Settling In

More changes came our way this month. After giving things a lot of thought and trying my best to make it work, I resigned from my job and accepted a position at a different company.

There's no need to go into much detail, but the job and hours were just not right for me, even if my coworkers were great. So, I'm on to the next chapter and really am enjoying my new job. It's a huge relief, and I'm able to do the kind of work I like.

That said, the career move has also helped out with my blood sugar spikes and schedule. Anyone with diabetes, particularly type one, will tell you that keeping a relative schedule is important to the management of the condition. Now that I'm working standard office hours with little variances in meal times and activities, my numbers are flatter and I'm using less insulin.

I've also been taking my Vitamin D supplement for five weeks. It's hard to say if it's been helping with anything, or if I'm just feeling the cumulative effects of the new job and settling in here in Ohio. However, I'm feeling great, so either way, it's a win.

I turned 29 a few days ago, and I'm looking forward to a great year!

Diabetes and The Other D

A lot has happened in the past two months. I'd like to say that my schedule and stress have evened out, but that is certainly not the case. Moving is hard work! That's all I'll say.

On the upside, Anthony and I have gotten to spend a lot of time with both of our families since moving back, and have been able to reconnect with some old friends we haven't spent much time with for the last several years.

I've also gotten hooked up with a great new Endo, Dr. M, and a CDE. We're working on some basal testing right now in preparation for my next appointment. For those unfamiliar, this involves skipping meals and adding lots of finger pricks to see how my pump's basal insulin settings function without the influence of food and extra insulin.

And today, I had a follow-up discussion with Dr. M about some bloodwork she had drawn a couple of weeks ago. All in all, everything was great. Kidneys, cholesterol, thyroid and all of those other things that can secondarily go bad with Type 1 are doing fine.

Except for one. Now I have a new "D" to worry about - a Vitamin D deficiency. And suddenly, lots of little things make sense. Higher levels of stress and anxiety, feeling more tired than normal, and, I've been sick more times this year than I have probably been for the last several years combined. All of these little things could be affected by low Vitamin D levels.

A web search says that this is very common, and likely very under-diagnosed. To give me a quick boost, I am taking a once-a-week mega-prescription Vitamin D pill for a couple of months, and when that brings me into a normal range, I can rely on over-the-counter supplements. There's not a lot we can do to get more D from diet. Even Vitamin D Milk is not concentrated enough to help much - you'd have to drink several glasses and eat five servings of salmon every day to reach desired quantities of the vitamin. Humans evolved with the ability to synthesize their D from the sun, just like plants. Since we drive cars, sit behind windows (or in windowless offices like me) and wear sunscreen, we just aren't getting what we need from nature. This is not to say that I don't do plenty outdoors. Anthony and I go for evening walks, and we bike and golf on the weekends. However, like my pancreas, my photosynthesis just needs some help.

I took my first dose with dinner this evening, and I hope I will be able to see some benefit from this little miracle vitamin soon.

Newness

Last week, I finally pulled the trigger and went to see a new endocrinologist in Dayton.

It had been about six months since my last appointment with Dr. K in West Virginia, but with all of the changes in insurance, moving and scheduling with a new doctor, this was the soonest I could make it in.

My new endo, Dr. M, is a tiny, soft-spoken, sympathetic woman who knows her stuff. The first thing she did was upload all of my pump data, right there into the exam room, so we could go over my plans. She agreed with most of my assessments, and was very pleased with my numbers considering the general stress involved with moving, selling a home from another state and starting a new job and life in a new city.

We outlined a couple of areas that need improvement, and she had some helpful ideas for handling the challenges provided by my new job. It has me managing nighttime events after a day at the office several times a month, which obviously, confuses my eating/insulin schedules. Dr. M was very understanding that this is a transitional period, and was hesitant to make many changes to the routine that was working for me a few months ago and is still largely okay.

All in all, it went better than I expected. As stressful as these recent changes have been, I was definitely worried about the "getting to know you" appointment.

I go back to see her in a month for a "real" appointment and to see how the numbers are panning out when things have (hopefully) settled down for me personally. She also referred me to a CDE (certified diabetes educator, for those who don't know the lingo) who she likes all of her patients to see. I've never been to a CDE, having just seen an endo or family doctor in the past, so I'm looking forward to having a team look out for me.

And on a positive note since my last post, thanks to my parents' garage serving as our storage unit for now, Anthony's and my apartment no longer looks like this...

When do you tell?

It's time to catch back up to speed here on Sweet Feat. You may remember me writing about moving and job hunting last post, so  you can probably guess what I've been doing...

Our house in West Virginia is empty (still for sale) and our apartment in Ohio is so full that it overflowed to my parents' garage. And, yay, I started my new job this week!

No, it's not a pager.

Which brings up the question all of us Type 1s are familiar with - when do you tell? Being just four days in, the opportunity to disclose hasn't really presented itself yet. And I didn't exactly want to lift up my shirt (see right) during the Monday staff meeting and say, "Hi, I'm Courtney - check this out!"

Being as I have a blog and post to Facebook, this obviously isn't something I'm keeping a secret. Also, with several pending friend requests out to my new coworkers, they'll probably figure it out soon enough.

So, my plan is to just roll with it as it comes up naturally. I had a moment today, when someone asked if there was anything they should know about me, but a client walked in and it was no longer the right time.

Aside from that issue, everything has been going very well with the move and both of our new jobs. We also picked up some new bikes last weekend for the awesome Dayton area bike trails. We went for our first ride on Sunday, and plan to go this weekend too. I have a feeling we'll be doing nothing but biking and golfing all summer!

As Freddie would say, "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike..."

It's good to be a Buckeye again!

I'm a terrible blogger...but in my defense, there has been so much happening since the holidays!

Long story short, Anthony accepted an awesome new job and we are officially moving back to my hometown in Ohio. We thought long and hard about leaving the home we've built in West Virginia, but in the end, it was impossible to say no.

January was filled with getting our house on the market, packing, apartment viewing, moving and stomach flu.

During the week following Christmas, Anthony and I, plus about a dozen other family members from his side, came down with a nasty virus that made us very ill for about a day, and nauseated for several more days.

A couple of weeks later, after listing our house and verifying Anthony's new employment details, we started the search for an apartment to make home while our house sells. We found a winner, and lucky me, I also found another strain of the stomach flu. Apparently I was uniquely qualified to pick up both the Greater Columbus and Greater Dayton variants of the virus. Good times.

Anthony started work at the end of the month, so we moved some of our furniture into the apartment, while I kept (the nicest) majority with me at the house. I am staying behind for now, waiting for our house to sell and trying to find a job in the Dayton area. When one or the other happens, I'll be joining Anthony.

With all the stress of moving and job hunting, my blood sugar has been well-behaved, barring the two times I had the stomach flu.

Now onto the scary diabetes portion of this post:
During my first round of The Virus, in the three hours preceding the onset of sickness, I stayed at a steady 65. I ate an entire pack of Twizzlers, half a bottle of sugar tabs and drank juice to try and bring up my number. Sometime during this episode, I realized my Glucagon injectable (an emergency dose of sugar) was expired. By five years. Oops.

After nothing working, I started throwing up everything I had ingested in the last three hours and told Anthony that we may need to go to the ER. As a desperate last attempt to get some sugar, I dissolved some table sugar in half a cup of hot water and managed to keep it down for almost an hour, which was long enough for the sugar to work. It was the last thing I kept down for the next day, but after The Virus really hit, my sugar skyrocketed anyway. It happens, unavoidably, when you're sick.

Lesson learned? Make sure your Glucagon is current! This could have ended in a trip to the ER or worse, but it was okay.

A1wtf?!

As you may or may not have noticed, I've been absolutely ignoring this blog for the past month or so. I have no explanation other than a general burnout. We've all been there, I know.

Adding to this feeling, I had my endocrinology check-up last week. I took an at-home A1c test a month ago, just to self-monitor, and was pleased that it showed a 0.3 drop from my last appointment. Needless to say, I went to my appointment last week feeling very confident that I would be solidly in the "under 7" category.

As my fellow T1's know, every endo appointment comes with that hold-your-breath moment when you get your report card A1c number. This appointment felt different. I was confident and upbeat, excited even, to hear my number. As Dr. K flipped through my electronic chart, I just KNEW he would say 6.5. Imagine the sheer disappointment when he reported that it was a full point higher than that at a 7.5. With the at-home test that registered a 7 only four weeks ago, coupled with my last appointment at a 7.3, I just don't get it! I've had my CGM on almost constantly in the past several weeks, and I've seen nothing to verify this higher number. Could it be a fluke?

Dr. K understood my frustration, and practically (and comically) panicked himself when I teared up a little while I explained my at-home test and confusion over this number. We went over my CGM graphs and tightened some settings on the pump. I go back in a month for a retest, which I am again expecting to be better. While Dr. K wouldn't say if he thought the number might be an error, he agreed that it didn't make sense.

Logically, I know that this A1c is just a blip on the radar. Emotionally, though, I am so disappointed and despondent over this number. Until the next appointment, I am stalking my numbers in a borderline OCD fashion, and aiming for the best! Because, really, what else can we do?

Playing Catch-Up

First off, I apologize for not updating in a few weeks. Long story short: I still have no laptop cord, took an awesome beach-house vacation with ten of our closest friends and got out of the habit of writing.

My diabetes was very well behaved on vacation, including long stints without the pump attached because of the heat on the beach. In fact, my numbers were almost too good, resulting in lots of minor lows. But, being out in the hot sun and being pretty active all day will do that. The only downfall was the night when we were playing beach volleyball and got swarmed by mosquitoes. I lost count at thirty bites, and one of our friends probably had double that!

Since vacation, we haven't slowed down. Two weeks ago, we spent a weekend visiting my college roommate, her husband and their adorable almost-one-year-old. Then, this weekend, we attended The Greenbrier Classic Golf Tournament with a couple of great friends. The tourney included a concert. I don't listen to country music, but I have to say that Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban gave great shows!

In addition to all of our travels, Anthony and I have been keeping up our running. We haven't found a 5k to attend yet, and our training has slowed a bit due to the heat.

To help supplement some cardio for our missed days, I stopped by Brickhouse Cardio to try their hour-long $5 Zumba class last night. Wow! What a workout, and what a lot of fun! I did have a really stupid low blood sugar mishap (checked in at 50 halfway through class, after a granola bar) and had to run next door to get a Coke (stupid moment for forgetting to unpack my sugar tabs from this weekend's trip). While I'm not going to sign up for membership yet, I will definitely be going back soon. For just $5, it's great exercise, and, it's air-conditioned!

A Diabetes Gold Star

Last week, I had my three-month endocrinology appointment, which was technically a five-month appointment thanks to scheduling issues on both ends.

Dr. K was pleased that I had lost some weight and I had great bloodwork returns. Most important, though, we were both excited to see that over the last two appointments, my A1c had dropped by 1.5! Which means I am almost at my goal of under 6.5. All in all, I gave myself a gold star for the appointment. I take my appointments seriously, and I'm a people-pleaser, so I frequently leave Dr. K frustrated and have a pity-party car cry on the way back to work. Walking out with a positive report is always a relief!

As for 5k training, we have been keeping it up this week despite the stormy weather. The muscle strain I mentioned last time is feeling better, and I hope it will be completely healed soon. I've been able to up my distance, anyway. Anthony and I have decided not to do the 5k this weekend because neither of us feels ready yet. It's summer, though, so I'm sure we'll find one in a month or so.

I tried typing this post from my new iPad 2, but couldn't get it to load pics or scroll correctly. The iPad is not Blogger format compatible, I guess. It's a hand-me-down from my mom, who won it in a weight-loss competition at her school (she's an educational aide). She is uncomfortable with the Apple foreignness, so I inherited it. It arrived just in time for my laptop cord to melt through and start throwing sparks. Yeah, fun stuff.

I've been having fun playing with the iPad. It's a pretty cool product. Especially the ridiculous options in the photobooth app...this kaleidoscope photo goes out to all my fellow type 1s, who, I know, love Diet Coke as much as me...

It's Hard Out Here for a Pump

After weeks of rainy, stormy weather, we had a weekend of sun and hot hot heat. And it seems to be here for the season, finally!

Summer entered with a bang just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, during which Anthony and I did lots of yard work, golfed, partied and generally spent a lot of time outside in the 90+ degree sun. In other words, we were sweating our asses off for the better part of three days!

As a type 1 diabetic on an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (cgm), this presents a whole set of problems the average person doesn't consider. This weekend's sweatfest caused me to lose a four-day old cgm sensor, which just seemed to melt off my leg, and caused a pump infusion site's adhesion to lose its sticky, which meant I was leaking insulin. Luckily, I guess, insulin smells weird, so I noticed pretty quickly.

Another consideration is the effects of the heat on the insulin being stored inside the pump and then transferred to me. If I let the pump get too hot or expose it to too much direct sunlight, the insulin can start to go bad by losing its potency. Think of leaving a beer out in the hot sun then re-refrigerating it...eww, right?

So, how does one get around these issues? Usually, if I know I'll be outside and sweating, I'll just unhook my pump and leave it somewhere cool. On beach vacations, I'll leave it shaded in a purse or insulated bag next to me. If I'm not being physically active enough to keep my blood glucose in the normal range, I'll go reconnect for a few minutes and give myself a bit of insulin to get by. As for the cgm and infusion sites melting off due to heat and sweating, there's not much you can do to prevent it. I tend to lose three or four sites every summer to this issue, and since the hubby and I are being decidedly more outdoorsy this year, it's bound to happen more often.

Anthony and I are still going strong on the Couch-to-5k program, now in week four. Week three seemed like a breeze, but bumping up to five-minute runs plus the new 90-degree weather has made this week's jump a little more difficult. We're planning to do a 5k in Huntington at the end of June, intimidatingly called the WV 5k Championship. It says the race is for runners of any skill level. I hope so, but the name alone is scary!

Blog Week #7: What We've Learned

As blog week ends, we have been asked to say what we learned from other bloggers in the diabetes online community (the d.o.c.).

The things I have learned from fellow bloggers in the past week, and long before that, are too numerous and profound to name. The d.o.c. is a place to gain perspective, comfort, ideas, humor and so much more.

I could never name all the reasons I'm glad to have the d.o.c., so let me just say THANK YOU to all of my online "friends" who inspire me everyday. It was wonderful seeing the camaraderie this week and I've now picked up even more blogs to follow.

On another note: I'd also like to thank our wonderful family and friends who donated to today's JDRF Walk for a Cure. While the experience was not exactly what I expected (more on that this week), it was for a great cause, and I'm thankful for all of your donations.

And one more note: A big congrats to my husband who graduated this weekend with his MBA. I'm so proud of him!

Blog Week #5: Awesome Things

Let's take a look at the bright side - being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes has come with some perks. Every finger prick, shot, pump-site change and SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess) insulin dose comes with a balance of learning (on a bad day), gratification (on a good day) and wonder (where the F did that number come from?!).

Here are some of the finer points of diabetes:

• I love being right.
  Exhibit A: my three-hour readout after a lunch of beef stir-fry, fruit and a handful of almonds.

• Learning about nutrition. Most people eat what they want and don't think much about it unless they are trying to be healthy or lose weight. Diabetes and insulin pumping have taught me a lot about the delicate balances in meals - carbs, proteins, fats, fiber - and how they all work together and affect the absorption of glucose into cells and the bloodstream.
• Real food is way better than sugar free. A lot of non-D people eat sugar free because they think it's healthier. It's really just chemically enhanced. I learned the hard way that "sugar-free" treats are, first, not really "sugar-free"; and second, made with sugar alcohols. You remember when Olestra hit the potato chip market and the problems that caused to peoples' digestion? Yeah. Sugar alcohols do that, too.
• Having a really good reason to exercise. Aside from the obvious benefits to overall fitness, exercise is also instrumental to keeping blood sugar regulated. I can tell a big difference if I take more than a few days off from physical activity.
• I honestly believe I am healthier because of my diagnosis. I pay attention to details I never bothered with before, and would probably still ignore.
• Having cool technology is a must. At any given time, I am carrying no less than three pieces of life-saving technology. My insulin pump, my glucose meter and my continuous glucose monitor are almost always with me, and in two of the cases, actually attached to me. While carrying all of this stuff can be cumbersome, it's tolerable when I think about how much easier they make my life.
• Other bloggers. I have learned so much about diabetes and life in general from all of the other people who have put their stories into the world wide web. The diabetes online community is a great place of learning, camaraderie and venting.

Keep on the sunny side!

Eggs - 2 carbs, 31g protein!

Blog Week #4: Wild Card Post "Outside the Box"

Today's Blog Week post was supposed to be "Ten Things I Hate About Diabetes." However, since I did my own Top Ten List a couple of weeks ago, I'm picking a wild card today: "Thinking Outside the Box" to produce something creative.

So, while many talented bloggers will probably express their "outside-the-box" posts in inspiring and much more creative ways, I have decided to take this post verbatim and show you something "outside-the-box", literally.

Yay for new shoes! Anthony and our good friend Jacob have decided to take up the Couch to 5k training program and I am tagging along...at a much slower pace, a few laps behind. The program seems do-able, and should be a great way to help shape-up my layer of chub A1c number. (FYI, non-D readers, the A1c test is like a report card for your blood sugar numbers, averaging from the last few months.)

For the record, after our first two sessions, I still hate running. It is definitely an outside-the-box activity for me! Wish me and my shoes luck!

Blog Week #3: Bloopers

Funny/embarrassing moments thanks to my diabetes:

• During an excruciatingly boring meeting, my insulin pump fell out of my pocket and banged on the chair leg. The entire room jolted upright and later said they were glad for the distraction because everyone was dozing off. 
• When my pump was hidden in my cleavage and notified me that my blood sugar was low by buzzing and lighting up, someone said "Why are your boobs glowing?"
• Saying "I'm high" and having someone take it the wrong way.
• The many times I've had to explain that my insulin pump is not a pager/phone/iPod.
• Or better yet, having my friends jump in with something like "she's a robot" or "yeah, it's a pager since this is 1995" 

Blog Week #2: A Letter to Me

A letter to myself, the day before diagnosis.

To me, on December 31, 2004...

Your life is about to change.

Right now, you are celebrating because you fit into those jeans even though you know you shouldn't be losing weight. You're drinking champagne at a New Year's Eve party off campus and really want to chase it with a gallon of water. You woke up last night with terrible leg cramps and your pinkie fingers were tingly all day yesterday. By tomorrow, it will all seem so obvious.

You will cry. You will ask every new doctor who visits your hospital room if the last one was wrong. You won't understand, and you will mourn your state of oblivion. Your parents will mourn, too, and you will cry for their guilt too. Because it's not anyone's fault. You'll learn that type 1 is a numbers game. Dad will get it pretty quickly, as will you. Mom is worried, as she usually is, and overwhelmed - cut her some slack.

When you call Anthony from the hospital, know that he'll be scared too. When you get back to campus, he will look at you like he's trying to figure out if you're okay. Tell him you're okay, because it's the truth. The day you get back to campus is the first day you'll see a normal blood sugar number, so you're feeling pretty confident by now. You will give your future husband his own crash course, and later, your roommates and your friends...and you will feel better knowing that those close to you know what you're dealing with. You will learn about all of this together. They will all look out for you.

Don't get bogged down by the worries and the what-ifs. You will learn so much about yourself. You will learn about nutrition and all of the nuances of how food is used by your body that it will become second nature to you. You will have days when your blood sugar is high for seemingly no reason and you will take too much insulin out of sheer anger that you will then have to treat the resulting low. You'll get the hang of it, most of the time.

Tomorrow, your life will change. But, I promise, you'll be just fine.

Blog Week #1: Admiring our Differences

Before we get into the differences among the diabetes community, let's have a quick overview of what happens in our bodies.

When you eat, your body absorbs the nutrients in your food and takes them to various places in your cells. One of these nutrients is a carbohydrate. Carbs are turned to glucose (sugar) in the bloodstream, and are then taken into your cells to be used as energy. Insulin, a hormone released by the pancreas, acts as a key to unlock your cells and allow the glucose into your cells. Without adequate insulin (type 1) or without cooperation from your cells (type 2), glucose will stay in your bloodstream and build to dangerously high levels. This is the root definition of diabetes.

The basic types of diabetes can be broken down as follows:

• Type 1, in which the pancreas produces little-to-no insulin. Type 1s must take insulin through shots or insulin pump therapy to replace it in their body. The amount of insulin required by each person is different based on weight, age, diet, activity level, etc.
• Type 2, in which the body gradually loses its ability to effectively use its own insulin through either poor usage by cells or insulin resistance. This can be treated through some combination of diet, exercise, oral medicines or insulin shots. Each individual's treatment is personal and varied.
• Gestational diabetes, in which a pregnant woman develops some degree of type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Generally, pregnant women are placed on insulin therapy for the safety of their fetus. High glucose levels during pregnancy can lead to large babies and birth defects. Although pregnant women with any kind of diabetes are classified as high risk, they can have normal, healthy pregnancies as long as they monitor their blood glucose closely.
• Latent Autoimmune/LADA/Type 1.5, in which an adult develops a combination of symptoms from both types 1 and 2. These symptoms can be slow-onset like type 2 and may eventually adopt the appearance of type 1. Patients with this form are often misdiagnosed.

Although there are many different types and treatments, we all have the same goal: to have healthy and normal lives.

As I admire our differences, I see that it doesn't really matter what type you have or what treatment you use, as long as you do what you need to do to stay healthy.

*A note to anyone who found this post from the D-Blog list: I realize this isn't 100% on topic, but since this blog is new, I thought this would be a good topic to personalize and use as a tool for my friends who read but may have no idea about diabetes. While I absolutely admire all the bloggers I read, I felt a post about them might be lost on my readers.

2nd Annual Diabetes Blog Week

Next week is the Second Annual Diabetes Blog Week. From May 9-15, diabetes bloggers across the web will be participating in this event organized by one of the blogs I have followed for some time, bittersweetdiabetes.com. I've been reading other people's blogs for several years now, and am excited to be able to participate now as a blogger.

Each day features a themed writing prompt, designed to show different perspectives on some common issues facing the diabetes community.

Here's a preview of what you'll see here next week:

• Monday, 5/9: Admiring our Differences
• The differences and similarities in the diabetes community - types, treatments, goals, etc.
• Tuesday, 5/10: Letter Writing Day
• Write a letter to someone/something involved in your d-life. It can be a doctor, your disease, parents, spouses, medical devices, etc.
• Wednesday, 5/11: Diabetes Bloopers
• Funny moments inspired by your screw-ups.
• Thursday, 5/12: Wild Card - Diabetes Art
• Step "outside the box" for creativity.
• Friday, 5/13: Awesome Things
• Great things you've done or learned since your diagnosis.
• Saturday, 5/14: Snapshots
• Photo day
• Sunday, 5/15: What We've Learned
• What have you learned from others in the diabetes community?

I hope you'll follow D-Blog Week with me, and also, please remember that next Sunday May 15 is the JDRF Walk for a Cure. Please give what you can for this great cause.

The Type 1 Top Ten List

Borrowing a page from Dave Letterman, I present The Type 1 Top Ten List, a.k.a., some things that your Type 1 friend would like you to know!

10. It's pronounced dia-bee-teez. Despite what Wilford Brimley may tell you, it is not dia-beet-us. It is also not called "having sugar."

9. Yes, I can eat that. So long as I take the appropriate amount of insulin to cover the carb content, I can have anything I'd like. So please don't judge my food choices - after all, chances are you really don't need that cookie either!

8. Don't tell me about your family member/distant acquaintance who lost a foot/went blind/had kidney failure. It's not helpful, and it's slightly offensive. Would you say to a cancer patient Oh, I knew somebody who died from that!...?

7. Don't make me a spectacle! A few years ago at a business dinner, as I was buttering a dinner roll, a board member with pill-and-diet controlled Type 2 SHOUTED across a table full of ten or twelve near-strangers, "Isn't that going to make your sugar high?!"  Now, I don't have a problem discussing this among friends, and even strangers. However, singling me out at a table of ten people, while we're on opposite corners, is not the appropriate way to ask questions. Especially when I'm with my company reps who, quite frankly, are on a need-to-know basis.

6. But don't be afraid to ask me questions! In fact, it's encouraged. Constructive questions are the only way to overcome stereotypes and misconceptions. If you're curious about what I'm doing, or how something will impact my blood sugar, go ahead and ask. Just don't follow the example in #7!

5. I've heard more than once: hey, at least it's not cancer! Well, no, it isn't. But on the other hand, it IS something I will have to deal with and monitor for the rest of my life. Minimizing my concerns or brushing off my depressed days makes me feel even worse. While I generally don't get down, we all have days where nothing goes right, and diabetes management is no different.

4. Having low blood sugar can be scary, weird and unpredictable. A few weeks ago, I was with a friend while our husbands were playing golf. She is familiar with Type 1 Diabetes because we lived together for a while in college and have been friends since before my diagnosis. When I got to her house, I felt low and asked for a glass of juice. An hour later, I was still low, and begrudgingly, had to ask her to stop for food because I had gone through my entire sleeve of glucose tabs. I have never had such a persistent low, and of course, it happened away from home and husband. It took glucose tabs, a glass of juice, a soft pretzel and two handfuls of jelly beans to finally level off above 80 a few hours later.

3. Type 1's can guess the carb count in just about anything. When I'm out to dinner, I mentally tally not only my food, but YOURS too. Just because.

2. I also have learned all sorts of useful nutritional information. In addition to carb-counting, Type 1's need to be aware of the effects of fats, proteins and alcohols in their food, because all of these can change the rate at which insulin is absorbed.

1. Please understand that all the contraptions I wear make my life easier and serve as a treatment, but they are not a cure. Do what you can to help our walk team find one.


Thanks for reading!

Tax time!

In honor of the April 18 cutoff for tax filing: did you know that charitable donations are tax deductible? Donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund's Walk for a Cure through our team page today for a tax deduction!

Have a great weekend!

Sponsor a Walk Team because...

Please sponsor my team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund's Walk for a Cure by clicking the tab above, or by visiting here.   

Children are diagnosed everyday with Type 1 Diabetes. Here is what they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives if a cure is not found. These are the "tools of the trade" that help me, and most other Type 1's, live:

This is my insulin pump. It is an alternative to taking my insulin through multiple daily injections. Instead, the pump pushes insulin through a small plastic tube inserted about a half-inch under my skin. It gives me a varying dose every few minutes all day long and when I push the buttons, it sends extra insulin based on what I eat or my activity level. For comparison, it is shown here next to my phone. I usually carry it tucked in my pocket or clipped (like a cell phone belt clip) somewhere on my clothing.

This is where my infusion set, the plastic tube that provides my insulin, is inserted on my side. I pull it out like a band-aid and insert a new site on either my belly, lower back, or outer thigh every three or four days. If you look to side, you'll see a small red circle from a week-old site change.

This is a bottle of insulin. One bottle lasts about three weeks for me, but everyone's usage varies.

This is how I test my blood sugar. After pricking your finger, you touch the drop of blood to the center of the strip, and it sucks a small amount into the meter for testing. A "normal" reading is 70-120.

In addition to finger-pricking, there is another way we can monitor blood sugar. This is a Continuous Glucose Monitor, or CGM.

It is inserted under the skin, and the needle pulls out, leaving behind a very thin wire. You manually input a current blood sugar reading from finger-pricking, and it then calibrates and begins checking your blood sugar on its own every six minutes. The round white part at the top is a wireless transmitter that, in turn, sends the readings right to my insulin pump, which will beep to alert me if my blood sugar falls below 75 or raises above 150. It requires a new calibration, or finger-prick reading, every six hours so it can stay accurate.

Last, but not least, is my medical identification bracelet. Should I ever pass out, be in a car accident, etc., this will let people know the kind of treatment I need. EMTs and other medical professionals are trained to recognize jewelery like this.

Please sponsor my team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund's Walk for a Cure by clicking the tab above, or by visiting here.