27 Feb: Readings & Comments

9.4    / 169.2    Fasting         08:10:00
7.9    / 142.2    Post-Breakfast  11:16:00
7.5    / 135.0    Pre-Lunch       12:03:00
8.3    / 149.4    Post-Lunch      14:13:00
9.8    / 176.4    Pre-Snack       15:20:00
10.4   / 187.2    Random          20:18:00

I went to the doctor today and he confirmed I have a 'shocking' sinus infection, so my bgl readings are going to be off for the next few days until my body recovers. So I'm not running any experiments on my food or exercise, but I am monitoring using both my old and new monitors. So far the new one is consistently giving lower results than the old, which is good because it's the most accurate in Australia. If you know where my site is, you'll have to read the comments on the BGL page(s) to see the new monitor results. Sorry, I'm just not up to adding them here.

I have everything I need to make use of the data cable to make entering details into my own database from the new monitor quite easy. Am just really pleased about that. (As pleased as one can be when one's head feels like a lead balloon about to pop).

So far I find the new monitor to require much gentler handling. I'll have to get used to that, but I'm sure I will. And it's so fast. Testing the same drop of blood, the test is done on the new one before I've even got the whole sample for the old monitor.

Was out in the morning running errands. Took bus home. Walked to the doctors today, so that shows my back is really improving with the physio. Rod is exhausted tonight and is already in bed. So I best be joining him. Still feel crap, but not as bad as over the weekend. On antibiotics. Oh, this puts off my 3 monthly HBA1C test for a few weeks, since the results are going to be skewed from the infection.

Lost weekend

Well the overall exhaustion I had on Friday didn't even start to ease up until sometime early Sunday evening. Weekend? What weekend? I spent mine running a fever of up to 39.2 (never had any that high the whole time I've been in Australia) and as low as 35.5 (what the heck), and alternately swimming in a sea of sweat, waking up totally drenched and chivvering, or hotter than heck and not sweating. Every joint seemed to hurt. But the key was probably my neck and head. I think I've boiled it down to a very bad sinus infection. I see the doctor tomorrow. As is common with running a fever (thank goodnes I knew this already), my gluclose levels were also all over the place. I finally gave up on trying to eat toast or crackers (wasn't staying awake long enough) and let myself sip on a can of Orange Sunkist (not diet, not sugar free). It seemed to help as by the end of the day I was able to stay up and have tea with Rod and sit at the computer for about 10 minutes.

Physio went well today, and then I had an appointment with the doctor who did my reconstruction. I'm now on a waiting list (about a year) for a bit of finishing work to be done. One side reduced and the other side will get its missing part.

Everything I wanted to do on Friday got done today, including picking the new strips for my new meter. I had to go across town to a different chemist for them, but thanks to my previous bus route I was able to get right where I needed to be. And turns out when my other half finished his classes where he needed to be was right in the same block as where I was. A happy reunion all around! When we got home, joy of joys my new meter (or the parcel for it) was just peeking out of the letterbox to say hello.

So I've played with it, and used both it and my old one at the same time. Turns out, this meter is reading about .6 lower than my old one, and the new one is the most accurate you can get in Australia. And it's much faster too. Old: 15 seconds, New: 5 seconds. But, I'm a bit loath to add my records from the weekend. And even this morning's was quite high. I suppose I will though, because I do want an idea what my possible hba1c will be in a few weeks, I hate to though. I was doing SO well. Still what good is a chart if it's not kept up to date with the correct data?

Anyway, I have HEAPS to catch up on and get done so better get to it so I can actually get the levels from this weekend added.

23 Feb: Readings & Comments

7.9    / 142.2    Bedtime         23:23:00
9.4    / 169.2    Overnight       02:46:00
7.7    / 138.6    Fasting         07:29:00
8.8    / 158.4    Post-Breakfast  10:41:00
6.7    / 120.6    Pre-Lunch       14:00:00
7.6    / 136.8    Random          18:25:00
6.3    / 113.4    Pre-Tea         19:38:00
7.9    / 142.2    Post-Tea        22:06:00

Today was odd. I had no problems getting to the Physio appointment and was just a few minutes early which is great. They asked me a thousand questions about my back and then poked and prodded me a bit, then decided to treat me with massage and ultrasound heat. I felt quite OK leaving, but walking to the bus stop the pain returned (though not as bad as it had been in previous months).

I planned to get off the bus early at a shopping centre the bus passes and pick up new glucose strips for the new monitor, and also pick up some Vietnamese cold rolls from the Vietnamese restaurant to bring home for lunch. I love those. They don't cost a lot, are mostly vegetables with a bit of mint and chicken or prawns in a clear rice wrapper. They come with a very yummy peanut sauce. Anyway, that didn't happen because instead of getting on the 721, I got on the 722 and spent an hour getting to the centre where Rod goes to school. I met him at the pub and we came home together.

I have an appt with the physio and the plastic surgeon on Monday morning, so hopefully I'll catch the right bus home and stop to pick up the stuff then.

When we got home, we had lunch and then I went off for a nap. What a nap it was too. It lasted from about 2:30pm to after 6pm, and I woke up with a headache, feeling dehydrated and like it was taking a LOT to crawl out from a very very deep sleep. I guess it was from the physio, but wow, I wasn't expecting that. I even missed going to my breast cancer support group meeting because of it.

(YAWN).... it's going to be an early night tonight I think.

22 Feb: Readings & Comments

5.7    / 102.6    Bedtime         23:59:00
7.0    / 126.0    Fasting         08:18:00
7.3    / 131.4    Random          09:36:00
7.9    / 142.2    Post-Breakfast  11:46:00
6.1    / 109.8    Pre-Lunch       14:14:00
8.8    / 158.4    Post-Lunch      16:31:00
5.4    / 97.2     Pre-Tea         19:42:00
7.5    / 135.0    Post-Tea        22:41:00
7.9    / 142.2    Random          23:23:00

I bought a new glucose monitor today!

Yesterday, I had a mostly carb free day, aside from breakfast and so decided to enjoy a pear and a couple small Kiwi fruits at bedtime. Well. I'm sure my results were high overnight even though I didn't do readings. I got up, but don't recall why I didn't do any testing - unless it was because I didn't want to see the results - entirely possible. So after the fruit I had some crackers and cheese, and then asked Rod for a couple pieces of Rocky Road. Night time I don't have a lot of self control yet, food-wise.

I found Celestial Seasonings Green Tea (Honey Lemon Ginseng) at the grocery store the other day, and since it had 'Contains Caffeine' in big bold letters on the front, it's become my temporary first in the morning drink. Temporary, as there are only 10 bags in a box and the box wasn't cheap. Anyway, so I started the morning with this tea (and no milk of course, it being green tea), and am surprised my readings went up in 45 minutes when all I'd had was the tea. Sometimes it does that though if I haven't had something to actually eat. Was going to say that tomorrow I'll try having half a whole wheat crumpet, but I have a physio appointment for my arthritis (my doctor only sent in the referral last December!) and I'll be taking the bus then going to a mall after the physio then on to my breast cancer group meeting. So I think I better have a full crumpet for the energy.

For lunch I had a tortilla with the remains from the last KFC hot wings wing, with cheese, green onion and lettuce. Yum. Not happy with the post lunch results though. These are BIG tortillas, so think I better cut them in half in future. Tea was a pork stir fry with hoisin and oyster sauces, cashews and noodles. Very nice.

Now about my new monitor. You can see it at: http://www.lifebioscience.com.au/Life_bio/CaresensLK.htm

I got it on eBay for only $31.05. Recommended retail is $79. It comes with software and a cable so that I can download the results to the computer. It also takes a tiny sample of blood, and only 5 seconds to provide a reading. I'm really looking forward to it. The seller turns out to be the Australian distributor (!) and so I'm getting it as direct as you can, really. And it was put in the mail today, so it might actually be here by tomorrow (I doubt it though). Anyway, I'm looking forward to much smaller samples in the near future!

I am seriously considering upgrading my Linux system / computer to use Ubuntu. Still thinking on it though.

21 Feb: Readings & Comments

6.8    / 122.4    Bedtime         23:25:00
6.5    / 117.0    Overnight       01:41:00
7.8    / 140.4    Overnight       06:41:00
8.0    / 144.0    Fasting         08:45:00
9.0    / 162.0    Post-Breakfast  11:17:00
6.7    / 120.6    Pre-Lunch       14:15:00
5.0    / 90.0     Post-Lunch      17:26:00
5.2    / 93.6     Pre-Tea         18:41:00
5.5    / 99.0     Post-Tea        21:45:00

My bedtime and overnight readings were low because I resisted temptation.  Rod has a swag of chocolate (even he admits he went overboard with it at the bulk foods store), and it's really easy at night to say yeah, give me one of those (or two...), but last night I resisted.  We went shopping yesterday and I picked up a great cracker and cheese 4pack of snack thingies that were very low in carb as well as sugar and had one of those instead of chocolate. It's nice to see it was worth it (and it did taste good too).

I'm not sure why my fasting was high unless it was dawn syndrome. For breakfast today I had 1 round whole wheat crumpet (have never had the whole wheat variety) with cheese.  The whole wheat is supposed to be low GI which I suppose could mean that it keeps my glucose higher for longer, in which case, maybe low GI foods should be monitored differently or something.  At least my Pre-Lunch reading and for the rest of the day was quite good.  For lunch, I had a large salad and broke up bits of leftover KFC hot wings (2) into the salad.  YUM.  For tea tonight, we had blade steak (a really cheap cut of beef masquerading as 'steak') and salad.  I've only just realised that aside from breakfast, I've had a pretty much no or low-carb day.  And my numbers are really good for it too.

I had a couple not as good days number-wise and so I must say I really don't take the low glucose readings lightly.  I've worked hard for these, or at least 'resisted temptation hard'. :-)

I've been working on projects today and trying to get a very long To-Do list down to a more manageable level.  We went to a computer club meeting tonight which was interesting.   I had to remember to make up a bottle of iced green tea to take with me so I'd have my '2 cups' for after tea.  Other than this, a quiet day, but busy with lots of little things.

I have an appointment on Friday for the Physical Therapy department at the local hospital... my doctor had sent in a referral before Christmas when I was really struggling with the arthritis.  The arthritis is a LOT better now, but I decided to keep the appointment in hopes of maybe learning some exercises that will help in future.

21 Feb: Catch Up

No, I haven't stopped testing my glucose or experimenting to see what works with my diet, exercise and green tea consumption.  The last few days have just been a bit busy on other projects.

I'm setting up my computer to be able to create DVDs or VCDs of stuff that I download. Mainly because Rod doesn't like watching stuff on my laptop and prefers to watch things on the TV in the comfort of our bedroom.  Myself, I don't mind at all.  It's been a steep learning curve compiling and installing all the various software that's required.

I also sorted out (just today) how to convert the video files from my phone to something I can share with other people.  I have a little beach clip from Saturday that I'll eventually get online to show you. (Probably not from this blog, but one of my other more public ones).

Anyway, have tons of other stuff I should be doing right now but wanted to at least touch base and let you know I haven't forgotten this blog.

18 Feb: Readings & Comments

8.0    / 144.0    Bedtime      00:07:00
7.9    / 142.2    Overnight    05:28:00
7.7    / 138.6    Overnight    06:43:00
8.0    / 144.0    Overnight    06:52:00
6.5    / 117.0    Fasting      11:34:00
6.5    / 117.0    Pre-Lunch    14:48:00
8.5    / 153.0    Post-Lunch   18:01:00
5.3    /  95.4    Pre-Tea      20:07:00
9.5    / 171.0    Post-Tea     22:10:00

My bedtime reading was a bit high because I had ice cream and apple crisp with Rod last night.   The overnight readings were probably because of the same, although I had some early morning readings that perplexed me a bit since I had had a couple cups of green tea. I wasn't feeling very well though, so it might have had nothing to do with anything other than not feeling well.

My high post lunch reading could be due to two things.  First, it's the first ramen/2min noodles I've had in a while (I only had 1 serve, plus salad and cottage cheese for lunch), and/or it was because I made my ice tea a bit weaker than normal.  Am using Dilmah green tea bags and since they make a strong tea, I thought I'd only use 2 bags instead of 3. 

We had pizza tonight so naturally my reading is a little high, but we also went for a drive which meant I didn't have as much tea as I normally do.  Still had a 7.5 average for the day though, so I really can't complain.

Yesterday was so hot (in the 40s), we ended up going to the beach during the evening.  It's amazing how cold the ocean water was (brrr - my arthritis told me it was cold, too), but it felt so good after being so hot for so long.  Good exercise too.  My pre-lunch reading yesterday was 4.9 -- it's good to see 4's slipping in there here and there!!

Tomorrow Rod has school and he's already on his way towards heading to bed to I will end this here. Am so glad he will be back in school for awhile!

16 Feb: Readings & Comments

5.9    / 106.2    Bedtime         00:26:00
8.8    / 158.4    Overnight       05:44:00
6.5    / 117.0    Overnight       07:00:00
6.7    / 120.6    Fasting         09:25:00
7.4    / 133.2    Random          09:57:00
7.1    / 127.8    Post-Breakfast  11:59:00
6.5    / 117.0    Pre-Lunch       15:10:00
7.7    / 138.6    Post-Lunch      16:40:00
5.4    /  97.2    Pre-Tea         19:25:00
6.9    / 124.2    Post-Tea        22:02:00


14th and 15th February:  We had a great dinner out at the Double Dragon, and true to what I learned at Christmas time, in a bit lesser extreme, it's taken a bit to get my readings to level out again from being 'naughty' and indulging a little bit.  I seem to have wrestled control back a bit easier this time though, so that's a big plus.  I didn't do daily blogs for the last two days because of lack of time.  I considered adding them today, but I don't remember details that would go with the readings so I'll just pick up and carry on from today.

Overnight. For 'supper' (that's like a small snack/meal at bedtime here), Rod had a hot dog bun with ham and cheese.  I had similar but instead of a hot dog bun (which likely gave me a reading of 10 after tea yesterday), I had my ham and cheese in a warmed tortilla.  I think this accounts for the 8.8 overnight reading.  I had a couple cups of green tea with vanilla (made by Lipton - it's really really scruptious!) after the 8.8 reading and by 7pm my bgl was down to a much better 6.5.

Breakfast.  The fasting reading of 6.7 was nice, and then after having a cuppa black tea with milk, my reading was 7.4.  It's amazing how just a little bit of milk can make such a difference. We got up about the same time this morning and Rod offered to make scrambled eggs with ham and cheese (if you guessed we bought some shaved ham recently, you'd be correct!), and it sounded good so I had this with my usual half crumpet.  I had Vegemite on the crumpet.  I knew the eggs, ham and cheese wouldn't affect my glucose levels, and my post-breakfast reading backs that up.  Hey it's under 8 or 9 for a change so I'm really happy with that.

Lunch.  We had to go out this afternoon so Rod could pay for his courses, and I tagged along and went to the library.  My library card, which I got about 6 months or more ago, is no longer a virgin.  I checked out six books.  Three on diabetes and GI information, and three on Tai Chi.  As it's going to be a very HOT weekend (over 40c), it's a good weekend to stay in and read. It's also Rod's last before school starts so he's getting impatient wishing he'd accomplished more during his long break.  I had planned to have a smoke and then have lunch, but it turns out Rod had planned to go right afterwards, so I gave lunch a miss for the time being and tagged along.  We had lunch together -- pretty much the same as what we had for supper last night.  The last of the ham, too.  My post lunch reading was 7.7 - I'm really pleased that I seem to be 'on track' at the moment.  I hope it stays that way!

My project last night and today has been to install the required software so I can put media downloads on CDs or DVDs so we can watch them on TV rather than at the computer.  It's taken me a day and a half to get all the required software and get it installed. As I type, hopefully I'm compiling and installing the last of it so I can get on with the project.

I don't know if it's the green tea or what, but lately my cigarettes taste awful.  What with the hot weather and that the smokes I'm rolling tasting awful, I may just succeed in quiting again.

Tea.  Fridays are fish and chips.  Tonight it was crumbed whiting. Very nice.  Nothing fancy, but nice. My readings are usually a little high on Fridays, probably because of the chips (french fries), but tonight I'm really pleased with the results.  I'm starting to think that control is a chicken - egg thing.  You can't have good after meal readings unless your pre-meal readings are already low too. That, or the green tea makes a stunning difference, which I think it does, else I wouldn't be drinking it. 

On the 13th, I attended an education session on monitoring BGL's, and one of the things I learned from it was a formula for converting the hba1c (that's the 3 monthly blood test that gives an average of your blood glucose levels for the last 120 days) to what my average would be in mmol's.  And of course if you have a formula, you can turn it around and use it to extract what one's probable Hba1c reading would be if it were done today.  So, on my personal website where i have all my readings, I've used this to take my average for the last 120 days and estimate what my Hba1c might be.  It's currently at 7.05, which is less than my last test results for it.  It will be interesting to see what the lab scores will be in comparison to using this formula on my own readings next month.


Listening to:  Phil Collins - Take Me Home

Reading:  'Tis by Frank McCourt

From the Library: 

The New Glucose Revolution / People with Diabetes (paperback 'guide' book)
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution
The New Glucose Revolution (the full book)
Tai Chi: Simple routines for Home, Work and Travel
Tai Chi Ch'uan & Qigong Techniques and Training
Idiot's Guide to Tai Chi & Qigong (it actually looked like good reading, honest!)

And I'm currently converting a downloaded show to DVD format and all appears to be working!

13 Feb: Readings & Comments

5.0    / 90.0     Bedtime         01:41:00
6.4    / 115.2    Fasting         09:22:00
8.0    / 144.0    Random          10:32:00
8.4    / 151.2    Post-Breakfast  12:41:00
6.1    / 109.8    Pre-Lunch       15:28:00
5.2    / 93.6     Pre-Tea         17:35:00
6.7    / 120.6    Post-Tea        20:04:00


Wow! My average for today was 6.54, which is right on target for where I'd like it to be all the time.  The only thing is, I haven't had all that much to eat today, and I've been busy.  But I haven't been starving either so that is good too.

Bedtime:  Went to bed a bit late last night.  Didn't watch a lot of TV and fell asleep very easily, and once again slept through the night.

Before the bedtime reading, I'd been outside having a quiet smoke and I came inside and reached for something on my desk and suddenly had the worst shooting pains in the side of my foot.  It felt like someone was repeatedly jabbing me with a syringe.  I hobbled over to the couch and had a look but couldn't see anything, but it kept hurting (enough to make me catch my breath and breath heavy) for a good half hour or more.  I took a couple Panadeine Forte's and my antihistamines as my little toe had started to swell.  We had a shower which I survived - it was hard to stand on that foot to wash my other foot.  Fortunately when I woke up in the morning the pain was gone, but that was one of the worst pains I've ever had.  I thought it was a white spider bite (I've seen people who've been hospitalised after a white spider bite, so it's something I really do fear).  Fortunately it wasn't, or the antihistamines I took did the job. Either way, I'm f ine today.  Scared me pretty good though.

Fasting.  Very pleased with this.  No dawn effects today.  Just after I got settled on the patio with my smoke and cuppa regular tea with milk, the doorbell rang and it was my brother-in-law come to visit.

For breakfast, I had a whole crumpet and cheese.  I did this because I knew I'd be going to Centrelink, dropping books off at Billy Baxters and otherwise burning up energy by shopping. 

My Post-Breakfast reading was a bit high, but considering it was only .4 higher than my pre-breakfast reading, I figured this wasn't too bad.  It went down a bit while I was shopping as my grocery bag kept getting a little bit heavier in each store I shopped in.  Had fun shopping. Bought some bead things to work with, and found my other half a funny valentines day card.

For Lunch ... hmm.   Well, I could say I just had a  small bowl of cottage cheese after I got home, but that would only be part of the truth.  Reality is, I bought Rod some marked down chocolate and bought an extra one for me and ate it.  YUM!  It wasn't very big, but I really did enjoy it.  It had 54g of Carbs though, so I told myself I'd had my entire allotment of lunch carbs with that one chocolate and stuck to it.  This was an hour or more before my pre-Lunch reading.  Then I had the cottage cheese once I got home, and took my pre-tea reading just before tucking in.

Tea.  We had an early tea since we had to be at my diabetes meeting by 7pm and it's in the city.  I'd picked up a box of frozen crumbed cordon bleu and made one each for us for tea.  We also had a salad. After tea we headed off to the meeting.

Tonight's discussion was on Glucose monitoring and I can honestly say I learned something new.  I learned a formula for figuring out the Hba1c from my current readings.  Or to translate the hba1c to what my daily average was for the last 120 days.

Tomorrow I have a Worksil appointment and we're going out for tea tomorrow night then visiting a friend to sort out his Email problems.

And my great readings for today will be blown out of the water as I intend to enjoy going out for dinner!

12 Feb: Readings & Comments

7.8    / 140.4    Bedtime           00:59:00
8.2    / 147.6    Fasting           09:02:00
8.0    / 144.0    Post-Breakfast    12:24:00
7.3    / 131.4    Pre-Lunch         13:05:00
6.8    / 122.4    Post-Lunch        16:21:00
8.8    / 158.4    Post-Tea          20:41:00

Overnight.   There are no overnight readings.  Why you ask?  Because I didn't wake up during the night.  That's right. Not once, not even to go to the loo.  For me this is a huge thing because waking up in pain has been a common every morning experience, and it usually takes me an hour or two to get back to sleep.  So I had a full night's sleep.  Funny thing is, I've been groggy feeling all day. Can't explain it, but there you go.

Fasting.  A bit high for me for fasting, but it's about what it generally is during the middle of the night. Usually I have a couple cups of green tea before going back to bed, so the change in my normal routine might account for this.  Or it could be the dawn effect (see http://www.faqs.org/faqs/diabetes/faq/part2/section-13.html).

Post Breakfast. I had half of a square crumpet for breakfast.  My reading really should be lower here.

Pre Lunch.  Well at least the level is lower, but I would have thought it'd be in the 6's since I had so little for breakfast.

Lunch.  I had a tortilla with cheese, green onions and lettuce.  Very tasty and satisfying.

Post-Lunch.  It was a good lunch.  My reading is below 7.0.

Post-Tea.  I'm not sure what I was expecting here, but I'm not too disappointed with the 8.8.  It's below 9, and considering I had a mix of Jasmine and Basmati rice, that's pretty good.  I also worked hard at portion control.

Today I created a new category in our online store, and Rod helped out one of our new customers with understanding how his store works.

Tomorrow I have to turn in my report for Centrelink, and I plan to drop off some bookcrossing books at Billy Baxters.  I also want to pick up some tortillas from Cheap asChips since they had a good supply and these don't seem to instantly dry out like some of the other ones I've tried do.   Tomorrow night Rod and I are attending a Diabetes SA class on monitoring glucose levels.

Wednesday.  I have to be at an appointment for Workskil at 11am.  In the evening, we plan to have tea at Double Dragon restaurant in Aberfoyle Hub, and then go see our friend Terry in Happy Valley (that's the name of a suburb, not a frame of mind).

And I'm dozing off at the keyboard as I type this.  {{ Yawn }}

11 Feb: Readings & Comments

MMOL/L   Mg/dl    Event           Time
6.2    / 111.6    Bedtime         00:46:00
8.8    / 158.4    Overnight       04:50:00
8.2    / 147.6    Overnight       06:32:00
6.9    / 124.2    Fasting         10:25:00
9.5    / 171.0    Post-Breakfast  13:28:00
5.7    / 102.6    Pre-Lunch       15:46:00
7.7    / 138.6    Post-Lunch      17:43:00
5.7    / 102.6    Pre-Tea         20:10:00
9.5    / 171.0    Post-Tea        23:05:00

Overnight:   I had 6 "mini" spring rolls for 'supper' (bedtime snack).   I also tried an experiment between the two overnight readings.  I tried Tetley green tea and a bag of Tetley Tea plus Calming (ie black tea and lemon balm) with milk.  I had 3 cups. The first and last were wonderful. The one in between I accidently used the milk that wasn't quite sour but started to taste a bit funny.  After this cup, I tossed the rest of that milk.  The results of the experiment weren't all that great - no real benefit. I could try it without the milk, but gee the milk makes it really nice. 

Breakfast.  I had a whole square crumpet instead of cutting it in half as I should do.  It showed in the results.  I did however get the readings down by lunch time.

Lunch.  I had 1 small tortilla with cheese and green onions and lettuce plus 1/4 of a large tortilla with the same.  The 1/4 was what was left of the packet of large tortillas and needed using up.  I did well with this as my post-lunch and pre-tea readings were very good.

Tea.  Leftover frozen/reheated Lasagne, salad, garlic bread and 2 glasses of white shiraz wine. This was a class meal, even if it was leftovers.  While my reading is a little high, it's still in the 'Good' column.  I should have limited the garlic bread and not shared it half and half with Rod.

My Day.  Pretty good day, really.  I managed to do a lot of odd jobs regarding online sales like getting a few things listed on auction sites and making up the required graphics to go with them. 

Listening to: Mike & The Mechanics - When I get over you
I really like this song.  It has that grumpy/bitter touch that I really like when I need to sing loud and have a good lament. Not that that's how I feel at the moment or anything.  I just like good grumpy songs.

Reading:  Stupid White Men by Michael Moore.  The cover of this book disturbs me. It's like having my ex-husband beaming happily at me, and I haven't seen THAT look in many a year.  And besides, for some reason, my ex doesn't like Michael Moore and won't allow his books or films in the house. How weird and how very sad.   I'm nearly finished with the book and have as usual found it very interesting, enlightening as well as entertaining.  The thing is, I'm on a Michael Moore mailing list and have realised I haven't heard anything from him in a long long time.  I hope the stupid white men didn't finally shut him up as someone needs to be the nation's conscience.

The wine that I had at tea tonight has gone straight to my head!  Time to send this off and go read some comics.

10 Feb: Readings & Comments

8.6    / 154.8    Overnight       07:27:00
6.3    / 113.4    Fasting         12:09:00
7.5    / 135.0    Post-Breakfast  15:21:00
8.0    / 144.0    Post-Tea        20:25:00


Overnight.  Had a snack of fetticuine at bedtime. 

Fasting.  Had a couple cups of green tea when I got up at 7:30. Was up for about half an hour and went back to bed, sleeping in until noon.  Was first time I've done that in awhile and I'd been exhausted from being on the go both Thursday and Friday so I guess it was time to catch up a bit.

Unfortunately I've just felt a bit groggy and out of it all day today.  Not feeling as sharp as normal.

Breakfast. For breakfast I managed to actually have only half of a bagel, and it shows in my reading.

Lunch. As breakfast was so late (I had breakie at 1:15), I've skipped lunch altogether.  I'll probably have a late night supper with Rod before bed though.

Tea.  I forgot to take a pre-tea reading which is a bummer - I like seeing those low numbers!   I had the remainder of my fetticine that I made on Thursday (I think).  It had no more than a cup of noodles and meat in it.  I also had a salad and half a banana. 

Plans:  Do some eBay stuff, maybe.  Have already caught up on Email today.

9 Feb: Readings & Comments

8.6    / 154.8    Overnight       03:04:00
7.8    / 140.4    Fasting         09:38:00
8.0    / 144.0    Post-Breakfast  12:00:00
7.5    / 135.0    Pre-Lunch     13:34:00
5.9    / 106.2    Pre-Exercise  17:56:00
6.3    / 113.4    Pre-Tea       19:59:00


Overnight. I think this was still high from the fettuccine at tea time yesterday. 

Breakfast.  For breakfast I had 1/2 of a square crumpet and cheese.

Plans.   I plan to vacuum today (I'd been wanting to get that in for the last few days now), and I'll have a shower and perhaps go to my support group meeting this afternoon and go swimming.  We'll have to see how the weather holds out.  If it's too hot, I might give it a miss.

Tonight is fish and chips for tea.  Rod's in charge of cooking tonight.



Lunch. For lunch I had about 3/4c of the Fettuccine I made last night, about 3/4c cottage cheese for the protien and a small salad.  As I knew I'd been  out swimming today I wanted to make sure my body had enough energy to cope with both the swimming and the added exercise of walking to and from the bus stops.

Our support group meeting went very well and the pool felt lovely.  I did some Tai Chi in the pool, which was interesting to do.  Also enjoyed the spa - no bubbles today, just jets and that was lovely.

I got a ride to the nearest bus stop and had no waiting at all.  It took 3 buses to get home but very little waiting for any of them.

Tea. We had crumbed whiting tonight and chips.  Very nice.  I still can't bite into anything with my front teeth yet, but other than this, no problem with tonights tea.  Also shared a bottle of Coopers Sparkling Ale with Rod (we got a free 750 ml bottle when we bought a case of Pale Ale).  Coopers Sparkling is my favourite beer.  It's fizzier than most beers.  Hey sis, tell you're Aussie co-worker my favourite beer is Coopers and ask what hers is.  ;-)

8 Feb: Readings & Comments

7.5    / 135.0    Overnight       02:32:00
8.1    / 145.8    Fasting         08:12:00
8.4    / 151.2    Post-Breakfast  10:54:00
8.5    / 153.0    Pre-Lunch       13:00:00
7.3    / 131.4    Post-Lunch      15:03:00
9.8    / 176.4    Post-Tea        21:37:00
9.6    / 172.8    Bedtime         23:26:00


I didn't add this information yesterday because something funky was going on with our ability to access our own websites, and the page I use to update my online glucose levels was one of the worst problem ones. 

One of the reasons for having a blog like this one to supplement my other readings is that I can write as much as I want/need to in order to explain certain readings or just comment on things as they unfold.  It's hard to do that when you're adding information from previous days.  It's easy to forget details that might provide interesting clues later.

Most of yesterdays doesn't require much in the way of comments.  The post-tea and bedtime readings are because I had a much more Fettuccine noodles with my tea than I should have.  I am a big fan of pasta. Sigh.  Funny thing is, the pasta was the pre-made refridgerated type and the package said 'Serves 2'.  As we still have enough left over for at least another meal for the 2 of us, I commented on it and his reply was 'Only if it's an army of two!'.   I plan to have some for lunch today (the 9th) and package it up in PORTIONS for future lunches.

During the day yesterday in between being frustrated with our Internet stuff not working right, I cleaned half a dozen photo frames that were left over from the Estate sales.  These are the cheap plastic type, and hopefully I'll be able to use them for some photos from my holiday.  I also defrosted the fridge freezer and did laundry.  Was quite knackered by the end of the day.

7 Feb: Readings & Comments

Todays Readings: (Updated periodically during the day)

mmol      mg/dl      Event              Time
  6.9     124.2      Overnight          06:47:00
  8.1     145.8      Fasting            10:22:00
  7.5     135.0      Random             11:35:00
 11.3     203.4      Post-Breakfast     13:52:00
  9.0     162.0      Random             14:56:00
  5.3      95.4      Pre-Lunch          16:41:00
  6.5     117.0      Post-Lunch         18:41:00
  7.8     140.4      Post-Tea           10:29:00

Quite pleased with the overnight reading.  Had a cup of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer and this also had a good effect on my levels.

The fasting is a bit high because I had 2x 'sugar free' lollies at about 8:30 this morning. Basically a test because I had suspected that these jump the levels for me, but I wasn't sure.  I find the best time to test this is when my levels are already low so I can see any changes.   I had a couple cups of tea and waited an hour and checked myself again before having breakfast.

Breakfast.  OK, so I have the self control of a gnat.  I love bagels. They are on the 'bad ' list as they cause ones glucose to spike.  I was only going to have half of one and save the other half for lunch. Oh, it so didn't work.  I had the whole things and told myself I'd just drink some more tea and do some exercise.  And I did.  I had a nice Tai Chi session and did 8 repeats of each of the 18 movements of Shibashi, and then took a shower.  In between I had a couple strong cups of tea.  Goodness knows what my reading would have been without these efforts!  So I have now had another cuppa and will test again after half an hour. 

Plans.  Today we're out grocery shopping.  We're going to O'Halloran Hill fruit market as they have a lot of things on sale at the moment at amazing prices (2k Granny Smith apples for 99c,  5k bag of new potatoes for $1.49).  Then to Woodcroft shopping centre to shop at Foodland. Their advert this week had the best prices on stuff we need/use.  While there I'll get some blotting paper for my ryo cigarettes, get our lottery numbers keyed into our new lottery swipe card, and maybe get some beer and bitters.  I want the bitters to make Lemon, Lime and Bitters.  It's a drink I've discovered here that I really like.  I don't know why bitters is sold in the bottle shop as it's not alcoholic.

Later today if I still have energy left I'll vacuum the lounge room and bedroom.   My favourite vacuum is an Electrolux 'The Boss' bagless upright that runs on rechargable batteries.  I can never do the whole house in one day, so I never get pushed beyond my limit.  As I vac'ed and mopped yesterday, today I'll just do the carpeted rooms.

I DO seem to have tons of energy at the moment but I really hope it doesn't suddenly just fizzle out on me and I find myself dozing.


Random (14:56). Well, at least I got my glucose level down from 11.3 to 9.0 -- still high, but a drop of two points is nothing to sneeze at.

As planned, we went shopping around 3pm. It's funny, we used to fill the cart up with junk food. Today we stopped at the Fruit Market at O'Halloran Hill and took advantage of their sale. We ended up spending $13 and have lots of veggies and fruit to last a couple of weeks and beyond. I still have capiscum (aka green & red peppers) to chop up for the freezer. I bought 2 nice bunches of spring onions (aka green onions) for 99c a bunch. I managed to get those cut up before tea tonight.

We had a late lunch again, and a late tea. Tomorrow will be a different story as my other half has a job in the city doing shell scripting for a business that had their programmer take ill and they have a deadline. The job recruitment agency must have rang him about 3 times all up today. This is a one or two day only job, but the pay is nice and it gets something current on his resume as well. He has to leave here at 8:30 to get into the city by 9:30. Going to be an early night for us!

Lunch. Near the fruit market is a Vietnamese restaurant that sells the yummiest cold rolls. I bought a pack of five, and we had one and a half each for our light lunch. I followed this up with a Kiwi fruit. A very low carb lunch, but quite satisfying. I'd also bought 2 crossword scratchies (lottery tickets) and for the first time ever, we were both winners. Only $4 each, but hey $4 is better than not winning at all.

Tea. Tonight's tea was chicken wings, half of a bread roll (Rod had the other half) and I had a rather large salad. I bought 2 heads of lettuce today and had the end of a head in the fridge that needed using up.

Tonight instead of hot green tea I'm drinking iced tea. The brew tonight is 2 bags Tetley green tea, 2 bags white tea, and one bag of Red Zinger tea. This is mixed with diet Solo (a lemon fizzy drink). It's quite good and as my Post-Tea result isn't too bad, I'd say it's done it's job. I did test the brew this morning as a hot tea (without the fizzy drink) and it worked fine at lowering my glucose levels.

There's a problem we're having accessing our own sites at the moment. Our new ISP has a cache problem affecting us reaching our own web sites. So I can't update my web page with today's glucose readings until it's fixed, so I think I set this journal up at just the right time.

It's just about bed time for us, (since we have to be up early tomorrow), so will end here. If you're reading this, Sis, I love you and hope you have a great day!

6 Feb: Glucose Readings and Meal Comments

mmol/l /  mg/dl  Event
7.2    /  129.6  Bedtime
8.6    /  154.8  Overnight 7am 
8.5    /  153.0  Overnight 7:50am
9.4    /  169.2  Fasting  10:37am
8.2    /  147.6  Random   11:36am
8.2    /  147.6  Random 11:56am
8.6    /  154.8  Random 12:58pm
9.8    /  176.4  Post-Breakfast 14:09pm
6.5    /  117.0  Post-Lunch 18:00pm
10.1    /  181.8  Post-Tea 22:15:00
5.7    /  102.6  Random 00:21:00

Fasting: I'm not sure what to make of the high fasting result as I didn't have anything to eat between the first overnight reading at 7am and the fasting reading at 10:37am aside from green tea.  

I had 2 cups of green tea to bring down the levels before having breakfast at 11:36.

Slightly high overnight readings were due to indulging in about 1/4c Doritoes while doing a puzzle before falling asleep.


Post-Breakfast: Breakfast consisted of half a pita bread with cheese and green onions. Have had same before with better readings.


Post-Lunch: Lunch was a whole pita bread round with lettuce, tomatoe, green onions, cheese, and a small amount of small hot salami cut in small pieces.


Tea was 3 slices roast beef, potatoes and 3 veg.

Post-Tea Reading: Ah ha. No wonder the iced tea I've been making hasn't had much of an effect. I've been trying to use up the Clipper brand that I bought with several different types of flavourings in the iced tea I make by having one bag of the clipper brand for flavouring and 3 to 6 bags of Tetley green tea bags (which I know beyond a doubt work at lowering my glucose levels). Earlier today I had made up a teapot of the concentrated tea I'd made for iced tea, and had used 6 bags of the good Tetley green tea and 1 bag of the Clipper green tea with ginko. Feeling a bit lazy, I had a whole cup of this concentrate -- which with the Tetley tea should have reduced my after dinner meal, and didn't. In fact, it's higher than normal. So, it looks like I'll have to bin the Clipper tea. Sometimes a bargain isn't. Pity about the waste of 6 of the good teabags in the concentrate though.

So even though my after dinner reading was high, I feel I've learned something invaluable from it, so it wasn't a total screw up.

Random reading - I had a cup of Tetley green tea, and made myself get busy doing odd jobs around the house, taking out the trash (it's bin night), and sadly tossing the Clipper tea. I didn't pay much for those but I hate throwing stuff away. Still, I couldn't in good conscience give it to anyone as it didn't have a good taste either. At least I'll be going to bed with my levels down to a good normal.

5 Feb: Tea

Post-Tea Reading: 8.2 mmol/l or 147.6 mg/dl

I'm somewhat pleased with this reading as it could have been much higher if not for the green tea.

Dinner was sweet chilli pork stir-fry with lots of vegetables. I cooked 1.5c Basmati rice (that's the amount after it was cooked) and put the stir-fry over top. I gave my husband more rice and other ingredients so that I had only 3 carb serves of the rice.

One thing I didn't do is tai chi tonight. Might still do it, but want to actually get some work done first. I've been playing with this blog today instead of doing what I had intended today.

The weather changed from extremely hot and dry to windy and cool. Nice change!

My Glucose Levels and Green Tea

I've been experimenting with green tea lately to see what effects drinking it has on my blood glucose levels. It really works at lowering my levels, but it depends on how and when I drink it.  It doesn't work as well as a prophylactic (ie having it before meals), but has its best effect when I have one or two (more so with two) cups of tea after meals.  It tends to drop my glucose levels by two full points - for example if I was at 8.4, it drops it down to 6.4 or lower.  It also works best when I adhere to a low carb diet and do some moderate exercise such as Tai Chi.

I have found that drinking green tea allows me to have the occasional treat. To allow this without having my glucose go sky high, first my starting glucose level has to be in the 6's. I have only a small serving, and then follow up with two cups of green tea and some Tai Chi exercise.

I've found that all green teas are not alike.  I've found a few brands of tea that work quite well, and a couple that don't, sadly.  What I've tested so far and have had good results with:

Tetley - both their plain green tea and any green tea with other herbs,
Madura (an Australian brand),
Twinings of London.
Temple of Heaven Gunshot Green Tea (a loose tea)

I haven't yet tried Celestial Seasonings, and Lipton of the brand name teas. 

What doesn't work so far are Clipper and Nazirs.  These don't make much of a difference in my glucose levels. The Nazir tea tastes quite good, while the Clipper teas have great added flavours/herbs but no matter how I prepare the tea it's always bitter.  I'll update this list if I find others to avoid.

The gunshot tea is neat - it comes in a little tiny 'pebble' form, and once water is added it unfolds into tea leaves. I've found that I can re-use the same leaves twice and still get good results. Three times is definitely not the charm though.  Still considering I use a little under a teaspoon per 2 cups and even the small package I bought will last a fair while, it's a bargain at $3 a box.

My current experiment is with making ice tea. Since I bought a few different boxes of the Clipper tea and it has interesting flavours but doesn't do much to reduce my glucose levels, I'm using it as a flavouring and make a pot of tea using 3 Tetley green tea bags and one clipper bag.  This tea is brewed for several hours and put in the fridge.  I then use half a glass of tea and half fizzy diet lemonade. It tastes as nice as some of the iced green teas I tried in the USA on my last visit.  However, I need to experiment to see what number of tea bags to brew so that it gives the same benefit as a cup of hot green tea.

5 Feb: Lunch

Pre-Lunch Reading: 5.7 mmol/l or 102.6 mg/dl

Post-Lunch Reading: 8.2 mmol/l or 147.6 mg/dl

Had a medium sized bowl with salad - lettuce, half tomato, 3 black olives, chopped green onion, garlic and ranch dressing (normal, not low fat). I broke up 1 cooked chicken wing into the salad and it was very tasty.

Instead of having 2 cups of green tea after lunch, today I'm having concentrated homemade ice tea made with 3x Tetley green tea bags and 1 Clipper Green tea with Ginseng, half a glass with diet fizzy lemonade to fill.

It's a hot day again so at least its something cool to drink.

Goal: Learn if drinking ice tea made with good quality green tea (that's the Tetley) will have the same glucose lowering affect as drinking 2 cups of hot green tea.

Post-Lunch results aren't as good as they would be if I had had hot tea. Next time I brew the iced tea, I'm going to use twice as much Tetley tea bags (6x in total) so that it's a stronger brew.