Hey world It's Dustin, I'm gonna do something that will blow your minds, write a post! Leah is asleep and I thought I'd give you all an update from my perspective. Here are my thoughts:
1) Insulin shots suck- Don't get me wrong, they are easy and pretty much pain free. In fact, for the first few days I looked forward to it. But now it's just a constant ball and chain, making me wonder what I will do when I go on
a retreat with the guys in April, will I go in the bathroom to take the shots? Will I just do it in front of them? I'm a guy that loves to be free, and this is something that grounds me. I did find out that the insulin I am taking can actually not be refrigerated for almost 40 days when its being used, which makes me happy from a traveling perspective. Carrying a lunch pail on the plane just sounds daunting. Overall, taking the shots is a piece of cake but Leah is right, I am a pin cushion. I have no problem showing you all how easy it is to put your minds to rest!
2) I'm allergic to everything! I did get potatoes back, which was huge for me just to get some good carbs back, but by taking cows milk, wheat AND rice out of my diet, it's basically a crap shoot on what I will be able to eat. We went to
Pita Jungle tonight, a healthy modern restaurant, and there were less than 5 things on the menu I could eat. There was 1 thing I could eat at a mexican joint the other day, and even then I had to ask for it with no corn salsa and no cheese. I'm much more motivated this time around, as this diet is to eliminate foods I'm allergic to in the chance that doing so I will stop my body from attacking itself and regenerate my insulin production. Previously, I was avoiding wheat but also carbs in general, trying to keep it below 30-50 grams a day! It was just insane. Frankly, I'll eat twigs and berries for the rest of my life if I find out it could cure my diabetes. I don't know how anyone could make the choice of eating anything they want but living with a potentially life threatening disease. I'd take a 1 in a million chance any day, even if it means doing this for a year with no results.
3) This new naturopath.... So as you know from Leah's
previous post, we are going to see the daughter of a friend that actually cured diabetes! That's what I tell people at least, that I'm going to cure diabetes. That's how I see, it. If you can reverse Type I diabetes by just eliminating foods in your diet, why is there still Type I out there? Doesn't make sense to me why more people don't know about it. My plan is to fix myself, then tell the world. I keep telling people my goal is to be on Oprah in a year. Anyway, Kim (
check out her blog), told us to see this naturopath then come see her so she could teach us how to live with the food adjustments. So I did. Kristi came with me, and thank God she did, cause I wouldn't have believed this treatment style if she wasn't there..... It was an acupuncture/energy test to pinpoint my nervous system which acts as a way to communicate to vital systems in the body. For example, when he pressed on an pressure point that was for the pancreas, it weakened my body, and when he pulled against my straightened hand that was once rigid and unmovable, he could easily move it with almost no force... It sounds strange, and believe me it was a bit strange to me, but it was cool too. He did this in a number of places to see which organs in my body were under stress (of course my pancreas was, but also my small intestines which makes sense with my stomach issues). So this continued until he got to the good part. He then "activated" my body so that if something was to come in range of it, it would also have the same affect. In other words, if he brought a vile of wheat over my chest, he was easily able to move my hand when 5 seconds before it was unmovable (I'm huge as you are all obviously aware...) He did this with a bunch of stuff, of which he found the following allergies
Wheat, Rice, Barley, Hops, Corn, Cows milk, Mercury and MSG
That about wraps up my eating career! Thanks for the great food dad, but its steak and potatoes from here out! Kidding. This was of course a good test from a holistic standpoint, but long term I'll get a thorough allergy test done to be sure on every thing (my previous test only tested a limited range of foods and only 1 strand of antibodiues. Good test have 500 foods and test 3 of the major antibodies that show food allergies).
Well that's about all my thoughts. Thought I'd get that off my chest.
Just to be clear, this isn't affecting me in any way other than my diet. It's actually making my stronger and giving me something to work towards, which I thrive on. Everyone has given me amazing support, most notably Leah who has been insanly supportive and helpful in this crazy time, so thank you! Don't be afraid to write or call with questions, because talking about it can be therapeutic - as apparently is writing about it :)
Oh and I just remembered, I got a call from my little brother's mom today. She told me he had a class asignment to write a paper about someone who inspires him... he wrote it about President Bush.... just kidding! He wrote it about me! That made my day! Have a good night
Dustin
February 11th is the first day of Insulin. Notice the drastic change after I started shooting up. It shows you the average for each day as one point, so I may have been elevated after 1 meal but good waking or after the other meal, but it was averaged so appears less. Either way, I'm averaging 141 over the last 4 days, a significant drop. Whats cool is what's happened lately.... I haven't really told anyone, but I've been eating potatoes every day for the last 7 days, whether it's sweet potatoes fried, french fries, grilled sweet potatoes.... I've had potatoes every day for the last week. If you notice something weird, I've consistantly had the lowest levels over the last 7 days (bigger view below). It also appears that I am consistantly trending down (slowly but you can still see a trend). Also something crazy is after a meal with potatoes, I've never been above 140...... According to the old naturopath, foods with high glycemic index (potatoes are the highest) are the ones that should shoot me through the roof, so this is interesting that my body isn't reacting to them. It's nothing to celebrate about, but something I'm paying attention to, since its been 2 weeks now since I cut all potential toxic foods from my system.The docs said it could take 2 days to a month before I see a difference, and up to a year before my pancreas is 100%.
