Would you be willing to give up some of your life to avoid treatments?
According to a short article in yesterday's Washington Post that's how some folks with Type 2 diabetes feel about their illness.
Those of us with Type 1 don't have that luxury. Giving up insulin for even a short amount of time could literally be deadly. And maybe that's something else to be thankful about. Reading this article reinforces my belief that Type 2 is a much harder disease to live with than Type 1. And I know just how difficult Type 1 is to deal with.
I completely agree with this quote from the article:
The study findings show "that we need to find better, more convenient ways to treat chronic illness," Huang said. "It is hard to convince some patients to invest their time and effort now in rigorous adherence to a complex regimen with no immediate reward, just the promise of better health years from now."
Type 1 diabetes treatment is 'easier' than in the good old days. But then the 'experts' go and change the rules on us, so I feel like I have to work harder at better control. No wonder taking care of diabetes is so tiring!
Last night we had a picnic at a local park with a lot of friends from Families with Children from China New England. We shared stories about our visits to China, admired all our collective children and ate some delicious moon cakes.
Then it was off to the nearby pond where we listened to the story of Houyi and his wife Chang Er who became the moon goddess.
And then the children got to light some small candles and set them afloat in the lake. We watched them and the beautiful full moon rising over the lake.
I just read on the Yahoo! diabetescgms group that Dexcom has a special price on their system through September 28th. Instead of $800 for the system, the price until September 28th (tomorrow) is $350. Update is that it's $450. Remember this cost does not include any sensors. A four pack of sensors will cost you an additional $240.
This seems like a great deal for a system that works well for the most part. But before purchasing it, I'd suggest asking if there is any guarantee that allows you to return it within a certain time if it doesn't work for you. CGM systems are not for everyone. And the only way you can figure this out is by trying one.
Apparently the deal is being kept quiet. Contact Dexcom at 1-877-DEXCOM4 (1-877-339-2664) for details. And let me know if this rumor is not true.
Note: I still own shares in Dexcom. I try not to let this influence what I say about about the company or its products.
Apparently there's a photo project currently underway. It runs from September 17th through September 23rd and it's organized by the same people who brought you the best-selling A Day in the Life and America 24/7 books.
It's actually called America at Home. But I thought, why not make part of it be Diabetes at Home?
After all there are a lot of Americans living 24 by 7 with diabetes. And it impacts our lives from the moment we get up in the morning till after we fall asleep at night.
Thursday is Dinner Time. Maybe you can cover how you test your blood sugar and bolus before dinner to cover the meal.
And this Sunday is Bedtime Rituals. How about set changes, or making sure you can hear the CGM alarm if it goes off at night for one of your children, or night-time testing while your kids are asleep?
Also, any day you like you can just submit general photos. Maybe show how we all live normal lives despite what we drag along with us because of diabetes. And I'm not just talking about supplies here.
Please submit quality photographs that are likely to be considered for the book. I've also created a Flickr group, Diabetes at Home, where you can also upload your entries for all to see.
Maybe we'll have a real competition there, let me know what you think about that idea.
Sorry for not noticing this sooner. What are you waiting for? Get shooting.
Today I'm at home in bed. I've already slept for most of the morning.
Cold? Flu? Stomach bug? Nope, this time (for a change) it's really due to diabetes.
I ate a relatively carb free meal last night. When I woke up at 1 AM with my mouth like sawdust thinks immediately didn't feel right. My blood glucose was 301 mg/dL. So I dutifully bolused, adding an extra 15% to the dose because correcting those super highs definitely takes more insulin. I even used a Super Bolus to move some of my basal delivery forward. Drank about 20 ounces of water and went back to sleep.
Woke up again around 4 AM. Mouth still sandy. Blood glucose had dropped to 258. Clearly all was not right with my insulin delivery. So I took a correction shot using an insulin, ripped out my infusion set and replaced it. And added some additional units of insulin. Having my Dexcom gives me more freedom to slightly overdose because it will wake me (or my wife) if I go too low. And downed another 16 ounces or so of water.
Woke to the alarm at 6:15. Tested and it was...246. What's going on?? At this stage I'd taken almost half my normal daily dose between the hours of 1 AM and 4:15 AM. Looked at my new infusion set and it had blood in it. So ripped that one out and replaced it. And drank more water.
Note: Drinking a lot of water when my blood sugar is high is something I learned many years ago. It helps your body reduce the sugar concentration in your bloodstream and it eases the strain on your kidneys of taking the sugar out of your system. Plus high blood sugars give you cotton/sawdust/sandy mouth and you just need water. But don't stop at just one glass.
Looking at my Dexcom, my blood sugar had been above 240 since before midnight (sometimes a lot above). I felt lousy. So replaced my infusion set again and overdosed slightly again and went back to bed.
No breakfast, high blood sugars and feeling exhausted definitely put me on the candidate list for a sick day. I managed to sleep from 9:30 till noon and feel a lot better. Having blood sugars under 150 is priceless.
Moral of the story. Sometimes diabetes just wears you down. Now if I hadn't been using an insulin pump I might have been better off in this case. But this kind of stuff only happens may once every two years or so. So I'll take it over constant shots.
Gasp, hard to believe that another year has passed by. Didn't you just get the last flu shot a few months ago?
If you have diabetes, you should have a flu shot every year. And with the shortage of flu vaccines that we've had in recent years you can't start thinking about this too early.
The good news is that many pharmacy chains offer flu shots at their stores. I've used this approach for the last 2 years to get a flu shot close to work with only about a 20-minute wait. Right now I can get flu shots in my area in early October and I'll be there in line.
To find out when and where flu shots are available near you, go to the store locator page for your favorite pharmacy (Brooks, Rite Aid, CVS, or Walgreens) and select their option for Flu Clinics or Adult Immunizations. Then fill in your zip code and see what they have near you. You can also use the American Lung Association Flu Clinic Locator.
Once you've found a clinic location date and time that suits you, make sure to mark the details in your calendar. Nothing worse than driving there and finding you just missed it.
My other advice is get there slightly early in case they run out of vaccine. Bring your health insurance card and cash. You may be able to give the insurance information and not have to pay anything, or you may need to pay a co-pay. Since the flu clinic is generally not affiliated with the store they generally only take cash.
Yesterday Abbott issued a warning for users of Precision Xtra, Optium, and other blood glucose meters. Apparently if the meters are dropped on a hard surface parts of the display may not work properly. They say the lot number or date information may not display correctly.
But I assume this also means that an 8 might display like a 7 or another number. If only some of the segments are wired properly then you could still think it's working when it's actually displaying false values.
So if you drop your meter, use the display check function to ensure the display is fully connected. On the Precision Xtra the display check is done each time you switch on the meter. It should look like the picture on the left.
If you see any part of the display is missing, then my suggestion is to contact Abbott at the number on the back of your meter.
Maybe you've some anecdote to share that helped you in the early days of diabetes. Or you just want to celebrate the amount of time you've lived with this disease.
Whatever your reason, please consider joining the Diabetes Veterans group and letting others see how we've managed to make it this far.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on September 10, 1972. 35 years ago today.
I went to the hospital after a doctor diagnosed me during a phone call with my Mum. I had many of the usual Type 1 diabetes symptoms:
Extreme thirst. I was drinking non-stop. Unfortunately a lot of it was sodas of various sorts.
Non stop peeing. See previous item. Some of this would have been my body flushing excess sugar from my system.
Weight loss. In the week or so before going into hospital I lost almost 12 pounds.
Leg cramps. I'd wake up in the night and pound my calf muscles trying to get them to relax. This was one of the worst symptoms for me.
Fatigue. I thought this was because of waking up to pee or fix the leg cramps.
Ketones. At the time I had no clue what this was. I just had a fruity smelling breath, especially if I belched. And I seemed to be doing that a lot.
Infections that won't heal. I had a small cut on my foot that had been there for over 2 weeks and wasn't getting any better.
When I got to hospital my first blood sugar test was 800 mg/dL. (The usual range for someone without diabetes is about 75 to 100 mg/dL.) Shortly after getting there I had my first insulin injection, and I've been taking it ever since.
Now it's 35 years later and what's to look forward to? Plenty I think.
Yesterday at my bike ride, I spoke to someone from Dr. Faustman'sresearch lab in Boston. They're continuing to make progress on a possible cure for Type 1 diabetes. Personally (this is just me talking) I'm expecting that I won't be taking insulin by the time my 50th d-anniversary rolls around. Maybe because of Dr. Faustman's work, or because of other research that's happening around the world as I write.
And what happens if I'm wrong? Well that's OK. It won't be the first time.
God has some plan for me. He's a good guy and he's taken great care of me and my family so far. So I'll just continue to place my trust in Him, because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
My bike ride progress report. I am about two thirds of the way, there are some really nice hills so far and lots of shade and enjoyable scenery. I am hoping the last one third is a lot easier than the first two thirds. I am looking forward to getting back and enjoying a nice sandwich and cool drink. Click here to listen
I drove down to Connecticut this afternoon for my bike ride tomorrow. The organizers have done an awesome job marking the route. I drove around it after arriving and it looks challenging and fun.
You'll notice that I now have a Patient Blogger badge in my sidebar. I applied for this after reading Amy's great post about ethics. I hope this gives you some confidence that I work hard to write a blog that follows these rules.
Tomorrow I'm planning to try a little experiment in live blogging. Recently I signed up for a Jott account. Marston made me do it! This nifty web 2.0 application lets you send messages by calling a toll-free number and talking carefully. I've set it up so that I can Twitter and/or blog from my mobile phone.
So tomorrow during my bike ride I plan to use Jott to update Twitter on how things are going. I may also post to the blog during a rest in the ride. We'll see how well it works in real life.
Just a quick note. My local newspaper the Lowell Sun published an article about my bike ride on Sunday. If you'd like to read it, it's available on the web, and I also scanned it in. And I'm still taking donations for the ride. ;-)
Update: I forgot to point out that my good friend Manny, who is the mover and shaker behind TuDiabetes.com, did all the heavy lifting on this article. He sent out a press release to several local papers for me and generated the interest that led to the article. Thanks Manny, you're a star.
In a strange and somewhat sad coincidence the facing page has an obituary for a 29-year old who died from diabetes complications. I think folks without diabetes don't realize this happens.
I know where the week went. After a lovely Labor Day, I've been taking the children to school. Which means I've been adjusting my sleep schedule. And that's just...tiring.
Anyway, here are some random things.
Terry Keelan has a poll on TuDiabetes asking how people tape up their Dexcom sensors. For those not in the know, the Dexcom 7 continuous glucose monitor has sensors that can be used for more than seven days. I previously blogged about how to reset the receiver to do this.
But one of the problems is that about day 7 the adhesive on the sensor starts to fade. So how do you tape it up to keep it on. Inquiring minds would like to know. Have a look at the picture Terry provided
Then go to TuDiabetes and let him know your technique for keeping Dexcom sensors in place.
Some time ago I created the Diabetes Search Engine using Google's Custom Search Engine facilities. I think the DSE provides very useful results when you want to search about anything related to diabetes. Building the engine was a little tricky, so I wrote an article about the process. The article was published today on O'Reillys ONLamp.com web site. Warning, the contents are strictly for Geeks with Diabetes. You have been warned.
Finally, this weekend in Connecticut is the big ride. I've already raised over $10,000 to support the important research by Denise Faustman into a cure for Type 1 diabetes. But you might like to stop by and cheer the riders on. The race is in New Canaan and most riders will be coming back between noon and 12:30. Maybe I'll see you there. I'll be the 50-year old diabetic with the big grin on his face! And hey, it's not too late to support me.
Diabetes: technology, devices, software, and other stuff.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN CGM to track my blood glucose levels. I also take Symlin to help control my post-meal blood sugars.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
