Vaguely Vegan - Ditching Diabetes

So, it's now the week before my MOT at Harefield Hospital and I have just started recording my blood glucose results to take with me; I am hoping to see a change on the last time I did this.  For those of you who like numbers, consider these figures below.  

This first of set of glucose readings are my average results over a week, on my 'old/normal' diet.  

Before Breakfast: 8.8

2hrs After: 12.6 

Before Lunch: 9.5 

2 hrs After: 16.2 

Before Dinner: 10.1

2 hrs After: 15.4 

Bed Time: 13.2

The fasting glucose reading should be about 5 and healthy seems to be under 8, although if you are Diabetes Type Two, then up to 8.5 is acceptable.  You can see, they were all awful.

The second set of results are the average results over a week, after three weeks of being vegan - yes, the first two weeks were a bit hit and miss, but that was me getting used to things.

Before Breakfast: 5

2hrs After: 8.5

Before Lunch: 8

2 hrs After:14.3

Before Dinner: 8.2

2 hrs After: 10.8

Bed Time: 7.4

The lunch time spike happens six hours after I take my steroids (DAMN YOU PREDNISOLONE!).  I am not sure that I will ever be able to correct that, because I have to take the stuff, like it or not.  Back to yesterday's post; this is the point I tell myself that I like the drug as it supports my lungs - even if it makes my face puffy.

Anyway, just to prove that I am not completely barking mad and that this was not an idea I randomly plucked out the sky, here's a link to watch that explains the thinking behind my experiment - courtesy of a friend who messaged the video to me yesterday.  

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/Clip/10320937/correlation-between-meat-and-diabetes#.U7Mg1LbjYQ8.facebook

It was not this film which made me consider a dietary change, but I didn't want to bore you all to death with some of the things I have been reading.  In a nutshell; in some large-group studies it has been noted that people on high saturated fat diets (meats and dairy - not just meat as suggested in the video), who were already insulin resistant were more prone to Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Kidney Disease.  I have all four; I ate meat and dairy products.  The people in the studies, who were placed on a plant-based diet, managed a significant improvement in their blood glucose results.  I am seeing an improvement in mine; I'll have to wait until next Thursday to see if the other results have improved - or not.

It's an American clip so that means it may not be what your doctor over here in Blighty would prescribe.  I am also not suggesting anyone changes their diet!  You have to eat what is right for your body, but I am fast coming round to the idea that as far as food is concerned, one size does not fit all, but I'll come back to that another day.

Finding My Donor Family III

I have to admit that since I posted my original note, that I have stalled in my quest.  This has been largely due to commitments at university and if I am honest with myself, I suspect that nothing more will now happen until August, when I am no longer bound by timetables, or deadlines.  And then I have days like today, where the enormity of the situation overtakes everything else in my head and I have to just stop what I am doing and shed a few tears.

I cry because he missed out and because his entire family missed out in watching him do, learn, explore, grow, change, develop.  I often wonder about the lad who saved my life.  He'd be 36 now, if the facts that I have are correct.  Would he have married?  What would he have done?  Was he a good kid? Was he a little monkey?  What happened to his best friends at school?  I know mine rallied  when my life support was nearly switched off - in fact their actions saved my life; I came round, out of a coma when mum repeatedly played the tape of them singing, laughing and talking which they'd sent to the hospital.

I cry because I can never make it right for that boy.  If a kid hurt themselves in the playground, I used to give them a hug and just be there for them; I can't do that for him.  I know absolutely it was not my fault that he died, but there is such a thing as survivors guilt.  I am alive, because he is not.  I just want to scoop him up, give him a big cuddle and tell him it will be alright.

I cry because next year I turn 40.  How on earth did I get to 40?  HOW?  It beggars belief that I am probably going to celebrate this milestone.  I am stunned.  Most people seem to run away from admitting they are THAT old - I'm running towards it, with my arms open wide, ready to embrace the next decade.  The fading looks, the increased wrinkles are minor details that really don't matter.  

I  AM GOING TO MAKE IT TO FORTY! 

I cry because I wonder if I have done enough.  Has my life been justification enough for that hellishly expensive operation and that lad's passing?  Have enough of my days counted?  Have I tried to do the right thing?  Have I been honest enough? Kind enough? Thoughtful enough?  Achieved enough?  Truthful enough? If I ever meet my donor mum, will I meet her expectations?  I have two lives for which to account; have my actions been the right ones?  Should I be a better person?

I cry because of the chances I have had, that would have been denied me, had I died back in 1988.  It so nearly wasn't my turn, but a twist of fate, or a stroke of luck, a guardian angel, or the devil watching over me - however you choose to phrase it - has granted me some of the most amazing experiences a person could wish to have.  I have never managed to work out whether I was the luckiest bugger alive, or if I have had the worst hand of cards dealt.  I tend towards the former, but occasionally the latter wins over.  Either way, I know I won the lottery in 1988 and gained a prize worth more than the multimillions you can win on the Euros.  

Vaguely Vegan - How Vegan is Vegan?

This is something I have been asking myself over the last few weeks.  I am primarily a dietary vegan.  I have multiple friends who are animal rights vegans and a couple of environmentals - there is some overlap, but it appears they are not identical and I am guessing that you can figure out the approximate difference between the two.  But whilst I identify strongly with the health aspects of giving this a go, I am not completely insensitive towards our furry friends, so I have been looking at other ways of tidying up my own animal footprint - and my environmental one as well.

Being a vegan is expensive, if you go the whole hog; I've seen toothpaste at £4.99 for 100ml - there are cheaper varieties - but compare this to Tosca's which 40p for the standard brand.  I can't afford £4.99 for a tube of toothpaste and I think you are barking mad, if you think this is a normal price for cleaning your teeth; I suspect the big supermarkets won't give a rat's arse about animal welfare in the ingredients list for personal hygiene.  So what do you do as an animal rights campaigner?  Shop around and suck it up, I guess.  I'll stop monkeying around with the appalling animal jokes for now...

Then there are the clothes in my wardrobe - countless pairs of funky goth boots and a leather jacket.  I'm dietary, so perhaps I am less worried about these items than others, BUT...imagine if you were of the animal persuasion.  Do you throw these items out? Give them to charity?  Sell them on eBay and use that money to buy new vegan shoes?  I don't know what the answer is really.  Mum gave me the money to buy a lovely pair of boots at Christmas - they cost £175 and are made of leather.  I won't be chucking them out, but even I can see there are very good boots out there that are not made of animal skin.  Then again, how do I know that those leather-free shoes haven't been glued together with a by-product of an animal if you buy them at Asbo, or Sanesbury?  

Yes, you can buy shoes and boots from vegan shops by getting yourself into London to visit stores, but have you tried buying shoes that fit and that are comfortable over the net?  The Factor-of-Eve: I am not quite a size 3 and my feet are so wide I can't wear kids shoes.  My bunions are horrific and I have slightly clubbed toes, left over from pre-transplant days.  On top of that, my feet callous up quickly because my walk is not quite right.. I usually only find shoes in M&S that I can tolerate on my feet - they are leather.  I don't go into London very often anymore - the travelling is just too much now and I am not prepared to order something over the net, find that it is wholly unsuitable and then have the stress of getting to the PO to return the item and wait for the refund. I've hardly left my house in the last 2 ½ weeks.  I am not always capable of running about, completing errands like this.  Clearly my footwear problem isn't going to go away any time soon and in cases like this, the best 'vegan' approach is probably to look after my current footwear and only replace it when it can no longer be repaired. Hopefully by then, this issue may have resolved itself - somehow.

Another idea that has cropped up again in a conversation is the question of eating eggs and dairy produce.  I am currently avoiding anything animal based, so this is not aimed at myself, but I do have one friend who is considering adopting some commercial chickens that are bound for the knacker's yard.  They'll be free range and have a home for life on his land - he'll benefit from the eggs.  I like this idea - a bit of give and take!  Further more, instead of a life span of 68 weeks, his chickens will get their full run of 6-7 years.  I suspect some vegans would disagree with this, but if I had the space (and was allowed near birds) then I think this would work for me.  

Then a week or so ago, I stumbled across http://www.farmaround.co.uk with their 'Cow Nation', 'Hen Nation' and 'Izzy Lane' (sheep).  If Harefield 'strongly suggest' I reintroduce dairy back into my diet, then I will be sending my custom to them.  I'll leave you to read the website and decide for yourselves if this is a good compromise, or not.  

To be absolutely clear about this, I am not 100% sure what Harefield will say when I tell them about my Diabetes experiment.  I've heard other patients having their heads bitten off, for changing their diets and not informing the hospital as it seriously mucked about with their blood test results.  Hopefully I have been sensible and kept my fat consumption high enough, to be certain of absorbing the immune-suppressant, but I am bracing myself for a bit of a telling off.  I'll know on the 10th whether I can stay vegan, or have to switch to a variation of vegetarian/pescetarian/omni, but at least I feel 'safe' knowing there are some animal-friendlier alternatives out there.  

And what about my medication?  That is clearly not going to be vegan and I am not stopping taking them, come hell or high water!  Even your basic pain killers aren't necessarily free from animal products.  I'm not even going to bother asking if I can be switched to an animal friendly version: I'm allergic to most immune suppressant drugs and honestly I take what I am told to take and I like it - at least, that's what I tell myself.  Honestly? Medical testing on animals will happen.  However, I think we've enough hair dyes and lotions to last a million life times, that we should not be testing those on animals again.  But, if it came down to a hospital testing a drug on my mum, or on a monkey - the monkey's taking the drugs.  When it comes saving the life of  a family member or a friend, my morals go out the window...