Just a little prick …

I haven’t been around much lately.  Busy with life and no real excuse.

Bloods are still all over the place but mainly lower than they should be despite how much I eat.  Blood pressure still on the higher side but not surprising with the stresses and strains of dealing with everything.

I met with the dietician last week.  Good meeting.  Nice lady.  I have homework to do to work out what I can eat when I’m not at home … i.e. at the mall, restaurants etc.  Eating out is proving to be my biggest hurdle so I either don’t eat or eat something I’ve taken with me.  Some places don’t allow you to do that though which can be a pain.

I also met yesterday with the psych lady to talk over how I’m coping … or not.  Not a great meeting.  Didn’t get a good vibe from the lady so probably won’t go again,  Really didn’t see the point in the whole thing.  Thank goodness it was free as I woudn’t have wanted to pay for the session given the result.

Anyway, just checking in, hopefully things will calm down next week after my son finishes his exams on Thursday and the AGM at work is over and done with.

Stay healthy

Ohh .. still haven’t had a call from the nurse.  Shows how important I am in the scheme of things

It has now been a week since I started this journey,  Some days have been good, some not so much.

After I saw the doctor last week I had to see the diabetic nurse at the clinic I go to.  She was lovely.  Very reassuring and put me in a positive frame of mind.  She didn’t need to go over how to test my blood or how to inject myself as I did that when I was pregnant, all-be-it 17 years ago.  Things have changed a little .. the insulin pen I have now comes with the insulin already in it which is so much easier than storing the vials and certainly less fiddly.  But when she promised to check in on me in a weeks time to make sure I was okay and coping all right I took her at her word.  However, today, one week from seeing her .. no phone call.

Yes, she might be busy.  But I am too trying to get a grip on what is happening to me.  So I think I’m justified in feeling a little let down and abandoned.  Yes, I could have called her myself but I already feel like I am taking up too much of other people’s time with this, so no .. that is not something I would do.  I don’t interfere in other people’s lives, often to the detriment of my own, and I certainly don’t like to cause a fuss.

But apart from that today was good.  My bloods were a little all over the place .. 12.3 this morning, 12.3 at lunch and then 18.8 before dinner.  I should be sitting at around 19 so the dinner reading is okay the other two, not so good.  I don’t think I’m eating enough some times but eating is all I seem to be doing.  The whole concept of food is now the predominant thought in my head morning, noon and night.  I can’t wait until I get passed this stage ,., it can’t come soon enough.

Dinner tonight was beef and veggie stir fry with brown rice.  Super easy and tasty.

Before I start this post it comes with a warning.  I got a new keyboard yesterday and I’m still getting used to it.  It’s smaller than my old one and my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys.  Bear with me .. my typing is likely to be terrible.  I will try to correct everything but may miss the odd word or two! 😀   Ohh and it has emoticon buttons so expect them to start appearing a lot! 😂👍👍💜😀💜😀👍😂💜😀💜😂😂💜💜

I’ve never been a huge eater of vegetables.  I do like and eat a lot of what I call “safe salad” – tomato, cucumber, celery, carrots and lettuce (although I don’t really see the point in lettuce, I just use it as a filler!).  Cooked veg I would stick to carrots, corn and the occasional potato and kumara.  My dislike of veg started at a young age at boarding school where it was served looking like something from the black lagoon .. grey, lifeless, cold and uninviting.  Total yuk!

So my diabetes journey has meant a big change with veg now at the top of my diet.  It has opened up a new world to me and I’m on an adventure through the world of veg!  My latest trial is the humble courgette .. or zuchini  if you are that way inclined.

I do occasionally cook them in a tomato based sauce along with green pepper (capsicum), celery and onion in a toned down ratatouille.  One of my favourite dishes.  But I have never cooked them any other way and was a little nervous to experiment but experiment I did.  So out came the humble air-fryer (which is quickly becoming my new best friend!).

I sliced the courgette’s in half length wise, sprayed them with the tiniest amount of olive oil, sprinkled them with garlic powder (not garlic salt as that’s bad ) and cooked them in the air fryer at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes.  They came out browned, slightly crispy on top but soft to eat.  I served them with baked fish (also cooked in the air fryer), broccolli and roasted kumara and carrots.  Lets just say that this is one of my favourite dishes so far … in fact they it so yum that I didn’t even stop to take a photo to post here, that will have to wait until next time … and there will be a next time!

I guess I should start at the beginning, although thinking about when that was makes me realise that I actually don’t know when it was, so instead I will begin on Wednesday 2nd November 2022 .. the day I was told I had diabetes.  I don’t know how long I’ve had it, I really didn’t have any symptoms so your guess is as good as mine!

It was a massive shock and not something I expected when I visited the doctor that day for the results of a blood test.  Going back a further 17 years to when I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes and was warned that at some stage in the future it was likely to come back, I just didn’t expect it now. It floored me and caused a mass of emotions, anger at myself for not taking as good care of myself as I could have, guilt for putting my family through this once again and sadness … extreme sadness at what my future holds.  The self pity didn’t last long though.  I just need to get on with it.

So, I headed home with a bag full of insulin pens, needles, blood testing kit, etc etc .. and my new diabetic life began.  This blog will be an avenue to vent my sucesses, my failures, my frustrations and also document my journey through the world of diabetic food.  It may even include a recipe or two … if I find any I like!

A week along and it’s going ok .. good days, bad days, good bloods, bad bloods and the never ending question of “What can I eat”.   I don’t do things by half, it’s all or nothing.  I am determined to beat this and get rid of it.  It will take some time and a lot of hard work, but I WILL do it.

Forgot to mention .. the name of my blog?!   I have a phobia of needles and when I told the doctor that I wasn’t sure that I could inject myself, his response was “It’s just a little prick”