Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a great day to tell all the people who’ve been your support network (I’m talking to you DOC), just how very much you love and appreciate them! xo
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Tag Archives: diabetes
Photo Week in Review
From Top Left: Another pump site, another bruise. This was earlier in the week but I had a site change this morning and once again… another site, another bruise. This is starting to become my norm. Site worked great though. At least the bruises are small and this isn’t bikini weather!
Blood glucose check where an old pricked spot bleeds along with the new one. there’s a cartoonish like quality to that, as if I will drink a glass of water and my (bruised) pump sites will look like a sprinkler.
New diabetes themed-used-Verio IQ-test strip jewelry. The reaction this from the non-D crowd has been kind of awesome. love hearing what people “think” the material is. My account (T2) took a minute and guessed it correctly.
I woke-up on Thursday to this view. Remote control, Glucolift (Wildberry is my fave) container (empty), Dexcom G4 reciever, Froggie, and my pooch (with creeptastic looking eyes in this pic). A strange Wednesday night snuggle-fest indeed.
Wordless Wednesday- 1st
Since switching to the Verio IQ meter and Dexcom G4, this is the very 1st time this has happened (yes this happened Monday, what of it?).
Moving Along
Look what I noticed while working on a new project tonight:
That’s the bruise from the pump site I replaced yesterday at work. It was hurting a little while at work. I replaced it in a dimly lit conference room, wore 2 “sites” the rest of the day and removed the old one when I returned home. Tonight I noticed the bruise. My tummy was sticking out between my shirt and sweatpants. I was sitting Indian style on my floor while working on a rather messy jewelry design project. Rather messy is the nice way of saying “What-the-heck-happened-in-here?” and “This-will-never-truly-be-cleaned-up-will-it?”. I wanted to pull down my sweatshirt but my hands were covered in stickiness (used a paper towel and a knuckle to take the pic). I adjusted my shirt over my stomach and jumped right back into mess making 101.
20 minutes later, I took a break. Then I noticed it…. “NO!!!!!!!!!!”….Seriously, NO!
A pump bruise is nothing, but resin on my favorite, super cozy, softer than soft sweatpants???
NO!!!!!!!!
Twelve
I started a blog post a few nights ago about evaluating pump sites. As I wrote it, some interesting things occurred with the numbers and like I am prone to do, I was off on a tangent.
I always liked math. I loved algebra and geometry. When I was a little girl I would actually dream about math problems and shapes. Later, I took my appreciation of math and interest in art as a sign to go to architecture school. Looking back, it was ridiculous that in my extremely sheltered world, I was supposed to be picking such a specific field of study and life path, at 16 years old, however at 12 years old, I knew I wanted to create.
As long as I can remember, my favorite number has been 12. I recall a teacher saying that a favorite number should be a single digit. What did she know, right? On sports teams, I always tried to get “12” on my jersey. In architecture school I always tried to group design elements in derivatives of 12. When I write any list, I will keep adding things until I get to 12. My first and last name are both 6 letters. My career started with a company that was also a 6 and 6 name. Yep, 12. My current business is two 6 and 6 names. Again, 12. Most of the time I act like I’m 12. Twelve. What can I say, I just love it.
So in my post about pump sites, I started doing the math. I took shots for 21 years (12 backwards). I have been on a pump for 12 years. I have had a Dexcom CGM for 12 months. With my warranty expiring on both my Animas PING pump and my Dexcom 7+ in the next few days, I have been filling out paperwork to get new versions of both. “12” keeps popping up all over the place. I had to ditch the pump site topic. Twelve was calling to me.
In grade school we did the project envisioning where you will be in the year 2000. I used to change that topic to the year 2012. Flying cars and my Jetsons-esque lifestyle haven’t quite happened. Diabetes hasn’t been cured. I don’t have kids. But, I’m still here to celebrate 12.12.12. That counts, I AM HERE for 12.12.12.
Happy 12.12.12 to all of you. I hope you get a chance to make it special.
Do Good, Feel Good
Do Good, Feel Good is a phrase I say a lot. I probably tweet it even more often. It’s one of those phrases that just sticks in my head and plays over and over (kind of like The Cranberries’ Zombie or recently Kris Kross’ Jump. I’m sorry if you now have these songs sticking in your brain too). I digress. Oops. Yes, Do Good, Feel Good.
When I researched getting a CGM, specifically my Dexcom 7+, I started reading diabetes blogs in a mildly obsessive way. That was my introduction to Kim from Texting My Pancreas. Her blog led me to other wonderful diabetes blogs. When I decided to bite the bullet (well in this case, let my boyfriend attempt to insert the Dexcom into the back of my arm), we watched her video twice possibly without blinking. When I put the Dexcom in my arm the first time solo (I’ll admit it, I was scared), I watched that video two more times (this is the part where I must mention she has better gravity where she lives). Anyway, Kim was a big help to me and I frequently refer to her in my diabetes mentoring program when questions about CGMs arise.
Kim started an “event” for the month of December called Give All The Things (you really should click that to see what I’m talking about). I was immediately more smitten with her than I already was. I won second place at the very beginning of the month of giveaways. I won a small plush pancreas. Oh you don’t know what a plush pancreas is? Well you can see it here. It made me laugh but it got me thinking about Kim’s pay-it-forward idea, an idea I try to incorporate into my own life. I contacted Kim and told her a little about my jewelry design business and it’s connection to my fundraising walk teams, Alecia’s Stem Cells. I offered to give her a pair of earrings for her giveaway. Although it is not totally diabetes related, the jewelry IS made by a T1D (me) and 10% of the proceeds go to JDRF. Kim wrote the sweetest note back. It put a big goofy grin on my face.
Today Kim is giving away the earrings at Texting My Pancreas. I saw the tweet about it this morning. I immediately smiled. What started as an overwhelming day still is overwhelming, but her post lightened me. Twice I have checked the comments (which is how you enter her contests) and both times I smiled more and “may” have had some extra moisture escape my eyes (must be allergies, I certainly am not crying again, right?).
If you have some time, check out the comments of some of her other Give All The Things posts. It will immediately remind you how fortunate you are to be part of the DOC.
Do Good, Feel Good. Thanks Kim.
My Office – Wordless Wednesday
As seen this morning. My desk.
You walked where?
This is late but life is busy. I already told you about my trip to the ER. So now it’s time to flip the switch. Sunday arrived (9/30), I told my stomach to knock it off, and we all arrived at the walk bright and early. Here is the email I sent to my fellow teammates and supporters AFTER The Walk (with an updated total and some added photos):
What a day for a JDRF Walk! 
As many of you know, this year was our BIGGEST Alecia’s Stem Cells WALK TEAM EVER! I could not have been more excited as Sunday approached. (My friend ) D and I had our WALKS With FRIENDS themed shirts (hats & tote bags too) ready to go, we had a lot of newbie walkers, and for the first time ever, we had a whole bunch of my fellow T1Ds all walking with us too!
As my fellow walkers know, Friday afternoon turned kind of crazy when I ended up in the ER, stayed there through early Saturday morning, had to cancel my interview on our local CBS Saturday morning show (to speak about JDRF, the Walk, and our AMAZING Alecia’s Stem Cells team 11th anniversary). If I wasn’t so dehydrated, I probably would have cried a river BUT I did make it to Walk Day! I think JDRF felt sorry for me and as a cheer-up, they had the President/CEO of JDRF, Jeffery Brewer, come talk to me at our Alecia’s Stem Cells table, which was pretty awesome!
I have some other incredible moments to report to you, my fellow walkers, and supporters of our fundraising mission…as of today, we have raised a whopping $21,381.62. Incredible! WOW!
Next up….D’s incredibly cool, customizable shirts WON for BEST FRIENDS & FAMILY TEAM SHIRTS! YAY D (that’s the pic from the moment we heard the shirts won)!
The weather miraculously held-up (after some dicey weather forecasts), WE BEAT OUR GOAL, and my parents and siblings were all with us (except my nephew and sister-in-law Alysson who cheered us on and sent pics of my week and half old nephew in his Alecia’s Stem Cells gear). We had walkers travel from California, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey and a 7 hour bus ride from Penn State! Friends I’ve known for 20+ years walked, new friends-of-friends I just met that day walked, and my office mates and their families walked! We had 46 team members make it to walk day and I could not be prouder!
Walk Day is like a weird holiday for me. Its a day full of hope, promise and an incredible amount of love! It is a day near and dear to me. I can’t thank you all for your amazing generosity and supporting the ongoing efforts of JDRF.
And just remember, if they don’t cure diabetes by next year, we would LOVE to have you join us in our NYC bridge crossing!
Wordless Wednesday a few minutes late!
This photo looks pretty cool (well I *may* be biased) but regrettably there were some issues with the resin setting.
“Boo hoo,” said this creative diabetic.
I’m experimenting with some patching and creating some negative space within the design, but I will need to create another (read: start over).
Test strip collecting resumes.
I’d Rather Not Think About It
I’d like to preface this post by explaining I have lots of exciting, super-duper exciting things to post about, but those will have to wait for now. This past weekend was a big one, but there was a big bump in the road (yes I just typed “pump” and stared wondering why it was the wrong word. Diabetes much?).
Friday, I ate lunch. A few hours later, I puked like crazy & could not have been colder (not as bad as Pukefest 2012). The doctor on-call for my doctor sent me to the ER.
At the ER, a nurse took me into Triage quickly. Dexcom said bg was 277. Hospital meter said 324. I had been running between 77 to 126 all day even while puking. Dehydration was kicking my butt. After getting my vitals, I explained to the nurse everything that had and was currently happening to me, I concluded by saying I needed to take a correction. She told me not to. Actually she said she could not advise me to take a correction. Ummmm what?!? She said I needed to wait for a doctor. Ummmm more what?!? This is the same woman who, when I showed her my pump and Dexcom, asked if they control each other. I explained it isn’t a closed-looped system. That did not help my cause. She asked if my blood sugar is normally that high. I politely explained my current HbA1c is a 6.4 so NO my BG is NOT NORMALLY 324! I was told again NOT to take any additional insulin, was handed a puke bucket and sent to the waiting room. I immediately took a mini correction.
30 minutes went by and I felt less nauseous (believe me there was nothing left in my system). I started to feel desert-like thirst though. Time did that thing it does, you know, ticking by. I took another mini correction. BGs eventually in upper 200s and staying steady. No one had checked on me. They’d told me NOT to take a correction until I saw a doctor, they knew my most recent BG had been 324, and they LEFT ME! I sipped diet ginger-ale I’d brought in my bag. Baby sips. I seethed.
I finished my drink. I waited. I needed a hand (well an arm) to get to the reception desk. The woman who checked me in (not triage) explained there were people with more serious emergencies and that would delay my seeing a doctor. Fair enough. I told her I needed to take more insulin and explained I’m diabetic, on a pump, on CGM, blah blah then I stopped because I didn’t think I was connecting with her. I apologized (not sure why), and asked if she was a nurse. She was less than pleased but since she hadn’t been responding I wondered if my T1D/puking chatter was clicking. Yes, she was indeed a nurse. She said my vitals were good. She told me I was looking at a 3 hour wait. Ummmm what?!? I needed fluids. Give me the IV and I’ll figure it out myself out. 3 hours?!? 3 MORE HOURS?!? So I explained, for the record, I was taking a necessary correction. She told me not to. I told her she was too late. She said they didn’t want me to crash. I said that wouldn’t happen. I got feisty in my I-am-wearing-pajamas-with-multiple-sweatshirts-and-why-are-my-legs-wobbling-so-damn-much way. I told her I’d been diabetic for 33 years and “they” could not expect a T1D to sit for 3+ hours with a high blood sugar and do NOTHING about it. I *may* have even tossed out the word insane. She explained they needed me to NOT take a correction so the doctor could see what was going on with me. I could feel the heat in my neck. I stayed calm (well calm-ish).
Then she said it, “They need to make sure you aren’t going into DKA.”
In my mind I may have punched her. In my mind I also shook my head in disbelief like a cartoon character. In my mind I stopped shaking my cartoon head and punched her again. I leaned across the desk and slowly explained that if you tell a diabetic who’s blood sugar is in the 300s and escalating, NOT take a correction bolus while they continue to dehydrate, you will have bigger problems than possible food poisoning. She argued back about not crashing. I was about to crash her. I tried to sound strong but I’m pretty sure my voice shook as I informed her that without a correction, there was no doubt they would be treating me for DKA.
We waited and waited. No one EVER checked on me. No additional BG checks. My BG hovered between 185 and 194. I’d take that. Exhaustion was kicking in. 4 hours after I’d checked-in, I was taken into treatment. A gurney in a hallway with another patient at my feet and another patient at my head. A doctor arrived. He was familiar with my story. He may have been Doogie Howser. I told him about the correction debacle(s). I informed him of my present BG. He told me that he felt T1Ds on a pump know more about their diabetes than they do so I should continue just doing my thing.
I got an IV like a harpoon.
Yeah I got pics.
I was there FOREVER. Anti nausea stuff and fluids perked me up. The head doctor visited. I got sassy as is my way, and we all smiled. I told him the correction debacle. He repeated what Doogie had told me, that I know more than they do about my diabetes, keep treating myself and they will treat the rest of me.
I continued checking my own BGs. I saw some crazy stuff go wheeling by. I got silly. I was sent home at 3am.