Just got back from the Endo and the visit today was a new experience.  I decided to do one of these new multiple patient visits.  It is more like a support group type visit.  First, let me start off with this.  If you are type 1, don’t ever do these sort of visits.  You need more in depth analysis of your CGM or pump readings, etc.  It took 2 hours almost.  The endo goes over each persons labs and changes and lifestyle in front of the whole group in order for you to learn from other people experiences.  It wasn’t a bad thing, it just took too long and when she got to me, she said, I’ll have to see you 1 on 1 for more in depth, so it was a little time wasted, but it was good to be there and supportive for other people and giving feedback.

Overal, I was happy with my weight and unhappy with my A1C, but all my other numbers were perfect.  My weight there was 251, but that is with jeans, wallet, phone, 3 meters, keys, insulin pump, and a logbook.  That weight is very skewed.  This morning on my scale at home I weight 233, so I’m not too upset with that weight, because I had at least 10-12 pounds of extra stuff on that scale.

Now to the embarassing number, 7.4.  I knew it was going to be high because of my lousy eating habits, lack of exercise and stress over the last 90 days.  The last 2 weeks have been great, but that doesn’t make too much of a difference on the A1C.  I am positive that my next blood test is going to be better.  I also made a promise to wear the sensor everyday for the next 5 weeks until my next appointment.  Made some changes to my basal rates, still taking too much insulin, but that is starting to come down.  My basal rights are high, but the amount of insulin I use on bolusing has come down tremendously because of dieting.  I used to average anywhere from 20-25 units of insulin for a bolus / correction at mealtime and now I am down to about 10-15 units.

Well I hope you all had a great day.

This morning was the first time I think ever that I had a little bit of hypoglycemia unawareness.  I tested my blood sugar because I felt thirsty and it ready 65.  So I tested again because that couldn’t be right, 57.  Ok, third time is a charm I think to myself, 68.  Well I don’t feel shaky or sweating or weird at all, so I ate a few glucose tabs and that was the end of the that.  My sugar hasn’t gone above 130 all day long.  Which is good, but I don’t like the fact that I couldn’t detect that low I was  having.  Guess I really need to put that CGM back on!

So tomorrow is the doctor’s appointment.  As of today I am 14 pounds lighter then I was about 45 days ago on my last visit.  Hopefully that stays true to the next time I have an appointment and I will be down to the 220 range.  I’m still not going to stop there, not until I reach 200-205, then I will stop trying to lose weight and maintain that weight, maybe put a little more back on, but hopefully in the muscle format and not fat format.

In the middle of all this dieting, it is apparent that I must test my sugars a lot more often because my eating habits are not as much, so I am using less insulin.  Also, the more active I am becoming the more sensitive to insulin I become which will hopefully bring down my basal rates.  Then that means I can at least try out these other pumps that don’t hold 300 units of insulin, or else I’d be changing sets every day and a half, not something I want to do.

Well I hope you all have a great day.

Blood, Blood, Blood.  Had my bloodwork done this morning, and what an event that was.  I scheduled an appointment for 8:30.  So I overslept a little, big deal.  I get to the office at 8:35 and sign it at 8:35.  Next thing you know it is about 9 and I haven’t been called up yet, and this is just to give them the doctor’s orders, not even to draw the blood.  So I walk up to the counter and ask the miserably lady working at the desk, “Excuse me, I had an appointment at 8:30 and was wondering when…”  And I am cut off with a “Yea, well you were late so now your appointment is cancelled and you will fit in when I’m done with the appointments.”  I look at the sheet and say I was 5 minutes late and somehow, my 3 was scribbled out and turned into a 4, and she said, no you came at 8:45 so your 15 minutes late, so now you have to wait.

Wow, did that just piss me off or what.  So I calmly sit down, but I start thinking about it, and now I’m like, great my sugar is going to go up now right before the test.  So finally after an hour wait I get called back to have the blood drawn and the lady says, “You had an 8:30, why didn’t you come back earlier”, so I just politely said, “Ask your co-worker”

Now, after 5 years with diabetes, wow, it’s been  that long, I’ve had my fair share of blood being drawn, but this morning was the most ever. I usually get 1 tube, maybe 2 at most drawn, today it was 5!  I have never donated blood before, so this was the most ever and it drove me crazy.  I actually watched this time because I never did before, and I was like oh what the heck why not, it will be quick.  Then all of a sudden i see 1 tube, 2 tubes, 3 tubes, 4 tubes, 5 tubes, by this time I’m feeling a little weird.  Luckily I was fine, but now I’m nervous to hear my results.  My appointment is Friday morning, so we shall see.

Any aggrevating / funny A1C stories you have?

Monday Monday Monday.  This hasn’t been a bad start on a Monday however like some others are.  So the weekend was a little fun filled, but nothing special.  Golf was good yesterday.  We played best ball and we blew it on the last hole, but I couldn’t blame it on my sugar because it was a perfect 115.

I have to get my blood work done on Wednesday for my doctors appointment on Friday.  I have to get a lot of blood taken because there is a lot of tests that I have to have because it’s been a while since my last time.  This one may not be my best A1C, but I think the next one will be because I am losing weight, eating healthier, exercising and all the good things.

I will be going to the gym again tonight to do 45 minutes on the bike and then some quick upper body lifting, nothing heavy, just straight lightweight just to get some work done.  I figure that I don’t like doing push-ups, so I’ll just do a quick little bench press or so.  I love testing my sugar while I am on the bike at the gym and people look at my weird like what the heck is this kid doing!

Well, it’s lunch time folks, so I hope you all have a great day.

Now I am just starting to get irritated with these morning blood sugars.  It’s ok for it to happen once in a while, but every damn morning is killing me, literally.  I didn’t even eat past 7:30 p.m. last night and it was stil crazy high.  I was up somewhat late last night working, so that has to be what creeps it up.  When I go to sleep earlier, it is not as bad.  I guess for the next couple of nights I will just get to bed early and not do any work late into the night and see how that works.

On the bright side I have stuck to my plan and have made my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday this week.  As tempting as it is, I am sticking to it.  I have gone to the gym everyday also.  Heck, I even spent about 45 minutes on the bike there last night.  I am down 2 pounds since Monday also.  I said before, it is so easy for me to lose the first 10-15 pounds because it is just all excess fat.

That just reminded me, I have to get bloodwork done either tomorrow or early next week for my appointment next Friday.  I will probably do it Tuesday of next week because tomorrow is Friday and I don’t really want to get up too early on a Friday to get blood taken out of me.  Friday’s are my day to sleep in, I don’t get up util 7:45 those days.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day.

So my parents have been gone for less than a week, I’ve been back to work for less than a week, and I’m leaving to go to New Orleans in less than a week.  Everything seems to be less than a week.  My vacation went well and it was a great relaxation.  I didn’t put on too much weight, and really didn’t have any highs at all, which I was really surprised about.  One thing that I did get reminded about because I completely forgot after I had to cancel my appointment was when my mom asked me what my A1C was.  Ooops, I never rescheduled my appointment.

So, I leave Friday morning to head out to New Orleans for the ADA’s 69th Scientific Sessions.  It should be a great show.  I look forward to learning a lot and meeting a lot of people.  I will be there for both work and pleasure.  Let me know if any of you are going.

I can’t believe it is already June 1, and now hurricane season.  Which means that it’s time to stock up on supplies and make sure that I have an emergency plan ready to go.  No more waiting until only 1 vial of insulin left, because you can never trust the weather.

Well, I hope you all have an amazing day and great rest of the week.

My parents are flying in tomorrow for a well deserved short little vacation.  This obviously means eating very, very, very bad.  I am going to try and put a control on the amount that I eat because I know there will be some crappy food.  I am also going to make sure that I work out every single morning.  Both of these things are going to be very difficult to do, but I am going to try my best to do it.

I also am scheduling an appointment with a new endo down here, so I am pretty excited about that.  Before I actually make the appointment though, I have to get my bloodwork done which I had to cancel my A1C test last week because I was not able to make it.

I haven’t worn my CGMS in about a week, I need to fire that thing back up and put it back on tonight.  I am going to be doing a lot of cleaning along with watching the Magic game tonight, so it should be a good time to see how up and down my sugars are reacting to the game.

Well you all have a great day now, and hope you are all submitting your story to come see the race down in Homestead Miami.

Last week’s Diabetes Educator of the Year award ceremony was great.  I was honored with a nice little plaque and watching the winner receive her award was great also.  Diabetes Education is so important and this award really means a lot to me, which is why I accepted to be a judge for it.

I have started exercising again and eating a little lighter, so I am excited to begin my weight loss again.  My parents are coming down for vacation later this month, so I need to make myself look somewhat skinnier.  Plus, I have a lot of trade shows coming up over the next few months, so I have to fit myself back into all those nice dress clothes that I have.  I hate eating myself out of a new pair of jeans.

Orlando Magic started their series last night with Boston and before the game started I said to my girlfriend, “I hope this series isn’t like Boston’s first round, with all the overtime games, my heart can’t take something like that”  And what do you know, they were up like 30 and the Celtics came back to about 4 with a few minutes to go.  This stuff isn’t great for a diabetic!

My A1C is scheduled for next Monday, but it is a non-fasting one, so I better eat healthy Sunday night, so I don’t wake up with a high blood sugar, because that just makes the blood work even worse, especially if my A1C level is too high.

Sorry for the randomness, but my mind is just all over the place.

Have  a great day everybody!

Just scheduled my A1C for next week.  I know it is going to be a little higher then last time, but I know exactly why and it is my own fault, so it can be corrected and I am taking steps today to correct it.  I have no time at all to make it to the gym, however, I am freeing up some time at night because exercise is extremely important.  I went golfing this weekend, which was great exercise, but I am now extremely sore today.

I have planned out my meals for the entire week in order to keep my calories at a certain level.  That is the easy part, now the hard part is actually following through on it.  Eating at work is simple, but more difficult once I get home, I know it’s usually the other way around, but that’s how it is for me.  Salads for lunch, and over eat for dinner, same story.

My blood sugar levels while I was golfing were pretty steady.  It is a great sport to be able to blame a bad shot on a low blood sugar.  Everytime that I sliced a ball, it was only because my blood sugar was low, obviously!

Everyone have a great day!

Ahhhh…what a relaxing weekend it was.  Friday night there was a Panthers game, and we lost, which that sucked but no big deal.  Saturday morning my girlfriend and I went down to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the whole day at the beach and pool. 

We had a voucher for a free night in a hotel so we decided to just use it to get away for the night and relax from the hectic schedules we have been living.  I brought about 4-5 infusion sets with me just in case.  I started to sweat so much at the beach on Saturday that I could feel my infusion set falling out.  I tested and I was about 110 and I knew I wouldn’t be more than an hour or so longer at the beach without going to the room, so I decided to just take the site out. 

Well we decided to go to the pool after that and relax and read a little bit, but my blood sugar did not go crazy at all.  Once I finally went back to the room and tested again it was 185.  So I put another site in and it was off to Hooters to watch the Michigan St. game.

Now, I’m going to speak briefly about how great that game was before I talk about last night’s game.  Even though last night was a near massacre, it still feels good to have a team go to the National Championship when nobody thought that they could do it.  I had all the confidence in the world in them (that’s what happens when you watch every single one of their games), so I knew how well they could play.

After getting home from all that beach and fun on Sunday, it was time for another Panthers game, a big game in fact against the Penguins from that other sports city in Pennsylvania (I’m originally from Philly, so that’s why I mention it like that).  My blood sugar went a little low during the game, mainly because I wanted to body check the kid behind me!  It was great watching their best player, Sid the Kid (Sidney Crosby) get beat up by one of our players.  Tonight is another huge game againstthe Philadelphia Flyers, yes the team I liked when I was a little kid, but I grew out of hockey for about 10 years, that’s how I became a Panthers fan.

Well, about diabetes…. I received my script for my next A1C test, so I will have to schedule that sometime soon.