From FatCatAnna

When I was attending the IDF World Diabetes Congress last month, I came across a few products from a company based in the States, called Generex.  They are involved in research and development of drug delivery systems, but not through the usual ways that we know of.  Basically instead of by injection, they are developing drugs that are taken via the lining of the inner mouth (RapidMist™ device). Not only will their products be used for diabetes, but also for pain management and cancers.

One of their major products they are introducing to the market is an oral insulin (Generex Oral-lyn™).  This is used for both Type 1 and 2 diabetics and is currently sold in Ecuador.  It was also approved for sale in Indian back in 2007, and currently is in various stages of clinical development around the world.  Right now, Phase III clinical trials of their oral insulin has startied in North America, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and the Ukraine.

Can you imagine, not having to inject anymore?  I would be very interested in seeing more information on their product as it comes out.  So, if I do come across anything to share with you all, hopefully you'll be as interested as I am.

The other product that I came across and managed to get a few samples of (with the Oral-lyn™ I managed to get a squeezy stress toy ) - is Glucose RapidSpray™.  You may have seen this in the American market already, but it is new to us here in Canada.  This product can be used to treat a low blood sugar, and claims not to cause a rapid spike in the blood sugars, like some other products do (I tend to find I spike up, due to taking too much sugar).  I tested it out finally last night, when waking up around 04h30 with a blood sugar reading of 2.9 mmol/l (52 mg/dl).  I followed the simple instructions, and sprayed 10 times inside of my cheek, retested my blood sugar in about 10 minutes (3.1 mmol/l - 55 mg/dl) - sprayed 10 times more (I had strawberry flavour - yum) - and trotted off to bed at that point.  When I woke up in the morning, my blood sugar, was at 4.0 mmol/l (72 mg/dl) - and I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with the results!

To find out more about other products that Generex has (e.g. BaBoom!™ and Crave-NX) - check out their website at this link.

From FatCatAnna

Well, I've been having a fun time dealing with the dreaded menses (guys - you can stop reading if this doesn't interest you - but for us diabetic gals - it can play havoc in the control of our diabetes).  I can't remember if I had written about this before, too lazy to search back into my blogs to find out if I did, but if I did, here I go again.  For my latest "bout",  having the monthly dreaded has made me into a slug like you see above.  It just seems as I'm nearing closer to the age of menopause, that things are changing for me in how it affects me.  It never has before, and I used to go "poo poo" at women who would miss work because of how they felt.  Now I go back on how much of a workload they left me, with being out of the office, I know exactly how the feel!

Today, I signed up to a new GP, one that I hope to be with for many years to come.  I haven't had a GP in almost  15 years, let alone find one that takes on new patients, and the ones I've found here in Quebec, tend to not be proficient in English, this one is - hallelujah!  She seems quite satisfied with my handling of my diabetes, and didn't pressure me too much in seeing an endo that understands pumping, unlike my present endo.  He has always let me do what I want to do, which for now is fine for me.  I am fortunate that I take my health into my own hands, not everyone can do that, but it is good for me to have some medical advise when I've tried different ways of keeping myself alive and healthy with diabetes.

Anyway, back to the menses bit. Seems that now as I near that time of life, that my periods will be more like when I was a youngster.  Ohhh, I feel ready to leap thru' meadows with wild flowers again!  She advised me to take Advil to control the discomfort, which for the past 3 days has left me a quivering weakling.  I fought with all my will to not let it conquer me, and the wierdest thing was, my BG's remained below normal, which for me in the past, I've had to increase my insulin doseage due to hormonal imbalance.  Combined with low blood sugars, lack of energy, this was a new experience for me in the 41 years of my having diabetes!

So, with that bit of advise given to me. I know next time I will be able to cope better.  I'm still feeling like I've been hit by a truck as I'm typing this out to you.  Resisting the urge right now to go to take a nap.  I am a cruel one to my poor body sometimes, driving it past it's limit, but that is how I deal with little hiccups like this.  I fight back.  Not sure if this is to do with having diabetes, and not allowing it to take over my everyday life.  Hard to say.

Alright, my energy is just about zapped from doing this blog. Time to test the BG, find out what's going on, then rest in front of the telly for abit, catch up on Coronation Street!

From FatCatAnna

Well, as most of you know - I love to cook, I love to eat (my excuse is my clothing has to keep on fitting me - who wants baggy pants around their lower buttucks?).  I took out this great book from the library and have been lucky enough to renew it twice - but now it's due back - as it's a new publication.

The reason I took out the book was due to it saying that it had recipes that are low in carbs.  I've been watching my carb intake more carefully since going onto the pump and reeducating myself in my eating habits.  Not that they've really changed - I still tend to eat more veggies then carbs when I sit down for my main meal.  According to this book, a diabetic should plan their meal to be 1/2 veggies on the plate, then the remaining 1/2 should be 1/2 starch and 1/2 protein.  So, I'm right on track with that.

Majority of the recipes in this book tend to be low carb - under 20g per serving - some lower (I like to eat meals under 30g of carb).  The occassional recipe is abit higher then what I would normally eat (e.g. 56g) - but again -  the serving size of the dish is for 4 people - I tend to eat a smaller amount - so when you factor that in - the carb count isn't that overwhelming.

Even better, at the back of the book it has a great explanation of the different types of diabetes, written in a form that I can understand (too technical makes my brain freeze up).  It goes into detail on how food works on our blood sugars as well as weight maintenance.  There is a daily food and health tracker along with a great meal plan for one week that you can follow if you want.

The main thing though - is the recipes are based on the CDA/ADA food exchange regime (I hate to say "diet") that most of us follow.  It shows each recipes with the nutritional breakdown - something I've become more aware of as I've gotten older and wiser .  Compared to the 2 cookbooks I've bought over the past 40 years of being diabetic - this recipe book IMHO is the best one yet - with very easy to follow instructions - ways to change the recipe to suit your taste buds - and little tid bits of information on each page.

The only thing with book that I wrote to Reader's Digest about (the publisher of the book) - is for some diabetics like myself - who weigh our food in order to get a more accurate carb count - this wasn't shown.  Just the regular "each serving provides".  That is fine - but if I eyeball that serving size portion wrong - I can end up taking too much insulin - and then having a hypo - rare for me - but it could happen to others that are like myself - counting their carbs.

I know the one recipe I really want to try out is a light rye bread recipe - that is only 15 g per slice.  I love rye bread - so this will be one of the many pages I'll be photocopying before I take the book back to the library (am currently trying to see if a friend of mine that works for Reader's Digest can purchase the book for me at a discounted rate - crossing my fingers here).

So, if you want a good cookbook to check out - diabetic or nondiabetic - you will be very surprised if you think we eat a bland and boring diet (Spiced Stir Fried Duck looks amazing - quack, quack).  The recipes in this book are something that you might find at a posh little restaurant - without all the fuss of some recipe books I've come across.  Click on this link to find out how to order it or check for it at your local library which is where I found my copy.

From FatCatAnna

Well, lately here on this website I’ve not been able to post into forums or blogs without having to reach the administrators due to their website having problems with folks like myself using Firefox.  And now again, having issues with logging on, but I’m taking advantage of having a hypo – e.g. low blood sugar.  I want to write a blog in this frame of mine to see what sort of nonsense comes off my fingertips.

I generally don’t like to work in this condition – as I told the kind Admin dude at the other end as he asked me for details of what is occurring while I try to post this blog – I told him – "I’m in hypo land – I’m not wanting to respond to you at the moment as I'm not quite here - let me write my blog".  I’m one of the fortunate ones (no comment from the peanut gallery – ahhh – what the heck go ahead and give me your comments below) that knows when they are low.  I can  deal with it and still function – in what I think is probably a semi-comical way (Just For Laughs Comedy Festival is here in Montreal should I go and do a street act?).  I don’t get hypos that often thank goodness, less more now then when I was on MDI (multiple dosage injections) – but they happen. 

 Who knows what set this off?  It’s a fairly normal day – only thing I’ve done different – eaten abit more fruit then I normally do – perhaps overbolused – I am not a person to over analyze my situation.  It’s just happening and I’m doing what I normally would not do to quelch a low blood sugar– I’m experimenting grazing on foods.  Just imagine a pig at a trough – that’s sort of me right now – but I’m coming out of the hypo now as I type this out – fingers are not bouncing all over the keyboard as I type (they tend to twitch on their own – like they have a brain in each tip of the finger).  Prior to starting to type this blog, I consumed a glass of OJ (something I rarely touch), a few cherries (did not count – they were awesome tasting), some little cheese fishy shaped things (forget the brand name – but they are okay – bit dry mind you) – my last bit of consumption – and I swear my belly is bulging – some sesame snaps.  I know for sure those will bring up the BG’s no doubt – as the package says 20g of carb. 

So, for now, I am going to attempt to post this to Diabetes1 in the Blog area – if you are reading this – you’ll know I got thru’ – either via Firefox or Internet Explorer.  I am also using another computer to do this work with a roller ball mouse - I feel like I'm Alice in Wonderland at this desktop here .

From FatCatAnna

I went to see my endo yesterday - of course - like we all do - wondering what my latest A1C was going to be.  Well, it was 5.7% - down abit from 6 months ago plus I've lost some weight.  Whoo! Whoo!  Though that "whoo, whoo" - quickly changed to a state of shock when the endo told me he had noticed protein in my urine.  I'm in good control of my diabetes - how could it happen?  I mean blood sugars are good and I've never had high blood pressure. So, after over 40 years of being diabetic - are complications of having it for so long starting to creep up on me - just not wrinkles around the eyes???? 

He was pretty busy that day (it was a 1 hour wait to see him) - and I didn't really get to get down to the nitty gritty with him like we usually do.  When he said he was going to hike up the Avapro  from 150 mg to 300 mg - my brain became alert.  I was honest with him and told him -  "Uhm duh, I take it when I remember - like ... not that often".  Shaking his head - he said - "you take insulin - take your pill!".  In the medical world these meds are called ACE inhibitors that help relax your blood vessels so blood flows more freely and lowers blood pressure and puts less work on your kidney.  He had prescribed it to me many moons ago - as a preventative for having kidney problems.   Fine and dandy - but even before going on this med - I had perfect blood pressure results - so even despite one of my friends telling me to "take it" - well - I've fallen off the wagon as far as taking the Avapro.

When I got home I went and did abit of research on Avapro (http://chealth.canoe.ca/drug_info_details.asp?brand_name_id=88&rot=4) - and what's got me even more confused was when I read a paragraph saying this medication  may not be good if you have kidney problems already.  Yikes!!!!

 So of course, I'm worried now - wouldn't you be?  Is it because I've been eating low carb diet?  I didn't have time to tell my endo this.   If it is, I'm going back to my way of eating before. Oh joy, OJ in the morning again and how I have missed your sunny smile in the morning!!!  The one thing I'm going to try to find out is what the number was for the protein found in my urine - was I on the edge, middle ... ???  I completely forgot to ask the endo this in my shock - which is not usual for me.  Of course, office is closed today - so I'll have to wait until Monday - then consult a chart I've come across as to where I stand.