One of the symptoms of distraction is the inability to make a decision. Am I closing Suspect Paki down again? No. But my initial decision to close it resulted in another blog, shahidkamal.com, which gets hardly any traffic (this blog, despite its Ariel Sharon-like state, i.e. in a kind of coma, but still showing signs of life) still manages to get more traffic than the new blog.
The idea was to have my more neutral posts, i.e. those about technology and society in shahidkamal.com and my personal and political ones here.
I’ve stopped writing about the family for reasons best known to my friends, who thankfully, are greater in number than at any time in my life. God bless my friends, Muslim or non-Muslim alike. On the family front though, I will say that my family situation is better than at any stage of my life. Truly, my family is blessed and I am blessed to have them in my life.
I have another blog too as you know, or rather, I help administer another blog at thecult.info/blog, which recently got Google front-page status for a search on Ahmadiyya (though not in the US or Canada, which is fine, as Ahmadiyya is just a Fox-news-loving non-entity, recognisably Islamophobic and therefore a non-entity). In Europe, still on the first page, without any effort on the part of the writers. Again, alhamdulillah.
?So I thought long and hard about where to post about my awful hypo. It has to go here I think. I’ve written about health issues here before, and if any of my older readers are around (sorry I stopped writing, and I miss your company), then this is where they might come if I’m still in their RSS feed subscriptions. (For some reason, the post referred to in the above link, called “The Hospitality of the NHS”, one of my most widely read pieces, doesn’t appear in Google’s search results. I wonder why?
Back to the hypo.
For two and a half weeks, I’ve been doing a pretty good job of minimising my intake of carbohydrates, using Dr. Bernstein’s idea that smaller carb inputs require less insulin and less insulin leads to smaller errors in blood sugar. Imagine a sine wave. Now imagine squashing it. That’s what Bernstein does. He reduces the amplitude of error. It works for him. Type I for over 60 years and the picture of health in his 60s.
My regime has been in operation for two and a half weeks. My blood sugar has never been in better control. (Apart from last night, but we’ll come to that). My insulin needs have dropped by a third. I’ve lost almost 5 kilos. It’s a staggering turnaround and it gives me faith to continue.
I have adopted a single major deviation from Bernstein’s advice. I indulge myself with a cheat meal once a week. I eat what I want, just for one meal, and one pudding, usually dinner. Last week I did really well and managed to keep on top of the blood sugar despite the intake of filth. Last night I overbalanced and my family witnessed what a hypo looks like when you’re close to needing an ambulance. I gave myself loads of insulin to cover a Subway dinner. I had lots of afters too. I marvelled at how my blood sugar was still 5.4 after the meal. This was just a portent of my blood sugar falling off a hypoglycaemic cliff within half an hour. My wife took over, with back to back blood tests despite masses of glucose intake climbing no higher than 2. Eventually, the glucose kicked in. It took a while and it was certainly touch and go.
I vowed not to go mad with the food on my cheat meal. In fact, I have pretty much lost the desire to eat cheat meals. I might have a little of what I fancy for that one meal, but otherwise, my eating intemperately days are insha’Allah, behind me.
I have a grip on my blood sugar again and I will report back on how this new regime is treating me. Apart from that blip, my feedback is enormously favourable.
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