Tag Archives: Diabetes Blog Week

Diabetes Blog Week – LOVE

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I started this blog/space, to connect and share within the diabetes community.  The switch from thinking about writing a blog to actually doing it (years ago), came from a prompt I read from Karen Graffeo at Bitter Sweet about participating in Diabetes Blog Week.  I don’t write many posts on this blog recently and I don’t spend as much time within the DOC as I once did, but that doesn’t delineate how much I value this sense of community, the connections I’ve made, and that this blog led me to expand my own role as an advocate.  The connections I have made with others has become a vital part of my own wellbeing both physically and mentally.  I have gathered knowledge and most importantly, I have made amazing friends through the diabetes online community (DOC) that are now part of my In Real Life (IRL) world and that is priceless to me.

Today is the first day of this year’s Blog Week and here is the topic:

Lets kick off the week by talking about why we are here, in the diabetes blog space. What is the most important diabetes awareness message to you? Why is that message important for you, and what are you trying to accomplish by sharing it on your blog? (Thank you, Heather Gabel, for this topic suggestion.)

I do not like the photo below.  My arm looks the diameter of my thigh (it is not, yet), the wrinkles in my face seem accentuated, and there appears to be a baby’s foot growing out of my wrist. I do not like this photo, but I do LOVE this photo.  This is friendship, admiration and joy.

karen and alecia hug

This is my friend Karen.  Karen was on my radar years ago because I read her comments in DOC twitter chats and I also read her blog.  She’s a fellow T1D, lives in the same city that I do and when I was trying to learn about T1D and pregnancy, she was someone who I knew had experience.

We met in real life through JDRF at a group event. Participants included DOC-ers from 3 JDRF chapters who decided to get together for dinner beforehand.  Karen freaked out during our initial conversation. She knew of me through the JDRF NYC Walk (walk team).  I freaked out too (just far less visibly and audibly) when I realized this was the woman whose blog I’d been reading and following around the internet.

We became friends.  My friendship with Karen came with “accessories”… her husband and now 2 kids (please note: “accessories” is sarcasm folks.  Her husband gave me a pep talk one time that I will always carry in my heart). They are all my friends and I love them dearly.  Diabetes brought us together, specifically the DOC, and as much as I hate diabetes, I love my friend.  LOVE.

We may talk about things far beyond diabetes, we may laugh so hard we can’t speak to each other, and my life is richer because this family is in it, but I am aware that I would probably not know them if it weren’t for diabetes, so why am I here… today, rushing to type this post?  After an incredibly frustrating and annoying high BG and a messy pump site change in my office’s bathroom, Karen popped into my mind and that we need to make plans soon.  I text her a much shorter version of what I wrote above and explained that as frustrated as I may be, that diabetes sucks and she doesn’t (that’s always a nice text message, “you don’t suck”).  Diabetes gave me my friend.  My hope being here today as part of Blog Week, is that it’s a reminder of just how vital and wonderful these DOC friendships are and all it takes is ONE connection (I have many in my squad so please, no one be offended because these friendships are my wellness team).

A few weeks ago I went on a bike ride, I text Karen who happened to be right near my destination and subsequently had a cheer squad yelling my name (imagine Smurf voices) as the kiddos ran to my bike.  It was just awesome and although I did some more formal diabetes advocacy this morning, my buddies are what I celebrate in this blog post today.

HOffmanderson cheer squad

 

 

 

Diabetes Blog Week (my first real post)… One Diabetes Thing I Do Well

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Today’s Topic for Diabetes Blog Week:

Tell us about just one diabetes thing you (or your loved one) does spectacularly! 

 A few weeks ago I had what I consider a diabetes test.  No, not a test to see if I am diabetic, that test was in the summer of 1979 (man am I old).  No, this was what I consider a test of my internal Emergency Broadcast System.  The whole story is rather graphic and is better suited for another post (later this week) about insulin pumps, X-rays, TSA, and warranties.  Today, I am supposed to pat myself on the back for the diabetes thing I do well.  My “thing” is that in a serious panic, freak the front-door out moment; I keep a level head, and use my smarts.

I was on a red eye flight and unbeknownst to me had a bent cannula under my skin from a brand spanking new pump site (oh and by “bent” I mean like if you took a regular straw and tried to turn it into a bendy straw).

cannula bent like a non-bendy straw

I have to preface this story by explaining I take anti nausea pills sometimes when I fly and for the first few hours of the flight I believed I was sick, not diabetes sick, which led to some of the impending confusion taking care of the situation.  For the sake of sticking to the topic, I will shorten this to the following facts: hours of puking, taking over one of the bathrooms, and peeing my pants.  When my Dexcom showed my BG was in the low 200s, I wasn’t too concerned since I was getting sick (over and over and over) and definitely didn’t want to deal with going low until my stomach issues were under control. I kept giving myself mini boluses (less than a correction) with my pump, my body continued exploding, and I kept noticing my BG wasn’t decreasing at all.  By the time the Dex said I’d reached 300, I suspected I was possibly having the Perfect Storm scenario.

I changed my pump site in a huge rush to get to the airport (yep, stupid) but I didn’t remove the old site as my just-in-case back-up (yep, smart).  So I switched the pump to the old site, bloused and waited (ok “waiting” is a nice way of saying I drank a diet Coke in the bathroom and started puking it out my nose so violently I got a nose bleed).  My BG sort of stabilized in the 300-320 range.  It wasn’t going down though and at that point it really should have.  I had already peed my pants while puking (and made new very scratchy undies out of toilet paper) so my pride was long gone.  Somehow, in my muddled state, I went through my mental checklist of what to do.  I made it back to my seat and grabbed my glucometer, glucose tablets, a new vial of insulin and a syringe (something I rarely traveled with many years ago when all I thought I ever needed was my back-up old pump).

Back in the bathroom, Pukefest 2012 continued but I was able to check my blood… 427! Ack! Dex said 337.  I opened the new insulin vial and pulled the safety cap off the syringe (as a side note: I used to chew on those caps as a kid as I did my shots. I put the safety cap in my mouth for a second, caught myself in the mirror and couldn’t believe in a time of complete distress I automatically did something I haven’t done since I went on my first pump 12 years ago.  What a weird-O).  Anyway I looked over my belly and figured since I was clearly having insulin absorption issues, I should inject elsewhere so I gave myself a mini shot in my belly far from both pump sites (smart) and then another one in my hip (which was a mess with the plane bouncing but I got it… also smart).

I had puked myself silly by the time I was finally able to sit back in my seat for the remaining 45 minutes.  By the time we landed, my BG was in the 240 range.  I managed to keep hydrating myself (small sips and smart) and grabbed liquids on my way out of the airport (also smart since I ended up in NYC traffic for over an hour).

When I got home and cleaned up (good-bye toilet paper undies), my BG was still hovering in the 200s, so I changed out everything with the pump again.  I then called Animas and had them go through any and all diagnostic testing they could do over the phone.  My next call was to my doctor since I still felt like I’d been hit by a bus and then dragged for awhile and high ketones.  When I told her how I’d used the light on my phone to grab a syringe out of my make-up bag, my doctor told me she was proud of me.  She said how lots of people on pumps don’t have syringes on them at all times.  I had been one of those people.  For some unknown reason, in the past year, I started carrying 2 syringes in my travel bag.  So yeah,  I may not be diabetes perfect, but when push came to shove, I was smart.  No wait.  I Am Smart.