DBlogWeek - Saturday Snapshots

I don't have that many D-related pictures (yet), and I don't have any new at all. So I'll just show you two old ones (from this and that post):

Spots, gushers, smearings - you know you're a diabetic when blood is everywhere.

My warning to double-double-double check my set when I have stubbornly high blood sugars next time.

           Also, ya know ('cause it sums up my day quite well):

DBlogWeek - What They Should Know

Woah. I think this topic has been written about a lot and at length by the DOC already. No reason not to do it again! There are still a lot of people who don't know even the basics of diabetes. But seeing how little the average person knew about diabetes 15 years ago, they know a lot today. Most people you ask will know a friend/family member/acquaintance/acquaintance of a family member/... with either Type 1 or Type 2. But there are still a lot of misconceptions, of course. I try to educate every time it seems appropriate. I try to educate my friends, coworkers and children (I work as a teacher at the moment, so "my" children). But even those who already know a good deal about treatment of diabetes are often missing a few important things:

• Living with diabetes is not easy. But it's also not terrible. Short answer is: It depends. Some days everything goes smooth, it's just routine, I don't even realize all the diabetes stuff I'm doing along the way. But some days, diabetes is a bitch. It needs all of my attention, has me bustle all over, and doesn't give me a break at all. It drives me crazy. It drives me to tears. Some days, I'm not in the mood for pasta for dinner, because I'm too tired of thinking about complicated bolusing.
• You can live a good life with diabetes. But nobody guarantees you the healthy future everyone else takes for granted. Of course, luck/genes/fate is probably playing a huge role in this as well, people can suffer from very different conditions at the same age independent of live style, diabetes, etc. But still. As a PWD, I never know when the first long term complications may hit me. And this has me in fear.
• Diabetes makes me very self-aware of my body. Just a few examples here: I never got wasted to a blackout. And that is not only because of a fear of losing control, it's mostly because I'm just not able to drink enough alcohol while repressing the feeling of losing control. I'm also very self-aware when it comes to stress, which is probably good, because it keeps me from having a hypothetic burn-out. It also keeps me from pushing my boundaries, though.

 So these are my thoughts. Sorry, no meaningful conclusion today. ;-)

DBlogWeek - Fantasy Diabetes Device

We already have pumps and CGMs, and even pumps without tubing and there are chances that we're gonna have a closed loop system within the next 10 - no wait, make that 20... or maybe better 30 - years. A closed loop system, injecting glucose as easily as insulin, testing bloodsugars and reacting so quickly, that you're completely free of thinking about the D - that would be magical. And it should look like a watch. I mean, think about it, it makes sense: Your blood vessels can be easily reached from there, with whatever technique, and in the improbably case of emergency it would also serve as an diabetic alert bracelet.
Also I'm regularly using my pump as a watch already.

Would look like this and pro'ly be called GlucoWatch (because sometimes I'm not as creative as I'd like to be):

Photo stolen from tokyoflash, check them out, 

they have a lot of futuristic looking watches!

DBlogWeek - One Thing to Improve

There are certainly a lot of things I could improve in my diabetes management. For example, I really should start logging again. I know I do better when I have the feedback and the "stick to it!"-reminder from my small, blood stained, number filled ring binder.

But Karens description of the topic also says "Why not make today the day we start working on it". Therefore I think I should pick some smaller improvement, something taking less effort, so chances are higher I don't give my resolution up next time it gets difficult to stick to it. One small step at a time, you know.

So let's see, what else have we got:

• Not eating between meals. Cause eating between meals leads to bloodsugar spikes between meals, which are not good for my A1c. 
• Bolusing well ahead. Instead of bolusing while I'm already eating. If I would do that, I probably would have way less problems with the bullet above. It's those spikes, that I never catch with my meter (one of the things for which a CGM would be great) and which have my A1c above 7 in the end, I'm sure.
• Changing out my lancets more often. Haha.
• Changing my sets every three days instead of "every three or four days, depending on my mood and remembering the date".

Ok, I think that's enough for today. Now let's pick the one I want to start changing today, because it's easy enough and has the most impact and is checkable (doesn't help when I start slacking off again, just because I have no means of controling myself).

...

Ah, screw it, I'll start logging again. I know it's a pain in the behind, but for goodness sake, it's the easiest way to controll all of the other stuff! How else would I go through with them, if I didn't log?
Also, I've done it before. Can't be that hard. What do they say, 30 days to make or break a habit? Let's see, if I can do it. Ehm, I mean of course: I can do it!

DBlogWeek - One Great Thing

Today the DBlogWeek topic is one great thing we are good at concerning diabetes.
I think I do well with most of the diabetes stuff, really - except I freak out to often -, but in all aspects of my diabetes management slip-off's happen from time to time. So there is probably nothing I will do right all the time.
The one thing I do great about diabetes is thinking of everything. When I want to bolus for a meal, I think about

•  carb count, 
• bloodsugar, 
• most probable blood sugar trend at the moment, 
• insulin on board, 
• basal rate glitches during the last few days, 
• possible and/or planned exercise/action of any kind coming, 
• most recent/next to come set change, 
• fat-protein-units, 
• possible sickness and/or menstruation,
• ...

Okay, maybe not all of them all the time. But a lot of them often enough. And then I try to weight them. How large will the impact of this and that be? Will those two effects just take the mean, or will they take hit at different times?
Of course, all this considerations do not necessarily lead to the desired result. But sometimes they do, and this is what I call success.

DBlogWeek - Find A Friend

Welcome everybody who got here via Karens inititive! (And everybody else of course.) I never did something like this before, so I'm not sure weather I will find the time to blog everyday, but I'll try.

When I read through the list of topics for DBlogWeek I realized that the first topic is probably the one I have the least of an idea about what to write. The problem is this: Most of the blogs I read, you will already know. They are not that many and they are widely known in the DOC. You can look them up in my blogroll. All of them inspired me to start blogging, and all of them provided support and company, so to speak, when I started to look for other Type 1s online. But than I found something thanks to Jess' "Best of the 'betes blogs" post: Alexis Pollak writing at her blog I run on Insulin.

I haven't read it front to back yet. But from what I've seen so far, I already love it: It is witty, true and well written. And most importantly, it comes from somebody about my age and even with a similar diagnosis story - somebody with whom I can identify and have the feeling of "can take the words out of my mouth". And now, take action and check out her blog: I run on Insulin by Alexis Pollak.

Five minute creativity

I read Karen's post from yesterday, followed her link and was hooked. So here's my reminder for cases of inexplicable high blood sugars when I can't wait for them to come down (which is mostly the case as inexplicable high blood sugars drive me slightly mad).

133

Parties always wreck havoc on my bloodsugars. I try to guestimate carbs, but I usually loose track or underestimate the amount of carbs and then end up around 300. Always. I don't really get why, because I try every single time to make it better than last time, but it doesn't work out. So in this respect, parties are no fun for me.

Yesterday I came back from a birthday party at around 2 a.m. and tested before I got to bed. 133. And half a unit of IOB to bring me right back to my target of 100.

I'm speechless. This is huge! I'm still dancing through the flat singing "133! 133!" :D

Protest

My way to vent today. I have been really angry with my diabetes and then there's not even somebody responsible to whom you can complain. Arrgh. So I wrote this letter to... whom it may concern. German version below, because English officialese really isn't my strong suit.

Dear Sir or Madam,


hereby I would like to enter a protest. A protest against the fact that on Thursday, 17th of January, 2012, I have not been allowed to eat pudding.


I would first like to say that I eat pudding as joyous as any other person. While other people not even waste a thought on what they are just cramning into their mouths though, let alone thinking of its ingredients and their subsequent metabolic processes, my case is somewhat more complicated.


Now to the events of the aformentioned day: Due to a completely to me inexplicable and unknown event in the course of this day, my blood glucose levels showed a nonstandard high reading of 308 mg/dl at 6 p.m.. Despite my intervention by means of an insulin injection, my blood glucose levels only decreased to 259 mg/dl during the next two hours and therefore still far from the normal range. With regard to my health and to prevent a metabolic crisis in the sequel of the evening I was forced to act against my wishes and hunger and to prescind from the consumption of sweet and comforting foods despite peer effect and imminent social dissociation.


This decision moved me deeply and painfully. Particulary the unattainability of a responsible body to whom I can enter a protest is not beneficial to my emotional stability.


Sincerely yours.
  Vera, type I diabetic

-------------------------------------------------------

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,


hiermit möchte ich offiziellen Protest einlegen. Protest dagegen, dass es mir am Dienstag, den 17.01.2012, 20:00 Uhr, nicht gestattet war, Pudding zu essen.


Lassen Sie mich vorausschicken, dass ich Pudding genauso gerne esse, wie jede andere Person. Während andere Menschen jedoch noch nicht einmal einen Gedanken daran verschwenden, was sie gerade in ihren Mund stopfen, geschweige denn an die Inhaltsstoffe und darauffolgenden Stoffwechselprozesse, die in ihrem Körper ausgelöst werden, liegt der Fall bei mir komplizierter.


Nun zu den Ereignissen des benannten Tages: Aufgrund eines mir völlig unerklärlichen und unbekannten Ereignisses im Verlauf des Tages, wies mein Blutzucker um 18:00 Uhr eine nicht normgerechte Höhe von 308 mg/dl auf. Trotz meines Eingreifens mittels einer Insuliinjektion, war der Blutzzucker zwei Stunden später lediglich auf 259 mg/dl gesunken und damit immer noch weit ab von der Norm. Mit Rücksicht auf meine Gesundheit und zur Vermeidung von Stoffwechselentgleisungen im weiteren Verlauf des Abends, war ich deswegen gezwungen, von dem Konsum süßer und wohliger Nachspeisen gegen meinen Willen und Hunger und trotz Gruppeneinfluss und drohender sozialer Abgrenzung, Abstand zu nehmen.


Diese Entscheidung hat mich schmerzlich berührt. Insbesondere ist die schwere Erreichbarkeit eines verantwortlichen Gremiums zum Erheben von Protest meiner emotionalen Ausgeglichenheit nicht zuträglich.


Mit freundlichen Grüßen
  Vera, Typ I Diabetikerin

Stupid.

I'm so stupid. Stupid as in eating a hole lot of cookies without even realizing it, than testing a blatant 455 afterwards and having to inject a scary amount of insulin. Scary because, as we all know, large amounts of insulin usually can be really dangerous. Guess I can only sit it out now. It's my own stupid fault. Knowing that still doesn't stop the situation from giving me the creeps, unfortunately.

(link to source)