Monthly Archives: April 2013

A Non-D Post: Trip Recap.

April 9, 2013 – 9:34 am

I was gone from home for most of last week. I went to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, my birthplace and where I grew up. The main purpose of my trip: Baseball.

At Great American Ballpark on Reds Opening Day

At Great American Ballpark on Reds Opening Day

As I said in a post last week, Opening Day is really a holiday in the Queen City. And I’m fortunate to have a brother-in-law with a partial season ticket plan. So we were able to be two of the 45,000-plus to attend the 13 inning loss by my Reds. I’ve been living in Baltimore for 19 years, but I grew up in Cincinnati in the age of the Big Red Machine. And I’m still a huge fan.

Here are a few quick hits from my trip:

– My encounters with TSA staff going out of Baltimore/Washington International and Dayton International Airports was very nice and without incident. They waved me through the metal detectors with my insulin pump, and they hand checked everything with the Dexcom G4 that I was carrying as part of my clinical trial. I had to explain how a CGM works about 50 times, but everything was pretty easy going and no full body pat downs. I’ll ask this again: Am I just lucky so far, or am I having such an easy time with TSA because I’m male?

– I arrived on Friday, which happened to be Good Friday, which meant I got to spend Easter Sunday with some of Maureen’s family. For various reasons I won’t waste time detailing here, I didn’t get to spend any of the holiday with my family. First time in a long time I spent time with family at Easter, and we had a great time. It was also the first time in a long time that I was apart from Maureen at Easter, and we missed each other terribly. Life is a balance.th

– I did get to spend a little time with my parents, ages 78(dad) and 74(mom). I hope they don’t mind my giving their ages… after raising six kids, they should celebrate the fact that they look this good and they’ve made it this far. I really enjoyed our lunch together.

– Speaking of lunch together, check this space later in the week for details about my meetup with another Super Diahero.

– There’s hardly an inch at Great American Ballpark that isn’t covered by advertising, and that can give the casual observer the impression that it’s a cheesy place to watch a game. But after several visits now, I can tell you that to me, it seems like Reds ownership and staff give an almost hurculean effort to make every fan’s experience a positive one at their home park. Even if that fan roots for the visiting team. Kudos to Bob Castellini and the rest of the Reds front office for making it fun to go to the game. Even when it’s football weather outside. Can you send a team to Baltimore to show the folks at Camden Yards how it’s supposed to be done? I root for the Orioles, but I don’t much enjoy going to the game here.

– I really like Reds Opening Night, a newer phenomenon held two days (or nights) after Opening Day. The day after Opening Day is always an off day, held in reserve in case of inclement weather on Opening Day. Anyway, Opening Night is made into a big deal there partly because a lot of fans can’t get a ticket to Opening Day. So on Opening Night, the team’s broadcasters, the stadium’s ushers, even the grounds crew wears tuxedos. There are red carpets leading to the main gates to the stadium, and the team sets up a band on a platform out beyond the right field line. The band plays before the game and in between innings during the game. A very fun experience that I now look forward to as much as Opening Day.

– As luck would have it, thanks to some recognition our team received at work, I went to work last Friday and found a ticket to get into one of the luxury suites for the Orioles home opener at Camden Yards. Two Opening Days in one week… for a baseball fan, it doesn’t get any better than that. Unless my two favorite teams make it to the World Series… Go Reds and O’s!

Here are some additional photos from the trip:

At the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Championship trophies from 1975, 1976, and 1990

At the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Championship trophies from 1975, 1976, and 1990

Plaques at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum

Plaques at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum

With the family on Easter Sunday

With the family on Easter Sunday

From Easter... one for the DOC cupcake lovers...

From Easter… one for the DOC cupcake lovers…

First pitch of the 2013 baseball season

First pitch of the 2013 baseball season

The Rusty Griswolds playing on Reds Opening Night

The Rusty Griswolds playing on Reds Opening Night


 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Non-D Day | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Pump Issues – Medtronic and Animas.

April 8, 2013 – 9:33 am

Just in case you didn’t know, or in case you’ve moved your e-mail or physical address and you didn’t get these, here are a couple of important notices from insulin pump makers Metronic and Animas.

– First, the Med-T notice, regarding possible loose drive support caps. The drive support cap holds the pump’s motor in place. If you have a Paradigm insulin pump, check the little disc portion on the bottom, just to the right of your light button– your down arrow. That’s the drive support cap. If that disc seems to be pushing out from the pump housing, Medtronic wants you to call them and arrange to send your pump back. Don’t worry, they’ll send you a new one.

Most important: Do not push on the drive support cap! There was an instance of someone pushing on the drive support cap, causing extra insulin to be delivered, which in turn caused severe hypoglycemia. By the way, I checked the drive support cap on my own Revel™ pump and everything is okay. Whew.

If your drive support cap is pushing out, call Medtronic customer support at 1-888-204-7616 and choose option 1. They’ll work with you to send the pump back so you can get a new one. In the notice I received, there was an additional note about making sure you don’t get your pump wet. But if you’ve had your Medtronic pump for any time at all, you already know you shouldn’t take it for a swim or put it in the wash or drop it in the toilet. Not that anyone would want to do that last thing, but you get where I’m going with this, yes?

– Second, an all-out recall of certain Animas pumps. From the U.S. Food and Drug Administration:

Animas identified a component issue affecting Animas 2020 Infusion Insulin Pumps manufactured from March 1, 2012 to November 30, 2012. The component issue may trigger the pumps to sound a false alarm or warning related to one of the following:

“Loss of prime”
“Occlusion”
“No Cartridge detected”

If you receive any of these alarms, the pump may prompt you to complete the rewind, load and prime sequence to clear this alarm. Failure to follow the pump’s safety instructions and disconnect your infusion set from your body before the “rewind, load and prime” steps can lead to unintended delivery of insulin, placing you in danger of potential serious health risks, such as hypoglycemia.

The Animas 2020 Insulin Pump also has a software limitation that will impact the ability of the pump to function past December 31, 2015. After this date, the pump will no longer deliver insulin and will generate a “Call Service Alarm.”

If this describes you and your pump, you should call the Animas Product Fulfillment Center at 877-280-2339 between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 a.m. EDT so they can work out the details of shipping your free replacement pump. If you have technical questions, or if you want to report a concern, you should contact the Animas Customer Technical Support Center at 866-793-5253. For the full notice from the FDA, go to:
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/ListofRecalls/ucm346650.htm

For many of us, these are our lifelines. Be safe everyone. If you have a Metronic or Animas pump, check your pump now, and if you need to, do something about it… now.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes Technology | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

The Patient/Corporate Paradigm.

April 5, 2013 – 2:05 pm

I read an interesting article in the New York Times on my flight back to Baltimore yesterday:

An MS Drug Takes a Feisty Approach Aimed at Younger Patients

The article talks about the new oral drug to treat Multiple Sclerosis made by Novartis. Or specifically, their advertising for the drug, which features actual patients! Including some who use social media. From the article, quoting Dagmar Rosa-Bjorkeson, head of Novartis’s multiple sclerosis unit.:

The campaign’s upbeat tone comes, Ms. Rosa-Bjorkeson said, from sentiments patients expressed on blogs and other forms of social media where “people were saying that ‘this disease is not going to stop me.’ ”

“Those were spirited words, with an edginess and power to them that wound up giving the campaign a bolder tone,” she said.

Okay, I’m letting that sink in for a minute…

Now, from another part of the article:

Featuring real patients “is a contemporary way to get patients to recognize their symptoms and to be more in control,” said Jeff Rothstein, a partner at Cult Health, a Cult360 ad agency. “But pharma ads have to tread a fine line so they are not seen as promoting the idea that patients should just ask the doctor to write a prescription for the drug.”

These two snippets really have me thinking about something, and I want you to think about it too if you’re out there blogging or tweeting or instagraming (is that a word?) or anything else in social media about your diabetes.

If you were asked to participate in a campaign like this, would you? Don’t forget, this is a drug and not new technology we’re talking about here. What about new technology? Would you say yes to helping to promote technology and no to helping to promote a new drug? Vice versa?

What about this: what if you were asked to participate in corporate advertising and you said no. Would you worry that companies might want to back away from engaging with patients as a result? If you did worry about that, might the idea of that change your mind?

Even though I’ve only been doing this for (almost) a year, I’m increasingly aware that we all walk a fine line when it comes to these kinds of issues (by the way, I’ve never been approached about anything like this). A finer line, perhaps, than I had considered before. And you can bet that the line will get finer and finer as the years go on.

I’m not making a judgment. I have an opinion, but I don’t want to give it here right now because I want you to think about it yourself. Think about what it might be like to participate in advertising like this, or decline to participate. Then think about the implications. Then think about the good, and possibly bad things that can happen as a result of your decision.

What would you do? How would you handle these kinds of questions? However you feel, don’t keep it to yourself. It is important to share your views. If you’re so inclined, please do so below or post something about it on your space in the social media landscape. Then come back and leave a link to it or tell me about it. I’d love to read your opinion.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

A fun day on the glucoaster.

April 2, 2013 – 8:13 am

CINCINNATI, OHIO– Reds Opening Day here is a blast. It really is like a holiday here in the city where professional baseball started in 1869. Kids still play hooky from school and adults still blow off work for the afternoon. Thousands pack the streets to see the Findlay Market parade wind its way through downtown. 45,000-plus pack the ballpark for the game.

I had a great time, even though my team lost. But unfortunately, I also took an unexpected ride on the glucoaster most of the day. Here’s how it went down.

After a site change first thing in the morning, I had breakfast and bolused accordingly. My brother-in-law Bob (they’re his tickets) and I decided to get a workout in at the downtown YMCA. Prior to leaving(about 10:45), my BG was at 147 mg/dL. Just about perfect. So I go and get a good swim in. After, I felt kinda lousy. Nauseous, even. That never happens to me after a workout. I didn’t check right away, figuring I would feel better after a shower. I was wrong.

When I checked after showering, I had my proof: 51 mg/dL. I treated, and then we went to lunch. By then, I was at 92 mg/dL.

Well, we ate lunch and I bolused accordingly. Or so I thought. Anyway, we headed for the ballpark.

The game started at around 4:00, so I knew there was a good chance that I’d be eating dinner at the ballpark. After such a long winter, that actually has a nice ring to it. I checked quickly (because there isn’t one easy place to test there) before hitting the concession stand. I was 173 mg/dL, but I thought I had it under control. And I was wrong again.

I had a Big Red Smokey (too hard to explain… Just look it up) and a small overpriced beer. And I ate about a third of a soft pretzel that Bob and I shared. Really… I bolused for all of this. But when we got back after a thirteen inning loss by my Reds, my BG stood ominously at 391 mg/dL. So now it’s a correction bolus and tons of water the rest of the night.

By 10:30, I had it down to 292 mg/dL. By 11:30 (no more boluses since 8:30), I was at 196. That would have to do. After a long day, I was too tired to fight it any longer.

It was a fantastic day full of pomp and circumstance, partying and reverie. Can’t wait to do it again next year. But honestly, I would have liked it better with a working pancreas. Or better working robot parts.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Random Glucose | Comments (4)