Turbulent times these days. My blood sugar soared over the past few months, unfortunately nothing new. My dietetic negligence caught up with me, knocked me down and sat on my chest for a while. What was new was that reforming and climbing back on the diet wagon had no discernible effect on my glucose readings. This was frustrating, to say the least.
My doctor gave me some encouragement and a choice: he could prescribe some short-acting insulin in addition to my already substantial dose of long-acting insulin, or I could try to bring things in line with diet. I chose diet, and braced for a grim commitment. I’ve done this before.
My doctor recommended the Paleo Diet, which I had heard of but knew nothing about. He described it to me and told me that it made sense to him biochemically. He and his wife are on it. I went home and Googled it. There’s a wealth of information out there about it, much of it conflicting, but I found the Paleolithic Diet Page to be a big help. And of course I ordered a used copy of the book. I got the basics from the Web and began incorporating as many of the principles as I could.
Then my vision blurred. Badly. I wear bifocals, and I could only drive if I looked through the bottom half of the lenses. Forget reading a book or a computer screen. I went to an optometrist, got a new prescription and ordered a pair of glasses. He gave me some contacts to wear in the meantime. After about a week, I noticed that I didn’t need cheaters to see small type, and things in the distance were blurry again. My blood sugar was lower, but still fluctuating.
When my new glasses arrived, I found that they corrected my near vision beautifully — I could read the small print on the face of my watch! Unfortunately, anything beyond six feet from my nose was a blur. I mentioned this when I picked up my glasses from the optometrist, but they dismissed my concerns with a wave of the hand. “You just need to get used to them,” the technician said, beaming.
Right.
I noticed as I drove to an appointment in a town 25 miles away that I couldn’t really read the street signs. When I got indoors, my vision was so blurry my head hurt. After my appointment, night had fallen and it was raining. I got behind the wheel and the nightmare began. What I saw through my wet windshield might have been a collaboration between Claude Monet and Salvador Dali. My eyes burned and my head felt as if it might explode.
Today I visited the eye doctor again. He was clearly irritated with me, but agreed to replace the lenses with the prescription I now need. My blood sugar read normal just a few hours ago and I’ve been observing a strict diet and exercise regimen, so maybe my vision will stabilize.
I’m not really in a position yet to comment on how effective the diet is. It takes some diligence to follow. I’ve been clean today: no dairy, no grains. Taking it one day at a time.
