Category: Diabetic Issues

Here is her diagnosis post. She’s a Type 1 — diagnosed as a child and is currently facing a probably complication.

Six Until Me: My Diagnosis (The Remix)

I’ve managed to keep my TDD under 70 for the past 4 days. Starting to feel a lot better. Blood sugar is still under 200 all day, which is good. Fasting blood sugar was high this morning.

I think I’m going to focus on not eating in the evening unless my blood sugar is less than 120 before I go to bed. I’m still a bit worried about going low in the night.

I do think Canada has the right to decide who can emigrate (as I think we do too).

The Globe and Mail: Diabetic prevented from moving to Canada

But Canadian immigration officials rejected the application, on the grounds that his mother, Gizella Szebenyi, has Type 2 diabetes. Mrs. Szebenyi, who was 61 when the application process began, was able to compensate through her diet for the fact that her body does not produce enough insulin. Now 73, she still does not use insulin or any other medication, and has never sought medical treatment.

I do think it is odd that they would accept someone HIV positive before diabetes.

Kevin, M.D. – Medical Weblog

With the care I am getting, I’m quite sure it is expensive.

On further thought — the first endo I was going to go to when it was available was not taking new patients. The current endo had a three month wait for new patients and was not taking new patients as of a few months. They did add another doctor to the practice which should help, but I would not be surprised if she brought her own patients.

to the teeth

For one, my physician took the opposite approach BUT if you recall from my diagnosis story, I had the lipid problems first, with only a slight indication of having blood sugar problems — my fasting blood sugar was around 120.

Second, I still haven’t been able to make drastic enough lifestyle changes to affect my current blood sugar levels. I have gone to less than 50 carbs a day, but still need quite a bit on insulin to function. Certainly nothing I’ve done long term has eliminated the need.

But it DOES work for some people.

Diabetes-Dot-Blog-Dot-Com :: Doctors for Diabetes

I’ve had both kinds of doctors, and am seeing an endo now, so I have lived this. I can probably tell you more than most.

I’ve also had both HMO and PPO insurance. If you can afford PPO, go for it!

I’ve had primary care physicians keep treating me when they should have referred me. One that even denied I had a problem warranting a specialist, when I clearly did. That almost killed me — I really needed a sleep doctor, was on HMO, and while the allergist kept insisting on it, the primary care wouldn’t go for it.

I have had a primary care physician with an HMO that referred me to a specialist the minute I needed it, which was very good!

The primary care physician I have now is sort of in the middle. I know there are things he’d rather deal with, but acknowledges that seeing an endo with a good CDE who both have good pump knowledge is good.

I really do believe in the specialist. My endo is fabulous — both he and his CDE can look at a log and tell you what to do, and you don’t have to go through basal testing (which I think the stress of itself defeats the purpose). It really saves time and energy when the doctor can do that.

I also see a sleep specialist who is much better at treating sleep problems that any primary care physician I’ve seen.

But hopefully I got a point across today.

Regular readers will know that one of my “neighbors” — her door is across the hall and around the corner from mine — sent one of her students to me to talk about diabetes.

The teacher and I were visiting when the student came by, and I asked the girl how she was doing how she was doing. My teacher friend asked her how her diabetes was. My teacher friend asked several pointed questions about testing, etc. which I deflected as much as I could.

After the kiddo left, I told my teacher friend I had specifically asked about HER and not the diabetes, because I wanted the student to realize I cared about HER and that I knew when she was ready to deal with her diabetes, she would come and brag to me. In the meantime I didn’t want to add to any guilt.

Each of us with diabetes knows what we need to do, even if we’re at the beginning stage. We know we need to test more, or even that we need more help from something, but we’re not going to get there until we’re ready. Nagging, friendly or not, just adds to the stress.

My cousin, the PhD pharmacist is all excited about inhaled insulin. Well, I sort of snort at the idea. Here’s why…

First, I was diagnosed with asthma and on inhalent drugs for a while, and found them very inconvenient and that they didn’t work well. You had to breath in this tube, and I always felt like the powder was getting all over the place. I will grant you though, that the asthma was caused by GERD, and that was the primary reason I never felt that the inhalents worked.

I’m also in a fairly unique position, as I’ve been through oral medication, multiple daily injections, and am now on an insulin pump.

Here’s the problem with oral medication: You have to take a pill once a day, follow a diet and exercise on a regular basis. If I could actually DO that, there is a highly likelihood that I would not be diabetic. It also takes a LONG time before you see any results.

Here’s the problem with multple daily injections (MDI). You have to give yourself shots three – four times a day, eat at the exact same times, maintain the exact amount of exercise. If you take too much insulin, you have to eat more food. Since you are eating more food, you gain weight, adding to the insulin resistance, and you end up chasing your tail. FYI: If I could do the, eat at the exact same time and maintain the same energy level, thing, I probably would not be diabetic right now. (See a pattern — I have never been a do the same thing at the same time kinda of gal).

I’m predicting that inhaled insulin is going to follow the MDI path. I certainly don’t see it following my therapy of choice.

My choice — the insulin pump — requires the following:

• Wake up, test your blood sugar, push a few buttons if the fasting blood sugar is too high.
  
• Get around to eating breakfast, decide what you want to eat, do a quick calculation on carbs (pump does that now), and push a few buttons.
  
• Two hours after eating, check blood sugar and if high, push a few buttons.
  
• Decide you want something to eat, push a few buttons
  
• Pump buzzes after two hours, check blook sugar and if high, push a few buttons
  
• Decide I want to work out in a few hours, turn on the temporary basis, but if forget about that, eat a couple of carbs and work out.
  
• Eat dinner, push a few buttons
  
• Pump buzzes after two hours, check blood sugar and if high, push a few buttons.
  

I much prefer to pushing a few buttons to giving myself shots. Plus, I can adjust by .05 units of insulin instead of being stuck with whole units.

The real plus of the pump, is that I’m only stuck with an insulin mistake for a couple of hours, rather than being stuck with it for 12 hours. (Or is it 24 hours on Lantus — I always did Humalog 75/25).

Actually insulin mistakes when you are on MDI can cause days of roller coasting before you get control back. Roller coastering — low blood sugar, treat it, then high blood sugar, treat the high, etc. always results in overeating. If I do roller coaster on the pump, we’re talking a coaster ride of a few hours versus days.

However, I will admit for being happiest with an A1C under 6.5, and that lots of diabetics get along well with an A1C of 7.0 or higher.

I’m glad she’s learning to take the news announcements with major grains of salt.

I get sick to death of friends telling me about the latest thing … which I’ve known about for 6 months, know of people on email lists I’m on who’ve been on clinical trials and have already learned it’s not the next thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that Symlin might be a good answer for some, but it does add extra injections, and can’t be used in a pump.

Diabetes Mine: Excitement & Caution

Excitement & Caution

I’ve been there myself — and the bad part, is that the more out of control you get the worse you feel, and the easier it is to be self-destructive.

Pumplandia: Violet’s Diabetes Blog: Crawling out from under a sugar-coated rock

Crawling out from under a sugar-coated rock