Cool. I haven't tried many Washington State wines, but I'll keep an eye out for Melange. Lately, I've drifted into old world grapes with a preference for Ripasso and the very pricey first pressing of Amarone della Valpolicella. The grapes are left on the vines to partially dry and the wine has a wonderful flavor of raisins. The Spanish Rioja grapes have a similar spicy flavor and are less pricey in the form of Crianza and head upwards in price when with the more aged Reservas and Gran Reservas.

That's very good news, Lottadata! Your surgeon is probably used to diabetics being slow healers. (which they probably are while eating the recommended high carb ADA death diet).

Welcome back, Lottadata/Jenny! I'm glad that you're doing so well. And, I've enjoyed your new book, which has loads of great info.

As per what I'm eating, lately I've been on a pizza kick. I use oopsie roll "dough" for the crust, which sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, cheese, tomato sauce, etc for the toppings. I've also eaten a lot of roasted green beans lately. And, I'm still love my favorites, ribeye steak and salad with blue cheese dressing. My favorite dessert is pumpkin bake, which I sometimes eat for breakfast.

My surgeon is young and enthusiastic for the low carb diet, which was really a first for me when dealing with doctors. Some of the low carb diet books made it sound like it might be necessary to raise carbs a bit for wound healing, but when I asked her if I should raise my carbs above a low carb level she told me NOT to.

When I went in for surgery though, the nurse thought my 88 blood sugar reading was "low" and they insisted on hooking me up to a lactate drip and raising the bg up to 139 during the surgery. Nothing I could do about it. The anesthesiologist insisted and I figured a few hours at 139 wouldn't kill me.

I seem to have lost a couple pounds too, thanks to the very low carb diet combined with no artificial anything. Hard to tell if it is real or glycogen.

Most interestingly, my blood pressure is so normal I can't take any of my BP meds. I'm one of those oddballs whose blood pressure has been known to go UP when eating Bernstein, so this was a surprise.

OTOH, as always happens when I do more than a few weeks on a very low carb diet, I'm finding myself getting hungry after eating, even though my blood sugar is well controlled. This has been a repeatable phenomenon and is the reason I always go back to eating more carbs with insulin rather than almost no carbs without. I seem to need 1 or 2 units of insulin with my meals to do something that keeps me from getting hungry.

But for now I'm sticking with this diet--until the 6 week mark--because it does seem to be doing the trick for healing.

That's great news, Jenny. I read your website essay about hospitals and my experiences have been similar. Hospitals scare me.

I made cactus chili yesterday. I cooked pork neckbones in water in the slowcooker. When they were done, I cooled and deboned them, then added roasted green chilis, garlic, cumin, cilantro, some hot green chili salsa, and a jar of Nopales (Cactus leaves from a jar - 8g carbs for an entire 15oz jar).

I am serving it today on a bed of spiced ground beef topped with Daisy sour cream. Since I had to threaten my husband with death to keep him away from the slow cooker, this is a definite keeper for my recipe rotation.

I've never heard of Nopales. You guys are so creative. I was unable to find kelp noodles at Whole Foods yesterday, but it was mobbed with Saturday shoppers.

I had heard of them, but it took me until yesterday after living in Colorado for over 20 years to be brave enough to try them. Be sure to give them a good rinse to get the brine off.

When my parents lived kind of in a semi-undeveloped part of San Diego they had a big old cactus in their backyard. Periodically a group of mexicans would tromp through their yard area and cut parts of the catus off. I think they might have been after the "apple" but they might have gone for the leaves too.

My Mom hated cactus (the plant) so I'm sure she was probably glad for someone to come hack at the darned thing.

I also don't think I've ever tasted cactus. I should get around to it one of these days.

This sounds good. So you put a pork chile on top of the ground beef mixture. I would like to see a recipe to get a better sense of proportions. Thanks

They should! This hospital was not the one I went to which generated that essay.

When it was time for me to eat something to show I could, they gave me a choice of saltines or whole wheat toast. I asked for a saltine but the nurse lectured me that the whole wheat toast was much healthier for a person with diabetes. I explained that the carb count in the saltine was a lot lower than in the toast but she didn't look convinced.

But she did bring me the saltine and best of all, the surgeon let me go home as soon as I was stable instead of making me stay. She said the hospital is the worst place to heal, especially if you have diabetes! Love this doctor!

Jenny, I was hospitalized for 15 weeks during my 1st pregnancy because of placenta previa and pre-eclampsia. I was force fed 2600 ADA calories and put on industrial shots of 70/30, causing multiple hypos a day. It would take 15 minutes for a nurse to even respond to my ring. I gained 40 pounds!

I was hospitalized because of an accident (was hit by a drunk driver on my bicycle) and could get no response for hypos, again on being forced to take too much insulin. I left against medical advice.

I would have to be unconscious before going to another hospital. The things they do to type 1s are horrifying.

I hear stories of celiacs going to hospitals and the kitchen staff and nutritionist is totally clueless about gluten free cooking or needs of the patient.

I also hear that hospitals are some of the best places to catch MRSA - staph infections, too... since we are on a happy topic...

/smile

P.S. One nifty thing I did learn from Bernstein was to make sure they don't give me an infusion containing glucose... I wouldn't have thought of it otherwise... I hope that I am conscious at least when/if I go in.

This is just a shout out for shirataki noodles. Once you boil them, there is no sea-odor, which I don't think is that bad anyway. I make everything that usually has "asian noodles" with it. I also make mac and cheese- even rice pudding ( I cut the noodles up into tiny rice shapes).
I'll have to try the kelp noodles, too.
V