Sundresses and Swimsuits

With apologies to Karen, I am only partially writing about today’s topic. The prompt had us thinking about our fantasy diabetes device.

When your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme. ~ Jiminy Cricket

While I don’t think any of my devices are a fantasy (that would be a cure, right?), I think that each of my devices has seen improvements in my nine short years with diabetes.

It seems cynical and maybe even a little critical of the industry, but I think as the population ages and the percentage of people with diabetes continues to increase, diabetes related products will continue to improve in form and function to stay competitive in the market.

Instead of focusing on a fantasy device of the future, I wanted to share an update about an “almost fantasy” I am living in right now.

Way back in late February my warranty expired on my pump. The benefits year for my health insurance is April 1 – March 31 so I had obviously met my deductible for the year. It was the perfect time to make a switch and begin pumping with the Animas Ping.

Except that “timing” was everything. An unfortunate situation with pump settings and the leap year took my desired pump off the market two weeks right before the end of my benefits year. Knowing that it would be several hundred more dollars to purchase a pump in the next benefits year, I was really worried about what to do.

One of the fantasies of great diabetes technology is a company that really cares about its customers. My pump representative called or texted (TEXTED!) me almost daily with any updates he had on the situation, and assured me he was still working on it.

After several days with no end in sight and a rapidly approaching benefits deadline, I received a glorious phone call. They found a solution. The Ping was still not available for sale BUT they could sell me the Animas 2020. Then, when the Ping was available again, I upgraded to the new device.

It seems like such an easy solution – but with insurance companies involved rest assured that nothing is ever THAT easy. There were a lot of people involved with making this happen and I am very thankful to each of them.

Is wearing a pump actually a fantasy for me? No, not really.

But wearing a pump that fits into the life I want to live is as close to a fantasy as I am going to get for a while.

If you looked in my closet a month ago, I would have asked you why you were in my closet but you also would have noticed that there were not many dresses – mostly just skirts and tops.

Now that I can bolus from a remote I’ve found myself spending more time in the dress section of the store. Just this past weekend, I went to my first wedding post-Ping. Usually weddings mean separate pump retrievals for appetizers, the main course, and (most importantly) the cake. I could never store my pump “up top” like some girls, so I always had to excuse myself to bolus. It is a ridiculous “fantasy” to be able to enjoy a wedding without multiple unnecessary trips to the bathroom.

I was looking back at pictures I took at Friends for Life last year and I noticed something interesting about a photo I captured in the exhibit hall. For the caption of this photo I wrote one simple thing when I uploaded it.

I want a waterproof pump (written in July 2011)

I went swimming a few weeks ago and it was such an odd experience to get in the water with everything still attached. If it was weird for me, I can’t imagine how it looked to all the people around me who saw a girl getting into the water with tubes, adhesive patches, and plastic pieces attached to every limb.

Sundresses and swimsuits. That is my fantasy.

Now if I could take my fantasy to the next level, I would ditch my Dexcom receiver and get all my information on one device*.

*without moving to a different country of course

**This post was not sponsored by anyone or anything but my dreams.

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. ~ Goethe

The labels don’t balance

Eat carbohydrates. Take insulin.

I do a pretty good job of maintaining that balance. But that is not what today is about. Today writing prompt is about sharing an area that could use a little improvement.

I am tempted by the fact that the easiest way to know how much insulin to take is when the amount of carbohydrates and the serving size are printed right on the package. As a result, I do not take the effort to eat enough fruits and vegetables and my pant size is clearly showing the result. It’s not about clothing sizes, it’s about not being happy with the way I look.

At diagnosis, I was given a specific meal plan to balance with my awful insulin regime of NPH and Humalog. I ate the exact same thing every day so I remember it now eight years later.

Breakfast: two scrambled eggs with cheese on top, light bread with peanut butter, half a banana

Lunch: peanut butter and no-sugar added jelly sandwich, the other half of the banana, a handful of chips, and two no-sugar added cookies.

Dinner: baked chicken breast, baked potato, zucchini

It was boring (especially after a few months of the same meals) but it was balanced.

Once I started on my first insulin pump I began to gain what I like to think of as “pump weight” – it’s like baby weight but with no adorable child at the end. A few years ago, members of the diabetes online community organized a weight loss/A1c reduction challenge. Having that accountability and support was the perfect thing for my competitive side, and I was able to get back to a place I felt more comfortable.

Slowly but surely I have put that weight on plus a few more pounds.

For example, just this past weekend I was out of town for a wedding. Instead of doing six hours of driving in one day, I stayed over night in a hotel. I suppose I could have brought some food from home, stopped at a grocery store to pick up some fresh food, or eaten in the hotel restaurant, but the convenience store stop was just so much more convenient.

I need to get back to eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed food so I can feel healthier and enjoy the beautiful south Florida summer that has already begun.

Can you tell with my memes the past two days that I really miss Hyperbole and a Half?

Eat ALL the things!

I am scared to even write about this because of what happened last time I talked about this.

One thing that I am good at is…

Fingers crossed…

… should I say it?

I do a good job of not over-treating low blood sugars.

I like things in life that have definite answers. 1+1 should always equal 2.

I love reading the book Pumping Insulin because there are charts, graphs, and tables that I can use to manage the math of pumping.

Even when I am low, and my words don’t make much sense, my brain still can manage enough math to know how much fast acting sugar I need to get back into range without over-treating. I bet I would be some sort of math genius if my blood glucose was always in range!

At home, I almost always have juice boxes in the fridge. I guess they are made for kids, but they are also the perfect size for treating a low blood sugar without draining a whole large bottle of juice. When I am away from home, I always have at least one tub of glucose tablets on me.

This was the topic of conversation at my first meet-up back in June 2007. I never should have mentioned it because this was the e-mail I was forced to send to Scott Johnson and the rest of the group the next day.

Remember how I said that I didn’t usually over-treat my lows? I had one yesterday afternoon (43), and proceeded to have: one glucose tablet (the last in the container), a snack-size bag of peanut butter ritz sandwiches, a DingDong, and the bag of chips I saved from Panera. 30 minutes later I was at 85, but 2-3 hours later I was at 386 – oops!!

And in classic Scott style, this was the reply -

Did you simply panic because you couldn’t get your second glucose tablet? Or did you say “man, all that stuff that Scott eats when he’s low sounds really good…” and throw A1C control to the wind?

So I will publish this post, but if you read about me eating a tray of brownies tomorrow all by myself, you’ll know why.

Not Strangers – Friends I Haven’t Met Yet

I have been blogging for almost six years, and it is still a little strange to me that I have a community of friends who live not only all over the United States but all over the world.

It has been my great privilege to be able to meet many of the people of the diabetes online community in person. Any of the blog listed in the sidebar to the right that has a star next to it means that I have met the blogger in person. I don’t get the opportunity to travel too much for my job, but when I do, I am sure to see if I “know” anywhere near by.

Since I know most people who visit this page also visit Kim, Kerri, Jess, George, Scott, and Meri (for example), I thought I would share instead about some people who write about diabetes who I’ve met in person who you might not visit regularly. In no particular order -

Brian – read this blog if you don’t need appropriate capitalization, paragraphs, or links to references stories he mentions in his blog. You will be confused, you might laugh.
Molly and Dixie – Molly was part of my first ever diabetes meet-up. Dixie is her diabetes alert dog and they are an awesome pair. She needs to write more!
Jeff – Jeff wears the best diabetes themed t-shirts and posts some amazing photography on his blog. I think he also thinks he is some sort of triathlete.
Katie – I met Katie at George’s JDRF walk celebrating living 25 years with diabetes. Katie had lived less than a year with diabetes at that point and I cannot even imagine finding the knowledge and support of the diabetes online community so early in my life with diabetes. She is a rock star, and even Sam Talbot thinks so.
Betizuka – Bea may have a Cranky Pancreas but she has a sweet heart. In a bathroom conversation (yes, women really do that!) at a summit we both attended we had a great talk about people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes learning as much as we can about the other type so we can successfully advocate for each other – a lesson that has really stuck with me!

(The next time I see Bea, I need to correct the fact that we don’t have a picture together!)

Finding blogs and blog posts that other people in the diabetes community might not be reading but probably should is the whole reason behind the Best of the ‘Betes Blogs. I read a lot of blogs outside of the diabetes community as well and happened upon another community that was doing something similar.

Any time you see a great blog post – this week especially – that fits into one of the following categories:

Best Use of Humor
Best Vlog
Best Recipe
Best Use of Photography
Best Advocacy
Best Reference to a D-Celebrity
Best Story of a D Meet-up
Best non-D Related Post
Best Post by a Type 1
Best Post by a Type 2
Best Post by a Type Awesome
Best Post by a LADA/ Type 1.5/ Not otherwise specified
Best story of a D-mistake
Best Motivational Post
Best Diabetes Art

please send a link by e-mail or direct message to Best of the ‘Betes Blogs so we can continue to celebrate the best.

Send links to your favorite posts one at a time, send them as a group. Just be sure to send them!

Help us all extend the diabetes community wider so we can continue to support and encourage every member of our community.

Discuss diabetes and my mom

My mom was not the parent of a child with diabetes, but she is the parent of an adult with diabetes. I still remember being away at college and in the emergency room at 1 AM when I was diagnosed and trying to decide if I should call her and wake her up to let her know what was going on or if I should wait until morning (don’t worry, I called).

Today I have the honor of sharing stories about my mom and how diabetes became part of our family life on Sanofi’s Discuss Diabetes blog. It was fun to think through all of our family stories and recent adventures to narrow it down to the two stories featured in the article.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

After you read about my mom, be sure to check out posts from Kerri, Wendy, Jacquie, and Joanne too. So many amazing moms in the diabetes online community!

FastClix lancing device: Is faster better?

While YDMV, if you want to find out the best version of any type of diabetes product just ask a group of people with diabetes. Just living our daily lives with diabetes gives us ample opportunity to crowdsource the “benefits and challenges” of any device.

I found out about the MuliClix lancing device several years ago through the diabetes online community and have been trying to make fellow converts ever since. At conferences, walks, and expos I bring friends and strangers over to the Accu-chek displays to get samples. I am the go-to contributor for posts on other websites about MultiClix fans. I even write love poems and design “Keep Calm” posters to display my love of the lancing device.

You could say then that I was intrigued but skeptical when I heard at the Roche Summit last year that a new lancing device was coming to market that had the potential to overtake the Multiclix in popularity. I waited on the edge of my lancet drum for the new device to finally become available in the US. Monday was a beautiful mail day for me when a sample of the FastClix finally arrived in my mailbox (the other stuff in the picture came from Brian).

The Fastclix is roughly the same size and shape at the MulitClix. Both devices have a slight raised edge around the lancet hole to provide extra accuracy to “the poke”. The raised edge on the FastClix is less than the Multiclix and I think this is a mistake. I could clearly feel where I was poking on the MultiClix and with the FastClix I can’t really feel the edges.

The lancet drums for the two devices are basically the same. The FastClix drums are a little smaller but they both work in their respective devices in the same way. Each drum holds six lancets. The user never sees the lancets and the drum expands when removed from the device so there is no chance of accidental poking. No one handles my lancing device except me, but I can see where this would be an advantage for a caretaker or school situation.

I read a review of the device on Stacey’s blog a few weeks ago, but still didn’t understand how the device worked without priming the trigger. I figured if I didn’t understand, that maybe there are other people who didn’t understand either so I made a little video. It’s hard to make a video that requires both of your hands when you live alone, so don’t mock my technique too much. Also, I’m not sure why but I used the term “test” in reference to checking my blood sugar. Ignore that. You don’t test your blood sugar – you check it. You can’t fail, so it isn’t a test.

Disclosure: I was sent the FastClix lancing device and several replacement lancet drums for my personal review by Accu-Chek FastClix product launch team. I was not asked to write a post and all opinions expressed in this post (and potential future love poem inspired posts) are entirely my own.

Did we cover all your questions?

Today was my quarterly appointment with my endocrinologist, and as has become usual for me, I was armed with my list. I used to carry a small journal to my medical appointments (I have the worst memory EVER!) but now I just use the Notes app on my phone.

According to current insurance practices, I only get about 30 minutes with her so I have to have my bullet points ready to make sure every minute counts.

I requested that my vitamin D levels be drawn during my lab appointment because I had read that people with diabetes are deficient. My levels fell in the insufficient range so I have added a daily vitamin to my routine.
We discussed the difficulty I have with the current office contact procedures. I am not a difficult patient, so when I call it is about something urgent and I need a timely reply. She gave me a direct extension for the phone right outside her actual office, so that should help.
We discussed my possible usage of the mySentry but didn’t come to any decisions yet about how it would fit into my current care.
Even though I already knew the answer from speaking with the local rep, I asked if they had any Verio meters in the office. She got me one and a few extra strips while I was for my prescription to be filled (more on that at the bottom of the post).
The endo was concerned about the fact that the Verio is not linked to the Animas Ping pump for remote bolusing. We discussed two solutions – one hers and one mine. She wants to make sure I still enter the BG values in my pump so she doesn’t lose that data. I’ll do that as much as I can. The other solution is in my slight back supply of regular OneTouch strips. I figure I will test with those when I anticipate needing to use the remote bolus. I suggested the idea of switching test strip brand prescription type at every three month appointment and she said I could have whatever I wanted. Tested with it for the first time before bed Tuesday night so still early to say.
I only had one strip left for my NovaMax Plus blood ketone meter so I needed a new prescription for that. She gave me a box (which by itself will probably last until the next appointment) and wrote the prescription.
The sample of Levemir she gave me (for pump failures) expired last month, so she gave me a new sample. She asked if I wanted a vial or pens and since I’ve never actually used pens, we chose the vial.
I brought some Dexcom reports (the most frustrating process possible for a Mac girl like me) for her to review and had uploaded my pump data to Diasend. My A1c was drawn TWICE in the past month so she had plenty of numbers to evaluate. We discussed my ever present dawn phenomenon and early morning insulin resistance and some possible basal changes. Both she and I are happy with my current management reflected in my reports and my lab values and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
And most importantly, she really liked my headband so I told her about Charming Charlie and how it is the best place ever to get accessories (the whole store is organized BY COLOR!!).

The endocrinologist was starting to get up to leave the room but started to sit back down as she said “did we cover all your questions?” I laughed, double checked the list on my phone, and told her that we were done. We were both laughing as she headed to the supply closet for my products.

The appointment went so well that I almost WASN’T surprised when I got to the pharmacy and found out that they didn’t have any prescriptions for me. Nothing was ready and nothing was even called in. I’m a little confused because I watched them enter it into the system and they even confirmed the pharmacy I wanted. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be life with diabetes if there wasn’t some sort of medical issues to sort out.

Reunited

The past week or so I’ve been working on a big project. I originally started writing on the Blogger platform. I moved to WordPress when I decided to take my name and city (oops!) out of my URL. I wrote exclusively on WordPress for a while and then began to post on Diabetes Daily in 2009.

First I wrote mostly here still and a little there. Then mostly there. Then all there. Then a little more here. Then mostly here and only a little there. Then all here.

If that confused you, it confused me too!

This weekend, I imported all my old Diabetes Daily posts, sorted through 260 posts, and put them into categories. Some of my pictures didn’t load correctly and I am still working on fixing those. It made me realize how often I use pictures to tell my stories – I guess a good problem to have.

It was perfect timing because Cherise texted me last night to ask me where the pictures and videos were from our past meet-ups. Well, they are all now in the meet-ups category now! And the video she was looking for? It’s this one (from July 2009).

The other category I’m looking at right now? The doctors’ appointments. I’m headed for my quarterly endo appointment and I need to remember all the questions I’m supposed to ask.

The product review category is about to get a new post! I got a Fastclix in the mail!! I feel like I am cheating on my MultiClix boyfriend but I am excited to try it out!

Disclosure: I was sent the FastClix by Accu-Chek FastClix product launch team. I mean, when you write poetry about your previous lancing device…

But seriously, I was provided the lancing device and several replacement lancet drums for my personal review. I was not asked to write a post and all opinions expressed in this post (and future love poem inspired posts) are entirely my own.

Waiting for… how to save a life

This weekend was the music festival that signals the beginning of summer around here. It is four days of an eclectic group of bands – everyone from Pitbull to Foreigner to Creed to Wiz Khalifa. Sunday included two bands I actually wanted to hear so I headed to the waterfront to enjoy the music and sunshine.

NEEDTOBREATHE

I’ll admit now the ice cream may have been a mistake. I didn’t bolus before I got the cone and then by the time that I did, the ice cream was melting ALL OVER my arm and dripping onto the street. I would have bailed on the whole thing if I hadn’t taken that time to bolus. I ended up having to buy a bottle of water just to clean myself up.

Fun fact: As a child, my parents would dress me up in my older brother’s clothes any time we went out for ice cream because I ended up wearing chocolate every time and my mom was tired of trying to get the stains out.

The Fray

Fireworks Finale

Between heading to The Bloggess’ book signing on Friday and the music festival Sunday, I didn’t get much done around my apartment – but I sure had fun!

Meeting The Bloggess – kittens not included

Waaayyy back in August 2011, I saw a link on Twitter to a blogger who had written a poem about getting diabetes from eating sugar (in response to an ill-advised pitch from a sugar company). Not quite the expected introduction to a blogger who is now on my must-read list. I’m comment #132 by the way.

Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, recently published her book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir), and I was lucky enough to find out that she was doing a book signing in my area.

If you have a weird family, a chronic illness, or friends you met online, you need to buy this book. If you’re someone like me and fit into all three of those categories, you’ve probably already finished reading your copy.

The chapter she read at the signing was about psychopaths outside her bathroom, diarrhea, and troublesome cats (pg 201) but her story about the friends she has made through blogging (pg 169) made me want to call every diabetic I’ve met in person (the names with * on the right hand side of my blog – btw) to make them read the chapter too – it’s sooo us!

During the Q&A time, someone asked about how Jenny felt about being so open with her personal life, specifically her mental health battles. I think deciding how much to disclose is something that every blogger struggles with. As she described her experiences in writing about her life, I couldn’t help but think of the diabetes community and specifically the You Can Do This Project.

There is such power in knowing that you are not alone. Listen to how powerful community can be when you are struggling.

The actual book signing line was quite the experience. There were metal chickens big and small, personalized t-shirts, petrified and/or taxidermied (not a word) mammals and reptiles of various shapes and sizes, and other things I’m still not sure about.

For example, at first you see The Bloggess and me. But then you notice Copernicus, a gift from a reader that I believe is a brain in some fluid, a diet soda #likeyoudo, my pump poking out from the back of my pants, and a tiny kitten.

Yup. A kitten. Someone brought a kitten with them to the event and then left it on the book signing table while they did some shopping. Seriously.

Also, in case you missed the tweet, The Bloggess was kind enough to send a message to some too-far-away friends.

And in honor of how I was introduced to The Bloggess, I had her sign my copy of her book right next to her disclosure (last paragraph on the left).

Perfection.

Moments of Wonderful

…rather than a lifetime of nothing special. A blog about diabetes and other moments.