COVID-19 and risk for people with Diabetes & Diabetic Neuropathy

John, I did the Optifast program at the university in the 1990's and got along fine with the liquid diet, but I drank by the clock and ate Jello with no fat cream cheese as a snack. After a 30 pound loss, I went on a limited food reentry and had stomach pain all the time between meals. I couldn't maintain the limited diet, so I gave it up in short time, as they had no maintenance program at the time. The stress in my marriage helped me gain back the weight and more. Since eating a diabetic diet and giving up sugar I have done quite well except that I don't go over four hours without eating and I don't eat snacks that have many calories. I will not tolerate stomach pain which I have had off and on throughout my marriage, but no longer have to deal with that. So I know not to try fasting because I am sure the stomach pain would happen and I would worry about low blood sugar again. It is more frightening than high blood sugar, In my opinion. I would walk in front of moving vehicles and threw a couple of mental tantrums because people didn't understand what was happening to me.
I was so sick after a blood sugar test that my mother had to dress me after a shower. I could not function. I drove a car home on the freeway with a blood sugar of only 35 and don't know how I managed to get home. Every four hours there will be nutritious food in my stomach regardless of my weight. Maybe I will lose a pound now and then. But my body is not equipped for fasting, I think. Dorisena

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John, I did the Optifast program at the university in the 1990's and got along fine with the liquid diet, but I drank by the clock and ate Jello with no fat cream cheese as a snack. After a 30 pound loss, I went on a limited food reentry and had stomach pain all the time between meals. I couldn't maintain the limited diet, so I gave it up in short time, as they had no maintenance program at the time. The stress in my marriage helped me gain back the weight and more. Since eating a diabetic diet and giving up sugar I have done quite well except that I don't go over four hours without eating and I don't eat snacks that have many calories. I will not tolerate stomach pain which I have had off and on throughout my marriage, but no longer have to deal with that. So I know not to try fasting because I am sure the stomach pain would happen and I would worry about low blood sugar again. It is more frightening than high blood sugar, In my opinion. I would walk in front of moving vehicles and threw a couple of mental tantrums because people didn't understand what was happening to me.
I was so sick after a blood sugar test that my mother had to dress me after a shower. I could not function. I drove a car home on the freeway with a blood sugar of only 35 and don't know how I managed to get home. Every four hours there will be nutritious food in my stomach regardless of my weight. Maybe I will lose a pound now and then. But my body is not equipped for fasting, I think. Dorisena

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I have a 42-year-old daughter with Type1 (since age 9). I worry constantly about her, even if she gets a cold ... but COVID?!? She’s on a continuous glucose monitor, and well controlled. She has 2 healthy children. She and her husband are ER nurses. She is home with the kids but he is still in the hospital setting. Careful as they are, nothing is foolproof. Anyone out there with Type 1? Sure could use a larger support system these days if only to handle my own anxiety! Thank you!

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I don't want to confuse anyone. I did the Optifast program fifteen years before I was diagnosed with diabetes and after I no longer had the low sugar problem. I did not lose the suggested two or more pounds per week on 800 plus calories because I did not exercise much and was still recovering from the pinched nerve in my upper spine. The director said not to worry about the slow loss and it took three months to lose thirty pounds. Before that I went to bed hungry for a month and only lost two pounds even though I was working in the garden that summer. I know that low blood sugar can come from stress issues and I lived many years under unfavorable family issues. Low blood sugar can starve your brain and leave you unconscious or it can kill you. I do not ever have that problem in my life anymore. Weight loss will always be slow with me mostly because I am not at all athletic and never have been. And I like to cook.
I believe I can live nearly normal with careful eating, some exercise, and good mental health, and a supportive family, with no stress. I am blessed. Dorisena

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I seem to be the opposite. I have severe stress, and it raises my blood sugar something awful.

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Yes, that is what is confusing to me after all these years. Stress and medicine can raise your blood sugar but in the beginning, stress lowered my blood sugar. In either case, eating on a regular schedule seemed to help the situation immensely so I could manage the stress at the time, either way. But I never figured out what made my body switch over the years. Some people eat more with stress and other people say "how can you eat at a time like this?" so the body response is pretty complicated. I am working on it. I am pretty blunt about my stress in my life. I stayed in my marriage until "death do us part" so my stress is now buried two miles north in the cemetery.
Every day I tell myself that he couldn't help himself and I forgive something. I am healing. I am learning. I am "not done yet." Dorisena

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Most of my stress is from my son. He and his family live next door. I think his history of drugs in his teens took its' toll on him in the form of dementia. He can't talk without anger and yelling. His siblings call him the scammer. He justifies how he treats me. Others tell me that he is very narcisstic . One of his daughters is also narcisstic, and all 3 have learning disabilities. These are toxic people.

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I have a 9 yr old granddaughter with Type1 since she was not quite 7 years old. I worry about both her and rest of family - her brother is 10; both of their parents are RNs in a hospital (one in ER). I was a nurse also. I worry about all of them!

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