It has been a while since my last post and it is time to catch up on details. My husband got sick so I was busy tending to him and often forgetting to watch my numbers and not jogging, not good. Needless to say I ended up sick too. We kept the toddler healthy for the most part, thank God.
While I was sick I almost felt cured from diabetes. It was the oddest thing. My basals kept me in line for the first day, but then not being able to eat or drink much brought on some major lows. My wonderful husband finally convinced me to drink some regular Gatorade (A BIG THANK YOU to him for that) and I was able to avoid having to visit the local ER. For days (like 5 days) after I started to feel better my readings were still very low. No matter what I ate (no boluses) I was in the 60s or 70s and if I was late eating I was in the 30s or 40s.
Drastically one afternoon my body returned to normal with no warnings and I had the enevitable high.
What is the reason behind this? Why do our bodies act so strangely. It was nice to have a chance to eat anything I want, but why and how does this happen? Does this happen to anyone else?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Jogging?
There is one major fear I have not taken care of yet, related to diabetes, and it is time to deal with it. My remaining fear is really excercising, like running daily. Some may say that is crazy, but I miss the feeling of being free to run down a hill, through a field and back up next to some train tracks. I want to feel on top of the world again and like there are no strings holding me back. The only way I know to do that is to find a way to run.
I looked around for some guidance, but couldn't seem to find what I was looking for so I turned to my favorite source for real life diabetes truth, Kerri at SixUntilMe. She has the best diabetes blog and since we are close in age and stage of life I feel like she can really offer some good advice. Within minutes of emailing her with my question she responded that she had a friend who should be able to help and that friend emailed me that same afternoon with lots of information. I can't thank Kerri and Alexis enough for really being there when I need them, and they don't even know me other than emails I have sent to Kerri before.
Anyway, Alexis recommended the Gu Energy Gels so I found some at Academy Sports along with some non-cotton socks and a few other things and told myself that tonight I would take the first steps. We normally walk as a family, but tonight I took one of the dogs and we walked with the family for some and jogged ahead a few times. It was only 30 minutes, but we covered almost 3 miles and it felt really good. The best part was, thanks to Alexis' recommendations I felt comfortable experimenting with my insulin and food. I ate one of the gels before we started and disconnected my pump. When we got back to the car I was only 5 points below where I started. Who knows what will happen tonight or tomorrow, but for now I am happy. Let's see where this goes.
I looked around for some guidance, but couldn't seem to find what I was looking for so I turned to my favorite source for real life diabetes truth, Kerri at SixUntilMe. She has the best diabetes blog and since we are close in age and stage of life I feel like she can really offer some good advice. Within minutes of emailing her with my question she responded that she had a friend who should be able to help and that friend emailed me that same afternoon with lots of information. I can't thank Kerri and Alexis enough for really being there when I need them, and they don't even know me other than emails I have sent to Kerri before.
Anyway, Alexis recommended the Gu Energy Gels so I found some at Academy Sports along with some non-cotton socks and a few other things and told myself that tonight I would take the first steps. We normally walk as a family, but tonight I took one of the dogs and we walked with the family for some and jogged ahead a few times. It was only 30 minutes, but we covered almost 3 miles and it felt really good. The best part was, thanks to Alexis' recommendations I felt comfortable experimenting with my insulin and food. I ate one of the gels before we started and disconnected my pump. When we got back to the car I was only 5 points below where I started. Who knows what will happen tonight or tomorrow, but for now I am happy. Let's see where this goes.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Has anyone solved this part yet?
I know I can't be alone in this part of the mystery, but no one has been able to offer a real solution for this. Can anyone help me please?
The day begins with a normal blood sugar reading, in range, no oddities like sleeping past 6:30 am or anything that I can identify. I have a normal breakfast and normal activity. Sometime during the morning, or even sometimes the afternoon I go low, like into the 40s. I correct, but with minimal results. I may go up to the 50s or low 60s, but no higher than that. Further correction and I get into the 80s. An hour or so passes and I am low again. Again, I correct with similar results. Meal time hits and I eat a regular meal with a normal bolus, but corrected for whatever reading I have at the time (usually in the 70s). Within an hour or so I am low again. This pattern continues for anywhere from 12 to 30 hours and then I am hit with a reading in the 200s.
How does anyone plan for this? What causes this? Is there anyway to guess when the lows will end and that high will hit?
The day begins with a normal blood sugar reading, in range, no oddities like sleeping past 6:30 am or anything that I can identify. I have a normal breakfast and normal activity. Sometime during the morning, or even sometimes the afternoon I go low, like into the 40s. I correct, but with minimal results. I may go up to the 50s or low 60s, but no higher than that. Further correction and I get into the 80s. An hour or so passes and I am low again. Again, I correct with similar results. Meal time hits and I eat a regular meal with a normal bolus, but corrected for whatever reading I have at the time (usually in the 70s). Within an hour or so I am low again. This pattern continues for anywhere from 12 to 30 hours and then I am hit with a reading in the 200s.
How does anyone plan for this? What causes this? Is there anyway to guess when the lows will end and that high will hit?
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Dexcom?
I am investigating a new tool. I say new, meaning new to me, not new to the diabetes world. I have been holding off on this due to fear that it will be the same pain as the Minimed CGM, but I found out that is not something to worry about with this one.
For those of you not familiar with Dexcom, it is a glucose monitoring system that I can wear for 7 days at a time. The pros - 1 insertion gives a full week worth of information, it doesn't hurt as much and it is supposedly more accurate. Cons - not integrated with my current pump and not currently integrated with a pump available in the USA. They are anticipating approval of its integration with the Animas sometime soon, but we all know that can be anytime from now until never.
I attempted a trial of the Dexcom a few weeks ago and the insertion was painless. I felt it, but it was more like a tickle than a pain and there was no loud spring noise from the insertion gun. That spring noise gives me nightmares, another reason I use infusion sets that don't need one of those torture devices. The trial started off great, but the sensor failed by the next evening. I don't know if I did something or if it was just the sensor, but since it was a trial I have to wait for the rep to get another sensor that is available for trial use.
For now we wait. We wait on the new trial sensor and we wait on insurance to decide if I can get a new one (my current one goes out of warranty in 8 days).
Thoughts anyone?
For those of you not familiar with Dexcom, it is a glucose monitoring system that I can wear for 7 days at a time. The pros - 1 insertion gives a full week worth of information, it doesn't hurt as much and it is supposedly more accurate. Cons - not integrated with my current pump and not currently integrated with a pump available in the USA. They are anticipating approval of its integration with the Animas sometime soon, but we all know that can be anytime from now until never.
I attempted a trial of the Dexcom a few weeks ago and the insertion was painless. I felt it, but it was more like a tickle than a pain and there was no loud spring noise from the insertion gun. That spring noise gives me nightmares, another reason I use infusion sets that don't need one of those torture devices. The trial started off great, but the sensor failed by the next evening. I don't know if I did something or if it was just the sensor, but since it was a trial I have to wait for the rep to get another sensor that is available for trial use.
For now we wait. We wait on the new trial sensor and we wait on insurance to decide if I can get a new one (my current one goes out of warranty in 8 days).
Thoughts anyone?
The Background
Greetings!
Welcome to my blog. I am K. I have been living in this mystery of diabetes and trying to discover what to do with it since the end of 1995. I was in high school, in 10th grade to be exact when this all started.
Like many high school kids I was more interested in spending time with friends, staying up late and just having fun. That on top of school and running left little time for intelligence gathering on this thing that had just sprung up from the depths.
Years passed and somehow my family and I became a bit more understanding of what was needed, or so we thought. We really didn't know what tools were out there and weren't really looking. Then one day we found a tool that would become my best friend, the Insulin Pump. This tool felt like the smartest device ever. It helped me reduce my insulin from 150 units per day down to 30 or 40, depending on the timing. We thought this tool will help us solve the mystery of diabetes and wacky blood sugar readings for good. Wow, were we wrong. It makes a world of difference, but definitely not the end of the story.
I started with a Minimed 508 and wore that until it broke on my birthday. Of all days, my birthday. Minimed was not as good back then as they are now and the hassle resulted in me switching to Deltec. The pump was good, mainly because of the infusion sets that were much more comfortable and at the time their customer service was much better than Minimed's. Then I moved to a new city with new doctors and they wanted me on Minimed again so they could get more information. As soon as it was approved I was back on Minimed, on a Paradigm 722 this time. Their customer service was vastly improved and I have not had any issues with them there.
That is when we found another clue - the CGM or continuous glucose monitor. The doctor said, this will give us a good picture of what happens with your readings all day long, no matter what you are doing. Wow! Could this be the solution to all the ups and downs and get me to not have to worry? Like any good detective we started the research. The initial findings looked good, so we decided to test the theory. It hurt like crazy, but maybe pain was part of the price you have to pay to get the answers.
We started getting some information, but not enough insight for me to continue down this path. Time to look for other options.
Just then a new twist to the story. I found out I was pregnant! While we were delighted it also brought fear. How do we keep this new little life safe when we don't have the case solved? Thankfully all my searching for answers had kept my readings in fairly good control and my A1cs were in a very healthy range for pregnancy. Now we just have to deal with the pregnancy day by day.
Thanks to God, my wonderful family and amazing doctors the pregnan
cy was very smooth. Little k shall we call her arrived essentially on time (the doctors wanted me to deliver around 38 weeks), she was 7lbs 7oz, 21 inches long and scored very well on her assessments. We thought all would go back to how it worked before the pregnancy, not so.
Enter the twist of hormone changes (different than before), breast feeding and adjusting to taking care of someone else. This someone else depends on you for everything and doesn't understand mommy doesn't feel good or highs or lows. After adjusting mentally and emotionally to these wonderful changes it was time to see if we could get some more clues in the diabetes regulation mystery. Re-enter the CGM. Again, pain, but less than last time. The readings were more closely aligned, but the variance on top of the pain still wasn't making this path a good one. Exit the CGM.
This brings us basically to our current situation. No CGM, but it is still in warranty for a few more days and wearing the Paradigm 722.
Welcome to my blog. I am K. I have been living in this mystery of diabetes and trying to discover what to do with it since the end of 1995. I was in high school, in 10th grade to be exact when this all started.
Like many high school kids I was more interested in spending time with friends, staying up late and just having fun. That on top of school and running left little time for intelligence gathering on this thing that had just sprung up from the depths.
Years passed and somehow my family and I became a bit more understanding of what was needed, or so we thought. We really didn't know what tools were out there and weren't really looking. Then one day we found a tool that would become my best friend, the Insulin Pump. This tool felt like the smartest device ever. It helped me reduce my insulin from 150 units per day down to 30 or 40, depending on the timing. We thought this tool will help us solve the mystery of diabetes and wacky blood sugar readings for good. Wow, were we wrong. It makes a world of difference, but definitely not the end of the story.
I started with a Minimed 508 and wore that until it broke on my birthday. Of all days, my birthday. Minimed was not as good back then as they are now and the hassle resulted in me switching to Deltec. The pump was good, mainly because of the infusion sets that were much more comfortable and at the time their customer service was much better than Minimed's. Then I moved to a new city with new doctors and they wanted me on Minimed again so they could get more information. As soon as it was approved I was back on Minimed, on a Paradigm 722 this time. Their customer service was vastly improved and I have not had any issues with them there.
That is when we found another clue - the CGM or continuous glucose monitor. The doctor said, this will give us a good picture of what happens with your readings all day long, no matter what you are doing. Wow! Could this be the solution to all the ups and downs and get me to not have to worry? Like any good detective we started the research. The initial findings looked good, so we decided to test the theory. It hurt like crazy, but maybe pain was part of the price you have to pay to get the answers.
We started getting some information, but not enough insight for me to continue down this path. Time to look for other options.
Just then a new twist to the story. I found out I was pregnant! While we were delighted it also brought fear. How do we keep this new little life safe when we don't have the case solved? Thankfully all my searching for answers had kept my readings in fairly good control and my A1cs were in a very healthy range for pregnancy. Now we just have to deal with the pregnancy day by day.
Thanks to God, my wonderful family and amazing doctors the pregnan
cy was very smooth. Little k shall we call her arrived essentially on time (the doctors wanted me to deliver around 38 weeks), she was 7lbs 7oz, 21 inches long and scored very well on her assessments. We thought all would go back to how it worked before the pregnancy, not so.
Enter the twist of hormone changes (different than before), breast feeding and adjusting to taking care of someone else. This someone else depends on you for everything and doesn't understand mommy doesn't feel good or highs or lows. After adjusting mentally and emotionally to these wonderful changes it was time to see if we could get some more clues in the diabetes regulation mystery. Re-enter the CGM. Again, pain, but less than last time. The readings were more closely aligned, but the variance on top of the pain still wasn't making this path a good one. Exit the CGM.
This brings us basically to our current situation. No CGM, but it is still in warranty for a few more days and wearing the Paradigm 722.
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