Greetings everyone, Kevin, I was thinking it involved climbing a rope in gym class while all your classmates made fun of you. Of course it couldn't be that easy. 4 miles for me this morning. Cheers, Mike

Jeez--I suck at that. too. At least the humiliation is a little more private

Laurie - as I understand it, if a person's blood glucose (sugar) goes high for a little while, a little damage is done to those tiny blood vessels. Over time (years?) with high blood glucose, damage will begin showing up. Unfortunately, it's thought that a person can be diabetic for 2-5 years before it's diagnosed; so damage can be accumulating while the person is unaware. I have a blood glucose kit (small, like a package of Kraft's American cheese slices) which I test my blood with, 2 hours after a meal. The number should be 160 or lower. If it's over 160, I can usually trace it back to something I ate - one dinner roll, a glass of sweet tea, a biscuit, gravy, too much corn on the cob, etc. Once recently my DH and I had the exact same thing, and he wanted to have his blood tested when I checked mine. His - a nice 108, which indicates his pancreas is taking care of the sugars in food (we both had salad and bean soup for lunch at a nicer restaurant in Indy). Mine - 182 - the roll coming with the salad did it. Food isn't the only thing which raises blood glucose - not sleeping well (ha, which is normal for me, being a post-menopausal woman), stress, antibiotics for other things, etc. Unfortunately, I don't know of any medication which can bring down a high # quickly. Exercise, even a long walk, can help over the next 24 hours. Since I found that I like running, that will do it for me, as well as making me feel more positive about everything. dg - As long as I take care of myself (exercise, eating low-carb, taking my meds), I don't think my life expectancy will be shortened. . . but I don't know. And D is such a weird chronic disease. Some things work for me (protein for breakfast, protein at every meal) now; others for other diabetics. And there are no guarantees that what works for me today will work next year. If I keep my carbs to under 30 per meal, I can usually see good #s two hours later. dwlz.com has a list of restaurants and food info (calories, fat, carbs, Weight Watcher points) which is invaluable when I eat out. sorry to turn this into a diabetic thread - if any of you have been told you are of high risk, do something now while you still have a chance to reverse it; but once you've been diagnosed, you'll always be a diabetic. Maybe you'll be able to control it and not have problems/complications; maybe you won't. As Linda has experienced, if you don't have diabetes but watch a family member struggle fight it, it's especially cruel. Roberta

Hey, Laurie - I'm such a bandwagon Phillies fan this year (after a lifetime of earlier heartache!), I just found out yesterday that one of the players' is nicknamed Flying Hawaiian. You need to talk to Shane Vittorino about stealing your handle! On the other hand, you might like a "Flyin' Hawaiian" t-shirt?!?!? Eliz

Linda - thanks for the info about type 1 - now I know more about that side of this disease and how it does differ from type 2. Oh, wow - my 180 would be low for your dad and other type 1's? Yikes. When I was first diagnosed and given directions about low-carb eating and regular exercise by my doctor (herself a marathoner), I diligently followed every step for 3 months until my next A1c (do type 1's have that kind of blood test?). I lost weight, my cholesterol and other numbers all were great, but my A1c only came down a tenth of a point. That's when the doctor said that something else in my body was keeping the glucose up, and I was put on metformin, oral tablets, 500mg once a day. That brought the A1c down to a "high normal" normal, but not low enough to please the doctor, who upped the metformin to 1000mg a day, 2 tablets at supper. I have these A1c tests every 3 months to see how I'm doing; my next test is the week before Thanksgiving, so we'll see what the results are. Thanks again for your info and encouragement.

Wow you guys this is really eye opening for me. I had no idea diabetes did so much damage. Roberta, it must be tough to be so diligent with diet and exercise. I am glad youre one tough cookie. Good luck and let us know the results. Mike, good for you running in 27 degrees. You beat me to the hard core runner award. I know what you mean about alcoholism ruining lives. I lost two family members in 2005 to alcohol related deaths. My brother and uncle. I havent drank since my brothers death. Now I am watching it ruin my sister who is a hard driven successful pilot. Its killing the family to watch it happen to such a wonderful person. No runs for me. Cold symptoms back. Took a nap today and just kind of milled around. The rain run last night ruined me. I have received about 5 thank you emails from the clinic women. I guess they really liked the clinic. They loved the home made energy bars recipe. I will post it here if anyone wants it. Linda, whats going on with the foot? Laurie

Kevin - lol, yep they are dangerous! The jumping bean was a little excited that day... Funny thing you feed these kids, & they just keep growing like crazy!! Laurie - I think it might be a bruised tendon.. trying to rest, ice.. feels better after I do that & could walk better when I took the anti-inflam too.. but once it wore off, still very painful to put pressure on - walking flat, walking up & down stairs.. Roberta - Don't get me wrong Diabetes can be controlled by Type 1's, but is harder than for Type 2's. Type 1's have to take insulin - usually shots or a pump. In recent years, they have discovered if they receive insulin more often, than they the blood sugar levels can be controlled more easily (or lowered consistently). The goal being to get as close to 100 as you can. My dad took 1 shot in the morning for tons of years, and then at some point the docs figured this out & he went from 1 to 2 to 3 shots a day & then to the pump.... Pills & diet/exercise is for Type 2 normally. My understanding is this :The reason being that in Type 2 basically your pancreas is having trouble working correctly & not generating the insulin you need - so diet/exercise or pills are needed. For Type 2, the pancreas is barely working, if at all, so they need a lot more insulin.. this makes it harder to control. They used to call these diseases Juvenile Diabetes & Adult Onset Diabetes. Being the more severe type typically was hereditary & occurred into your 20's. The less severe type being as older adults pancreas' were wearing out. But at some point, they discovered that you could have either type at any age, & it was beneficial to treat accordingly.. the names were changed to reflect the disease, not what they thought were the typical age groups they had been diagnosed historically. Like I said, I spent a lot of time researching diabetes.... & talking to my dad about new treatments, etc.