I realized a couple of days into my local hospital stay that I was going to have to take control of my health care in order to get better. Let me explain why.
I realized a couple of days into my local hospital stay that I was going to have to take control of my health care in order to get better. Let me explain why.
It was a very hard situation to be in. My toe wasn't getting better. I was trying to accept what could happen even though the doctors were trying to prevent it. At first, the diabetes felt like a death sentence.
There were all kinds of people in and out of my room.
A diabetes educator came to discuss how food was going to affect me for the rest of my life. She explained about carbohydrates and how too many would make my blood sugar rise. It doesn't matter if a food item is sugar free or not. A carbohydrate is a carbohydrate. Sugar isn't really the enemy, it's the carbohydrates that come with it that are. She talked about counting carbohydrates and stressed how important that was.
So, I stopped eating a lot of the food items on my hospital tray because I could clearly see that I was getting too many servings of carbohydrates in one meal. It was obvious too from the extra insulin I was being given after my meals. My tray was marked as "diabetic". My blood sugar rose each time I ate. I was being fed potatoes three times a day some days for an example and sometimes had large pieces of sugar free pie.
I started eating only the lower carbohydrate items and leaving the rest. That's when I got a visit from a dietary person from the kitchen staff. She scolded me for not eating everything on my tray. I explained to her that what I was being served too many carbohydrates according to what the diabetes educator told me. The dietary person told me she was wrong! I told her I didn't think so because I had a copy of the booklet from the Diabetes Association right there in my room that explained it. She was emphatic that is was wrong and that everything sent to me on my tray was exactly what I needed and I HAD TO EAT IT ALL.
Forget that noise.
Then a while later, I got a visit from the head dietitian. She came while I was eating on one of those "diabetic" trays for lunch. She said she was there because I was "confused" because I was a newly diagnosed diabetic. That made me so angry, but I kept my cool. I may have not been feeling well, but I certainly had not lost my wits.
She began telling me once again that the diabetes educator had given me misinformation. (I knew where the misinformation was coming from and it wasn't from her.) She said I needed to eat everything on my tray because they had calculated the calories as per guidelines of the Diabetic Association.
Calories? What about the carbohydrates?
So, I asked about the carbohydrates. I counted the servings of them on my tray to her. I asked why I was expected to eat more of them than I was supposed to have. She conceded that "particular tray" was wrong.
It was then that I started writing down what my blood sugar was before I ate, what I ate, and what my blood sugar was the next time they tested me. I continued to eat only what I felt I should off of my tray.
My blood sugar went down a little, but I was still battling the staph infection in my left big toe. That had a major effect on my blood sugar.
I told my doctor that I was concerned about the carbohydrate count of the foods I was being served. She felt my blood sugar was mainly affected by the infection in my toe. Well, I can tell you that I didn't completely buy that. I could plainly see that the diabetes educator and the dietitian were not on the same page.
It wasn't long after this exchange that I was transferred to a larger hospital. I know I needed better care, but I do think my documenting made them nervous.
That was the seed of an idea to begin a health journal which I have found supremely helpful. (I will be sure to tell you more about that later.)
I felt I really needed to take control of what I was putting into my body. I decided that I would manage the diabetes. It was not going to rule me.
When I got one of those surveys after my hospital stay, I filled it out. I laid it all out on the line about how I think that hospital really needs to reevaluate the nutrition of newly diagnosed diabetics. I explained it as I have here. Who knows if it will make a difference or not.
I have much more to share with you. I hope you'll keep coming back.
