#WaitingToNotWait

If you have been part of the DOC for any amount of time, you’ve probably seen the hashtag #WeAreNotWaiting moving around Facebook, Twitter, and numerous blog sites. While I have not been able to participate, I’ve had the pleasure of watching the Nightscout / CGM in the Cloud project grow at an astronomical rate and touch thousands of lives.

So what is Nightscout and why are people not waiting?

Flying with an Insulin Pump

My vacation a couple weeks ago was my first time travelling with my insulin pump. I’ve been pumping with the Medtronic 530G since December 2013. There was a bit more preparation for travelling with the pump, but overall I had a very good experience and wanted to share a little of what happened to me, and what to expect for those who haven’t air-traveled with a pump.

The first thing to keep in mind is that diabetes doesn’t play fair. Just because you will be gone for 2 days doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pack insulin and site change supplies. For my 5 day trip, I packed two vials of insulin, two separate blood sugar meters and their corresponding test strips, and enough supplies for three site changes and two CGM changes, and their insertion devices, overtape, band aids, and the list goes on.

Was all of it necessary? Absolutely! A site could have failed, a vial could have been dropped and broken, etc. I split the site change supplies between my carry-on bag and my suitcase so that way if I lost my luggage, I’d still have some supplies with me. (Insulin, of course, was in the carry-on).

We left a day early and spent the night in Chicago. I was worried because we had to get a hotel with a fridge/freezer for my insulin, which cost us a bit extra, but was worth it of course. I was able to re-freeze my cooler pack in the freezer part and keep my insulin cold in the fridge. (This is the cooler pack I used for my insulin – I found it stayed quite cold for several hours longer than advertised!) Don’t forget, do NOT pack your insulin in your luggage! It needs to be carried on for so many reasons. Just trust me.

(photo from cnn.com)

The TSA looks so scary, but I promise they aren’t!

Accountability 9/19/14

It’s been a crazy month so far. Ever since we returned from California, everything has been GO GO GO! We’ve shot two weddings and a maternity session so far this month, with another wedding tomorrow and one more next week. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

A brief illness combined with the GO GO GO has meant for some crazy blood sugars. I haven’t been on the CGM since the 11th (well, midday on the 12th) until today because I just needed a break, both mentally and physically, which is why I don’t have a graph for that week.

This report shows my sugar trends for the past eight weeks. Can I just say how happy I am to see that my average BG reading on my finger sticks and on my CGM are within 5 points of each other? And also that 140-145!!! If this is true, then my A1C is roughly 6.5 – 6.7 which is amazing because my target A1C is 7.0!

Be expecting more posts soon once things slow down a little bit. 😉 I have some exciting reviews coming up and lots more photos of my adventures!

Flipbelt in Action

We shot a wedding this weekend about three hours from home for a friend from high school. 

I used my Flipbelt for the first time on a photoshoot (Previously I would just wear a skirt/shirt combo and clip it to my skirt). This enabled me to wear a dress!!! Woo! The bride and groom know I’m diabetic, and when I showed the bride my pump in my belt, she exclaimed “I thought that was just a cute sash! I had no idea your pump was in it!”

The Thought Process for One Meal

The scenario:
You’re at a family cookout. You arrived at 11:30am because cooking started at 11. You hadn’t eaten prior to arriving. It is currently 4pm and you still haven’t eaten any more than a handful of chips to keep your sugar in range, so you’re famished. But it’s finally time to eat.
For fun, you don’t have access to ANY nutrition labels so you have to operate based off prior knowledge and educated guessing.

The selection:
Hamburgers
Hot dogs
Brats
Buns for burgers and dogs
Roasted chicken
Small veggie tray
Potato salad
Pasta salad
Grape salad
Potato chips
Devilled eggs
Fudge
And some amazing mystery cake that has frosting and drizzled caramel and pieces of candy bars sprinkled on top

Blood sugar prior to meal: 124

So what’s the plan?

Who Would Want to Associate with Someone Whose Entire Future is a Series of Question Marks?

The other day I was feeling down. Not just a normal down, but a MAJOR down that I don’t feel very often. I was frustrated. I had been having one of the worst blood sugar days since diagnosis full of rapid spikes and rapid drops, and the combination of that plus hormones plus stress was not a good mix.

I’ve always had a a wide social circle. It’s one of the benefits/downfalls of being “an introvert with an extroverted personality” (Read about that here). But over the years due to different reasons, my circle has shrunk. And it feels like since diagnosis and especially since I became a diabetes advocate, I’ve become distant from nearly everyone.

Just because I’m bionic doesn’t mean I’m not still human. It doesn’t mean I don’t need support too. I try to be strong but I’m far from it most days.

Musing in between lows, I tweeted the title of this post. Why? Because it’s a valid thought and an honest observation. When someone goes through something that is just too difficult to understand or deal with, the [unfortunate] normal human response is to pull away. Self preservation? Probably..

I mean, I get it. Diabetes is flippin scary. A lot of diseases and disorders are scary, and it would probably be difficult to be friends with someone who could be alive and “fine” one day and not wake up the next. That is hard for me to imagine and I’m the one that could not be here tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t need love and support too.

So love a diabetic today. They might need that little extra boost of love and support more than you realize.

(Special thanks to my friend Amanda Arce who said the right thing at the right time in response to my tweet. Thank you!)

Changes

Some things in my life are changing. I’ve never been very athletic. I played a couple sports and was mediocre at best. It just isn’t me. But this morning, I started running.

Every morning I was in California, Frank got up at 4:30am to go running. Every single day. I’ve never been that dedicated to anything in my life. But why not? If he can do that, why can’t I?

So this morning I got up at 5:30, laced up my Nikes, turned up Daft Punk on my iPod and started running. And it was hard, SO hard. I barely slept last night because I was so nervous. Would I be able to go more than a block without stopping? Would my blood sugar crash partway through? Would I absolutely HATE it?

The Vacation Post, Part Two

For Part One, click here.

So far I’ve covered all the events that happened up to Friday night. I did this on purpose because Saturday was it’s own adventure.

The Vacation Post, Part One

I’m home from vacation and so overwhelmed with so many different emotions – happy to be home, sad to be back in Michigan, missing the Wisneski family (four legged members included, of course). I’m going to try to write a coherent post so, let’s see how this goes.