Thursday, May 31, 2012

No Basal, No Bolus, No Bull

Mark this month!!! Because my insulin pump's been missing me...

I could tell by the sad little serenades emerging from the cupboard where I left it and didn't look back. For days, I slept peacefully untethered, showered freely, played in the sun and wrote away, happy as all heck to go on ignoring those tones of fear and abandonment... until at last I grew weary of its cries and finally just removed the battery.

On May 20th, the day of the new moon solar eclipse, I detached from my pump to sauna and shower, as had been my routine for weeks by then. But by the time I was ready to reattach it, the idea just didn't make sense anymore. My blood sugar was normal at 87. When it did go a little high, I had been erring on the side of under-correction. And even the insulin I took from time to time hadn't seemed to be doing much good lately.

In the preceding weeks, I had made a number of changes, to both my diet (to include more cooked vegetables) and my daily routine (i.e. food-based mineral supplementation, near-infrared sauna therapy, lots more water, coffee enemas and increased rest/relaxation as needed). At one point, seemingly out of nowhere, my numbers began to fluctuate like they hadn't done since my diagnosis four years ago. Suddenly I was experiencing serious blood sugar spikes from foods that normally didn't affect me at all. I'd have a fresh, light raw dessert I loved (sweetened with fruit or raw honey) and then get a blood glucose number an hour later as though I'd been drinking soda or eating pizza. I'd have a couple bites of raw almond butter with some raw milk and be punished as though I'd just made a meal of conventional ice cream.


And so I'd try chasing it with insulin. It had worked plenty of times before, but now the number wouldn't budge. Not for several hours, anyway. I'd suspect my pump was malfunctioning and switch both the reservoir and infusion set to correct the problem, only to have the exact same situation arise the very next day. It was like my body was rebelling against my routine diabetic way of doing things, and so it didn't matter how much synthetic insulin I threw at it. None of it helped. My body was not cooperating with my pharmaceutical protocol.

Looking back, I realize I should have been overjoyed. Instead, I was concerned... and a little pissed.

"I respect the logic behind what we're doing here, and I'm trying to keep an open mind," I told my boyfriend, a naturopathic healer who'd been advising me the whole time. "It's just that having to take MORE insulin for the SAME foods is exactly the OPPOSITE of what I'm trying to accomplish."

At least when I'd been eating more Raw foods, I had reduced my insulin intake by 80% over the course of one year, from about 25 units/day to about 5 units/day. But I wasn't sure how to tackle that remaining 5 units/day. It seemed I might plateau there indefinitely, and so I was open to answers. But surely, higher blood glucose numbers requiring more insulin couldn't mark the way to taking zero insulin... Could they?

My boyfriend encouraged me not to worry. He had some experience, after all, since having made similar changes himself several months earlier, following his 12 years on a 100% Raw foods diet. All that raw animal protein and fat may have helped him to reverse his cancer at one time, but there were some remaining digestive issues (likely the result of toxins lingering after the antibiotics buffet of his younger years) that these new changes were helping his body to address. And his impressive results had convinced me there was, indeed, something to it.


He said this was exactly where I wanted to be. My pancreas was beginning to heal. He had been learning and assimilating lots of new information recently and was sharing his discoveries with me along the way. He had also advised me not to over-correct with insulin during this time. Diabetes, he explained, was most likely the result of an infection in the pancreas - just one of probably many that I've been living with for some time. Most of us these days live with several chronic infections, things we call sinus trouble or frequent headaches. They don't necessarily kill us, but generally, our bodies aren't well enough to fully expel or eliminate them. And so we just carry them around and tolerate their idiosyncrasies. In the case of my much more serious infection, now that I had begun giving my body the support it required to address it, my pancreas was working to correct itself... And in light of all the changes I'd made recently, my fluctuating and unresponsive blood sugar numbers, he said, indicated as much.

So I'd allow them to run a little high. If my body really was ready to heal, then I would let it.

And I would stick to what I'd been doing. I had watched my boyfriend's progress and now trusted that I was moving in the same positive direction. I was beginning to understand that my body would go through these "healing reactions" from time to time, as it moved from one area to the next, increasingly more empowered to work on and clear out old infections, layer by layer. I was even beginning to wrap my brain around the concept of meaningful supplementation. I understood now that it didn't matter how raw or organic or enzyme-rich my foods were, if the soil in which they're grown is depleted of the very minerals necessary for cell permeability. Without those minerals, my body couldn't use the nutrients properly. And though vegetables were our best food source (albeit still not enough to eradicate the need for supplementation), cooking them helped make those minerals more bio-available to the body, while also helping to steady oxidation rates.

Now, because we're all different of course, the food-based supplements I had begun taking were recommended uniquely for me, based on the results of a Hair Mineral test I had received a few weeks earlier. It revealed what was happening in my overall health, at the cellular level - including my own particular brand of toxic heavy metal distribution. And trust me, when I saw what I'd spent 30 years of my life leeching from our toxic world, I was all too grateful for the changes I had already made - not only in diet, but in bath and hygiene products as well. (I'll have no more aluminum in my deodorant, and no more mercury in my contact lens solution, thank you very much!)

This multi-front attack on diabetes, it seemed, had finally begun to move some serious road blocks.

For nearly two weeks now, I've had mostly normal blood sugar readings. In that time, I've tested my blood glucose levels 106 times, with an average BG of 112, with 79 being the lowest and 167 being the highest. (The 167 came after a meal to which I added a sauce that unknowingly contained a small amount of raw honey. Once I learned that it did, I stopped using it and have gone no higher than 155 since.)

I take tremendous comfort, too, in knowing that the poison of synthetic insulin is no longer interfering with my body's healing process. And I've been absolutely astounded by and delighted to watch my blood sugar's coming down and leveling out at a normal range, totally on its own...

I mean, if you're tired of waiting for the cure, you can always just give up drinking the poison!

Of course, I realize that it may take evidence of more than just a diet of veggies and meats, with no carbs and no sweets, to convince the conventional medical community that I'm reversing my diabetes, and I'm okay with that. Proving anything to anyone is NOT my priority. My own health, vitality and longevity are. To that end, having surrendered my insulin pump is a HUGE mile marker - one sure to blow my conventional doctor's socks off, no doubt... But while I've no intention of ever returning to modern-day America's high-sugar, carb-heavy and highly processed diet, I would agree more testing is necessary to measure my actual progress. For now, though, I'm just giddy knowing that, regardless of what amount my pancreas is producing at the moment, the insulin at work in my body is all natural and all mine.

I know I've still a long way to go, but I figure healing the pancreas is probably a little like training a new employee: Give him small tasks to start, and then as he learns, gradually introduce slightly more challenging assignments. It is my goal eventually to work up to enjoying a menu that, from time to time, includes a little fruit or raw honey... with no blood sugar complications.

But one step at a time. This is Day 12... and I've still got 6 months left to find out whether that 3-year warranty on my insulin pump is good for returns.


5 comments:

  1. Congratulations Angela, what you are sharing will not only save lives of diabetics, but make those lives more enjoyable. Great work!

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  2. I appreciate your saying so. That is certainly my hope!

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  3. That's wonderful news, Angela. I know how hard you've worked at it, and it really is hard work. I'm curious how much those coffee enemas helped--they're really de-toxing.

    David

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  4. Thanks, David! Certainly, it hasn't been easy... And it's pretty difficult to know exactly how much the enemas contributed independently in light of the multi-front attack I launched, but I can tell you I went off the insulin the very next morning after my first-ever enema. Could be just a happy coincidence of coffee and bravery, but there's no way to know for sure. Rest easy, though, knowing that I will deliver on that enema blog I promised! ;-)

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  5. I've got allergies I haven't shaken yet, I am gonna add the coffee in from the other end now. Thank you.

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