Sunday, May 06, 2007

Diabetic Neuropathy... NOT.


So all week, I've been tingling. It's hard to describe; my nerves have been pulsing and tracing.

You know how you can go to your "settings" and change your mouse arrow so that it leaves an extended tail? That's why my sense of touch was like, all over my body. I thought, this must be what "rolling" on ecstasy feels like, except totally scary.

So I've been preparing to tell my doctor that I have diabetic neuropathy. Right? My blood sugar levels are way too low to indicate neuropathy, but what else can explain it? Then I thought, maybe my doctor won't clear me to go to China this summer, maybe my latest escape plan is in the toilet because no one wants to hire a 34 year old health disaster that I'm becoming.

So all week, I have limited my carbs. I haven't been doing Atkins-level carb avoiding, but my carb intake has been lower than normal. During the school week, the only carbs in my body were from a couple tapioca spring roll wrappers. The result? Blood sugar levels in the normal range. Yay! So why are my nerves tingling?

On Thursday, the tingling finally went away, after book club dinner. There was some sugar in the salad dressing, carbs in the croutons, and then a sweet fruit salad. On Friday I had a pastrami wrap with a big flour tortilla, and then chicken tacos with corn tortillas. No tingling. Yesterday, I had half and English muffin for breakfast; no carbs at Ipanema for lunch, but then in the evening, I ate a bag of popcorn. No tingling!

A little bit of good carbs = no tingling.

So I'm going to ease up on my carb restrictions. My blood sugar is so close to normal; I don't have to avoid carbs as much as I thought. I'll still avoid the dangerous ones: steamed white rice, birthday cake, etc. But I think there is some whole wheat toast in my future. Maybe even a pancake.

By the way, I tested at 104 this morning at 9 am, after 12 hours of fasting. That's just five little points above normal.

If your wondering how long this blog is going to remain all blood sugar, all the time, ease your mind. I myself am growing weary of the diabetes posts, so it might be time to start paying attention to the world again.

For example, L.A. Jane is the Master of Shit and has a job interview! Somebody high-five that woman!

2 comments:

bitchphd said...

Dude, the obvious answer is to get up in the middle of the night and have a snack. Pretend you're pregnant.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the shout out and the virtual high five. Been getting some good ones this week. haven't heard from the Jesuits yet... MTS!