Author Archives: StephenS

Hello… I’m Stephen. I live in Baltimore, Maryland, USA with The Great Spousal Unit, Maureen. I’ve been living with Type 1 Diabetes since January 1991. I’ve been a pump user since April 2010, and I’m currently wearing the Animas Vibe pump. Also wearing the Dexcom G5 continuous glucose monitor.

I found the Diabetes Online Community in the summer/fall of 2011, and that discovery has changed my life. I started this blog in April 2012, and since then, my diabetes advocacy has continued to grow. Among other achievements, I’ve attended and spoken up at FDA workshops and participated in clinical trials.

I’ve been thrilled to serve as a facilitator for the Diabetes UnConference. And I’ve been honored to volunteer for Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition. You should Google both of those.

I’m currently serving as a member of the State of Maryland’s Advisory Council on Health and Wellness, where I am co-chair of the Diabetes committee. In addition, I’m part of the 2018 Reader Panel at Diabetes Forecast magazine.

I’m always searching for the perfect balance between the highs and lows of my blood glucose level and my life… always searching for the Happy Medium.

Anything you’d like to share? Please let me know… I’d love to hear from you.

Recipe! Spring Goodness.

May 28, 2013 – 9:35 am

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Living on (or near) the east coast of the USA, you might get the impression that the environment around here is just a big concrete jungle. So I hope the photos above, from near Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, of the peonies from The Great Spousal Unit’s garden, and the salad made from lettuce out of our vegetable garden, help to prove to you that not everything is paved over here.

In our little neighborhood, Spring is the magical season. When all of the azaleas finally bloom, the oak trees green up, and the homeowners looking to sell put the For Sale signs out on their lawns. I start the vegetable garden sometime in April, depending on when I feel like it won’t freeze anymore. I cheat a little, in that I purchase plants at the nursery rather than start the veg from seed.

The lettuce is always ready first. We’re just about finished with the 10 heads of lettuce we planted this Spring, but we still have some spinach that will keep going for a while. That’s a lot of salad. But when it’s this fresh, you start to feel like you could eat salad for breakfast as well as for lunch and dinner. Once the lettuce is totally finished, I’ll pull up the plants and replace the lettuce with red skin potatoes, which will take longer but can handle the hot Summer sun a lot better.

Eating out of the garden helps you to understand how good, how fresh this whole farm-to-table thing really is. If you’ve got a little space, I can tell you from about 20 years of experience that growing your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs is absolutely worth it. Even before we bought our house, we were growing tomatoes and peppers on the balconies of the apartments we lived in. If you’re interested in trying to garden, my only advice is to pick something that’s easy, give it plenty of sun, and enough water. That’s about all it takes.

So about the recipe… this is just a simple salad that includes all of the stuff that I like to put on a salad. Your Appetite May Vary (YAMV). We paired the salad with a veggie burger on a potato roll, with a little Frisch’s Tartar Sauce and pickles. The juice in the photo was because my BG was low before dinner and the only carbs in the meal were in the salad dressing, tartar sauce, tomato, and the potato roll.

So we started the salad with romaine and red leaf lettuce from the garden. We also threw in some of our fresh spinach, and a little fresh basil from the garden… unconventional, but who cares? Then I chopped up a spring onion that I got from a farmer’s stand nearby and threw that in. We added some sunflower seeds (which I’m completely addicted to), and chopped up some olives and added them too. After adding a fat slice of tomato on top of my burger, I chopped up the rest (it was a small tomato). Finally, we sprinkled some shredded cheddar on top. We enjoyed it with about 2 tablespoons of Ken’s Lite Caesar dressing.

Total Carb Count: 68 grams
2 grams from the dressing, 3 grams from the tartar sauce, 3 grams from the tomato, 31 grams from the potato roll, and 29 grams from the orange juice.

The best part about this delicious meal is that it’s only one of several like it that we’ll enjoy all summer long, with different ingredients as they ripen throughout the growing season. I hope you’ve got a good garden of your own, and if not, I hope you find a local farmer that can help you bring the bounty of locally grown produce to your table this summer.
 
 
 

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Highs vs. Lows.

May 23, 2013 – 9:30 am

Seems to me there’s a disparity in dealing with high glucose versus dealing with low glucose. Okay, maybe it’s not as serious as a disparity, but I’m trying to keep this light here, okay?

When my BG is low, I find that there are many things that I can use (read: ingest) to get myself back into a safe range. Among them:
 
 
– Juice

– Glucolifts (Cherry… yum)

– Honey

– Goetze’s Caramel Creams (addictive)

– Fruit

– Level Life Glucose Gel (kinda like the Mandarin Orange)

– Smarties (which are Rockets north of the border)

– Rockets (which are Smarties here in the USA)

– Insert your favorite here (Nutella, Maple Syrup, etc.)

– And, as a last resort, Glucagon
 
 
That’s at least nine items that I can use to bring up my glucose from an unsafe level. Having low BG is no picnic, of course. But those options almost feel like a reward for suffering through hypoglycemia. Almost. But not quite.

But what if my glucose is high? What if my pump has an issue delivering insulin, or it’s a hot day and the insulin loses its effectiveness, or I under-bolus for lunch? Now, I’m hovering near 300 mg/dL and I only have three options available to combat the high BG:
 
 
– Insulin

– Drink lots of water

– Exercise (while drinking lots of water)
 
 
That’s not a lot of options. And they’re not very appealing either. Also, if you have Type 2, you may not be on insulin therapy, so you may be left with only two options. Woo-freakin’-hoo.

In a way, having fewer choices when you’re high takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you need to do. You’ve just gotta do it, right? Using one, or two, or three methods. And it’s likely that you’ll have to wait to get yourself back into range. I mean, when you’re low you drink some juice, pop some glucose-laden product, and you’re often back in range within minutes. When you’re high, you can give a correction bolus of insulin, drink lots of water, and go for a run, and you’ll still have to wait some time before your BG comes back down.

I think this disparity in available options and time needed to correct explain why I absolutely hate being high, and why I try to do everything I can to avoid it. That doesn’t mean that I’m doing everything I can to be low. It just means that I don’t worry about being low as much as I worry about being high, if you know what I mean. Plus, I’ve got to admit, I hate how it makes me feel.

I suppose I could use this discussion to push for development and approval of faster-acting insulin. But I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m thinking about how high BG makes me feel, physically and mentally. And how that’s completely different from how I feel about low BG.

What about you? Do you worry more about high BG than low BG? Do you still worry about low BG, but secretly like the fact that it allows you some seemingly guilt-free indulgence? I’d love to hear what you think about both ends of the glucose spectrum.
 
 
 

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Chesapeake Bay Tour de Cure.

May 21, 2013 – 9:19 am

I went to Maryland’s Eastern Shore (east of the Chesapeake Bay) again this past weekend. This time it was for Saturday’s Chesapeake Bay Tour de Cure.

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I rode the 55 mile route this time. Maureen was engaged with some dog walks at home, so she wasn’t able to be there. Even if she was, she wouldn’t have let me do the 100. That’s okay though.

So, how was it? More difficult than I thought. The weather, which was just about perfect on Friday, was pretty lousy on Saturday. The 55 mile ride started off at 9:00 under cloudy skies and temperatures around 63-64 degrees. It stayed cloudy, with a little rain too, all through the day.

My glucose wasn’t very cooperative either. I bolused less than normal for my high carb breakfast at 7:30, which I normally do. But when I checked my BG just before the ride started, I was at 312 mg/dL. Still, I was a little worried about correction bolusing and crashing too fast later on. So I didn’t bolus, and started the ride.

The first rest stop was about 12 miles into the ride, and I thought that it wasn’t worth checking my glucose because I had only been on the bike for about 40 minutes.

The next stop was at around mile 28, after the Bellevue to Oxford ferry. That’s right… our ride included a ferry ride across the Tred Avon River. Yes, it was a nice break in the ride. Especially since my BG at the Oxford rest stop checked in at 61 mg/dL. I loaded up with an energy bar, some grapes, and a couple of honey stingers. Then I was off to the next rest stop, about 10 miles away.

Once I got there, I checked my BG again: 71 mg/dL. Another bar, a bag of chips, and two more honey stingers. No bolus since about 7:30 in the morning. I stayed at this stop for about 20 minutes, which is 10 to 15 minutes longer than normal. Then I was off again.

I now have about 17 miles to go. I’m very concerned about going hypo at this point. Part of why I was worried was because I wasn’t riding with a pack. What I mean by that is there were about five or six people that passed me and disappeared quickly at around the 45 mile mark, and they were the only people I saw in the last 25 miles or so of this ride. ADA does a fantastic job of tracking riders and equipping everyone with emergency numbers, etc. But if you’re nursing your BG along in the last leg of the ride over mostly country roads, you don’t want to take any chances. I decided to suspend my pump.

At that point, I just kept reminding myself: Keep those legs moving, keep the wheels rolling. I managed to get back without an issue. When I checked my BG prior to partaking in the post-ride lunch, I was at 86 mg/dL. After suspending my pump for about an hour and twenty minutes up to then.

I finished the ride in about 4 1/2 hours, including time spent at rest stops. That’s faster than I thought I would go, but I didn’t feel like I was really pushing it. That’s a good sign.

All of the event volunteers were wonderful. They were helpful, informative, and always very nice. At the stop in Oxford I was helped by a volunteer with Type 2 who was putting together sandwiches, someone handing out grapes and chips who’s had Type 1 for twenty years, and her son, who also has Type 1 and a great service dog. They all looked happy, and they were doing great. How can you not feel empowered by that?

I’m glad I made the commitment to ride. I’m happier still that we were able to raise about $266,000 for the American Diabetes Association. That’s pretty good for a still-new ride with a relatively low turnout. Now, if they can just get the weather worked out next year, it will be a lot of fun.
 
 
 

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#DBlogWeek – Day Seven. Spread the love.

May 19, 2013 – 4:30 pm

diabetes-blog-week

It’s the final day of Diabetes Blog Week! Myself and many others have been posting for 7 (seven!) straight days. This is the final day’s post. Don’t forget that you can find links to all of the D-Blog Week posts right here. Now, on to today’s subject:

As another Diabetes Blog Week draws to a close, let’s reflect on some of the great bloggers we’ve found this week. Give some love to three blog posts you’ve read and loved during Diabetes Blog Week, and tell us why they’re worth reading. Or share three blogs you’ve found this week that are new to you. (Thanks to Pearlsa of A Girl’s Reflections for inspiring this topic.)

In general, this is very difficult for me. I love reading other blogs, and I always think everyone writes better than I do. So how do I choose just a few? Well, it’s a little easier this time because I’ve been traveling this weekend. I published Friday’s post from the road, and Saturday’s post after I got back home again (because I couldn’t remember to post it at 6:00 in the morning before I left for my event). As a result, I haven’t been able to catch up on everyone’s posts as much as I usually do by now. But I will… trust me. For the time being, if I may, I’d like to give shout-outs and encouragement to the following three posts I discovered this week. If you haven’t read these already, please do so.
 
 
– From Day One (Share or Don’t Share), I really felt for Kelley at Below Seven. Because I’ve been in her shoes before, and it’s tough. I really dig her writing anyway, and this was a good, heartfelt post. Find out why she doesn’t want to visit her previous endocrinologist anymore:
http://www.below-seven.com/2013/05/13/diabetes-blog-week-share-and-dont-share/
 
 
– I really enjoy reading Ilana’s writing at Diaturgy too. I always enjoy reading someone who can turn a good phrase. She does a great job of it in her Freaky Friday post from Day 5, and there’s a really funny graphic in there too:
http://diaturgy.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-chronic-d-blog-week-day-5.html
 
 
– Finally, two posts from Day 2 (see what I did there? I didn’t limit myself to three!). First, Sarah at La Osita’s Blog writes a petition emploring carbohydrates to all behave in the same way when interacting with our systems. And, even though I don’t read a lot of D-parenting blogs, I found the petition at Girl Glycosylated to be quite compelling indeed. Why not check out both of them?
http://laosita.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/we-the-undersigned-dblog-post-day-2/
http://girlglycosylated.blogspot.com/2013/05/ive-got-your-back.html
 
 
So that’s Diabetes Blog Week for 2013. Thanks so much to Karen Graffeo at Bittersweet Diabetes for hosting another super week of blog posts. And I look forward to catching up with them all, and finding new places to visit via the interwebs very soon!
 
 
 

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#DBlogWeek – Day Six. Time for a wild card.

May 18, 2013 – 4:25 pm

diabetes-blog-week

We’re near the end of Diabetes Blog Week! Myself and many others are posting for 7 (seven!) straight days. Haven’t heard of Diabetes Blog Week? Get the lowdown by clicking on the banner above.

We’re up to day six now. And to be honest, I am the Worst.Artist.Ever. That means it’s time for a wild card subject:

Back by popular demand, let’s revisit this prompt from last year! Tell us what your fantasy diabetes device would be? Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc etc etc. The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?

I know I’m not going to give this subject justice today, but here’s a little of what I’d like to see:

– A device that delivers insulin and measures glucose through the same infusion set.

– It would be nice if said device would be 100 percent accurate. Always.

– And can it deliver data real-time to mobile devices and the internet?

– While we’re at it, can we make the data readable by Macs and PCs and Androids and iPhones and Samsungs, etc.?

– Let’s give it an alarm that will wake the dead in the middle of the night.

– What if it sent data to your endocrinologist on a regular basis, whether they want it or not? And then what if it held them accountable for helping you and kept them from saying stupid things, like “non-compliant diabetic”? (I’m not talking about you, Dr. P)

– Oooh… Let’s give it a feature that will taser the Diabetes Police whenever they get out of line (maybe with cupcake frosting).

– And finally, I need my Dream Diabetes Device to pick the winning Powerball numbers tonight. ‘Cause 600 Million Dollars would buy a lot of test strips.
 
 
 

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