Testing Positively With Neuropathy

Well it dawned on me this morning (no pun intended!) that besides the stress that my neuropathy is causing and frustration, there is one good thing about it. Hard to believe that there is something positive about numbness and lack of touch right?



Well I can pretty much test my BG (blood glucose) without feeling a darn thing. Guess that counts as a positive right?

OneTouch Ultra & Omron's Auto BPM...

I thought I should let everyone know what equipment I use for monitoring my progress with diabetes. For I tracking sugars I use the OneTouch Ultra 2 Blood Glucose Monitoring System which I find to be an excellent product. This system also includes the lancet pen, 10 lancets and control solution. I like the storage case as it has a molded shell to hold the unit while you are using it. Batteries last about a year apparently - I will let you know when my give out. You can also flag your results with 'before' or 'after' a meal, and also comments like 'ate too much'. You can easily see your average glucose reading, your last result or the history. If you buy two of their OneTouch® Ultra® Test Strips with FastDraw - Box of 50 - Box (so 100 strips), they will throw in this system for free - at least they did for me. Makes sense, the strips are always expensive. Also bought LifeScans' OneTouch® FinePoint Lancets - 25G - Box.

For blood pressure, I use the Omron HEM-711AC Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor with IntelliSense which works like a dream. Simple to operate and has a memory too.

I bought a small inflated ball from the dollar store so that I can squeeze it during the day to keep the blood circulating as best as it can for my hands & fingers. Cheap but effective!

I walk twice a day, 25 minutes in the morning and 35 minutes at lunch.

I am eating a lot of chicken breast, tuna, lean pork and fish. Occasionally have some lean beef too. I am big on brussell sprouts and spinach so that helps!

One of the biggest things you can do to help with diabetes is to lose pounds if you are overweight. I have lost 16 pounds in 4 weeks of eating correctly and walking.

If you are using any equipment that you would like to comment on (for or against), be my guest!

Welcome to Diabetical !

Great to see you visiting! I am a recently diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic (about a month ago). About that time my fasting sugar was 11.2 and 10.5 which were taken a week apart. Since then, through mainly diet and exercise (I am on Metformin as well, but the impact is not felt immediately - I was on Avandia; more on that later), my fasting readings have dropped to between 6 and 7. I also have neuropathy which I am relatively certain it is diabetes related, but I don't know for sure. This is numbness and/or tingling and/or burning sensations and in my case I have it in my feet, legs, hands and arms. Not good for stress let me tell you. But I am a person that really loves life and I want to pass on as much good news as possible to diabetics. One thing is certain; there are millions of us. We are not alone!

This blog is all about feeling emotionally better with Type 2 Diabetes. I am not trying to exclude Type 1 diabetics believe me, but I know nothing about that side of things and I would not want to do any disservice. So this blog is mainly about Diabetes Type 2. Depression is also a consideration with diabetes and I hope to help.

Please leave comments whenever you want to. I place a very high value on them as I want to hear your thoughts and because everyone is different. I want to expose this blog to as many different ideas as possible and to hear the uplifting stories of experiences and overcoming diabetes.

So please enjoy the website and I hope you find everything relevant, informative, entertaining and well worth your time to read.