I am a new member and what a relief to find such a support group. I am the only diabetic I know at age 34. I want to give a brief history and then get some feedback from others.

First a brief bio:

I am female, born in September 1968. I am married with a son, age 4 and daughter, age 4 months. I live in Northern California and may have been a diabetic for 4+ years. I am currently 50+ pounds overwieght. I take 2.5mg Gliburide a day and have just started back on an excercise routine after baby. I am still nursing and have not started the Atkins Plan. I found this site looking for low carb desserts but I am truely inspired to get started, although I may not be able to for as long as 8 more months. Unfortunately this medication has caused me to gain about 12 pounds since giving birth which puts me 20 pounds over my prepregnancy wieght. (ugh)

Secondly a medical history:

1988 dianosed with pancreatitus (age 20), reason unknown
1998 pregnant and diagnosed with gestational diebetes (gd), controlled by ob with diet (allegedly); result 10lb 6 oz baby with broken collar bone and moderate jaundice. Dr said chances were less that 5 % that I would have diabetes when I got through.
2000 lost a baby with congenital heart defect.
2001 diagnosed with diabetes, gallbladder removed and skin melanoma removed. Started to get serious about my health, with 500mg glucophage xr twice a day, regular WW type diet and exercise I lost thirty pounds, brought my Ha1c from 8.2 to 6.4 and my cho down from 280 to 200. All other blood work close to normal range. I got the okay to get pregnant again.
2002 Pregnant with a healthy baby! My endo in Ca, Dr Kitzmiller had me on a very strictly controlled diet and bg levels (fasting<90, one hour post meals <129). As a result I had a beautiful baby girl in 2003.
2003 My attention turns now to my health, my pancreas, my wieght, and my blood glucose levels. I have been able to lessen my meds since I started walking again, but I find the wieght gain troubling. My fasting has been inthe under 110 range and after meals any where from 90's to 170's. I do tend to be hypoglycemic before lunch or late afternoon. Because I am nursing I still follow a basic WW diet with about 9-10 carbs a day.
I want feedback because right now I feel like an island. Eventually I want to get off the meds hopefully following this WOE, lose the 50+ and maybe so a triathalon.
Thanks for reading, Rosie

It looks like you're doing great, Rosie! Those numbers look good.
Have you read Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution book? It's very helpful. There is a new edition of it coming out at the end of the month.

Take care,

Uhara

Hi Rosie and welcome!

We seem to have been diagnosed with diabetes at roughly the same age (30 for me).
My first suggestion would be to talk to your doctor about the weight gain while on the Glyburide and perhaps request that you go back to using the Metformin (Glucophage). You'll also need to work with your doctor closely on adjusting or even stopping your medication while you are low carbing.
I'd also suggest that you get Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution Diet book by Richard K. Bernstein (himself a type 1 diabetic) and read it thoroughly before talking to your doctor.



Rosie..if you're really only getting 9-10 grams of carb per day and nursing, that's way too low (or did you mean 90-100 grams?)! Also, a 170 blood glucose following a meal is too high. You really don't want your blood sugar to go up more than 30 points following a meal and certainly not above 150. Fasting below 110 is good, but preferably below 100. Dr. Bernstein doesn't address pregnancy and nursing in his book, but Dr. Atkins doesn't recommend having carbs low enough to be in ketosis while nursing and it may also change the taste of your breast milk enough for your baby to reject it. You might want to consider something in the range of 50 grams of carb per day while nursing and see how that goes and then dropping lower when you're done nursing if the weight loss isn't what you'd like. The Glyburide could be contributing to the hypoglycemia symptoms that you're having because of the way that it works to control your blood sugars, so definitely talk to your doctor about that.

Read up, keep posting questions and definitely work with your doctor on this.

9-10 15g servings a day. I think I will get the book. Glyburide is the only med approved for nursing mothers...I was taking 2.5mg twice a day, now down to 1.25mg twice daily. I tend to be sensitve to diabetic meds, but I have no idea about this dosage. Hopefully this lower dose will help slow or reverse the wieght gain.

Okay...that's between 135 and 150 grams of carb per day. Lower than most folks, but still too high for most diabetics. If you dropped to around 50-60, you might find that you don't need the Glyburide at all and that your blood sugars would be much more stable. You would need to keep your calorie level up while nursing and this can be done by using healthy fats (butter, olive oil, etc...).
Definitely get the book and do some reading. You can also download and read parts of Dr. Bernstein's book from his website, www.diabetes-normalsugars.com

HTH!

I was diagnosed at 28, at 290 pounds, which was 60 pounds too much for me.

Incidentally, my cousin has been diagnosed last weekend with "diabetes" although they still are not sure of Type I or Type II. They have him on insulin, but some test they are waiting for has not yet come back.

Later,
wsgts

I dedcided to do PP with about 60 carbs and see how that goes. Thanks for the input Lisa. Incedentally I found a LC Pregnancy/nursing mothers supprt group on Yahoo, following a search here for general health and nursing. One more bonus from this site. I started PP today! I will let you know how it works...

Glad to hear that you found a plan that you think will work for you, Rosie. Definitely keep us posted on your progress!