Tag Archives: bg

Family visits. But no drama.

May 29, 2012 – 6:26 am

I haven’t posted for a few days… I’ve been preoccupied.

Family came to visit this weekend. A lot of family. From Maureen’s side. But still, a lot more than we are used to. And since they were all from out of town, it meant a lot of going to places and eating at crazy times, and eating a lot of junk.

Luckily, I was able to keep the BGs in check this weekend. All at 130 or lower. All weekend. Don’t know how I did it; maybe it was a lot of dumb luck. But I did have a lot of vigilance. I tested whenever I could. Even though I had some junk (polish sausage at the Orioles game), I didn’t overdo it.

I guess it comes down to moderation. Just gotta keep from too much or too little of anything. Finding the Happy Medium.

I hope your weekend was great! I always enjoy seeing family. We don’t get visitors too often. But I’m glad it’s over. Family in moderation is okay too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Additional Inspiration | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Diabetes Blog Week: Day 4– Fantasy Diabetes Device.

May 17, 2012 – 6:45 am


 
We’re up to Day 4 of Diabetes Blog Week, and today is a cool topic. From Karen at Bitter~Sweet:

Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary. 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 would like to see a cure for diabetes… Anyone? Anyone?

Barring The Cure, I would like to see a non-intrusive device for measuring blood glucose. Too scientific for you? I mean something that I can use to check my blood sugar that doesn’t require me to stab my finger (or anything else) with a sharp instrument.

I’ve had diabetes for 21 years, and I have never had a problem with injections, or inserting infusion sets in my gut or my leg. But I DO NOT like popping the button on a spring-loaded device that rams a sharp lancet into my finger. The ones that I used back when I was first diagnosed were practically sadistic. Part of why I would go a couple of years at a time without using them. That’s right. I didn’t check my BGs for months, even years at a time. And today’s devices are only marginally better for me, though I’m pretty faithful in checking at least 4-6 times per day now.

But how cool would it be to have a device that could check without needing actual drops of red blood drawn outside of the body?

And something like that could have a real impact in the CGM arena. Something that would allow you to check anytime, without drawing blood, without using test strips (no test strips!), without lancets (no lancets!)… could also be used as a non-intrusive Continuous Glucose Monitor. Add in software that makes it compatible with any mobile or wi-fi device, and I would buy it. Today.

Not stabbing your finger multiple times per day? That’s a Win. Not using up precious bodily real estate to insert a new sensor? That’s another Win. Software that’s multi-compatible? Another Win.

That’s a fantasy diabetes device that we could all live (longer) with. Get to work on that, you scientific-research-techno-geeks!

But don’t forget about The Cure, okay?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes Blog Week | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Random Glucose.

May 10, 2012 – 7:14 am

Without much else to write about today, I thought I would pass along a few random glucose readings from the past 24 hours:

7:15 am: 68
Not surprising considering the fact that I was in the 6:00 spin class, which kicks my butt every single time. Which is why I keep going back. The temp basal that I set before going in: 0.750 units for 1 hour (normal basal at this time: 1.15 units per hour). Had a couple of homemade turkey sausage biscuits for breakfast.

12:05 pm: 96
Not much to say, except that the commute was busy but normal, and I was in meetings all morning long. Had a peanut butter sandwich and some pretzels for lunch (I know, too many carbs).

6:50 pm: 129
Knew I had too many pretzels at lunch. I figure I have two vices left: alcohol and salt. Mostly, it’s the salt that gets me to overdo the carbs. Dinner was leftover rotisserie chicken, cheese, and tomato on crackers.

10:07 pm: 119
Snacked on a chewy, yummy cereal bar after this. So good.

Not a bad day from a BG perspective… but there’s a little room for improvement, I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Posted in Random Glucose | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Fridays.

April 27, 2012 – 11:12 am

WARNING. This post has nearly nothing to do with diabetes. We all need a break sometimes.

Never get tired of Fridays. Even if there’s nothing to look forward to. Fortunately, this weekend, there’s a lot… if the weather holds.

Saturday or Sunday, I should finally get my vegetable garden planted. Can’t wait for the fresh lettuce in about 7 or 8 weeks! Then green beans, then peppers, then tomatoes, then potatoes (yes, that’s the correct spelling… I’m not Dan Quayle). If I’m lucky, I’ll get a few strawberries and blackberries before the birds get them. This will be the 15th summer that we’ve been at this house, and I never get tired of planting, tending, and harvesting a garden. And this will be the 10th year for the pond on the other side of the yard (did I mention that we have a really small yard?). Every spring I have to drain it, clean it, and fill it up again. I’m hoping to get that in this weekend too. It’s very fun to enjoy a Sunday afternoon by the pond with a cold malt beverage and some jazz or a ballgame on the radio. Simple pleasures.

On Saturday we’re looking forward to seeing our friend Christine in her first appearance singing with her new band. We haven’t been out for a while. We need to shake off the winter rust. This should do the trick.

Wherever you are, I hope your weekends are fun… and I hope you have someone fun to spend it with. And stay safe, and keep those BGs in line you knuckleheads!

Happy Friday

By StephenS | Posted in Additional Inspiration | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

This is the one about lows.

April 16, 2012 – 5:41 pm

Went to work on the fence after breakfast yesterday.  Joining me after a while was a 16 year old neighbor (kids will do almost anything when there’s money to be made… and that’s the way it should be).  Nearby were The Great Spousal Unit and The Live-In Niece, who were doing yard work.  Just before noon, Maureen went to run a few errands.

Now, I made sure to under-, not over-bolus at breakfast, knowing that I would be working hard on an 80 degree day.  But the life of someone with type 1 is full of times when the best laid plans are messed up by an uncooperative pancreas, metabolism, pump, (choose your word here).  At about 12:00, I started to get that feeling.  Nothing felt right.  I had to reposition myself multiple times to try to complete even the simplest of tasks.  And before I knew it, 5 minutes to wire a section of fence to a post became 15 minutes.  By now, the 16 year old is looking at me like I’m a 95 year old who can’t get it together, and I’m thinking, “If I can just finish this task, we can break for lunch”.

That’s when Rachel happened by and asked, “It’s a little past noon, are you guys gonna get some lunch?”.  And I gave her that look.  The one that says I’m too proud to ask, but can you please help me?  The one that completely freaks her out.
 
“Uncle Stephen, do you need me to get you some juice?”  I said no, we’ll be finished here soon, and we can have some lunch, but she didn’t hear me.  Because she was getting juice.  And before I knew it, she was back and I was drinking it.  Crisis averted.

What I hate isn’t going low.  It’s the fact that your mind checks out at the very time the rest of your body is screaming for help.  Then there’s the whole macho guy thing, where I know I’m getting worse, but I can suck it up and get through this, then medicate. And I don’t like relying on anyone else to come to my rescue.

This is how most of my lows are, when the bg is lower than 65 or so.  Not horrible, but not without some danger.  I’ve been working on it.  I know that I can’t always see the lows coming… no one can do that.  But I have a set of procedures so to speak, something that will (hopefully) be instinctive in these situations, even if my brain is already taking a break.  It works, most of the time.  But yesterday, because of the heat, because I was already sweating, because I didn’t stop working immediately, because I couldn’t remember all of the steps I had worked out in my head, because, because, because, I will still keep working on it.

Perfection isn’t possible… but improvement is always worth the effort.

 

By StephenS | Posted in Lows | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)