Yesterday I finished another CGMS Sensor — swapping out pumps solved my problems, I believe.
Here’s my latest report — and I am definitely testing more, and I have a better picture of what is going on with my blood sugar so I am accomplishing my goals.
Had my annual Saturday.
Didn’t need to change anything, but did that a month ago. No signs of complications or other eye disease.
My doctor’s office does retinal imaging and has over a decade of pictures.
So far this summer, consuming 40 carbs, bolusing none and walking on the treadmill and fixing later has been working.
However, I end up with a bit of a high.
Since the CGMS , consuming 40 carbs, bolusing half and walking on the treadmill and not having to do much of a fix has been working.
BUT
40 carbs = a lot of calories. I would like to eliminate those calories.
Yesterday I tried cutting my basal to half for an hour. 40 minutes in, Dulce said I should quit. I stuck it out until 45. Made it to a Sonic for an ice cream cone but didn’t make it through Tom Thumb to get lunch. I think I ended up eating MORE calories.
Then my lap band had to get into the act.
I felt like crap for the rest of the day.
Wish me luck. Today, I’m doing 0 insulin for an hour, no insulin for 9 carbs, and half insulin for 19 carbs.
Sunday morning (sometimes Saturday) is when I usually organize my medications for the week (okay, I usually work a week ahead).
And since I’m going out of town soon, I’m going ahead and preparing today. Following my WWSHD plan (What would Scott Hanselman do), and the fact I am going to be gone for a week, I’m packing one small bag of medical supplies. That includes extra meters, emergency supplies and the like. I also put my gym clothing, night clothing, and swimsuit in that bag, leaving a large bag with my actual wardrobe.
It’s easier to start out with unopened boxes, so I do that as much as possible, though I stick to taking just one back each of needles.
I also plan for an extra day of medication.
One of things I am adamant about is that I don’t ever run low on meds, and I always have at least a full week of meds on hand. I really end up with at least two weeks, but that’s great, because sometimes it takes Medco (now Express Scripts) that long to get me medication.
I also don’t actually pack everything but put it in a pile, so I can see if I am missing anything. And it includes things like extra contacts, back up glasses (since I forgot mine the last trip),etc. Anything that will be a PITA is I don’t have and even harder to replace.
I was ready with new infusion set, insulin, etc when the UPS guy arrived. Good news, it was time to switch out and the sensor was only a few hours old.
I got everything programmed except the low insulin warning, couldn't find that setting, and wasn't sure how they wanted the old pump, so called in for help. Found the setting while we were waiting on his computer.
Everything is up and working again, including the sensor and the old pump is dropped off at Office Depot.
I am suspecting this is the cause of my issues.
So last night I got my second motor error on my Minimed Reveal pump – all while I have been learning how to do CGMS. So I called tech support and they decided to send me a new pump.
That’s fine. Though I’m not looking forward to reprogramming a new pump (yeah, seriously). It’s not as bad as an Animas pump but up there.
So after I got off the phone, I got an email saying that they were shipping the pump, an email on how to prevent the error, and another email saying it was coming. THEN I got a phone call this morning.
Okay, I know its’ coming now….. The good news is that it should be here by 10:30, though the phone call said that it could take until 5:00 pm. I sure hope not.
Dr Lindeman (pictured right) is the Ivy League-educated, Boston-area pediatric pulmonologist and erstwhile blogger (under the alias “Flea”) whose electronic exploits led to a large settlement in a malpractice suit brought against him last year in the case of a 12-year-old who died of diabetic ketoacidosis.
via www.canadianmedicinenews.com
Diabetes Mine has been blogging about families being punished by the legal system for neglecting diabetic children in their care: http://www.diabetesmine.com/2013/07/when-d-parenting-turns-to-neglect-or-so-we-may-think.html and I commented that I knew of one case where a medical practice had been successfully sued for malpractice when they missed the diagnosis of a children. The above article is about that case, and doing a simple search on Dr. Flea will get you quick a bit of information on this.
It happened in 2007, not that distant history, and here is not just one but a WHOLE group of doctors who missed a diabetes diagnosis so badly that the patient died.
And while the article was written by a Canadian publication, it happened in the good old US of A.
What has always bothered me about the case is that the above mentioned doctor has never accepted any part of his blame for the patients death. Yes, he was a pediatric pulmonologist but still, why was this missed?
And I did a bit more research, the doctor in question owns the practice, so yes, I do hold him responsible.
I had a new sensor yesterday that was a bleeder when I put it in. Theory is that I hit a capillary. Was getting wonky reading all day, was keeping me up all night and still had blood around the sensors.
Was also getting some skin irritation from the blood under the tape.
Noticed it was STILL bleeding – as I had switched out the tape last night.
Next time, I’ll go on to another site.
Also, I sure wish that the lapband surgeon hadn’t left so much scaring, limited the real estate I have for both pumping and sensors. <snarl>
Changed my basal so that I would get 50% of my basal during my workout – and took my normal bolus with my 40 carb drink.
Blood sugar stayed pretty stable the whole time – better than the slight spike yesterday.
Though I’m down to 105 now – not a bad thing just something to know, as I started the day out at 130.
That’s even being off pump for a while during a shower and change (even forgot to take the pump off of suspend, even though I rehooked up – oops, I do that a lot with this pump, and didn’t as much with the Animas).
Still no skin problems.
Testing more.
And I can see what is going on with my blood sugar by glancing at the screen.
I wouldn’t say that my average blood sugar has gone down – but at the same time, we have data I can actually use. Notice that I have a standard deviation now, where I didn’t before, but that might be a function of the sensation, I’ll have to ask someone who knows.
I did have a standard deviation on Saturady, Jul 6, when I had 6 finger sticks.