The same but different . . . .

After Thursday’s post-exercise blood sugar disaster I was very nervous about doing another work-out.  Since I had spent many hours with moderate ketones I knew I should skip a work-out on Friday, and frankly I was relieved about that.  But after breakfast on Saturday morning, I decided it was time to squash my fears and give the same routine another go.



So I did the exact same workout I devised with my Wii.  One song on Just Dance 2 as a warm-up.  A ten minute Island Run on Wii Fit Plus.  And a session with my personal trainer on EA Sports Active.  I’ll admit I started to panic when I heard my CGM Rise Rate alarm go off during the Island Run.  I debated stopping, testing and perhaps bolusing, but decided to just finish the routine and see what happened.  Sure enough, when I was three exercises away from the end of the work-out, my CGM Fall Rate alarm sounded.  I again decided to finish up and then test my blood sugar and see where I was.

My post-exercise finger-stick showed a 132, and my CGM was reading 124 and falling.  Now THOSE are closer to the results I’m used to seeing after exercise!!  Actually, even those are a little bit on the high side for post-exercise numbers, but I wasn’t worried about it.  I was just glad that I didn’t see the same huge spike as Thursday.  I was overjoyed that, although my routine was the same, the results I saw were very very different!!

Stuck . . . .

Yesterday I decided it was high time to stop making excuses and start getting some exercise again.  After all, shorts-weather is right around the corner.  (Yes, I know it really isn’t right around the corner, but let me lie to myself, okay?  It’s the only way I can deal with all the snow and frigid temps!!)

The workout felt great, but when I finished my CGM showed me above 200 with double up arrows.  I know that exercise can sometimes cause blood sugar to rise, but it never has for me.  I’m always dropping by the end of a workout.  I debated if I should take a correction or not.  Surely the exercise would have me dropping soon.  (Spoiler: The exercise did not drop me.  And don’t call me Shirley.)  My gut told me to go ahead and correct - and it’s a good thing I did.

This was just the beginning!!

For the next seven hours I was stuck between 240 and 310.  I tested every hour and took corrections.  I changed my site out.  But nothing would get me moving downward again.  When I checked for ketones, the stick lit up really fast and turned that “Moderate” shade that I hate to see.  And that’s when I really started to get scared.

I don’t know what the worst thing is about a blood sugar that is stuck up high.  Sometimes I think it’s the fear I feel when nothing I’m doing will bring it down.  The terror when the ketones start showing.  The feeling of helplessness and failure.  The physical effects of achiness and thirst and headache and nausea.  Or the frustration of trying to figure out what caused this marathon of highs.

Yes, maybe that last one is the worst.  I don’t know what exactly caused the hellish afternoon I had yesterday.  It could be some weird response to the exercise, even though this has never happened before.  It could have been that my site went bad, even though the site change didn’t seem to help.  It could have been some rouge germs that my body is trying to fend off, because I do feel like I’m coming down with something.  Or it could just be that diabetes is messing with me and my friends.  Because Kelly had a weird high streak too.  And George was flat-lined.

Nope, I guess I’ll never actually know what happened to my blood sugar yesterday.  And that is very discouraging - because how can I work to prevent it in the future if I don’t know what caused it in the first place?

Hard Core

For the almost three years I’ve been a pumper, I’ve always used the same style of insertion set.  The Minimed Quick-set.  I’ve never had any real problems with it and I like that it has three options of tubing length.  In addition, I always use my Quick-Serter to insert my site and usually that all goes well too.

Once in a while, though, the Quick-Serter gives me a bit of a problem.  Like last week, when the sticky stuff somehow got stuck to the walls of the Quick-Serter.  Instead of hearing a happy SHWOOP when I pressed the Quick-Serter button, I heard an odd FWOP as the needle went partially into me and the tape adhered to both me and the Serter.  I peeled everything off as best I could, reloaded it back into the Serter and tried again.  Of course, it seems that particular site had a mad crush on the Serter, because once again to clung to it for dear life.

So now I had a decision to make.  I could waste the site and start over with a new one.  Or I could try, for the first time ever, to insert in manually.  I decided to be very cheap brave and give manual insertion a go.  I took a deep breath and SMACK I popped the site right in.  It wasn’t all that bad.  It did cross my mind that three insertion attempts might have done some damage to the cannula, but that wasn’t the case and the site worked just fine.

When it came time for my next site change, I thought about the manual insertion I had done last time.  And I thought about how it might be nice to know I don’t have to depend on the Quick-Serter.  So once again, I did a manual insertion.  It went well, but it definitely hurt more than when I use my Serter.  But you know what?  I think I’m going to keep inserting my sites manually from now on.  Because in some lame way, it makes me feel kind of Bad-Ass.  And who wouldn’t want to feel a little more Bad-Ass?

Perpetuating the Myths

Yes, we look exactly like this!!

On Tuesday we were all anticipating the huge snowstorm that was expected to (and for once did) hit New England.  Pete and I have our weekly ballroom dance lesson on Tuesdays and I noticed my instructor had jokingly put the following in her Facebook status:

“Getting ready for snow- ugh. Remember, cancelations will not be accepted, just walk to the studio! I'll be there with hot cocoa and dancing!”

Because I can never pass up a chance to be a wise-ass, I left the following reply:

“If you make me drink hot cocoa, we're going to have to do Swing for the entire 45 minutes or my blood sugar will skyrocket!! ;)”

She joked back, we had a few laughs and decided she’d make me some coffee instead, and then some other students started leaving smart-aleck comments for her as well.  And that’s when I began to have second thoughts about my comment.

It’s fine to joke about the hot chocolate with Juliet, because after years of lessons with me she understands a lot about diabetes.  She’s one of those great people who is sincerely interested, asks intelligent questions and listens to my answers and explanations.  She never judges, and heck, she even has her friends bring me things from Germany to treat lows!

But what about the other people who read her Facebook page.  Looking at my comment they will probably think that I can’t have hot chocolate because I’m a Type 1 Diabetic.  And while it’s true I usually pass it up because I don’t find hot cocoa as bolus-worthy as a block of actual chocolate, the fact is if I wanted the hot chocolate I could certainly count the carbs and dose for it.  You know that . . . . I know that . . . . BUT most of the people reading her Facebook page don’t.

Was it wrong of me to make a joke like that?  We grumble a lot about the Diabetes Police, but did I just give them more ammunition?  Have you ever made comments in jest that you later regretted because they perpetuate the myths we are fighting so hard to banish?

Shocking Confession . . . .

I feel that I need to admit something.  Something that I know will come as a great shock to most of you.  But I can’t hide it anymore.  So here goes . . . . .

I change my lancet every morning!  *gasp*



That’s right.  It’s true.  Okay, I may miss a morning here and there every few months - but for the most part, my lancet gets changed each and every morning before I take my fasting reading.  No #BluntLancet for me!!

I sure hope that doesn’t get me voted out of the Diabetes Club!!

3 Fortune Cookies: January WEGO Blog Carnival

This month for the January Health Activist Blog Carnival Amanda is challenging us to come up with three fortunes for ourselves and our health community.  Or three messages from a Dove Promise or three quotes or three Snapple lid facts.  I chose to do a mix of these and came up with phrases that I hope will inspire both me and other health activists to do great things in 2011.


Fortune Cookie:  Confucius say even longest journey begins with one small step.
I think it's easy to think about what we want to do as health activists and get overwhelmed.  Or to feel like we have goals but aren’t quite sure how to make them happen.  The important thing to remember here is to just keep moving forward.  Each step, no matter how small, will bring you closer to where you want to be.


Dove Promise:  Don’t wait for opportunities, make opportunities.
Amy K’s post Speaking Out as a Health Activist inspired this one.  Amy urges us to look for events that might be great opportunities for us as speakers, and then inquire about the possibility of being added to the schedule.  This is wonderful advice than can be carried into other areas of Health Activism as well.


Favorite Quote: A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. ~Maya Angelou
I don’t have all the answers.  I’m guessing you don’t either.  But that’s okay.  The important thing is that we use our voice and share our experiences with our community.  Just knowing others are going through the same struggles you are is a huge help, even if there is no solution for the struggle.  Just knowing you aren’t going it alone is a comfort in itself.

“This post is my January entry in the Health Activist Blog Carnival.  If you’re interested in participating too, you can read all about here: http://blog.wegohealth.com/2011/01/04/january-habc-3-fortune-cookies/.”

Daring . . .

Yesterday I did something pretty daring.

I put my infusion site and my CGM sensor in my abdomen.  *gasp*


I know, I know, you are all thinking “Big deal, everyone uses their tummy.  It’s prime real estate!”  Well, not for me.  When I was on MDIs I used my stomach almost exclusively.  As a result, I built up a large amount of dreaded scar tissue.  Sites and sensors go on strike upon insertion there, bouncing off the scar tissue as if it were rubber and leaving me with a bleeding hole.  If by chance I do get a site or sensor inserted they don’t work well at all and get very irritated very quickly.  So I’ve avoided using my abs for the past two years, plunking all of my sensors and sites into my lower back and butt cheeks.

The thing is I can feel scar tissue starting to form back there too.  I’m running out of real estate fast.  So I thought I’d give the old tummy a try again.  After its two year break, maybe it will be willing to perform a little better?  The site and sensor went in just fine yesterday.  They felt very irritated all day but are doing better so far today.  My CGM readings have been pretty accurate.  And I think my site is doing okay.

Or maybe it “was” doing okay.  I woke up with a fasting of 67.  Awesome!!  But the Greek yogurt I ate for breakfast an hour ago has just set off my CGM high alarm.  I show a 170 with two up arrows.  My finger stick confirms a 190 with a .35u correction needed.  This is not a normal post-Greek yogurt reaction.  Paranoia tells me the site has gone bad already.  The (small) rational part of me says it could be a million other things, including the sore throat I woke up with this morning.  So I’ll try not to be paranoid, I’ll keep an eye on my CGM graph, and I’ll just wait and see . . .

Goals, not resolutions . . .

I’m great at making resolutions.  I’m a champion list maker for anything and everything.  I’m also really great at picking areas of my life that I feel I’ve done an utterly crappy job.  So resolution lists get made every New Year’s, and often at multiple times during the year as well.

As great as I am at making resolutions, I’m not so good at keeping resolutions.  Yes, I do make sure my resolutions are measurable and attainable and all those other tips we read about resolution making.  The problem, I think, is that I try to change too much at once.  I have my long list of what I’m doing wrong and what I need to fix.  And after a few days, I get totally overwhelmed and discouraged and just give up - one resolution at a time.

This year, I’ve decided to do something different.  Instead of making a list of resolutions, I’m going to work throughout the year on improving myself and my life, one small step at a time.  Each week, I will take a baby step toward doing something in my life better.  The next week, I’ll pick something new to focus on - hopefully while keeping up on the “resolution” from the week before.  If I start to slip on one of the goals, there will be no reason to abandon the whole process, because I can just restart that goal again when another week starts.  The idea is to be constantly moving forward throughout the year, one tiny goal at a time.

My goal for this week is an easy one, yet one that is pretty important.  You see, I’ve been getting sloppy with my diabetes management over the past month.  The first thing that slips when burn-out hits is my oral medications.  Throughout the month of December, I’ve been really (really really) lax about taking my cholesterol and blood pressure medication, as well as my iron, Vitamin D and Vitamin C pills.  There really is no reason not to take five seconds to swallow down these capsules, other than pure laziness with a bit of forgetfulness mixed in.  So, since January 1st, I take my morning pills while waiting for my coffee to brew.  And I take my evening pills before hopping into bed.  Easy as pie.  (Mmmm, pie.)  A goal that I know I can continue through the year.  Which leaves me feeling good and ready to choose a new goal to work on next week . . .