Living with Diabetes

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  • Low Blood Sugar

    I’m REALLY having to watch things today. Now that I’ve got my food intake under control, and have the blood sugar under control, I’m running a tad low. I was at 116 fasting but by the time I got to school and got some running done, I was down to 95.

    I did grab something to eat and am testing every hour and before I get in the car.

    Here’s the fun part. Your total daily dose affects your carb and correction factors. This is documented in “Pump Insulin”. As my total daily dose goes down, that means my ratios go up, which means I end up with a lower total daily dose. Which means I have to adjust ratios again, etc.

    My basal rate may also be a tad high, though most of the time when I’m not eating and bolusing or exercising, my blood sugar is staying stable, just low.

    I’ve gone through this before, and it just means you test more often.

  • A good day!

    And a very long day. But Thursday’s usually are. I call it my Girl Dogs’ Night Out.

    I have dog agility with both Maggie and Marcie (photos are at http://www.kweaver.org/photos/) We drive over an hour to class, Maggie’s class starts at 7:30, and Marcie’s at 8:30. Then it’s about a 45 minute drive home, provided that TxDot or some idiot driver hasn’t fubarred the roads. For some reason, Dallas drivers HAVE to drive 20 mph over the speed limit at that time of night.

    There are a couple of reasons we drive that far — it’s pretty hard to find enough land in the city of Dallas to do a proper dog agility class. Second, I’m pretty picky when it comes to instructors.

    Anyway, after a full day of class, where I spent the day with my blood sugar cruising around 110 most of the day, and post pranial after lunch at 130, I went off with the dogs. After supper and getting ready, my blood sugar was at 95, so I grabbed Snicker’s minature and a couple of lifesavers. Was still at 95 a half hour later, so did a second dose.

    Also hit the temporary basal at -20% at 5:30 and grabbed a hot dog right before class, so I would have a bit of sugar (from the bun, the hot dog is to slow things down) to keep from going low.

    When I finished class, I was at 140, and was 125 when I got home, so I hit another Snickers Minature a few minutes ago, so I don’t have to worry about going low in the night.

    I’m also going to up my boluses — I haven’t had to correct all day, and have been lower than I like postpranial.

    That also means my TDD will go down (TDD = Total Daily Dose).

    I’ve been under 65 units for the past 7 days! That’s not bad, considering in end of my crisis I was doing 120+ units.

  • I stand by my stand!

    In fact, I’m going to be a VERY adament that I think that the diabetics who are criticizing the ADA for accepting donations from Cadbury Sweppes are at the very least, very short sided, and that the very most, very bigoted.

    I went out to the Cadberry Schweppes, and as I suspected, they make more than “junk food”.

    Cadbury Schweppes plc | our brands | find a brand

    I personally don’t label anything as junk food, or forbidden food, first of all that is VERY dangerous and can lead to eating disorders. Yeah, I’ve been treated for an eating disorder myself, though I thought the process was a waste of time. (And for another post).

    I’ve been involved in non-profit organizations before, and am a teacher at a public school, and one thing I’ve learned, is to NEVER EVER look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe it helps being a drug dog handler and knowing that most of the funding you are getting are from confiscations, but frankly, I’m not to proud to take any money given and use it.

    I also bet that the very people who are condemning the ADA buy Cadberry-Schweppes products on a regular basis. Mott’s Apple products, for example, or how about Welch’s products, or even Sunkist products?

  • Another diabetes blog!

    For over a year I was the only one, and now they are cropping up all over the place!

    Welcome into my head, to my most private and intimate Thoughts.

  • Latest on the Apidra

    Yes, I am still using it. I have another vial left.

    I finally have my blood sugars at “normal”. Today I was running around 110 with a total amount of insulin since midnight of 11 units. No corrections etc.

    Lunch was 78 carbs, and 2 hours after I was at 141. Couldn’t ask for much better.

    I’m down to below 55 units of insulin, though may go up today. I tend to eat more on dog agility nights, partly because of the drive, partly to make sure I don’t go low during class.

    I still use more insulin with Apidra than I did with Novalog, though that might change if I can keep my exercise level up and my carb intake level low.

  • The ADA’s take on Sugar

    The Scoop on Sugar – Youth Zone – American Diabetes Association

    The Scoop On Sugar

  • Another new blog

    dLife: Welcome to the Blogosphere

    Welcome to the Blogosphere

  • It IS and ISN’T working

    I had to stop in the middle of my cardio again, with an 85. This time I did turn on the temporary basal. The good news, is that I had not eaten dinner yet, so stopped and ate dinner.

    I’ve got my TDD usage down below 50 — not bad when my blood sugar is under tight control again, and I was doing around 100-120 units a day.

  • Oprah show today

    Oprah has done a really good show today — I think she called it “The Fat One in the Family”.

    It’s a really good show on how beating people over the head with obesity doesn’t help them and in fact hurts them.

    Two overweight women with thin families were on and it showed how the thing members of their family were hurting them and sabotaging any weight loss attempts made.

    It’s not just that way with weight, but with diabetes care too. Except for the health care team — outside people really can’t help a diabetic (Type 1 or Type 2) take care of themselves — except in the case of youngster’s with diabetes, but that’s another story.

    I’ve said this before — I’m lucky, my diabetes did not come on gradually, but suddenly. I have another factor on my side, I know I have a ticking time bomb — 2 generations of my family, my father and both of his parents, were diagnosed with diabetes at approximately the same age, and within 10 years, each of the three of them suffered a severe cardio vascular complication.

    I still have to take it one day at a time, and there are days when I can’t deal with diabetes as well as I should. It is going to be that way with all diabetics, no matter what way they are treating their disease. Pumping, shots, pills, somedays it is just TOO much.

    And part of the reason it gets to be too much, is that depression is a major complication. It is a part of dealing with most chronic diseases.

  • Sugar and Diabetes

    The Diabetes Blog

    I’ve already commented on this post, but I want to expand upon it further.

    One of the huge misconceptions is that sugar leads to diabetes. It doesn’t.

    Type 1 diabetes is known to be an autoimmune problem. Ingesting sugar has nothing to do with getting diabetes, or even preventing complications. What you have to control is the amount of sugar that is in the blood stream. While sugar itself metabolises to sugar in the blood stream so does any other carbohydrate, and so does protein, but at a much slower and lesser rate.

    Type 2 is believed to be linked to obesity, but that again doesn’t mean that consuming sugar leads to diabetes. It doesn’t mean that all obese people are going to become diabetes, and it does not mean that non-obese people will not become diabetes.

    I believe that any press in the news that ignores the cause and effect factors, or exagerates cause and effect factors is doing harm. I’ve blogged on this in the past, and so have the other diabetes bloggers.

    There are many ways in which the popular press is harming diabetics. First, the more that an obese person is pushed to lose weight, the harder it can be for them to do it. It becomes even harder when that person has uncontrolled blood sugar, because uncontrolled blood sugar causes them. It’s a weird mechanism, but what is happening, when the body doesn’t get enough insulin, the body isn’t getting enough fuel, and as a result, the body is literally starving. In fact, sudden, rapid weight loss is a sympthom of diabetes.

    Anything that can get in the way of good glycemic control, and that includes mental attitudes is harmful to the diabetic, no matter the cause.