that I can reach the students most at risk for failing. (I have connections with about half of the students. Many of those most at risk were too proud to take my class, having just escaped mandatory enrollment. My class is the bottom quartile and the top quartile (who choose to take - and are high enough up that no one would mistake them for someone who was forced to take it). The third quartile is actually most at risk - and late May, early June is when I start to connect with those students.

I meet tomorrow with the Dean & my boss to make plans to spin off as much as I can. (I also have a small army of students I've helped pass the test, many of whom have offered to help any they can. They would almost certainly jump at the chance to help out - so I'm scheming about how I can fold them into providing assistance.)

The diet continues to be a non-event - but I've been told I need to stop eating at a deficit to prepare for surgery. I have decided that on Tuesday (after one day into week 7), I'll gradually shift back to a higher calorie diet. Depending on how I feel on a higher calorie diet (and what my BG does with condensed calories in the 8 hour period), I may continue the 16:8 fasting. (On Tuesday morning I will have an A1C drawn, so that is a good ending point that will give me a sense of whether I've been successful in inducing remission (my sense is that I'm not quite there yet). I'll also do some version of a home OGTT as a second, slightly different, check. I may do that later in the week, since I understand it is more likely to be accurate if I've eaten 100-150 carbs/day for the 3 days preceding the test. I'm not concerned about doing the test - but it will take a bit of nerve to eat that many carbs for 3 days preceding the test.

My coworkers will learn today that I have cancer (we need to recruit volunteers to help out during any absence/lowered capacity for work), and we interview 3 candidates for my permanent assistant, and another full day of exit interviews with my students and moving myself out of the way of impending construction. Gee, I wish I had something to do to keep me busy and my mind off all my woes.

The end. For now.

This week my weight fell to within the normal range, based on the BMI scale. I am still 8 lbs from goal, but a heck of a lot closer than 67.3 lbs from goal (where I started on October 2).

I need to stop eating at a deficit to prepare for surgery - which is likely either next week or the week after. I see a new doctor (my mother's surgeon) on Thursday. The one I have been seeing is fantastic, but her staff (not really hers - since they are employed by the hospital) is not healthy for me. If my mother's doctor can fit me in, in roughly the same time frame, I'll switch and put up with the hassles of coordinating radiation therapy (if I go that route) between two cities 50 miles apart. It is sad that it has to come to that. But if I had any doubts, they vanished last night when I watched last Monday's elevated BG drop out of my 7-day average at midnight last night and the 7-day average instantaneously drop from 5.6 to 5.4. One post-stress reading had been dragging down 32 other readings.

I'll be upping my carbs temporarily (3-4 days) to between 100 and 150 grams a day, to prepare for a DIY glucose tolerance test to see if I have made any measurable progress toward addressing insulin resistance. I'll likely do the test on Saturday - since I'm supposed to mostly sit still for 3 hours after downing 75 grams of glucose. Simultaneously I'll be upping my calories from 800 to 1200, pausing to see the impact on weight, then likely to somewhere between 1300 and 1500 (where I believe I will find my maintenance level) - and try to stay there until I feel recovered from whatever treatment I ultimately have. Beyond that - I may start the 8-weeks over again so I can give it a full shot - or (if I actually have gone into remission) just slowly creeping down to my goal weight.

After my first meeting with my new doctor - I'll post an update with my plans, and periodically update this through treatment/maintenance, and beyond (once I figure out what beyond looks like).

So here (for now) are my final numbers:

Week 1 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 5.28 mmol/l W: 5.06 Th: 5.39 (highest in months) F: 4.44 S: 4.39 Sun: 4.44
Week 1 - Starting weight: 150.2 lbs - Ending weight: 147 lbs
Week 1 - High for the week: 7.72, Low for the Week: 4.06, Average for the week: 5.5

Week 2 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 5.11 mmol/l Th: 4.79 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.6 mmol/l
Week 2 - Starting weight: 147 lbs - Ending weight: 144.8 lbs
Week 2 - High for the week: 6.83 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.5 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Week 3 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.61 mmol/l, T: 4.72 mmol/l W: 4.67 mmol/l Th: 4.9 mmol/l F: 4.5 mmol/l S: 4.33 mmol/l Sun: 4.66 mmol/l
Week 3 - Starting weight: 144.8 lbs - Ending weight: 142
Week 3 - High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.9 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.5 mmol/l.
Note: High stress precipitated by early stages of cancer diagnosis.

Week 4 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 5.05 mmol/l, T: 4.83 mmol/l W: 4.61 mmol/l Th: 4.67 mmol/l F: 4.67 mmol/l S: 4.67 mmol/l Sun: 4.33 mmol/l
Week 4 - Starting weight: 142 lbs - Ending weight: 140.8 (2 lbs from a normal BMI!!!)
Week 4 - High for the week: 8.39 mmol/l (in the wake of incompetent administrative stress) Low for the Week: 4.33 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.27 mmol/l.

Note: Formal breast cancer diagnosis came on Monday, before my fasting BG reading. Might be why it was a bit higher!

Week 5 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.89 mmol/l, T: 5.06 mmol/l W: 4.83 mmol/l Th: 3.83 mmol/l F: 4.83 mmol/l S: 5.39 mmol/l Sun: 4.61 mmol/l
Week 5 - Starting weight: 140.8 lbs - Ending weight:140.0
Week 5 - High for the week: 7.05 mmol/l (High stress day) Low for the Week: 3.83 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.44 mmol/l.

Week 6 - Fasting blood glucose: M: 4.83 mmol/l, T: 4.17 mmol/l W: 4.56 mmol/l Th: 4.5 mmol/l F: 4.89 mmol/l S: 4.72 mmol/l Sun: 4.44 mmol/l
Week 6 - Starting weight: 140.0 lbs - Ending weight: 138.0
Week 6 - High for the week: 7.22 mmol/l Low for the Week: 3.94 mmol/l, Average for the week: 5.28 mmol/l.

Weight loss on Low Carb/Moderate Protein (179 days): 47.1 lbs Average BG 6.0

Weight loss on 800 Calorie Mediterranean Style food with 16:8 intermittent fasting (42 days): 12.2 lbs Average BG 5.39 mmol/l (lower, even after the breast cancer diagnosis - which came in bits and pieces starting the middle of week 3, to the first day of week 4, with added stress associated with too little time to wrap up affairs before surgery mid to late May)

Well - I'm still crossing my fingers that today is just the body adjusting to eating some carbs again after eating very few for 7 months, But I have my suspicions that 6 weeks of the BSD failed to induce remission.

I've had 81 net/115 gross carbs today. More than I've had in a single day since October 2. The recommendation for anyone eating low carb for a significant period of time is to consume 100-150 carbs/day for 3-4 days in advance of an OGTT (which I plan to run on Saturday). Today is day 1 (also day 1 back closer to maintenance calories in order to prepare my body for surgery). I tried to limit my carbs to 20 in a 3 hour period, and to space them out over the day, while still doing something close to a 12 hour fast. After most meals, my BG was still above 6.1.

By ~7 PM, my BG was above 8.3 - and I suspect it is not back down yet. The whole-grain-based crackers seemed to push it over the edge, or it may be the cumulative effect of never coming back to baseline after each meal, We'll see. I can tolerate a 5-day experiment with elevated blood glucose. I had an A1c drawn this morning that I expect to be low 5/high 4. By the time I have the next draw the effects of this little experiment will have worked itself out of my system, and my doctor will never know I had 4 days of imperfect control.

The next dread is stepping on the scales in the morning. I suspect the increase in calories + the increase in carbs will result in temporarily pushing me back into the slightly overweight range.

On a side note - those crackers sure were yummy! I may as well enjoy my indulgence, since I may be heading for permanent carb deprivation.

Sigh . . .

I seem to have made a smidgen of progress during 6 weeks on the BSD. Based on the OGTT - I am merely glucose tolerance impaired, not diabetic.

Results of my home OGTT (75 grams of juice-based sugar after 8+ hours of fasting, that followed 4 days of 100+ carbs):
30 minutes - 9.82
60 minutes - 12.61
90 minutes - 13.098
120 minutes - 10.21 (Impaired glucose tolerance is from 7.77 - 11.1 at two hours; Not diabetic!!! - since diabetes is 11.1 or higher)
150 minutes - 8.93

So far, the jump in weight I expected from returning to roughly maintenance calories (including higher than recently usual carbs) has not materialized. Yay!

On the cancer front: New doctor - Yay! (My mother's surgeon.) New eyes see new things. Not-so-Yay . . . She sees enlargement of my lymph nodes on both sides, and asymmetry with the cancer side slightly larger. There are good (non-cancer related explanations) for both observations - but she wants to be sure. So I got poked again on Thursday. She also sees something irregular that is far enough away from the tumor we know about that she can't just remove it during a lumpectomy - so I have a poke while I hang out inside an MRI machine scheduled for Wednesday.

If everything goes well - surgery is scheduled for the 24th. If it doesn't go well, I may need chemo ahead of surgery.

Indy51 said:

There's a couple of issues with what you used for the test that might cause a bit of concern - the juice would not be 100% glucose; there would be fructose involved and fructose normally doesn't affect BG to any large extent. You might be wise to re-do the test using original flavour Lucozade? I've also heard of a few people who do fine on OGTTs with glucose, but have extreme BG reactions to starch (possibly because of AMY1 gene variability) - so you might want to redo the test using a starchy substitute, e.g. mashed potato, bread or similar.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_31-3-2014-9-58-51

Good luck with your surgery

Click to expand...

Oh fine. Burst my bubble. I won't be doing another one test anytime soon - enough stress on my glucose metabolism for a while. But - FWIW, I did a fair amount of research ahead of time & most sources suggested that any quickly absorbed carbohydrate was a reasonable substitute (juice was specifically suggested, and a few suggested starchy substitute - which I decided against because of the difficulty of downing it in 5 minutes, as well as the difficulty in getting a precise measurement).

Indy51 said:

There's a couple of issues with what you used for the test that might cause a bit of concern - the juice would not be 100% glucose; there would be fructose involved and fructose normally doesn't affect BG to any large extent. You might be wise to re-do the test using original flavour Lucozade? I've also heard of a few people who do fine on OGTTs with glucose, but have extreme BG reactions to starch (possibly because of AMY1 gene variability) - so you might want to redo the test using a starchy substitute, e.g. mashed potato, bread or similar.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_31-3-2014-9-58-51

Good luck with your surgery

Click to expand...

OK. So I lied. I repeated the test with jelly beans (no easy local source for pure glucose, aside from tablets - which have at least scattered reports of being slower acting). Two studies compared jelly beans to pure glucose and found the profiles equivalent (no surprise, since the main ingredient in jelly beans is glucose).

The results were even better. Slightly higher peak (268, as opposed to 238), sharper & earlier drop (down to 161 at 2 hours, rather than 2.5), and back to the starting level at 2.5 hours, rather than 3 hours. That makes sense, since fructose has a lower glycemic index than glucose.

Once I get rid of this cancer thing I've got going on, I'll redo the blood sugar diet & order some pure glucose and do a formal follow up test.