On Feb 23, 9:35 am, Marvin The Paranoid Android
<marvinparanoidandr...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Welcome to the group, Marvin.  I'm sorry your wife's new illness has
brought you here.  However, there are lots of knowledgeable people in
ASD, so it's a good place to hang out.  We've had others come to the
group in which prednisone was a major contributor to the diabetes.
Unfortunately, it's not that rare.

Being that your wife is taking insulin, I would recommend that the two
of you read the book, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution by Dr.
Bernstein, who happens to also be an insulin dependent diabetic
(although he's Type 1).  There is lots of good information on the
disease itself, and he has some good methods of dealing with it.  He
became a Type 1 as a child, and is now 67 years old (at least when he
wrote the book).  In my opinion that speaks well of his methods.

I'm sure others will be along shortly.

Hang in there!
Michelle C., T2
diet & exercise

hey Marvie, fancy meeting you here ! ! !

yes, there is a direct correlation between steroid use and increased bg
levels in people who are susceptible to diabetes

sounds like she has also been given the 'standard' diabetic diet that
few people can work into good bg control........ i would advise your
wife to test, test, test to see how foods affect her bg levels, and
modify her carb intake according to those bg levels........ see
http://www.diabetic-talk.org/jennifer.htm for how she should be testing

i hope that you have been given an Rx for a meter and strips........
personally i LOVE the LifeScan OneTouch Ultra 2 meter (this meter allows
you to mark your bg readings as pre meal or post meal)

the treatment triad for diabetes is diet/exercise/meds........ if your
wife can do any exercise, that will help lower her bg readings (water
aerobics, walking, chair exercises.......whatever it takes)

i'm NOT a fan of the premix insulin because often you end up eating to
'feed the insulin'......... a basal/bolus regime for the insulin is a
much easier regime to live with (it does mean more shots in a day
though).......Lantus or Levemir are good basal insulins, that provide a
relatively flat underlying background insulin for the body's metabolic
needs........ Humalog or Novolog are good bolus insulin's for meals or
bringing down high bg levels

don't be surprised if there are a lot of adjustments to your wife's
insulin in the first 3 months...... there are some guidelines that they
work from to start a person on insulin, but the fine tuning of the
insulin is very individual, and that takes time

i'm sure you have a lot of questions, so feel free to come back and ask
them, there is a wealth of experience in the newsgroup to help you

and if you haven't figured it out yet, Chung is a troll, and needs to be
killfiled

kate

In the measurements used in the US, where normal is around 85, or
the measurements used in much of the rest of the world, which
divides the US reading by 18?

Welcome to a newsgroup for people who don't want to need to
come here.

One web site often recommended to newbies is:

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

Two books I've found helpful are "Diabetes for Dummies" and Dr. Richard
Bernstein's "Diabetes Solution". Dr. B. recommends a total of 30 carbs
daily for his diabetic patients. I've restricted my carb intake to around
30-50 grams daily and taken together with oral meds and exercise, I'm in
good control. You'll find much information pro and con on the low carb
idea, but it has certainly helped me. Dr. B. also discusses using diet to
work with the smallest amount of insulin you actually need, rather than
using a fixed amount and eating to the insulin - that often results in
'roller coaster' rides of high and then low blood glucose. BTW - I'm not
on insulin, so I do not pretend to speak definitively or from experience.
Good luck, there is much contradictory information to sort out.

Hi Marvin

You're probably in information overload, so I won't add a
lot for the moment.

First, when you read here, most of the people are Americans
who use the mmg/dl system. As 26 is awfully low in mg/dl
before she entered hospital, I would guess that was in
mmol/l. 26mmol/l = 470mg/dl. I explain that in more detail
here:
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2007/04/millimoles-and-milligrams.html

The simple conversion is to multiply or divide by 18 as
appropriate. Using 20 is quicker and usually close enough.

As the doctors and the others have mentioned the prednisone
is almost certainly the culprit, but not necessarily. I have
a cousin with lupus who was diagnosed with type 2 just
before the lupus diagnosis and treatment, so it may be
coincidental. However, the prednisone can certainly play
havoc with controlling the blood glucose levels.

Please ask your wife to read that link that the others
suggested. Here it is again from a UK site:
http://jennifer.flyingrat.net/. As she is using insulin,
make changes cautiously but if you use the dietician's
advice as a point to start from, not as the final version,
it will be a little easier.

Don't expect instant results; small adjustments of the menu
and of the insulin over time will succeed. It's a dynamic
situation; the food, especially carbohydrates, tends to make
her blood glucose rise and the insulin tends to make it fall
and the trick is to find the happy medium. Complicating that
are other factors that vary our blood glucose levels such as
exercise and internal organ functions. The doctors were
right to be concerned at that number and prescribe insulin,
but very rapid improvements can also have some dangers,
especially for sight. Discuss that with her ophtalmologist.

Apart from the specialist for lupus, she should ask the
doctor to refer her to the following for baseline checks
over the next few weeks:

Ophthalmologist
Heart specialist
Podiatrist
and any others they consider appropriate.

Best wishes,

Cheers Alan, T2, Australia.
d&e, metformin 1500mg, ezetrol 10mg  

I have no medical qualifications beyond my own experience.
Choose your advisers carefully, because experience can be
an expensive teacher.
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.

Hiya, Marvin and wife :D  Sorry you had to join us. We have a couple
of other people whose diabetes was brought on by prednisone - shame
the stuff is so useful in other ways!

Blimey - my GP never blinked an eye when I was regularly scoring that
kind of number.

60g carbs a meal is approx 3 times what I eat in a day. You're going
to need carbs to feed that insulin dose - but hopefully you'll be able
to start to wean off the insulin once she's broken through the glucose
toxicity barrier. Assuming the pred's left some of her pancreas
alone... and of course the lupus will make exercise difficult, some
days.

If you need some reading material, I'd strongly recommend Gretchen
Becker's "Type 2 Diabetes; The First Year" - full of good information,
broken into digestible chunks. There's also tons of good stuff on the
net, my two favourite of which are:
http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Nicky.
T2 dx 05/04 + underactive thyroid
D&E, 100ug thyroxine
Last A1c 5.6%  BMI 25

Welcome to the group!
Best advice i can give is to get a meter and test which foods effect her the
most and reduce or limit thos and in time she might be able to reduce her
meds..with doctor supervision of course..but 45 grams of carb per meal three
times a day is alot and will liekely cause problems if not carful.

KROM

On Feb 23, 9:35 am, Marvin The Paranoid Android
<marvinparanoidandr...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hello Marvin & co. Welcome to our extended family!  It sounds like
your wife has a lot to deal with with Lupus and T2.  Possible that
some treatments are counter-indicative (real word?) for both
diseases.  What is good for one disease may be bad for another.  This
would possibly be where a good Endocrinologist would come in.  I know
from experience that steroids can cause BG levels to rise.  My wife,
who is non-diabetic, was in the hospital being treated with steroids
for her MS.  The had to constantly monitor her BG levels and actually
administer insulin in a couple of cases, to keep her numbers from
approaching diabetic numbers.  Also, if stopping the steroids, always
follow the doctor's recommended procedure.  My wife decided to up and
quit the steroids one day, without tapering down the dose first.  It
left her feeling numb, dead and completely without a will to live for
a week or more.  It was due to the adrenal glands being shut down for
a time due to the steroids taking their place (or something like
that).  Hopefully, you guys can take control of the T2 with the help
of diet, exercise and meds and you may see an overall improvements in
health and well being.  Lots of helpful people on this group, as you
will see.  Good luck to you and yours.

Andrew T2, Diet and Exercise, A1c5.5

Been nursing cluster migraines for the past couple of days, so I apologize
for not replying sooner. As I have read, you have been given great resources
to help you and your wife battle this. It is so great seeing a spouse/SO so
proactive in the treatment as well. I am blessed in this area myself.
Hopefully you can get things stabilized soon, and stick around as this is by
far the best resource for information IMHO. Again, as so many have said.
Welcome to the group.