In Search of a Sugarless Nirvana

When James hadn't shown up by eight, I figured there was just a long wait at the doctor's office.

He'd had a persistent rash for about a month, and when over-the-counter drugs failed to cure it, the next step was the doctor. To lose the least amount of time at work, he'd made an appointment for 6 p.m. on April 8.

At ten past eight he finally called.

I wasn't to worry, he explained. He was just lying down on a gurney being infused with saline because he was dehydrated. Oh, and they'd given him an insulin shot. (All that and I wasn't to worry. Yeah. Sure.)

Kaiser had done their work well: to make sure the rash--which turned out to be a fungal infection--wasn't precipitated by an infection, they'd taken urine and blood samples. And found out his blood sugar was at 386.

Ah, well, we'd been hoping to avoid it, but it came anyway. James' dad was diabetic.

The irony is that over the winter he had made some lifestyle changes: instead of drinking cola all night along with during the day, he was drinking water. And we had both halved our usual dessert portion (a Little Debbie chocolate Swiss roll) to one each instead of two. He'd also lost 14 pounds. Had it happened last summer before the changes we could have understood. Ah, well.

So now he pricks his finger four times a day (he has the neat gadget B.B. King advertises on TV) and keeps score, takes two glyburide a day, and we have several new cookbooks and are looking at our diet to cut out starches and sugars. I've noticed a lot of the diabetic diet books have massive sections about how to still have satisfying desserts instead of sweet-laden cakes, pies, danish, etc. Another irony is that despite both our overweight conditions we've never been into these big fancy desserts, except perhaps a treat every three months if we went to Olive Garden and had Black Tie mousse cake or the Death by Chocolate cake at Spaghetti Warehouse. Usually three chocolate Oreos and a glass of milk, or the aforementioned Swiss Roll would do. And me, I'm more likely to nibble on the monthly loaf of French bread or a sandwich bun than go for highly-sugared treats, which I really don't like. (I'm Italian...bread is a major food group all by itself...it's hardwired into my psyche. LOL.)

Right now we're trying different things: the sugarless cake (much too dry), Diet Rite Cola (it's made with sucralose rather than aspartame, which gives James migraines), more veggies and less starches, even a long walk yesterday with the dog.

I just thank God I never developed a taste for soda--the Coca Cola seems to be the hardest thing he's had to give up!

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:31:00 AM

Comments: Post a Comment