Alternate Site Testing (AST) has becoming more popular over the past few years.  What exactly is AST do you ask?  Simple.  It is a method of testing your  blood sugar without having to prick your finger.  You are able to use your lancing device on several other areas, such as your forearm, upper arm, thigh, and your thumb.  This gives you a break from using your fingers all the time and potentially bruising them.

 There are some instances that you should still continue to use your finger, for instance, according to the FDA, when you think that your blood sugar is low you should use the blood sample from your finger.

Some lancing devices that allow alternate site testing are the Accu-Chek MultiClix, Advocate, Freestyle, and the Ulti-Lance.

This week American Diabetes Wholesale has added the Advocate Blood Glucose Monitoring System to their store.  This blood glucose meter is packed full of features including a large screen, lots of memory (450 tests), and now you don’t have to code.  By using such a small sample of blood and alternate site testing, blood glucose testing has never been easier.

You can get this meter kit for free as part of the Advocate Redi-Code Diabetes Meter kit, also new to ADW.  With 150 strips and a free meter, this is a great opportunity for a quality meter with plenty of testing strips.

This is week 6 of the Miller Lite Fun league, and so far it has been no far at all, being whooped every week.  This weekend was a crazy one.  Witnessed two fights on Friday at the bar we were at by the beach waiting for the fireworks.  The fireworks sparked by people on the patio bar were better then real fireworks.  Two different fights right next to us broke out and and security came and had to break things up.  It was great.  Drunk kids, I tell ya, dress ‘em up but ya can’t take them out!

Anyway, my parents will be coming down here in less than a month, along with my brother and his wife.  They will be coming down for my graduation.  I can’t wait to just get that over with, if it was up to me I wouldn’t even walk, I am just doing it for my mom.  I need to make sure I have some skittles or some other candy with me to make sure that I don’t get a really bad low in the middle of the ceremony.  That would not be good.

My morning sugars are still really out of whack and it is really starting to scare me.  I can’t get these down for anything, and it is becoming a bad situation.  I am happy when I wake up with a blood sugar between 200-300!  This is ridiculous, but I have tried so many different things.

Any suggestions, please help!

Let me take time today to remember the great fight for independence and all the lives lost.  I usually spend 4th of July at home, near Philadelphia, so I like to visit all of the historical sights that revolved around the independence of this great country.  I am taking the time today to do this because of course tomorrow is filled with alcohol, food, alcohol, and fireworks.  This will also be the first 4th of July that my girlfriend is 21 and can legally drink.

I will be calling back home to all of my friends from high school that I haven’t spoken to in months.  They have a huge cookout and party every year on the 3rd and I will be missing it this year.  Hopefully it does not rain tomorrow because I plan on being at a beach all day and I don’t feel like being soaking wet all day long.

I must get back to work and end this blog already, but please do me one favor tomorrow.  In the middle of a beer, hot dog, and fireworks, just take a few moments to remember the reason you are free now to do all of those things as you please!

So Friday I ventured off to Orlando with my girlfriend for her birthday (yes we found silver heels!)  First thing of the night was going to Downtown Disney and visiting Cirque Du Soleil.  If you have not witnessed this event live, you MUST!  It was the most incredible, shocking, speechless thing on earth.  I want to go back again already.  At times there is so much going on that you don’t know what to look at.  But overall, it was magical.

After that, we headed over to Pleasure Island because my girlfriend would be 21 in 15 minutes, so we stand in line to get into a club and at 11:54 exactly they say “I’m sorry but you have to wait 6 minutes”  I was furiated because I timed the line wrong and figured it would be midnight by the time we got up there.  So we went back in line and made it right at midnight.  We had a lot of fun in the “Motions” nightclub, and then headed over to the “BET Soundstage” for about 15 minutes.  I was pretty disappointed in the fact it only stayed open until 2 a.m., I would have figured at least 4.

Saturday morning came and we spent all day (10:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.) at Magic Kingdom.  We were able to accomplish every single ride and attraction to see.  We watched the fireworks, which are just magical and worth the price of a ticket by themselves.  They give you a little button that says “Today is my birthday” and when I went in March with my aunt, they gave her free water, ice cream, and etc. at every place we went, my girlfriend did not get a single thing free i was mad.  Well, she did get happy birthday sang to her at the Noodle Station (in Tomorrowland) and they gave her a little dessert!

One of the things that made my day had nothing to do with Magic Kingdom.  We asked a gentleman to take our picture and he did and as I was walking away I heard him say, “Hey, are you diabetic?”  And I turned around and proudly said, “Yes, I am for almost 5 years now.”  He pointed to his daughter, about 7-8 years old, and says, “she is too, she’s had it since she was 8, show him her pump honey”  She showed me her pump, same one I had.  Then came the cutest thing I ever heard in my life (I can’t believe I just said cute), she looked at me and said, “My last number was 104, what was yours?”  I responded with, “I haven’t tested for a few hours, but it was 180?, and the best advice I ever had followed, “Well, thats a little high, you should probably test again!”

Like I said, a magical experience!