| Well, I consider myself a wino, although I don't average more than 2 drinks a day because I don't drink every day. Alcohol is doable, but because managing your blood sugar with alcohol can be very complicated, I agree with the others who suggested drying out while you get your blood sugars under control. Alcohol can be downright dangerous if you don't understand how it affects your liver function, so when you do get a good feel for managing your blood sugar (which you can't do on a mixed insulin, by the way), and you do start drinking again, do it slowly so that you don't wind up with a bunch of strange faces peering at you and asking things like "Do you know where you are?" and "Do you know what day it is?"
Chronic exposure to high blood sugar (even slightly high blood sugar) causes physical changes to occur in the cells.... John Walsh likens it to cooking turkey in his book Using Insulin. Imagine that. And imagine the effect that smoking adds, and you can see why smoking is probably the worst thing you can do of the whole smoking/drinking/eating sweets trio. I loved loved loved smoking, but quitting was the most important thing I've done in the last 10 years, and I'm so thankful I did it. Get help if you need it -quitting an addiction is not a matter of willpower. You'll be an awful lot healthier, and it really takes that invisible load of guilt off your mind. And good luck!  | 
