New Location, Fresh Start

Another day, another Doctors appt. I actually forgot about this one. Unusual for me, but I received the phone call reminder AND the snail mail reminder. I think this is due to the new office location. (Thank goodness for me they have a new location) It's closer...by maybe 20 min. for me. Which is saying a lot, because in the winter getting to Ann Arbor is grueling! The new complex is HUGE...notice the photo. (It's on the compound of Domino's Farms. Yes, yes, the pizza Domino's. Diabetes and pizza, how's that for irony?) That's what you get when you go to the University of Michigan Intensive Insulin Clinic. State of the art stuff there, and nothing done on a small scale.

No resident doc following him today!! YAY! I'm going on Tuesday's from here on out! BUT, there is a bunch of new staff...and they are obviously still learning. AND, the young lady who drew my blood was nice enough to listen to me and use that butterfly to get my blood sample. Tiny veins require child like tools:) Wait...is there a theme here? Am I child like?
I asked my Doc to not only do the draw for the usual stuff, but I wanted the Vitamin D test also. He humors me...I like that.

The rest is pretty uneventful I suppose. We sat for a bit talking his new baby boy, sleep deprivation, Omnipods, CGM's, basal rates, bolus ratios. I think it was in that order too...how funny. Before I knew it, without hesitation, I whipped out my Omnipod PDM and changed the settings we were talking about. What possessed me?? I've always been so casual about that stuff thinking I'll just do it later. Is this the fresh start to getting my A1c down? Knock me over the head with a hammer already. What the hell took so long? I still think having the CGM will/would help me with this by leaps and bounds, but I'll take this baby step in the right direction. Maybe my insurance company will come around and surprise me. HA! A girl can dream!

Fresh starts for both of us!

Eco-Friendly Diabetic Part 2

I realize most diabetics out there have a snapshot or 2 of this kind, but I'm sharing mine anyway. If I stop and think too much about this photo, I'd depress myself! Not so much for the landfills that others are filling, but because this is a snapshot of about 3 months worth of diabetes...without insulin bottles, tape, lancets, test strips......(FYI..don't put the 357 batteries all together, they get very, very hot. Duh!)
Weep not....I will now move on, and embrace my eco-friendliness!

Here We Go Again

I know I haven't written much about my training lately, but there have been too many good diabetes stories not to share! I've been trying to get back my tight control, and in that process lows happen. Shit happens, lows happen! Here comes another good story.

I was in the grocery store, collecting ingredients to make my Mom's birthday cake. (Yes, this is another grocery store anecdote) Beautiful cake by the way...one of my best to date. I picked up a bag of marshmallows, which will help with the theme of the cake. As I'm walking to the checkout with my yellow cake mix, and marshmallows it hits me like a brick in the face. The confusion, lightheadedness, and the sweating....ohhhh the sweating! I fish through the purse to find my glucose tabs, and of course the container was empty. Of course!! I buy a real soda in the checkout line and head to my car. My plan as always is to drink only half of the soda...which I did. As I sat in my car waiting for all the symptoms to pass and get the "all clear" blood sugar reading from my meter, I proceed to open the bag of marshmallows. "I'm only going to eat the 4 that is the serving size. All people with diabetes can attest to the fact that when having a low all logic goes out the window, and the involuntary urge to put your hand in the bag and keep eating is just that...involuntary. When I finally get to feeling better, I glanced down at the bag and to my shock I ate about 2/3 of the bag!! Crap...here we go again...over-correction.

I put in an emergency call to my friend Michelle. I knew what I had to do, but sometimes having a back-up to agree or disagree with your plan of attack is comforting. At this point I'm laughing...she's laughing. Then I send her the photo of the evidence. Hilarity ensues again! I checked my bg while I had her on the phone to find it only in the 200's. We decide that I had around 100 carbs, but I only bolused for 50 and rode it out. Riding bg's out is the only way to do it sometimes. I checked my bg a couple of hours later and now it was in the low 300's. Not too bad considering. I bolused again and all was good again!

So what happened with the cake?? The original theme for it proved to be too time consuming, so the marshmallows weren't needed. Of course they weren't needed!! Of course! I threw out the remnants of the bag as it made me sick to look at it, and I've chalked it up to another hilarious diabetes event.

p.s. I got in the car the next day and found a stray marshmallow and was sick with laughter all over again.

One of Those Nights

Last night was one of the more interesting nights with diabetes. Here is the long version of the story.

I was overdue for a pod change. Yes, I was pushing it, but there was a ton of insulin left and wanted to get the most of it. This meant going the 8hrs. until it completely conked out on me. I have done this before with no problems, and I knew I would get home in time to change it out. BUT, I was not counting on the low that would happen before I left work...and in typical Nancy fashion, I over-corrected. With my brain a little fussy from the low, I waited it out and then went home and figured after the change I would bolus for the brownie, glucose tabs, and the 8 oz. of real Coke that I frantically ate. (There may be more that I consumed, but I'm trying to forget about the extra calories...and my stupidity!)

By the time I arrived home, all was well, and I changed the pod and checked my bg to find I was in the low 200's. "Already????" I thought. Crap, this is gonna get nasty. I bolused quite a bit for the increase I was anticipating. Then the fatigue set in, and my eyes wouldn't stay open even with toothpicks. I laid down for a quick nap before Brent and I had to head out for dinner with friends. 20 minutes later, and very groggy, I was able to get my head together and clean up. "I'm feeling good now.", I think to myself on the ride to the restaurant.

My plan was to pre-load some insulin for the Mexican food that was to come, so when we got there I checked my bg and was shocked to see it in the high 200's. WOW, that was some over-correction...I must have needed more insulin when I got home. "Oh well", I thought..."it'll come down."

After dinner Brent and I made a couple of stops and headed home. The beeping sound of the Omnipod went off to remind me to check my bg...it's been 2 hrs since you ate, check already! Now this is where it gets interesting.....

You know when you get the blood on the strip, and the wait is longer then it takes you to say.."S**T...it's high"??? Then it beeps back at me..."S**T...you're HIGH"!! Now, I can count on one hand how many times I've actually had the HIGH reading. That's not saying I've never had highs, but the HIGH reading where you're bg is so high that it doesn't give you a number....that's where I'm at. I look at my site, and all looks fine. What the hell? That was some taco salad I had..ok and chips too. So I do a super bolus, and check an hour later only to find it screaming at me HIGH again. "Ok, that's enough of that!"

I pull out the ol' syringes and give myself a super duper rage bolus (with new vial of insulin) via traditional shot and then change out the pod. A little blood backed up in the cannula, but that's nothing too out of the ordinary. I was hoping this would do the trick. Oh, wait...I bolused the new pod too. Now I have something like 8 units of insulin in me, and the wait starts.

By 11PM, I was getting an actual number on my PDM. "Ok", I thought, "this is encouraging!" I desperately wanted to sleep, so I set my alarm to wake me up in a hour to check again. 338...nice, more encouragement! Set the alarm again...265. Is it dropping too fast? 8 units is a lot for me, but I haven't corrected a high like this in a very, very long time. For a fear of going low, I set the alarm again...193. Since this is about 3-3.5 hrs. after the super duper rage boluses, I was happy to sleep peacefully. More like a rock!

Where am I now you ask? I woke up at 198. Of course that's not where I would like it, but I guess my overnight basal is correct since it didn't change at all.:)
Obviously all the highs after the pod change were from lost basal, and no boluses. Or maybe partials of each.

Ahhhh, life without insulin!

Happy For Finger Sticks

Last week I was being that unusually domestic wife and was made Brent breakfast. (Which by the way is the only meal I can cook well....a mean omelette!) And again, as usual, I was trying to do 10,000 things at the same time...get myself ready for work, make my lunch, etc....
Let's cut to the chase...I set a cookie sheet on top of the fry pan to melt the cheese on top of the beautiful omelette that was sizzling underneath. In my haste, I picked up the sheet only to realize that it was scorching hot. Well, OF COURSE it is dummy, it's been sitting on top of there for like 5 min. I threw it immediately on the ground, screamed a few choice expletives, and stuck my fingers under cold water. After those sounds coming from the kitchen, Brent came in wondering what the hell I had done. "You OK?"..."Yes, I'm fine. I'm just an idiot that's all!"

After icing my 4 fingers for 30 min....while trying to get ready for work....I looked closely at them to see nothing in the form of blisters. That kinda surprised me, but I was happy because I have to use my hands for cutting all those domes. I figured I was just lucky, and then looked down again to see nothing...except all those little black dots representing the millions of finger sticks I've done. That's when the light bulb went off!! Callouses I say! Callouses! I just burned a bunch of dead skin.
Happy for those finger sticks! I'm sticking to something I'm good at...out of the kitchen and on to my bike.:)