Back to basics

30 Jun 2009 3 Comments

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in hypoglycemia

It’s been some time since my last post, and yesterday’s incident told me why.

I had my worst hypoglycemic incident yesterday afternoon, my glucose level dropping to 2.4 mmol/L. Anything below 4 mmol/L indicates, in general, an approaching a state of hypoglycemia (if I got my literature right). Measurement can be different depending on various conditions. I usually hit 3.9 or 3.4 and when this happens, I already feel weak, dizzy and my hands would already start to shake. Hitting 2.4 was a totally different story.

Yesterday, I had my usual bowl of chocolate Brinta for brunch (round 12 noon). Woke up late so no breakfast, and would’ve had blueberries with Brinta instead had I not dropped the blueberries on the floor, crushing them. Anyway, so I feasted on Brinta and nothing else after. None of my usual yoghurt, tomatoes or nuts. I felt quite full so just went on ticking away on my laptop and surfing. Around 2 I already felt some mild hunger pangs but I dismissed it. By 3, I woud’ve gotten something, but became obsessed with reading some article and chatting with friends. Before I knew it it was almost 4 and I was really hungry and light-headed. SInce I was just sitting the whole time on the sofa, I didn’t realise I was already very weak. Out of curiosity, I checked my glucose level, expecting it to be a 4 or 3.9. When I saw 2.4 on the screen, I was amazed at first (actually said ‘Woh!’). Amazement turned to panick when I became aware of how light-headed I was and how weak I was feeling. I felt confused and my muscles were like jelly. It was already, what I call, the advanced ‘Pacman’ stage: I have to eat anything and everything to satiate the hunger and get energy quickly, but without any power pellets, I couldn’t move fast enough. I felt the ghosts approaching quickly, intent on gobbling me up.

I rushed to the kitchen, confused, and thinking, ‘what to eat, what to eat’. I opened the closet and saw Martin’s Pringles. Not good but I took a handful and stuffed my face. I forgot I had some mango/pineapple juice and I could’ve drank that, but since I stopped drinking fruit juices except on rare ocassions, I forgot I actually had one in the fridge at that moment. I decided to eat some baked beans from the can. I thought, easy to chew and swallow and goes well with Wasa crackers. Before I could open the can though, I felt something like an out-of-body experience (not that I can compare it to anything before), but it felt like I was for a second, disembodied. I could sort of see myself and knew I was going to lose consciousness soon. Pure weirdness. So I abandoned the baked beans and ran to the bottom of the stairs and shouted to Martin to come down and help me. I didn’t want to faint and only to be diovered by Martin when he came down to get his beer ;-p. But seriously, it’s a first-aid step: to inform people around you that you’re exprencing hypoglycemia.

So, he came down and I started rambling about how I was feeling and that my glucose level was really low and could he warm the beans a bit, etc. He reminded me to take some sugar — again, I forgot another basic first-aid step. I took a sugar cube (brown sugar) and popped in my mouth. Took another one for good measure, I thought and was already munching on a Wasa cracker when I laid down on the sofa, waiting for my baked beans. I felt extremely hot and my skin was clammy even with the door and windows open. Martin had to get the fan and I seriously wanted to just undress and lie naked on the sofa, if not for the fact that the neigbours might see. Didn’t want to shock anyone else though ;-p

I just ate the beans as quickly as I could (again not good) and after 10 minutes, I felt better. In retrospect, I could’ve eaten less and more slowly, but I was on ‘survival’ mode. Just did what felt good. I checked my glucose level and it was 5.4, which was both god and bad. Good, as that’s a normal value, but bad coz from a low of 2.4, my glucose level spiked to 5.4 in less than 15 minutes. So imagine, if this happens regularly or multiple times during the day, then my overall glucose levels would display drops and spikes, which is exactly what every diabetic should prevent from happening.

Anyway, this incident and the others that marked the past few weeks are telling me that I’ve not been paying attention to myself. I’ve lost a bit of focus since May when I was able to lower my glucose and cholesterol levels enough to avoid medication. Since then I’ve become a bit lax. Combined with a more active social life (means more lunch, dinner, drinks dates), I also was eating more carbs than normal. Not necessarily bad when you’re in maintenance mode, but I still wanted to lose a bit more weight. Mind you, a more active social life for me is still not as active as what you probably have. But I digress ;-p

I have to get back on track, start to get anal again with my diet and eating schedule. Have to replan and get on the programme again. Need a good plan for when I am home as time management can be a bit too flexible, and need to stick to tha plan. Also need to get serious again with my Wii Fit and take the clothes off that are now creatively concealing my cross-trainer ;-p. It’s back to basic, folks. Let’s see how it goes.

Completing Week 11 and going for a low glycemic index/load diet

15 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in blood glucose level, hypoglycemia, low-glycemic index/load, meals

It’s been one week since I started taking my glucose level and noting down my diet. I think overall it has been ok, but could definitely be better. Still need to have better control of my blood glucose level throughout the day and avoid situations that can trigger hypoglycemic attacks.

March 12 – Thurs
Breakfast: Slim Fast shake, yoghurt
Lunch: Had lunch with Agnes, so I ordered 1 medium bowl of fennel soup and a herb omelette. Unfortunately, the omelette was way too salty so I returned it (it was like ordering salt with some egg ;-p ). Didn’t order a replacement, though so got hungry quickly in the afternoon.
Snack: nuts, tomatoes, low-carb biscuits
Dinner: mexican veggies and shrimps, yoghurt

Blood glucose level:
9:00 – 6.0
23:56 – 7.4

March 13 – Fri
Breakfast: Slim Fast, yoghurt
Snack: nuts, tomatoes
Lunch: pumpkin soup. It was already 15:30 when I had lunch, which I think was the reason why later I felt the shakes coming on. Round 18:00 I already felt light-headed and hungry and by the time I checked, my glucose level was going down. Since, I started to feel very light-headed and hungry, and felt my hands already shaking, I accepted the ‘stroopwaffels’ from my friend, Cherrie. I had 2 small ones and since these are waffels made from corn syrup (I think — in any case, very sweet), I felt a bit better after eating them. Took a pack of my biscuits to eat in the train. I still felt bad during the train journey and even upon reaching home. Martin wasn’t home so forced myself to cook a proper meal instead of gulping down whatever was in the fridge.
Dinner: cauliflower and shrimps with garlic and parlsey sauce, yoghurt

Blood glucose:
9:00 – 7.4
18:30 – 4.3

March 14 – Sat
I started incorporating some slow-releasing carbs this weekend after having that talk with my friend, Craig, who’s a type 1. Gave me some really sound advice, which I intend to follow, starting with including some carbs with low-glycemic index. This was my plan anyway after this initial no-carbs diet of mine. It’s been two days short of a month since I began my no-carbs diet, so I think it’s time to shift things a bit and see how to go on a low-GI (glycemic index) diet / low GL (glycemic load), instead of totally cutting out carbs.

The up-side is I get to eat my cruesli again 😉 . The no-sugar, high-fibre type from Dorset 😉 I missed those! But it’s not a liscence to start being comfy around pasta again. Although it’s a complex carb, it still has a high-glycemic index. Of course, I can still eat it, but only a small portion to ensure that the glycemic load stays low.

What exactly is GI and GL? From http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm:

“The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike…

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.”

So, in short, I should ideally eat low GI and low GL foods. I can eat more of a low GI – low GL food than a high GI – low GL food. The link posted above gives a much more detailed explanation of the difference between these two terms and a complete list of foods with GI and GL values.


Brunch: a bowl of Dorset cereals with lite yoghurt (still the one with plant sterol)
Snack: tuna omelette (1 yolk, 2 whites). I think I had another hypoglycemic attack, so I had to quicly make something. I didn’t measure my glucose level coz I only had two more strips which I was saving for Sunday and Monday morning. But I’m quite convinced it was a hypo-g attack since the shaking, light-headedness, difficulty in concentrating were present.
Dinner: string beans sauteed in onion, garlic with a bit of shrimp paste and coconut milk, 100 grams of mashed cauliflower and brocolli, 2 spoons of brown rice, 3 small meatballs. Yummy!!!

Blood glucose:
12:05 – 5.8

March 15 – Sun
Brunch: Leftovers from diner – string beans sauteed in onion, garlic with a bit of shrimp paste and coconut milk, 100 grams of mashed cauliflower and brocolli, 2 spoons of brown rice
Snack: a few slice of cheese, cashew nuts, no-sugar iced tea
Diner: Dorset cereals with 0% fat strawberry kwark!!! Weird, I know, but I didn’t want to cook. And I’m just craving for it, so why the hell not? 😉

Blood glucose:
13:00 – 4.9

Gonna get new strips and needles tomorrow. That’s the costly part. Will have to see if it can be covered by my insurance.

New gadget: blood glucose meter

09 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by Timi Stoop-Alcala in blood glucose level, gadget, hypoglycemia

So, here I am trying to type with a ‘defective’ middle finger, while fighting off that tired, sleepy feeling brought about by a hypoglycemic attack.

I’m exaggerating with the finger, of course. Just did my very first self-blood test — well, with some help from Martin. Being the chicken that I am, I couldn’t bring myself to press the lancing device. It didn’t matter that the needle was so thin and my mind reasoned that such a thing couldn’t hurt, but my head was still filled with the memory of the last time my uncle administered a blood test on me using a jurassic lancing device, so the pain was still fresh in mind. Seven minutes had already passed and one strip wasted, but I still couldn’t bear the thought of that needle puncturing my skin. This is from the girl who had a gigantic needle stuck several times in her gums when her wisdom teeth had to be removed. What can I say, I’m scared of injections and airplane ride ;-p . As a young girl, I was totally fearless, though…come to think of it, I was so fearless, it was scary. I never cried, not even winced, when I had injections. Then growing-up happened and half of my mind started extrapolating situations arising from injections, while the other half tried to convince me that my deductive reasoning was defective.

But I digress. Today I decided to procure this Accu-Check Compact Plus device for measuring my blood glucose level. I’ve been wanting to get one for some time so I can monitor my progress: see how my diet is affecting my blood glucose levels and just learn more about how my body functions and reacts based on my food choices and eating behaviour. All the drama about the needle was for nothing, because it didn’t hurt at all. I really like that needle! It did the work without the hurt 😉

I must say, though, the product design is not that good, aside from the fact that it looked like a jurassic mobile phone. The interface is also not that easy to understand at the start, but I guess, it’s not so much that, but the way the instruction manual was written / designed. It was a lot of blah and didn’t realy give clear overviews. But I did like that the strips were made into a ‘rolled tape” so that I just put the whole thing in the gadget and it’s dispensed automatically when I do a blood test. And of course, those teeny-weeny needles.

Anyway, the result was 3.4 mmol/l, which means I was experiencing hypoglycemia. I just had a light lunch (no breakfast coz I slept in late) — a small bowl of soup and some cheese — because I was planning to eat again after doing groceries. When I came back, I wanted to take a blood test before I ate anything so proceeded to fiddle around with the gadget. After a while, we realised that the needles weren’t included in the package so Martin had to go back to the pharmacy. It took him a while to get back home, and I struggled a bit going through the manual so by the time I finally completed the test, I felt that I was about to get the ‘shakes’ (my term for when I experience hypoglycemic symptoms). I was hungry, felt the headache starting, and started to feel irritated.

It’s quite useful for me to have felt these symptoms and see it translated in numbers. It gave me a better understanding of what exactly was happening to me. Later tonight, after dinner, I will do another blood test. Tomorrow morning, before I have breakfast (12 hours after I eat my last meal tonight), I’ll also take another blood test. This way I have my baseline for hypoglycemic situations, after meals and fasting. I’m also thinking of getting the Accu-check software so that I can easily monitor all related statistics on my computer.

Ok, stopping now. Still feeling tired and I need to nibble again on something. ;-/