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Diabetis and chronic HCV, too much to handle!!!
I am an insulin dependant diabetic with chronic HCV. I was on treatment twice. In 2005 on pegasys and ribavirin and late 2006-2007 pegasys and protease inhibitor in a study. 56 weeks in 2005 but never got to undetectable. My best viral load was 5000. Under the study which lasted 22 weeks (I had a pulmonary embolism and took myself out of the program) I never got below 7000. I am a genotype 1 with a viral load of 18,000,000 at my last checkup 2 months ago. I will never attemt treatment with interferon again. I still have some syptoms of the drug in my system and I wonder if I will ever be free of the side effects. Since I also have diabetis and I deal with that on a daily basis. Does anyone else have both diseases? I have a real hard time with food issues. I can't eat too many carbs or my sugar goes up and with too much protein I feel terrible too. I am at my wits end and I need help!!! I feel overwhelmed, so many health problems and I am scared all the time. I try not to think about it but I do. How do you stay up and positive and brave in the face of all this?
Hi, I have type 2 diabetes (diagnosed about 5 yrs ago), and have done a decent job keeping my sugars in check. Not PERFECT, but overall, pretty good.
I started treatment about 8 weeks ago, and just found out that I have an abnormal amount of protein leaking into my urine. Proteinuria, I believe it's called. I have a feeling this has been brought on by my Pegasys/Ribavirin treatment, as nothing else has really changed except that. We'll see what all of my doctors have to say on it this week.
I can appreciate the full on freak out that comes with trying to handle so many things at once regarding your health. It feels like your body is just betraying you every other day.
I don't have any better advice that what's been given, but better control over your blood sugar is KEY to many things.
You might start with getting your doctor to refer you to a nutritionist. That would be a good start, and do some outside reading also.
Take a deep breath, eat well, and do the best you can.
Good luck!
I started treatment about 8 weeks ago, and just found out that I have an abnormal amount of protein leaking into my urine. Proteinuria, I believe it's called. I have a feeling this has been brought on by my Pegasys/Ribavirin treatment, as nothing else has really changed except that. We'll see what all of my doctors have to say on it this week.
I can appreciate the full on freak out that comes with trying to handle so many things at once regarding your health. It feels like your body is just betraying you every other day.
I don't have any better advice that what's been given, but better control over your blood sugar is KEY to many things.
You might start with getting your doctor to refer you to a nutritionist. That would be a good start, and do some outside reading also.
Take a deep breath, eat well, and do the best you can.
Good luck!
You need some help learning how to control your blood sugar. Ask your doctor to give you a referral to a Diatician or Diabetes Educator.
For now, you can follow some simple guidelines that will help you keep the blood sugar under better control:
1. Don't ever skip breakfast. Doing so will make your fasting blood sugar higher. Breakfast doesn't have to be big but you need to eat something.
2. Eat breakfast as early as you can.
3. Have 5 small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, bedtime snack).
4. Try to space your meals so that they're not too close together or too far apart.
5. Remember that protein lasts longer and it doesn't raise blood sugar as much as carbs do.
6. Fruit raises blood sugar sky high and it does so quickly.....then it drops quickly. To prevent that from happening, don't ever eat fruit by itself. So if you eat let's say a small apple, have some nuts or a piece of cheese with it (or something else).
7. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you have a bedtime snack half hour before you go to bed and it MUST contain PROTEIN.
During the day, you eat meals....and the food turns into sugar...so you always have sugar in your blood. But during the night, you don't eat for many hours....so your blood sugar goes down....and that causes the liver to release a bunch of sugar into your bloodstream.....which causes the fasting blood sugar to be HIGH.
So to prevent the liver from giving you sugar during the night, you have to eat something that will last you all night. Since protein lasts alot longer than carbs, your bedtime snack MUST contain protein. If you eat let's say....cereal, it will last you only for a couple of hours.
Bedtime snack examples:
Cheese and a few crackes.
Half a quesadilla.
Half meat or peanut butter sandwich.
Nuts
Tuna and crackers
(Remember that this is supposed to be a snack, not a big meal).
If you have any specific questions, please let me know.
Co
For now, you can follow some simple guidelines that will help you keep the blood sugar under better control:
1. Don't ever skip breakfast. Doing so will make your fasting blood sugar higher. Breakfast doesn't have to be big but you need to eat something.
2. Eat breakfast as early as you can.
3. Have 5 small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, bedtime snack).
4. Try to space your meals so that they're not too close together or too far apart.
5. Remember that protein lasts longer and it doesn't raise blood sugar as much as carbs do.
6. Fruit raises blood sugar sky high and it does so quickly.....then it drops quickly. To prevent that from happening, don't ever eat fruit by itself. So if you eat let's say a small apple, have some nuts or a piece of cheese with it (or something else).
7. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you have a bedtime snack half hour before you go to bed and it MUST contain PROTEIN.
During the day, you eat meals....and the food turns into sugar...so you always have sugar in your blood. But during the night, you don't eat for many hours....so your blood sugar goes down....and that causes the liver to release a bunch of sugar into your bloodstream.....which causes the fasting blood sugar to be HIGH.
So to prevent the liver from giving you sugar during the night, you have to eat something that will last you all night. Since protein lasts alot longer than carbs, your bedtime snack MUST contain protein. If you eat let's say....cereal, it will last you only for a couple of hours.
Bedtime snack examples:
Cheese and a few crackes.
Half a quesadilla.
Half meat or peanut butter sandwich.
Nuts
Tuna and crackers
(Remember that this is supposed to be a snack, not a big meal).
If you have any specific questions, please let me know.
Co
"Often diebetics eat comfort foods high in starch and sugar, and this is part of why they then end up with congestive heart failure."
LOL....imagine that, all these years and I didn't know diabetes causes CHF.
LOL
LOL....imagine that, all these years and I didn't know diabetes causes CHF.
LOL
it's called between a rock and a hard place.
If I were you, I would push to get a insulin pump installed, you will get better control this way of at least the blood sugars, which is the more controlable part of your two diseases and you may feel a lot better if put on one of these units.
. Then you need to resign yourself to smaller meals more often...you can add lots of roughage such as salad to be satified but 6 small meals will be much easier on your liver and diebetes than 3 regular meals.Although this way of eating has always been considered optimum for diebetes, it is also consider the same for liver patients.
A smaller amount of functional tissue means smaller meals do not overwhelm the organ.
If your stage is 3 or 4 you will need to constrict protein but not eliminate it until very end stage disease unless your kidneys are deficient. Check with your own doctor and clinic, mine recommends 1-2 oz servings with each meal and snack until the bloodwork indicates to go lower. This should result in 4-8 oz a day. much depends on your stage of disease, as well as your BMI, size, and activity level. The greater sized person or more active will need more than a small inactive person.
If you can have a nutritionist taylor your diet for you it's best, unless you have the skills.
This is because each day the body works in protein deficient mode the body removes muscle tissue from limbs to try and maintain the heart muscle. Often diebetics eat comfort foods high in starch and sugar, and this is part of why they then end up with congestive heart failure.
Rememeber being is your body cannot survive on carbs alone, it needs proteins for muscle repair and even though the liver can convert even simple sugars into protein when in a desparate crunch it doesn't do it readily, easily or well. So the best source to keep your heart and other muscles strong is to consume some complete amino acids chains (complex chains whose source is chiefly animal/dairy/eggs). These are almost 100% absorable and give you raw material to rebuild dead and dying tissue.
I am fond of DR. Barry Sears book called "the Zone"..not only because he explains in laymans language how the whole digestive system works, but because the diet works
, is balanced, and he helps people to see food the way it needs to be seen,
as a drug.
What he means by that is every mouthful of sugar or protein or whatever is process just like a big dose of a and powder or drug...the thousands of processes the liver must complete on every tablespoon of food make you realize that your body is one big test tube....how you mix things in the tube determines whether you get something good...or something blows up on you....I'm over simplifying, but if you read his book, I think you'll have a better idea how to make foods your friend. He also explains the glycemic index in a way most can understand and shows you how to slow your absorption with healthy oils.
All in a all, the Zone has 3 or 4 areas where it outshines as an educational tool most of the popular diet books out there.
You also would do well to read up on prebotics and probotics. The health of your colon is particularly important in latter stage liver disease and a pound of prevention here can add many more month or years that have some quality to them. Obviously however long or short life may be, we should take easy staps to improve quality and have some well days.
mb
If I were you, I would push to get a insulin pump installed, you will get better control this way of at least the blood sugars, which is the more controlable part of your two diseases and you may feel a lot better if put on one of these units.
. Then you need to resign yourself to smaller meals more often...you can add lots of roughage such as salad to be satified but 6 small meals will be much easier on your liver and diebetes than 3 regular meals.Although this way of eating has always been considered optimum for diebetes, it is also consider the same for liver patients.
A smaller amount of functional tissue means smaller meals do not overwhelm the organ.
If your stage is 3 or 4 you will need to constrict protein but not eliminate it until very end stage disease unless your kidneys are deficient. Check with your own doctor and clinic, mine recommends 1-2 oz servings with each meal and snack until the bloodwork indicates to go lower. This should result in 4-8 oz a day. much depends on your stage of disease, as well as your BMI, size, and activity level. The greater sized person or more active will need more than a small inactive person.
If you can have a nutritionist taylor your diet for you it's best, unless you have the skills.
This is because each day the body works in protein deficient mode the body removes muscle tissue from limbs to try and maintain the heart muscle. Often diebetics eat comfort foods high in starch and sugar, and this is part of why they then end up with congestive heart failure.
Rememeber being is your body cannot survive on carbs alone, it needs proteins for muscle repair and even though the liver can convert even simple sugars into protein when in a desparate crunch it doesn't do it readily, easily or well. So the best source to keep your heart and other muscles strong is to consume some complete amino acids chains (complex chains whose source is chiefly animal/dairy/eggs). These are almost 100% absorable and give you raw material to rebuild dead and dying tissue.
I am fond of DR. Barry Sears book called "the Zone"..not only because he explains in laymans language how the whole digestive system works, but because the diet works
, is balanced, and he helps people to see food the way it needs to be seen,
as a drug.
What he means by that is every mouthful of sugar or protein or whatever is process just like a big dose of a and powder or drug...the thousands of processes the liver must complete on every tablespoon of food make you realize that your body is one big test tube....how you mix things in the tube determines whether you get something good...or something blows up on you....I'm over simplifying, but if you read his book, I think you'll have a better idea how to make foods your friend. He also explains the glycemic index in a way most can understand and shows you how to slow your absorption with healthy oils.
All in a all, the Zone has 3 or 4 areas where it outshines as an educational tool most of the popular diet books out there.
You also would do well to read up on prebotics and probotics. The health of your colon is particularly important in latter stage liver disease and a pound of prevention here can add many more month or years that have some quality to them. Obviously however long or short life may be, we should take easy staps to improve quality and have some well days.
mb
HepC and Diabetes go together. You could say HCV can cause Diabetes.
I suggest you lay your hands on a copy of the South Beach Diet by Dr Arthur Agatston
It explains what carbs you can eat.
I'll leqave the rest to Co
CS
I suggest you lay your hands on a copy of the South Beach Diet by Dr Arthur Agatston
It explains what carbs you can eat.
I'll leqave the rest to Co
CS
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