Ok, so about a month ago I decided to go on a detox to give myself a boost and kick start my system a little. As a sideline I was hoping that my newfound respect for all things green and natural would have a positive impact on the diabetes. So, I threw myself into a non-wheat, non-dairy, non-meat, non-fish, non-gluten, non-processed food, non-alcohol.... OK, the list goes on and on so I may as well stop there before you (and I) fall asleep! It was fundamentally non-everything except fruit and veg. Yum!
The instant effect was that for the ten days I was on it, my sugars acted like I wasn't even diabetic! I had fantastic skin, lost half a stone in weight, slept like a log and felt great. Never have I seen such good control with such little ease or felt so incredibly 'on top' of things. The problem was, there was no room for anything - no enjoyment, no eating out, no treats and no choice. It was so restrictive I started craving whole chunks of chicken. The bizarre thing is, I'm not even that keen on chicken! I was craving protein in the way I imagine a crack addict craves a hit! It wasn't pretty that's for sure! So, slowly but surely I crashed and burned on the detox and before I knew it I'd put on the half a stone I so proudly bragged about losing, my skin was back to normal, I was tired again and the biggest problem, my sugars were haywire. Haywire is an understatement.
I've gone from being in target 89% of the time (thanks to the pump and some hard work on my part), to my current which is 59% out of control. It's not the pumps fault, in fact, the way my sugars were so perfect during the detox shows that my basal levels are practically perfect. The problem was, messing around with my metabolism and changing all my rates so quickly, meant that my insulin needs were changing so quickly and drastically, that I had to pretty much start from the beginning when it came to adjusting the pump to react to my needs. I need to figure out all over again what level I need when and for some reason I need more insulin now than I did before the detox. I'm not sure why and maybe I'll never know, but the one thing I have realised is that you have to do things a little slower when you are diabetic. A non-diabetic would probably have needed to adjust things one step at a time, but a diabetic has to do things slowly enough to allow time for you to see where and when your new routine might be affecting your sugars. You need time to adjust your doses one at a time so that you can really 'know' what's going on.
So with the CGM trial starting tomorrow, and with a new understanding of how much I can demand from my body at once, the next couple of weeks will be all about making it up to my body and re-discovering that diabetes means doing things at a different pace!
I will keep posting about the CGM trial specifically as I have promised several of you that I will, but it will also be interesting to see what effect the CGM will have on figuring out what I need and when!
Thats it for now
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