txhoneydarlin

I am a 36-year-old mommy to a six-year-old kindergartner, Paislee, who is the light of my life as well as my best friend. She had heart surgery about a year ago (November 16, 2007) for Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW) but has been off medication since September 2007 and has no physical restrictions at this point. Her last EKG was awesome; her cardiologist said that it appeared that she had never had WPW, which was fabulous news for us! Paislee was involved with PiPs at school and did a great job - we enjoyed watching her practice and perform at local high school basketball games. My husband and I celebrated our seven year anniversary this year (November 10). He is great to me - trying to always be understanding about my multiple medical diagnoses and helping me out all he can. I am also a stepmommy to my 15 year old (February 16) stepdaughter who currently lives in Kansas with her mom and stepdad. We keep in touch on Facebook when we're not talking on the phone. Kelsi recently worked on a project about diabetes, and I enjoyed helping her with it.

On October 30 of this year, I was placed into the ICU on an emergency admit from my PCP. I was diagnosed as a type-one insulin-dependent diabetic, despite losing 116 pounds over the past two years. I currently take 20 units of Levemir at night, and I take three to eight units of Humalog with each meal depending on carb load. I also take seven units of Humulin 70/30 at bedtime.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia on January 2, 2009, and recently changed from 60 mg of Cymbalta qd to 500 mg gabapentin tid as well as Lortab 7.5 mg qid, Xanax .5 mg tid and 10 mg Flexeril tid to help control it. I was also prescribed Bentyl qid and Reglan qid for the IBS symptoms that are occurring with my fibro. In addition, I have CFS symptoms and am often very tired. I take 3 mg Melatonin at night to help improve the quality of my sleep.

With the support of my primary care physician (PCP aka Mike), I am practicing a 1400 calorie/35g carbs/25g sugar/high protein diet. I need to lose another 12 - 20 pounds to help stabilize my blood sugars and regulate my metabolism, which has been difficult since several of my medications have weight gain as a side effect and the insulin I take makes my body want to hang on to my weight. My blood sugar readings have dropped drastically since I obtained permission from Mike for my diet plan, with my most recent A1C reading being 5.8 (down from 14.7 when I was admitted to the ICU).

I do not follow other diabetes diet plans that advise high carbs at each meal (ADA), as I have found that higher carbs raise my blood sugar levels dreastically. Instead, I try to keep my total carb count for the day under 35g and my total sugar count under 25g, and this has worked very well in stabilizing my blood sugars throughout the day as well as giving me lower readings more consistently. I try my best to follow Dr. Bernstein's methods - his books are fabulous! I do take herbal supplements along with vitamins/minerals, which have been approved by Mike as well - and we talk openly about our feelings in regards to supplements, medication, diet and controlling both my weight and diabetes. He gives me a lot of support, which I am grateful for.

During my spare time, I enjoy volunteer activities in our community, photography, reading, spending time with my family and friends, and playing with our three cats, three dogs and our horse. I am really blessed to have a circle of close friends; they are like family to me.

I enjoy learning all I can about diabetes, fibromyalgia, IBS and CFS; dieting and carbs; the medications I am taking as well as the benefits of exercise so that I can lead a healthier lifestyle and hopefully someday take less medication for my diabetes and other diagnoses. During the spring and summer months, I enjoy gardening and yard work - and bird and butterfly watching, as my yard seems to be a magnet for them.