Blog

  • How I was told.

    At dLife Today: War Stories the Dlife blog asks how we were told. I have posted this story before.

    I was surprised when I was told. My family history indicates that I will be diabetic and my medical team and I have been watching for diabetes for years.

    I had been told I was borderline the year before diagnosis, but that my lipid levels were worse, so the doctor wanted to watch the blood sugar levels first, and deal with the possible diabetes later. At the time, my faster blood sugar was around 125.

    A year passed and we were still seeing faster blood sugar levels between 125 and 150. Nothing higher. So after the year was up, the doctor decided to send me for a glucose tolerance test.

    Well, by the end of glucose tolerance test, I wasn’t. (that is tolerating the glucose).

    I went through a weekend I was sicker than a dog (and I use that expression wisely, being a dog person). I got to school and realized that I couldn’t cope with the day by about 9:00 am. So I called for a emergency sub and called the doctors office and told them I was coming in. At the same time, they were calling all my numbers to tell me to get into the office now.

    I’m honestly not sure if I told the doctor the diagnosis, or if he told me.

    I really think I was lucky. I got drastically sick quickly from the glucose tolerance test so I had incentive to do something to get well.

    I was feeling perfectly okay Friday morning, and by Friday noon, I was a snarling, nasty person, blurred vision, headaches, horrible thirst, you name it. To this day, I feel badly for the people who did my mammogram in the afternoon, as they didn’t deserve me at all.

  • How I was told.

    At dLife Today: War Stories the Dlife blog asks how we were told. I have posted this story before.

    I was surprised when I was told. My family history indicates that I will be diabetic and my medical team and I have been watching for diabetes for years.

    I had been told I was borderline the year before diagnosis, but that my lipid levels were worse, so the doctor wanted to watch the blood sugar levels first, and deal with the possible diabetes later. At the time, my faster blood sugar was around 125.

    A year passed and we were still seeing faster blood sugar levels between 125 and 150. Nothing higher. So after the year was up, the doctor decided to send me for a glucose tolerance test.

    Well, by the end of glucose tolerance test, I wasn’t. (that is tolerating the glucose).

    I went through a weekend I was sicker than a dog (and I use that expression wisely, being a dog person). I got to school and realized that I couldn’t cope with the day by about 9:00 am. So I called for a emergency sub and called the doctors office and told them I was coming in. At the same time, they were calling all my numbers to tell me to get into the office now.

    I’m honestly not sure if I told the doctor the diagnosis, or if he told me.

    I really think I was lucky. I got drastically sick quickly from the glucose tolerance test so I had incentive to do something to get well.

    I was feeling perfectly okay Friday morning, and by Friday noon, I was a snarling, nasty person, blurred vision, headaches, horrible thirst, you name it. To this day, I feel badly for the people who did my mammogram in the afternoon, as they didn’t deserve me at all.

  • Supplies

    Life is funny — I was just going to post on a “mistake” another pumper made, when I just did something incredibly stupid — I lost the rubber cap on the top of my insulin pump. Probably because I had my mind on other things.

    I’m fairly certain I threw it in the trash. The good news, because I am anal, I am not completely screwed. When I sent back my recalled pump, I kept the rubber cap. I ordered an extra battery cap (and kept the recalled one, so I have two), but I was waiting until my next supply order to get another rubber cap.

    I’m fairly certain I threw it in the trash and I am looking for it now, in between posting.

    And yes, that is exactly what I did — I had it in my hand with some trash and threw it all way.

    Here’s the start of the original post:

    I was reading another one of our pumper blogs the other day and felt really bad for her. I am not going to link to the post as I am afraid I’m going to come across critical.

    One of the biggest problems with pumping insulin is obtaining supplies — meaning cartridges and infusion sets. This is not a item you can pick up at your local pharmacy. In a pinch, I could probably get some supplies from my endos, but that would only happen during office hours. Maybe even from my pump trainer, but I would also never presume to both her outside of “office hours”, even though she works out of her home.

    This means you have to plan ahead. And planning ahead saved my rear today.

    Because I had saved the plastic cap from my old pump, I could calmly go get it, put it on the pump, and then take a long time to search. You see there was a possibility it was laying on my desk. There was also a possibility it landed on the floor — which opens the possibility that a beagle ate it — though they usually don’t, but you never know. If I had a puppy, it surely would have been eaten if it had hit the floor.

    SO NOW THE POINT.

    I keep at least one spare of everything I need. I even have a spare CPAP machine these days. I keep at least 1 month’s worth of any medication I need on hand, and I get nervous if I go less than 2 weeks.

    At the end of the 90 day period, I have at least one extra box of infusion sets and one extra box of cartridges. Back before I was covered on insurance, I bought those extras on ebay. (By the way, watch eBay and expiration dates, always ask, sellers aren’t always aware of expiration dates).

    Same things goes with test strips.

    I’m REALLY bad about meters. I keep an extra in my car — the old Freestyle, and keep an extra in my bag. If you go WAY back in time, I actually go to an agility trial without my meter. DUMB, DUMB, I dropped it on the street and a neighbor returned it.

    Being anal isn’t always back.

  • Good article about Diabetes and Dental problems

    Yeah, diabetes affects everything and this is not something I don’t think about very often, so I am sure it is helpful for others.

    MSN Health & Fitness – Dental care and diabetes: The importance of a healthy mouth

    Dental care and diabetes: The importance of a healthy mouth

  • Behavior Changes and Motivation

    Bloglines | My Blogs

    (Anyone with brilliant ideas on how to motivate people to take better care of themselves can contact Dr. Polonsky’s institute here. Make sure to cc me at amy@diabetesmine.com as well!)

    Hmmm, maybe I should contact him. I’ve studied behavior analysis for years on both a theoritical basis and a concrete basis for years.

    Between training beagles for dog agility and teaching high school students technology, and between working on myself as a diabetes patient, I’m got a lot of practical work done.

    One of the biggest problems with motivating diabetes patients, is that it hard to come up with tangible rewards. Also the “noncompliant” behaviors tend to be self rewarding. It’s always hard to eliminate self rewarding behavior.

  • Sidekick

    It’s a cute little device, probably best for emergencies, because I doubt you can download from it.

    http://www.prestigesmartsystem.com/products-sidekick.asp

  • GERD

    I doubt GERD is a complication, since I’ve had problems with it long before the diabetes, though I wonder if diabetes is a factor keeping it out of control.

    Diabetes In Control – Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in Diabetics, an under Diagnosed Complication.

    Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in Diabetics, an under Diagnosed Complication.

  • A much read for every patient

    RangelMD.com

    The 10 Commandments of medication usage

    I’m on 6 daily medications a day and I have sat down, read all the side effects, and have had intelligent conversations with my doctors on the medications.

    For example, the reason I’m on Zyrtec, is because Allegra makes my blood pressure go high.

    The reason I’m on insulin is because I don’t like the side effects from the Type 2 medications, nor do I like what they do to your lifestyle.

    I believe it’s important for patients to know what is going on with their medications.

  • New Fundraiser

    This is a real neat story … and I wish that DLife would have featured him along with the pilot last night, and kept the focus on diabetes in the workplace.

    I kept expecting them to talk about this story, as it has been in the diabetic news for several months.

    Back From Iraq: A Soldier’s Story – American Diabetes Association

    Staff Sergeant Mark Thompson convinced the Army that having type 1 diabetes shouldn’t keep him from serving in Iraq.

  • See, I’m right…

    Tight control IS a good thing. Besides, I feel better.

    CNN.com – Study: Tight?glucose control cuts diabetics’ heart risk – Jun 13, 2005

    After a follow-up of 6 1/2 years, it emerged than these patients also have a 57 percent reduction in the rate of heart attacks and strokes, said Dr. David Nathan of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.