I saw my Nutritionist Nurse yesterday

(Consensus is Politics) #1

A quick [/verbosemode -off] recap of my journey.

Learned about Ketogenisys back in 2009ish. Didn’t try it for a few years. Made great progess on it. Lost about 40 pounds. Gave up on it, I’m not a cook, it was too tough for me after 3 months. Recently Dx with Type 2 diabetes. After one month of the ADA approved diet, I knew I was going to die from diabetes, as my sugar wasnt anywhere near controlled. Then I thought… wait a minute… what about Keto? Can I? With Type 2 Diabetes? My research led me to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast and subsequently this forum.

So the end of the first week of October I started Keto again. Withing one week my BG went from wildly swinging 350 to 250 everyday to (3 weeks later) this mornings BG was 107.
[EDIT: Thought this should be included…]
average for the …
past 30 days 123 mg/dL [n=32]
past 14 days 116 mg/dL [n=17]
past 7 days 114 mg/dL [n=8]

In the Air Force when something went wrong once, we called it a fluke. When it happened a second time we just skipped coincidence and called it a trend. Lives were usually at stake. Looking at those numbers, her eyes bugged out. “Wow. You have a handle on this don’t you!”

I’m eager for my next a1c to be taken.

So, back to the Nutitionist appointment. I thought it was a class. I swear I expected at least half a dozen people in it. It was a 90 minute 1 on 1 with a RN that specialized in Nutrition. I took a slow train to telling her I was on a Keto diet. I could tell when I told her about my previous foray into it a few years ago, it was really bugging her. She actually was squirming like a worm as I talked about it.

“Of course you arent doing that now, right?”, I laughed and told her I’d get back to that. I gave her a good background about my being a wanna be scientist. Gave her the Readers Digest version of my technical background. So by the time I got to telling her about Keto, she was interested in hearing what I did. How my BGs are so close to just being normal again. And all within just a few weeks. She couldn’t argue with the results, but she kept telling me about the ADA diet plan for me.

I asked her point blank, if carbs are a problem for my body now, then why would I intentionally eat any? I could see her choke on a few answers as they popped to the front of her head, but she eventually said…“You’re right. What you are doing is working for you.” The 90 minute appointment went on another 30 minutes. She was eating this new info up. She had never heard of a Keto diet, just that Ketoacidosis was a bad thing for Diabetics to watch out for. Instead of handing me the ADA diet literature that she was required to give me, she dug around in a cabinet that looked like it was seldom used and gave me some technical pamphlets that explained diabetes at the cellular level. Beta cells, hormones like GLP-1, receptors, LMAO… I felt like a kid being handed a stack of porn from a hidden cache. She smiled and said, you are gonna enjoy these.
[ugh… to be completely honest, these guides aren’t as technical as I first thought. I just thumbed through them. Although some very good material, its really just the stuff that should be handed out to Diabetic patients. But, having worked in the tech field, I understand why they don’t want to hand them out to the ‘dumb masses’ (say that out loud really fast). It would simply cause to many to call in with questions about it, way over the heads of the cattle, er… common folk.

(Chan Cleland) #2

Great work. Change things one person at a time.

(Darlene Horsley) #3

You are awesome! I love this story so so much! Congratulations and kcko.

#4

Oh, this is amazing! Thank you for sharing this story, and fingers crossed that she keeps thinking about it. Opening the eyes of one diabetes educator can have incredible benefits for so many people (though I’m sure that she’s limited in the advice she can give, right?).

(Consensus is Politics) #5

I see a trend with medical people being told to SHUT UP OR ELSE. Certain people just do not want the truth to be told, unless its their version of the truth.

Besides, the Keto diet isn’t politically correct. Just try telling a family member who knows nothing but the SAD diet that you are on a LCHF diet. They look at you like you got the info from space aliens.

(jketoscribe) #6

I think you handled this beautifully.

I especially like the fact that you presented her with hard, fast data showing what your body does on the approved diet and on keto and THEN asked a very important question: Why should you eat carbs if they clearly are a problem for your body? Not only could she not give you some glib answer, but I think you made her (perhaps for the first time!) think for herself and consider the impact of the advice she normally gives out.

I was in a healthcare profession and got a similar question (not from a patient, but from a continuing ed instructor) and faced the fact that a lot of what I spouted as true was NOT supported by the evidence and I really didn’t have the answers. The seed was planted, and I eventually left the profession. But in this case you planted the seed and watered it for her–there is a better way that does work, you asked the question and you gave her the answer, too. Maybe this will cause her to explore and eventually change her approach to diabetic nutrition.

What a profound thing you did there, and a good lesson for us all on how to handle that situation.

#7

Good job, way to educate the educator!

I don’t like to cook either. I’m big on the KISS principle, and casseroles are great for that. The macros are already calculated, it’s a single dish, and there’s always leftovers, which usually taste better the second day.

(Consensus is Politics) #8

Thank you for the support. I was terrified at the beginning. What if she asks questions I don’t know the answer to? What if she makes claims about something I never thought of? Before I went in I gave myself a little pep talk. I’ve been studying Keto for a few years. I’ve done it before. I knew it was the answer to my situation with blood sugar. And if she asked me something about Keto/diabetes that I don’t know the answer to, well, then I’d just have to get back with her on that.

She seemed relieved that I was researching my facts on sites like Mayo Clinic. I did tell her that many of the Mainstream medical websites seemed to ignore the Keto diet, if not just poo poo it altogether. And often my own research would send me down rabbit holes chasing research done by doctors on those site. Most, if not all of those sites seemed to have dropped anything about Keto at all. I know sounds like a conspiracy, but just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

I also left her with a few motto’s I picked up over the years…

“When you have excluded the impossible, what ever is left, however improbable, must be the truth” -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“Question everything” - Just too damn many to give credit to.

“With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.” - William of Ockham [Occam’s Razor]