Numbers from this past Monday to this morning:
I would have liked for my A1c to have dropped into the 5-point-something range by now, but the gods said no. Of course, with all the visitations (brothers, Jeff, Mike), it's been hard for me to keep to the strict dietary pattern I'd laid out for myself, so what you see above is merely the best I could do. The hospital says I need to fast today for at least 12 hours before visiting and giving a blood sample. Along with the blood sample tomorrow, I've got a cardiac test or two, then a visit with the diabetes doc, followed by a visit with the cardiac doc. Unlike previous visits, I won't be celebrating by going off the chain and gobbling a bunch of carbs. With death (or at least angina) always lurking in the background, it's just not worth it, so I've been learning to do without.
I've put "fasting" in scare quotes because I'm using the term very loosely. Since Tuesday, I've had a smoothie every morning except today, and last night, I dug into a small brick of Gruyère that had been sitting in my fridge since before my heart attack and was threatening to go bad. The entire brick is around 400 calories; before midnight, I'd eaten about half of the brick, so for all of Wednesday, I'd had well under 1000 calories' worth of food and drink: not much, but definitely not a fast. Today, though, I have to fast more strictly since it's the day before the hospital visit. That said, I don't think I'm going to have to eat and give a second blood sample tomorrow at the hospital, so I'll simply snack on something just to keep from fainting. I could feel myself almost fainting today when I got out of the cab across the street from my office's building: the sun was bright; it was 90°F (about 32°C); the glare of the sun off the white-painted parts of the pavement made it hard for me to see anything, and I could feel myself getting lightheaded. But I took hold of myself and marched across the street to the 7-Eleven and got myself my usual diet sodas (it'll be water fasting for the rest of the day; technically, my water fast needs to start at 7 p.m. since I'm waking at 7 a.m. tomorrow and at the hospital by 8 a.m.). I'm now at the office with nothing to do, work-wise, but I'm at least feeling better. Can't wait to get tomorrow over with, but I do have a few questions I need to ask my two doctors. Whatever they answer, I'll report tomorrow or over the weekend.
Food fasting I can do; water fasting sucks balls. I generally drink a lot of water, and not being able to drink any water after a certain point in the evening is always tough. Good luck. I hope the visit with the docs goes well.
ReplyDeleteAre we thinking of the same thing? I understood water fasting to be water only, and nothing else. Water doesn't spike blood sugar or insulin. Perhaps you're thinking of dry fasting...?
ReplyDeleteI often misuse the term "fast." My own approximations of water fasts will involve diet drinks—no carbs or calories—but I'm pretty sure that diet drinks technically break fasts. I've learned over the years that diet drinks too late in the day will produce the cephalic reaction, spiking my blood sugar and affecting my morning glucose reading. Over time, though, the lessening of calories will "win out," if you will, and all of my numbers will go down.
Sorry. I should have had the civility to include a thank you.
ReplyDeleteOh, I misunderstood. I thought you meant "dry fasting." I think you might only have to do that before you get probes shoved down your throat or something. I just remember having to do it and it sucking.
ReplyDelete