Diabetic control
The patient’s blood sugar refused to go below 400 no matter what I tried.
“I think I might have to start you on insulin.”
“Aren’t those injections,” she said ,”and I have to poke myself around my stomach?”
“Well---” I said.
Before I could finish she said accusingly, “It is all because of your diet.”
“My diet?” I asked bewildered. I had calculated a nice 1500 calorie diet for her based on the family’s normal food intake.
“You told me to eat two iddlies in the morning, , one cup of rice in the afternoon and 2 chappatis for dinner. In the morning, after my pongal and vadai I find it difficult to eat two more iddlies. At lunch time, I have variety rice. Then I swallow your one cup of plain rice with sambhar. “
She must have been eating at least 5000 calories a day!
“What about the morning walk?” I asked.
“How can I walk? Where is the time? I have to cook the families’ food and then the extra diet you have prescribed for me!”
I was bereft of speech.
Another woman with persistent blood sugar level of 375 told me “I eat two iddlies for breakfast lunch and dinner. I love iddlies.”
I was puzzled. Then her daughter-in- law came with her .
“My mother-in-law makes delicious iddlies, “ she said slyly, “I brought two for you.”
I simpered and said, “Oh, you needn’t have.”
Then I saw the iddlies. They had been steamed in a large aluminum strainer similar I usually use to wash vegetables and fruits. They were 9 inches across and two inches thick.
The patient’s blood sugar refused to go below 400 no matter what I tried.
“I think I might have to start you on insulin.”
“Aren’t those injections,” she said ,”and I have to poke myself around my stomach?”
“Well---” I said.
Before I could finish she said accusingly, “It is all because of your diet.”
“My diet?” I asked bewildered. I had calculated a nice 1500 calorie diet for her based on the family’s normal food intake.
“You told me to eat two iddlies in the morning, , one cup of rice in the afternoon and 2 chappatis for dinner. In the morning, after my pongal and vadai I find it difficult to eat two more iddlies. At lunch time, I have variety rice. Then I swallow your one cup of plain rice with sambhar. “
She must have been eating at least 5000 calories a day!
“What about the morning walk?” I asked.
“How can I walk? Where is the time? I have to cook the families’ food and then the extra diet you have prescribed for me!”
I was bereft of speech.
Another woman with persistent blood sugar level of 375 told me “I eat two iddlies for breakfast lunch and dinner. I love iddlies.”
I was puzzled. Then her daughter-in- law came with her .
“My mother-in-law makes delicious iddlies, “ she said slyly, “I brought two for you.”
I simpered and said, “Oh, you needn’t have.”
Then I saw the iddlies. They had been steamed in a large aluminum strainer similar I usually use to wash vegetables and fruits. They were 9 inches across and two inches thick.
As I started screeching at the patient, the daughter-in-law smirked in the background, preening herself.
Now I have started saying,
“House work is not exercise. You have to walk for 40 minutes on an empty stomach. You cannot eat anything I have not written in the diet sheet. You can eat only ‘cooker iddlies.’
Hope that works!
“House work is not exercise. You have to walk for 40 minutes on an empty stomach. You cannot eat anything I have not written in the diet sheet. You can eat only ‘cooker iddlies.’
Hope that works!
No comments:
Post a Comment