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.

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...

Vaguely Vegan - Caffeine Conundrum

So I ended up eating beef, when I went out with a friend the other day.  There was NOTHING on the menu that I could eat, given my restrictions and my current lifestyle choice, but that lunch has served as an interesting experiment.  Well, I am the sort of oddball that finds blood sugar reactions interesting.   I should have done Science this time round at uni; maybe I'll take it up after my current interests have expired.

Anyway, I digress.  I'd been having some very nice glucose levels recently and then I ate *that beef.  Hmmm. It's taken me since Thursday to bring the spike in reading down from 13 to 9.  Let me be absolutely clear about this.  I now wake up with a reading of around 5; after brekkie I am under 7, by lunch time I am usually around 10 and then with a big gap until dinner, I am usually back around the 7, or 8 mark when I go to bed.  It's still not good enough, but the 13 I scored on Thursday was a bit of a shock.

On top of this, I've kind of given up caffeine.  Those that know me, know 'I drink tea, therefore I am'.  I had a coffee yesterday morning and since then, it has been water all the way.  I am not sure how much difference this may make, but dehydration can cause glucose levels to rise and tea is a diuretic.  The odd thing is that I haven't missed it - not in the slightest.  I suspect this will change at some point and I know I will have another cuppa, but it is odd.  Maybe the three litres of water that I am now consumming each day are actually doing the job!?

In a nutshell, I am now seem to sticking to this vegan thing and I am avoiding caffeine (chocolate is not disqualified yet). If I don't have glowing skin, a flat stomach and a healthy blood sugar by the end of the summer, I am going to want a refund.

Vaguely Vegan - Choosing Cheese

I decided that I was going to try and properly stick to a vegan diet from Monday whilst attempting to bring my blood sugar under some sort of control.  By then I'd had very little animal product for a few days and thought I ought to use up the butter, cream, chocolate, eggs etc, so I made a huge chocolate/baileys brownie and force fed it to willing volunteers who needed a morale boost during an essay reading session... Yes, I had a (large-ahem) slice.  Nom.  I am surprised my blood sugar only went as high as 10.1 and I was delighted it had returned to normal by bed time.  Maybe a few days plant based diet has already had an impact? I don't know, I'm not medical, but it seems a good indication.  It's a shame my stomach complained like mad about the brownie, it was growling and upset for 24 hours afterwards.

Stomach problems can be huge in the transplant community.  The medication we take is so destructive that a lot of us end up on a drug to protect the stomach lining; I take Lanzoprazole.  I have wondered recently whether there is damage to my stomach as I am more easily irritated by foods if I eat too much, or if I add in something new.  Over the last 2-3 years, every meal I ate ended with my stomach growling for a few hours afterwards and actually being quite uncomfortable at times.  I've had issues with digestion since the transplant, which occasionally manifested itself at the most inconvenient and annoying times, but could usually be resolved by a few days of eating white bread (starch) and the gradual re-introduction of other food back into my system.  That Monday discomfort reminder was enough and I have maintained a vegan diet since then.   

If I am dairy/lactose intolerant that's a shame, as I have a bit of a cheese habit; one draw in my freezer will testify to this.  It's just as well I only paid about ¼ of the retail price, because I bought it all from Tosca on a new customer/half price deal!  To be certain whether dairy is the cause of my gestational discomfort and spiking blood sugar, I think I will put it back into my diet in a week or so and just see if my glucose levels rise and see if the same stomach problems return.  I've run out of glucose strips (packs of 50 are £29 in Boots and that lasts about 8 days), so until I hunt out a cheaper set on eBay I can't actually check.  Clouds and silver linings: if I am diagnosed as diabetic in August, maybe I can get these strips on prescription...

In the meantime: the hunt is on for a dairy replacement which is neither repellent, prohibitively expensive, nor akin to an alien life form.  I have said so many times that I am not a fan of anything that has been engineered to the nth degree and I can't tolerate soya, so this is going to be a hard ask.  I've found one company that make the brilliantly named No-Moo cheese range and they are Swiss (no shock there, then).  The biggest grumble I have about this is the fact they use vegetable oil instead of olive, or coconut, but at least it is not hydrogenated.  I scoured the list for 'iffy' ingredients when it arrived and was pleased to see I recognised everything by name and it seems to be made predominantly from water, oil and almond butter, all churned up into a patty that looks vaguely enough like cheese - turmeric is the spice/colourant used to achieve this.  You first eat with your eyes, right? 

All this said, I'm not sure about the use of carrageen (a binder extracted from seaweed), as there is some debate about whether this additive is an irritant.  Ultimately, this is an experiment to see if it tastes good.  If it does, can I replicate the item in my kitchen when I REALLY REALLY NEED to eat cheese?  At least then I will have a product that doesn't have anything weird in it at all.  Time will tell whether this concept is a delight, or a monstrosity.

Vaguely Vegan

For years rejection was the word that struck fear into my heart, literally and figuratively speaking.  In terms of transplant terror, risks went something like this:

REJECTION

INFECTION

Everything Else

Now the terror looks like this:

REJECTION

DIABETES -> KIDNEY FAILURE

INFECTION

Everything Else

After a massive dose of steroids at the beginning of my second of year of teaching (October 2005), my blood sugar rocketed and it took me weeks to stabilise it, although I managed that without the aid of medical intervention.  Ok, that's a small porky, I had one shot of insulin when I was drip-fed the Solu-medrone. By this stage we knew I only had around 35% kidney function left.  Dodgy kidneys, high blood pressure, an iffy second ticker that was starting to fur up, pre-diabetes and a truck load of scary drugs all roll together to make a pretty picture in transplant terms and I knew that the day of scoffing what I fancied was coming to an end.

Rather surprisingly, it's taken nine years to get to this stage.  I have generally looked after myself, taken my medication, eaten (reasonably) well, exercised (until recently) and just got on with things.  I think the Epstein Barr has quickened the onset, as I can't walk  much and I am not always capable of preparing food.  Then, in April of this year, I found out my glucose level had been systematically high on non-fasting bloods at Harefield over the last year - or thereabouts.  A specialist in Diabetes beckons.

With all this in mind, I have decided to try something rather radical - in the short term at least.   Over the last week I have more-or-less cut all animal products out of my diet and so far, I am shocked at the difference to my blood glucose.  Where I was scoring 8-11 every morning, I am now always below 7 now and usually it's between 5-5.5 - Normal!  I've taken my glucose reading upon waking up, two hours after breakfast, before lunch and two hours after lunch.  I've just taken it before supper tonight.  I've not had one reading today above 8.8.  It was heading up to 14, 15 quite regularly.  It seems to be dropping down a little further each day.

I know I cannot maintain this diet permanently, but I have two months before I get to the specialist for Diabetes.  Can I get a handle on this so that I can stay free of another drug?  Even if I only delay it by 6 months, that will be a bonus.

So, why Vaguely Vegan?  Well, I know it is probably not a practical lifestyle in terms of my transplant, although a plant based diet seems to currently agree with me:

• there is a huge list of things I must not eat/must avoid  
• I shouldn't really eat the vegan stock replacement item - soya (or any of the associated items) as the pain of gout is PHENOMENAL - and is linked to kidney damage/diabetes etc.
• I have to go easy on a lot of the secondary vegan replacement items - beans and pulses as they can hasten kidney damage in patients with pre-existing conditions.  Yes, you'd have to eat stacks of them, but I am playing cautiously in the traffic; this is my life I am talking about, not an inconvenience out of choice.
• I have to be careful not to overdo the Potassium, Phosphorous, salt, sugar and fat
• I'd never eat out socially again - balancing the needs of my body, with the transplant and the vegan lifestyle would be horrific.
• I'd be too stressed every time I went to mum's and it would be a nightmare for her
• The transplant team probably would not endorse such a change in my lifestyle at this stage.  I've gone some distance doing what I do.  Let's not rock the boat, eh?

What does that mean in terms of this entry?  Well, for the next two months I will be sticking to a broadly vegan menu.  Once I see my glucose level bottom out, then I will have evidence to stick under a doctor's nose.  However, if I eat some dairy by mistake or by design, or I'm handed a dinner that's meat based, then I will use it as an opportunity to see how my body reacts - I'm on a rather sharp learning curve at the moment.  I'm simply not going to prepare myself animal based meals, but what happens elsewhere is subject to debate.  Vegan at home, omni outside.  This is probably also a bit better as far as my concerns for animal welfare.

On the 10th July I face my MOT at Harefield.  I want my level down and steady by then.  I suspect I'll be advised to eat fish a couple of times a week (I think that will make me a Pescetarian, rather than just plain pesky), use butter over margarine and maintain eggs.  This information comes from overhearing other conversations in the hospital  - a little dangerous, granted, as we are all very different and then one always needs to factor in the transplant...but that said, if veganism is the ONLY way to keep my glucose down, then I will do it and the chooks will be chirping too.

NOTHING ON THIS PLANET 

makes me like the sound of:

 dialysis 

losing my sight

having a kidney transplant

amputation etc.

In the meantime, I am making a big fat chocolate brownie to take into Uni tomorrow.  You never know, it may the last one I eat.