Weather Havoc . . . .

I have a bone to pick with the weather lately.  First the hurricane knocked out our power on Sunday morning.  We finally got it back last night.  And now, I’m under the weather.  I can’t fully enjoy having electricity because I’ve got a blaring head-ache, a very upset stomach, and blood sugars that won’t come down.  (Luckily, no ketones though - I’m keeping a close eye on that.)  At least I have the television to keep my mind off how cruddy I feel.

While I’m recuperating and enjoying some mindless T.V., I’ll leave you with a quick update about the Wego survey I blogged about earlier.

“You may remember that I’m currently participating in WEGO Health’s Reader Insight Program – helping me to improve my blog with direct feedback from you, providing you with instant social media tips, and finding the Health Activists among you for exclusive invitations to WEGO Health programs.

The program has been going on for about a week, and WEGO Health just sent me an update. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Visits to the Survey: 15
Completed Surveys: 7

The program will be going on until next week so if you haven’t taken a moment to take the survey and share your thoughts yet, I hope you will! Here’s the link to share feedback with me: http://www.wegohealth.com/quick_quiz?source=bittersweet&actigrader=2”

Irene and iPhone

Hurricane Irene hammered my little costal town over the weekend. Luckily we came through safely with very little damage.

On the downside, we're going on twenty four hours with no power. Not to mention the wire the fell from our house yesterday evening and is drooping precariously close to traffic coming down the street - the garbage trucks barely cleared it this morning. The fact that the crews haven't been by yet to fix it is probably a bad sign. News reports are saying it could take a full week to restore power to everyone.

Thank goodness for my iPhone, which has kept us from feeling cut off from the rest of the world. (My laptop is now simply a large iPhone charging device.) Thank goodness also for my neighbor with a generator who remembered that I'm diabetic. He came over yesterday to take my spare insulin and will store it in his refrigerator until our power is back. It may have lasted the outage, but better safe than sorry - or better safe than insulinless.

I hope all is well in your corner of the world. Until the power is back, you'll find me knitting and reading and cleaning (but not vacuuming).

Sent from my iPhone

Mail Call . . . .

You know you’ve got friends in the DOC when you open your mail and find . . . .


. . . . glittery unicorns!!!!  So fun!

Do you ever wish you’ll open your mail and find something fun?  Email your address to me and you just might!!

A night with my basal rates . . . .

When you’ve had diabetes for almost 32 years, there aren’t a lot of Diabetes Firsts left to encounter.  But last night, I had one.  When Pete told me he had a work dinner to attend, I knew it was the perfect time to eat an early supper and run my very first basal test.

To say I researched exactly what to do would be an understatement. I re-read the basal testing chapter in Pumping Insulin and  I photocopied the basal testing worksheet.  Coincidentally, Penny at A Sweet Grace wrote a post about basal testing yesterday that was full of great information and useful links to articles Gary Scheiner has written explaining basal testing.  At 5:00 I bolused for dinner and ate.  At 8:00 someone in my neighborhood was grilling something really tasty and the smells wafting in the open windows almost broke me, but I stayed strong and fended off the urge to have a snack.  And at 10:00 the testing started.

So, how did it go?  Like most things in life, there was some good and some bad.  Obviously, waking up every two hours to test my blood sugar isn’t fun.  (Seriously, a HUGE shout-out to you D-Parents.  I loved you before, but after getting up all night for blood sugar checks I have an even deeper appreciation for you!)  In fact, I was restless the whole night just knowing I had to get up again soon to test - so basically my entire sleep pattern was thrown off.  Also, eating dinner at 5:00 is way too early for me.  I was so hungry all night.  I may have even wished for a good hypo so I’d have to end the basal test and have a snack.

Despite my griping, the test was very worth it!  In the morning I had some really solid data to show me what is going on at night.  Here is how it stacked up:

10:00 pm	. . . . 69
12:00 am	. . . . 89
2:00 am	. . . . 98
4:00 am	. . . . 118
6:00 am	. . . . 117

Now waking up with a fasting number of 117 would be okay by me.  But the thing to consider here is that my blood sugar rose almost 50 points over the course of the night.  On a normal night, when I’m not planning to wake up every two hours to check my sugar, I wouldn’t go to bed with a blood sugar under 70.  I’d probably shoot to be around 100 to 120, which could give me a fasting in the 170s.  It was also interesting to see that by 6:00 my blood sugar is starting to head back down again.  So based on this overnight basal test and on the other blood sugar trends I’ve been seeing, I did some small basal tweaking across the board.  And so far today, my numbers have been 105 (after coffee but before breakfast), 104 (after breakfast) and 93 (before lunch).

Am I looking forward to running my next basal test?  Nope, I can’t say that I am.  But I most certainly will, because the data I collected was pretty valuable!  Are you a basal testing novice like me, or a basal pro?  Do you have any insights or tips to share for my next round of testing?

Running is hard, Diabetes is harder.

Choosing to become a pumper was a good decision for me.  Along with better management, it’s brought me more freedom when it comes to food.  I can work in foods that I used to avoid.  I have more flexibility on when and what I eat.  But those benefits came with a price.  And for me, that price has been going up two clothing sizes, at least  Just because I can eat all those tasty foods, doesn’t mean I should have.

So I’ve once again started to work on getting healthier and smaller.  I’ve had several false starts - way too many to link all of my “I’m going to start exercising regularly” and my “I’m really going to lose some weight this time” posts here.

I’ve begun doing an overhaul on what we’re eating and swapping out some staple foods for healthier options with fewer calories.  And last week, Pete and I started running again.  For the first run my blood sugar was too high, but I took a chance that the run would bring it down.  It didn’t.  I was stuck in the 200s for hours while I took correction after correction and drank enough water to make me float away.

For our next run, my blood sugar was in the low 70s.  So I drank some juice and ate a few glucose tabs.  I was sure I had it all worked out and was ready for a successful run this time.



But diabetes had other plans.  As we were doing a slow walk back home for a cool-down, I knew I was in trouble.  I felt like I wouldn’t make it around the corner to our house.  So I pulled my meter out of my runner’s pack and wasn’t surprised to see that 39 glaring back at me.   Here’s the weird thing . . . . . I didn’t eat the icing tube in my pack.  Our house was in sight and my low-brain somehow convinced both Pete and myself that I could simply finish the walk home and treat there.  (I know, crazy, right??)

Running is hard.  But sometimes, diabetes is harder.  But I’m not going to let it get me down and I’m not going to let it sidetrack me from my goals.  I’ve simply taken notes on what my blood sugar was, how much I had eaten, and how much more I should’ve eaten to keep me from going low during that run.  And when we run tomorrow night, I’ll use that information to determine what to eat before we head out.  It might work.  It might not.  It might be will be kind of frustrating.  But as long as I keep trying, diabetes won’t win!

Twice as Nice . . . .

It’s a fact - Connecticut is a small state.  If you drive an hour in any direction, you’re pretty much guaranteed to cross a state line.  The interesting thing (as far as today’s post goes) is that for such a small state, we have three JDRF chapters.  Pretty great, right?

I’ve been blogging about my involvement in T1 Adult Outreach Planning with one of the local chapters (here, here, here and yes, here).  But after reading a great post from George last month, I was inspired to do a little more and I signed up to participate in the Promise to Remember Me campaign.  A short time later, I was contacted by JDRF Grassroots Outreach in D.C. about the need to fill four volunteer advocacy positions at one of the other JDRF chapters in Connecticut.  After some emails and phone calls and an in-person meeting with the local chapter’s Executive Director, I’m ready to take another step forward with my advocacy efforts.

I’m very excited to say that I have accepted the volunteer position of Advocacy Team Chair!  I’m getting ready to do my training and then jump in and get started on organizing and engaging local advocates for our community.  I’m also extremely pleased to be fortunate enough to work with two local JDRF chapters!

I will admit to being a little bit nervous . . . . I’ve never really done any government advocacy before.  However, I understand that JDRF  has been working very hard to provide all of the resources needed to succeed.  I’ve already been in contact with my wonderful regional mentor.  There are training programs set up, both self-guided and staff-guided.  There is plenty of support and guidance in place for me.  Once I learned this, it was easy to chase those nerves away!

Twice the advocacy, twice the outreach . . . .  twice the fun!!  I couldn’t be happier!

Boost your activism & share your thoughts . . .

A few weeks ago I participated in a Blogger Insight Discussion with Wego Health.  While the participants all blogged about different health issues and measured effectiveness in different ways, there was one common insight all of the bloggers on the call shared.  We all agreed that we are never quite sure what kind of content our readers enjoy the most.  Granted, we all write what we know and what we are inspired to share - but we all agreed it would be nice to also have some feedback on what the people who visit our blog like to read about and what they want to see more of.

With that in mind, I want to share a new project from Wego - The Reader Insight Program.  The idea is that you take a survey to find out what kind of Health Activist you are and you have the opportunity to sign up for information from Wego.  (If you’d like to opt out of the Wego emails, simply uncheck the last box on the survey page before hitting the submit button.)  Now here is the cool thing . . . you also get to answer a few questions about my blog and tell me what you like and what you want more of!  For the details, directly from Wego, read on . . . .

I wanted to share this new project I’m working on with WEGO Health to learn more about my blog and about all of you who read it!

First some background: For those of you who aren’t familiar with WEGO Health, they’re a different kind of social media company focused on helping Health Activists – folks like me who use the internet and social media to connect with others around health topics. WEGO Health’s mission is to empower Health Activists to help others, and they offer Health Activists the chance to get involved with video through WEGOHealth.tv, to learn and connect through webinars and chats, and to gain a voice in the healthcare industry through insight panels and the Health Activist Speakers Bureau.

Now WEGO Health is launching the Reader Insight Program – helping Health Bloggers like me to gather feedback from their readers, while telling you a bit about yourself. At the same time, WEGO Health has a chance to see if any of you are Health Activists eligible for their programs. I know many of you out there are dedicated to sharing health info and I have a feeling you’re Health Activists too! 

I agreed to try the Reader Insight Program because I’m excited to learn more about why you visit my blog and how I can make it even more valuable for you. I hope you’ll take a moment to share your thoughts with me by taking WEGO Health’s Quick Quiz. By taking the quiz, you’ll help me learn what you need – and you’ll also receive customized social media tips for yourself!

A few things to know about the program:
- WEGO Health will gather your quiz responses and feedback for 2 weeks starting today. After the 2 weeks are up, they’ll create a Reader Insight Report for me (then I’ll share it with you!)
- Your responses will be shared with me anonymously – please be candid!
- Your information will not be shared or sold by WEGO Health
Thank you for helping me make my blog even more engaging! I can’t wait to see you what you think!

So if you are interested in exploring your own Health Activism, would like to hear more from Wego, and would like to give me some anonymous feedback on my blog, please do take the unique Wego Health Quick Quiz that has been set up for me!  I'm very excited to hear what you have to say about Bitter~Sweet!!

The common thread . . . .

Tuesday evening we held our second Adult T1 Outreach event with my local JDRF chapter.  The gathering was a bit smaller than our first event - probably due to summer schedules and rainy weather - but we had a nice sized group of ten.  Once everyone arrived and settled in we went around the table and introduced ourselves.  We shared how long we’d been living with diabetes and what d-stuff we use.

We were quite a varied group.  Diagnosis ranged from about 2 years ago to over 50 years ago.  We had Animas, Minimed and Cosmo pumpers, along with MDI-ers.  We had Dexcom and Minimed CGMers.  We had Accu-Chek, Freestyle and OneTouch meter users.  It made for some great conversations.  We all talked about the pros and cons of whichever d-equipment we each use.  It was interesting to see how things some considered an important pro were not of much consequence to others of us.  And some features (or lack of) that people hated, others didn’t mind.  It really comes down to figuring out what is important to you and what works best with your lifestyle.  Personally, I’m less concerned about a meter taking the smallest blood sample needed and more concerned with the convenience of my meter being all-in-one.  It would be nice if my pump was waterproof, but since I don’t do much swimming I’m happy to trade that benefit for the convenience of having my CGM read right on the pump.  It was pretty cool to hear the reasons why others love the d-equipment they use and to compare and contrast our choices.

As I drove home that night, I thought about everything we discussed and I realized it wasn’t our differences that were foremost in my mind.  Instead it was our common thread.  I thought about my conversation with the woman next to me, diagnosed about five years ago, and how she said she sometimes wished she could just eat the same thing every day.  And how relieved she was hearing about the time my endo reminded me that I can’t shoot for “perfect all the time” blood sugars because that will never happen.  I thought about one of the ladies, who like me has been living with diabetes for over 30 years, saying something along the lines of “I really feel like it's just constantly trying to figure things out - I'm adjusting and reacting on a daily basis”.  Those words really stuck with me.  Because our common thread was this:

None of us, whether we’d been living with diabetes for two years or fifty years, none of us had it completely figured out yet.  Diabetes is constantly changing.  What works today might not work tomorrow.  We are all just trying to do the best we can every day.

And to me, that’s what a support group is all about . . . .