Bearing the Olympic Torch for Diabetes Awareness
Our patients often teach us more than we could ever teach them. Gary Hall, Jr, an 8-time Olympic medal winner, is one such patient (Figure 1). I was with him when he won 4 of those medals, and I am heading to Athens to see if he can win more. This is the first in a series of reports as I start my journey to the birthplace of the modern Olympics; in this report I will recount my past 6 years as the physician on the team of an elite athlete.
It’s actually the one year anniversary of my ordering my pump.
I was diagnosed with probably Type 2 diabetes, in September 2002. I
spent a few very unsuccessful weeks with Metaforum and then went to
shots, after finding that the side effects of the meds didn’t go real
well with classroom teaching.
Shots wasn’t too bad, but I gained weight, I have a needle phobia, and
you really don’t want a lot of syringes around high school kids, in an
urban high school environment.
Plus I had lousy control. I’m “lucky”. I’m very sensitive to blood
sugar, and I’m not comfortable unless my blood sugar is between 120
and 160. My vision blurs and I become a b*tch as it raises. I even
get dizzy if I have more than about a 10 point drop in blood sugar —
which presents its own interesting sympthoms.
I had been researching the pump and trying to get my insurance to pay
for it, with no luck.
I realized quickly that I had to do something if I was going to
survive the school year. My blood sugar was exceeding 350 while we
were in staff development. So the first morning I didn’t have to be
in meetings, I went to the doctor’s office and told him I was going to
the pump, got in the car and ordered my Animas IR1200.
Best move I’ve ever made. Took a while, but this week, my blood sugar
hasn’t exceeded 200. It finally normalized to pre-staff development
level today and I’m predicting a change in basal next week. In fact,
even discussed it already with the endo.
Very odd — yesterday and the day before had the exact same insulin usage but with completely different food.
Stress level is fairly high but not near as bad as the last two years at this time.
The other weirdness is that my insulin usage numbers show its time to go to a lower basal rate, but I’m still seeing high numbers after meals. I’m attributing a lot of that to stress though.
We reported back to work on Monday, and my coworkers have noticed I’ve lost weight over the summer.
That’s really cool.
When asked, I tell them I’ve finally learned how to live healthy. And when people who knew back when I lost and regained over 100 pounds, I tell them that I learned from that exerience, that there isn’t a diet.
I’m not sure how long this has been around. I’ve done a few ratings myself, and it might be a good resource for someone who is exploring choices.
I rarely have had choices presented to me with enough time to make a really informed decision.
I honestly couldn’t have choosen a better place to go and a better reason to go. Everything went REAL well.
TSA is definately “weird”. They operate with totally different rules at two different airports.
I weigh less today than I did last Sunday. I also weigh less than I did when I left on the trip.
I went ahead and left the workshop when the other flying participant needed to leave. There was really no point in making someone try from Conway to Little Rock twice.
Went I got to the airport, I asked what it would cost to go on the earlier flight. $40.00 approximately to get me home 2 hours sooner so it really wasn’t worth it.
AND I’m glad I didn’t because that flight was FULL, and the flight I was on had only 6 paying passengers.
TSA at Little Rock was different than Dallas. When I entered the line, just like on Friday, I was told only 2 carry on’s. I calmly said “It’s a medical bag”, she said “oh”, and sent me on.
They patted me down in the middle of everything. Didn’t swab the pump this time but made me take my shoes off and xray them. I was wearing leather sandels.
Once I got to Love Field, it was very quiet, and luggage was waiting for me. Got back to the car and home again.
I have NEVER been at a better organized teacher workshop.
They scheduled the workshop around the airline schedule. One other person flew in. We were picked up at the airport and brought to our dorm room to leave our luggage behind.
Then we had a short introduction, and then lunch, then an packed afternoon with lots of good information.
All meals have been easy for me to deal with. Carb counting has gone well and my blood sugar has been stable.
The dorm room was fabulous. Someone needs to hire these people to organize workshops, as they are great.
I’m going to leave the workshop early since the other participant has to connect to another flight.
I was patted down … which was okay. The ladies were very nice and had lots of questions about the pump.
That puts me in teacher mode which after 12 years of teaching, actually relaxes me.
However, the SW person at the beginning of the line was rude and insisted my 3 bags had to be consolidated, even though one was a medical device and is exemt. I checked on that by phone yesterday.
Not a huge problem but annoying. I caan tuck my wallet in my emergency bag and often do.
Having the Treo helps pass time. While it took an hour to get to the airport from the car, I did get here 2 hours early.