{"id":17079,"date":"2011-06-16T08:58:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T12:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=17079"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:47:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:47:25","slug":"a-vampires-dessert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=17079","title":{"rendered":"A Vampire’s Dessert"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent daydream I attended a conference on canine diabetes at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.\u00a0 While there I was able to interview veterinary students and ask questions like: Can I use my glucometer to check my dog’s blood sugar?\u00a0 If so, how?\u00a0 Does the fur get in the way?\u00a0 And what about the pads of her feet? Unlike fingertips, they are too hard to prick.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My daydream didn’t come out of nowhere.\u00a0 It has its roots in my dog Pink and her paws.\u00a0 The other day Pink stepped in chewing gum.\u00a0 I didn’t notice this until she had tracked it all over the apartment. I used boiling water to get the gum off the floor.\u00a0 Then I put on a glove, sat down with Pink, and began to pick the gum from between her toes and off pad of her foot.\u00a0 Miraculously, I didn’t vomit while doing it- instead I distracted myself and wondered about checking a dog’s blood sugar levels.\u00a0 How do you do it? Is it only done at the vet’s office?\u00a0 Is there a special canine glucometer?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I haven’t searched for answers yet, as there are other pressing blood-related questions on my mind.\u00a0 Mike and I just watched the first few episodes of True Blood season 3, and I find I’m asking the same questions I asked while watching the first two seasons: Does a diabetic’s blood taste different to a vampire?\u00a0 Could vampires be used to diagnose diabetes based on the sweetness of the blood?\u00a0 Could they also calculate HbA1c?\u00a0 Would sweet blood<\/a> be considered a vampire’s dessert?\u00a0 If so, should I worry about vampires coming to kidnap me every time my blood sugar creeps up to 200?\u00a0 (My doctor has never mentioned this as one of the risks associated with diabetes.)<\/p>\n

This last question leads to me yet another one.\u00a0 Let’s pretend for a minute that vampires aren’t real and the only things we have to worry about sucking our blood this summer are mosquitoes.\u00a0 Do mosquitoes prefer diabetics’ blood?\u00a0 Anecdotally, I can say they do.\u00a0 Before Mike was diagnosed with diabetes he never got mosquito bites.\u00a0 There were summer mornings when I’d wake up scratching and cursing and he’d be bite-free.\u00a0 In 2002 that changed.\u00a0 The mosquitoes began to prefer him.\u00a0 Was it because they sensed fresh blood when he checked his blood sugar?\u00a0 Or did they sense the sweetness?\u00a0 For a number of years, as long as I slept beside Mike, I never got a nighttime mosquito bite.\u00a0 It’s not like that anymore.\u00a0 Just a few days ago I woke up with three bites on my left hand.\u00a0 If I were a better scientist (or a scientist at all) and a better diabetic, I would have checked my fasting blood sugar to see how high (or sweet) I was.\u00a0 Instead I scratched and cursed a little bit.\u00a0 I was itchy and possibly my blood sugar level was damaging my eyes or my kidneys.\u00a0 Those things didn’t bother me, though.\u00a0 I was too busy feeling relieved I hadn’t been nabbed by a vampire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs A Diabetic's Blood A Vampire's Dessert?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While watching True Blood, I ask: Could vampires be used to diagnose diabetes? Could they also calculate HbA1c? 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