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November 1, 2007

Adventures with Bruce - Diabetes Education

by Ferdinand T Cat

Bruce has developed type 2 diabetes, so he spent the day at the doctor's office getting educated about his new lifestyle. To the average person, being diagnosed with an incurable illness would be traumatic, but this is Bruce's fourth, so he's fairly calm about it.

The most important therapy for type 2 diabetes is diet and exercise. Actually, nowadays the most important therapy for everything is diet and exercise. Someday Bruce is going to fall and break his leg and instead of putting him in a cast they'll tell him to diet and exercise.

Because this is diabetes, part of the diet is that you're supposed to avoid sugar. The nurse in charge of the education kept hammering home again and again that sugar is a Very Bad Thing. The problem here is that once they told Bruce he had a blood sugar problem, Bruce realized that the mysterious stomach ailment that's dogged him over the past month is caused by by sugar. A few days ago he had one glass of non-diet soda and the pain was so bad he couldn't work. So, the long lecture was useless because the poor sod doesn't even have the option of cheating. He spent a good chunk of the afternoon staring at the bowl of leftover Halloween candy with tears running down his face.

Part of the educational experience involves demonstrating how to test your blood sugar levels. This used to be fairly complicated, but nowadays they have very small testing devices that are simple to use and fit in your shirt pocket. It should come as a surprise to no one that while the nurse was explaining how to use the device Bruce accidentally stabbed himself.

Anyway, the experience is not over. There will be more tests and doctor visits in the near future, plus The Girl will have to sit down with Bruce and work out the whole diet and exercise thing. The important thing, however, is we now know what was making him sick all the time, and we're on the road to fewer nights being sick and more nights giving me the attention I deserve, and that's all to the good.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Thu 11:23 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (4) | More Adventures with Bruce | Tags:

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Tell Bruce it will all okay! Send him over to my site for some great diabetes links; and my daily blogging for Diabetes Awareness Month in November. Also, diabetes.about.com is a great source of support and knowledge.

I've been doing this for 3 years now and once I found the combination of medications and eating, I settled in.


Posted by: Jo at November 2, 2007 5:49 AM

Yeah, tell Bruce that there are many wonderful sugar-free confections available these days.


Posted by: Suldog at November 2, 2007 8:05 AM

We have a provisional meal plan worked out, but we're having a little problem with the glucose tests. For now, the Girl administers the test while Nate holds Bruce down to prevent him from running away. I'm hoping it's just a phase.


Posted by: Ferdy Author Profile Page at November 3, 2007 8:27 AM

Oh lord! That's a picture I didn't need to have implanted in my brain. Use the spot on your finger on the side close to the fingernail. Doesn't seem to hurt as bad. Also, check the depth -- you don't need more than to get through 7 layers of skin -- you don't need to go to the finger bone!! Trial and error .. also I have a Free Style meter that doesn't need much blood, that helps too.


Posted by: Jo at November 7, 2007 2:49 PM

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