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The Diabetic Cyclist

Halloween 

10/31/2012

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I must say that Halloween is not on many peoples minds this evening in the Westerly area.  Things are very slowly getting back to normal away from the ocean, the town has moved Halloween and trick or treating to Saturday.  Leanne and I got back power late last night and honestly we are very lucky to have only lost power.

Working hundreds of feet from the ocean today was very humbling.  The golf course is looking better but we still have a lot of debris on the course.  The toughest part of the day was not having a close friend and coworker working beside us.  He and his family were attending to personal property that was all but ruined by the storm.  It is a shame to see what has happened to the coastal region, I can assure you however that the staples of the Westerly coastline will return and will be better than ever before. 

The past couple days were the first time I had to deal with a major storm and more than one day without power as a diabetic.  Thanks to my wife it went very smoothly, I had all of the supplies I needed and plenty of food and drink.  If this was six years ago I'd be in a house by myself and probably low insulin because I would have thought the storm wouldn't be that bad.  Luckily that was not the case.   I urge everyone living with diabetes or any major disease to always make sure you have extra supplies on hand.  You never know what could happen and you never want to be without insulin or any other diabetes supplies. 

I hope that everyone has a very safe and happy Halloween but make sure to be in bed early because tomorrow kicks off National Diabetes Month!!!

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Diabetes and a Hurricane II

10/30/2012

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Day two of the hurricane brought much better weather but the damage from yesterday is very bad. Leanne and I are very lucky, the worst we have had at our house is no power for twenty-four hours. I was able to go in to work around eleven this morning and the damage along the coast is very very bad. The pictures below will give you an idea of how bad it is. Diabetes wise all is well, we have plenty of food and have two coolers full of ice to keep perishable items cold as well as my insulin. Other then that not to much more to report, tomorrow is a new day and things should be a little better.
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Diabetes and a Hurricane

10/29/2012

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Living a few miles from the ocean often times has many advantages, today is one of those days that being near the ocean is not the best or safest place to be. Diabetes wise everything is going very well, I have three vials of humalog, plenty of pump supplies, batteries and lots of food. We lost power just after three this afternoon and the way things are going I would be shocked if it comes back before tomorrow night. A long night of wind and rain is ahead of us but I feel very safe and expect the best. The pictures below are from around the town.
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1:53:45

10/27/2012

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My homemade duathlon went very well this morning which honestly came as a bit of a surprise to me.  I awoke just before 7am with a blood sugar of 74 and was nervous that the diabetes side of the duathlon would be the tough part.  I decided to take 1.1 units of insulin to cover my half cup of Grape Nuts and cup of apple juice.  I didn't trust my insulin amount but went on with my day knowing that it was better and safer to be a little higher then to be low.

Just before 8am I was all stretched out and ready to see how well I could do.  A quick peak at my pump said that I was 160, I smiled and thought maybe this will work.  I put on the Killers and went off my first three mile run, it took about a half mile for my body to wake up, from then on I felt like I was running and riding the best I have all season long.  I somehow finished my first run in a time of 22 minutes and 9 seconds.  I felt great and was ready for the bike, I quickly changed and off I went.  I will be running a mile before I ride my bike from now on, as soon as I got on the bike my body felt at home.  It usually takes a good five miles for my body to get in to cycling, not today.  I was breathing well and knew my heart rate was around 140, just what I wanted.  I didn't want to ride and burn myself out before my last run.  I did not bring my Garmin with me at all today, I didn't want to see a clock and know how I was doing, I just wanted to do it and see how well I did everything.  I finished my twenty-one mile bike ride in 1 hour 8 minutes and 31 seconds.  On to the final three mile run, my legs felt amazing for about two miles.  The last mile my legs began to be a little sore, I believe it was the number of hills on the second run, until then a lot of run and biking was on flats.  I arrived home and was out of breath and all I wanted to see was a time under two hours.  I stopped the stopwatch on my phone and was pumped when I saw 1 hour 53 minutes and 45 seconds.

After catching my breath and getting some water I rushed over to my meter to test my blood sugar, I was 126.  Somehow, someway everything went very smoothly today.  I'm shocked that I ran so well and that my blood sugar stayed under 200 as I did everything.  I believe the next step for me is to try and learn how to swim.  I'm not going to say why but I'm sure everyone could figure it out.

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Homemade Duathlon

10/26/2012

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Exercise this week has been lacking, as I said last night work has been kicking my butt a bit so I have not been on the bike or running as much as I would like.  While at work I was thinking of runs and bike rides I could this weekend.  I thought about doing a bike ride in the morning and then running in the afternoon but quickly cancelled that idea because I have a wife and would like to be with her.  I then thought why not do both in the morning so I have the rest of the day to have fun.

I thought back to the Duathlon (I thought it was biathlon but Google and duathlon specialists quickly said that they don't have skis or a gun so it is known as a duathlon) that I unintentionally interrupted back in September.  I decided I would make my own Duathlon course to get my running and cycling training in.  Duathlons consist of a three mile run, a twenty mile bike ride and finish with another three mile run.  Below are the maps for each stage of my training.

To be perfectly honest I don't know what I'm getting myself in to!!!  After a slow week workout wise tomorrow will either tell me, don't worry it is ok to take some time off because I'm fit, or during the second run I will feel like garbage and be pissed with how my training went.  My goal is to finish in under two hours, that would mean a nine minute pace while running and just around twenty miles per hour on the bike.  I'm expecting a time of one hour and fifty minutes.  I'm excited for tomorrow and hope that all goes well!!!
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Diabetes Check in 

10/25/2012

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The past week or so I have been writing a lot about events in my life and not so much about my daily diabetes care.  Tonight we get to hear about the diabetes side and how my day has gone.  I will start by saying that I have switched my basal rate to a modified summer setting.  My work days recently have been a lot like my work days of June, a lot of physical labor and not much down time.  With my winter basal rate I was getting to much insulin and was low way to much. 

This morning I woke up with a blood sugar of 76 and confused on how I should take my insulin with a new cereal being consumed for breakfast.  Grape nuts was the cereal of choice today, Grape Nuts is a great healthy cereal but has 48 carbs per half cup.  I decided to try giving myself four units of insulin over an hour time span, that way I would have the appropriate amount of insulin but wouldn't get it all at once.  I did something right because I was at 136 when I tested at 830 after my four mile morning greens walk.  I know that every morning won't go this way but I have an idea of what will work.  I'm happy that breakfast was the biggest worry of my day.  Days like this don't make for interesting posts but they are great days when your living with diabetes!!!
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Customer Service

10/24/2012

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When you have great doctors, nurses and diabetic supply companies you can be a great diabetic.  I'm blessed to have the best doctors, nurses and companies helping me with my fight against diabetes.  The lines of communication with all three are open 24/7. 

Today was a hectic diabetes supply day, I'm currently in the process of switching over to different companies insulin.  The change was a personal decision, not one suggested by insurance or doctors.  To make the change I simply emailed my doctor and explained why I wanted to change insulin.  Within the hour I received an email back saying that the change would not be a problem and that they would call the insulin in for me.  Minutes ago I received a phone call from the diabetes center confirming that I was switching insulin and that I totally understood how to use the insulin.  As I have said many times before I love the doctor and nurse that I have, I wish I could do more to say thank you.  Without them I definitely would not be where I am today.

This afternoon I also received a phone call from Medtronic.  I love seeing the Medtronic phone number pop up on my cell phone, I get a real person letting me know that my supplies have shipped.  Not only do they let me know what has shipped but they also ask how Forrest Pump (my insulin pumps name) is doing.  They make sure that I have recently tested the pump to make sure that the pump is working properly.  It is amazing to have this kind of dedication from a company, I will be a Medtronic pumper as long as I can.  I don't care that I have a cord giving me my insulin, I will take customer service over a cord free pump any day of the week.  Having 24/7 access to live help not only makes me feel safe but also reassures my wife that no matter where I am or what I happens I can get my pump supplies in 24hrs if I need them.

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Diabetic Halloween

10/22/2012

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As a diabetic all holidays are tough, so much so that I really don't enjoy the "food" holidays.  Halloween is one of the worst holidays as a diabetic, as a child your supposed to go out and trick or treat for food that you shouldn't eat.  I don't know about you but that doesn't sound like much fun.  As diabetics we can have candy, is it good for us of course not but it is also bad for people living without diabetes.  As diabetics if you have the carbohydrate count then you can have some candy and not be that odd kid that won't eat any candy because you have diabetes. 

Below is a Halloween carb count chart.  You can also view another candy chart here.  These amazing charts will make Halloween a little easier for people living with diabetes.  I encourage everyone living with diabetes to go out and have fun on Halloween and enjoy it, have some candy you have earned it!!!

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What Now??

10/21/2012

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I'm sure by now that everyone knows what has gone on in Lance Armstrongs life this past month.  For those that don't know what has happened or need a refresher please read this article.  What follows are my feelings as a cyclist and as a Type 1 diabetic, both of which give me a connection with Lance Armstrong.

I will start with the cycling side of my love of Lance Armstrong.  Lance Armstrong made me a cyclist, if I didn't have a life altering moment at the age of 26 I may have never gotten on the bike and become the cyclist I am today but I still would have been a huge fan of the sport.  In 1995 I remember I saw that American Lance Armstrong won a stage of the Tour De France.  I was thirteen at the time and thought that it was great that an American won a stage.  I thought to myself how cool would it be to see an American win the tour.  For three years I followed the Tour and wondered what happened to that American guy, I thought it was just a fluke that he won a stage.  Then 1999 happened, Lance came back from cancer and won his first of seven consecutive Tours.  After my surgery I wanted to be a hometown Lance Armstrong, I wanted to get on a bike and race in local events.  Obviously not to many people would hear about my story, but for the first time in a long time I had a goal in my life.  I would go out everyday on the bike and pretend I was Lance, I would sprint down Ocean View Highway and pretend I was finishing a time trial to win the Tour just like Lance Armstrong.  I have a lot of Lance in me when it comes to the bike, Lance once said "I don't ride for pleasure, I ride for pain."  I couldn't say it better myself.  I need to suffer to know that I'm still alive, if I'm not in pain on the bike then I'm not trying.  I have a lot of built up aggression while I ride, riding a bike is my release.  If I have a bad day I go right to the bike to feel better, if I'm having a good day I can reach down in to my well of past disappointments and use the bike as a way to reflect on the past and learn from my mistakes.  Being on a bike for up to ten hours a week you have a lot of time to yourself and a lot of time to reflect and do a ton of soul searching.  I'm very angry with Lance the cyclist, he was my idol and now he is just another cyclist that cheated.  I now turn to Pierre Rolland as a cycling role model and hope that he is a clean cyclist that will win the Tour one day.

Lance Armstrong the cancer survivor and Livestrong founder will always have a special place in my heart.  Lance changed how millions of people look and handle cancer, I know it was not just Lance that changed things but he has made cancer a daily topic by sharing his story.  Lance is the reason that I do so much for diabetes, Lance is a normal guy that came from nothing to form a cancer foundation that helps people all over the world.  I believe that Lance and I have a great connection, I'm a normal guy that almost lost his life to a terminal illness because I didn't take care of myself for a good ten years and now I have my life back and want to change the diabetes landscape.  Cancer and diabetes are nothing alike but on a daily basis I will go to YouTube to watch Livestrong videos and get ideas on how to change the way people view diabetes.  I own a Livestrong Guidebook and for the past month I have used this book as a guide to slowly develop my own diabetes guidebook.  In my opinion Livestrong has shown all other nonprofit organizations how to care for people affected by a disease.  My dream is to start a diabetes foundation that changes the way people living with diabetes deal with the disease.  I want the videos I share on this website ten years from now to be videos of diabetics speaking for an organization that I helped form.  I want videos about diabetics sharing their personal stories and how the (Yet to be named foundation) changed how they live with diabetes.  Lance has set the bar very high but I want to surpass what Lance has done and I want diabetes to be the disease that is talked about by everyone.  I will wear my Livestrong band as long as I live because the rubber band is not about what Lance did on the bike, it is about the millions of cancer patients all over the world.  I wear this band for REJ54, I may not have known REJ54 but I have heard stories from the people I love and I would do anything I could to save someone suffering from cancer.  I don't want any cancer patients friends and family to feel the pain that the friends and family of REJ54 had to feel.
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Great Day for a Walk

10/20/2012

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Today started bright and early as Leanne and I headed up to Boston for the American Diabetes Association Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes.  My ride up to Boston was the worst part of my day, I thought it would be fun to spill my coffee all over me while driving.  That means we got to stop at Wal Mart around 6:45am to get new jeans, not how I envisioned my day starting. 

The rest of my day was simply amazing.  The walk is a great way to meet new people and hear very inspirational stories from everyone that is effected by diabetes in some way.  I met an awesome person by the name of Ken Kotch at the walk this morning.  Ken runs a website called Broken Pancreas, at Broken Pancreas, Ken uses his website to review new diabetes products,  share inspiring stories and proves that diabetics can accomplish anything.  Ken caught our eye with the amazing shirt that he had, I just ordered my shirt from his website, I encourage everyone to check it out, great shirt and a great guy.  I also made it point to see all of the people who have helped these past few years.  These people are my family and I can't thank them enough for all that they do.  Going to the Boston walk is like going to your parents house for Thanksgiving dinner, you have so much fun catching up with the people you care so much about but it goes by way to fast and you wish you could slow down time.



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Boston Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes

10/19/2012

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Tomorrow morning Leanne and I will be heading up to Boston Common for the American Diabetes Association Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes.  Last year was the first year that we volunteered at the event and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made diabetes wise.  A year ago Leanne and I were excited for the walk but we weren't sure on what to expect.  What we got from the event was amazing, we met so many people that wanted to share their story as well as hear our personal story.  After talking to person after person I looked at my diabetes in a whole new way and Leanne got to hear stories from caregivers and how they react to certain situations that they are faced with.

The walk is a great event for all ages and is an event for everyone.  As I say everyone has a connection to diabetes.  If you don't have diabetes that doesn't mean that you can't attend, come to the walk to learn about the disease and how it affects everyone.  We have a disease that is not totally understood by many and the walk is a way for diabetics to show that we may have a terminal illness but at the end of the day we are the as everyone else.  The walk offers inspiring stories, activities for children, a live DJ  and a lot of fun contests. 

Personally the Boston walk holds a special place in my heart.  Last year Leanne and I met a person by the name of Jamin Reda.  Jamin is the chair of the Boston walk, Jamins life is diabetes.  He does all that he can each and everyday to make life for people living with diabetes a little bit easier.  I'm thankful that I got to meet Jamin at the walk, if I had not met Jamin I honestly don't think I would be where I am today.  He is the one who kicks me in the butt and tells me to keep fighting.  The walk is about meeting people like Jamin, you could be walking the route and meet someone that changes your life.  I encourage anyone that is in the area to stop by and enjoy the day.

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Why Rest? 

10/18/2012

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I wrote a few days ago about my off season starting and how I needed to get in to the gym for weight training.  Weight training is necessary but I need some kind of competition to motivate me.  I decided to put on my running shoes again and start training for a race in November.  That gives me a month to train for the race, I will still be doing my weight training but now I will have a race to prepare for and weight training will get more intense because I will want results for November.  My goal is to finish the 5k in under twenty-two minutes.  I have a bit of work to do to reach that mark.

Training like this in my "off season" worries me a bit.  Last winter was the first winter where I was in the gym up to five days a week.  While in July I paid the price for not "resting".  I talked to a local cycling pro who owns a bike shop in town recently, I explained my problem and how I was exhausted in July.  I was informed that this is a common problem, my body was not use to working so hard all year.  My body now knows what to expect in the winter months and will be prepared.  I'm still a little bit worried but I was reassured that I have nothing to worry about and that my body will be just fine.

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Diabetes Pop Life

10/17/2012

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As many of you know I'm huge sports fan, so much so that many say sports is my life.  Sports is an addiction for me, I couldn't go a day without checking espn.com or listening to some kind of sports talk radio.  While driving to work this morning I was listening to Yankees fans complaining about Alex Rodriguez and how he doesn't care and all that bologna.  I then thought to myself what if my diabetes was covered like a professional athlete.

In a way having diabetes is like being a pro athlete, rock star or celebrity.  Everything in your life as a diabetic is magnified and you are forced to answer ridiculous questions much like an athlete after a game.  For example, many diabetics are faced with the famous "Your a diabetic, can you eat that?" question.  Just like a pro athlete we have to give the polite answer, "Yes I can have a piece of cake, I just have to make sure I take the correct amount of insulin to cover it."  As diabetics we are even questioned by our doctors, we are asked why we think we are low or high at certain times in the day.  It is much like a coach answering the famous "Why is so and so in a slump and what are you doing to fix it?"

As diabetics we would all like to flip out like the famous interviews below.  I often will have minor meltdowns but in the privacy of my own house.  No one needs to see me when I get angry about a high or low blood sugar.  Diabetes has made me live the life of a rock star just without all the money. 

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Big Blue Test

10/16/2012

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I'm always talking about ways to raise diabetes awareness or ways to help people living with diabetes.  While on Facebook this afternoon I saw a few posts about the Big Blue Test.  I quickly did a bit of research and was happy with what I found.

The Big Blue Test is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation that encourages people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14-20 minutes, test again and share their experience on BigBlueTest.org. For every test, people with diabetes in need receive life-saving supplies through Big Blue Test grants that are awarded to humanitarian diabetes charities in the US and around the world, made possible thanks to the program sponsor.

I can't put in to words how happy I am that I found these websites.  I encourage everyone to share the website somehow.  As we all know we are all connected to someone that is living with diabetes.  If you share the websites mentioned above you are helping so many. 

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Sensor Return

10/15/2012

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After a mini sensor vacation it felt good to have the sensor back on my butt.  Once the sensor was calibrated it didn't take very long for the "sensor OCD" to return.  Seeing my numbers is like crack, I know by feeling where I should be but having the number on my hip makes me feel a lot better.

The one thing that i was not happy about was that I couldn't get my blood sugar to stay around 140 for a long period of time.  I was very busy at work today so that has a lot to do with it but I'm longing for a day that I'm not low two or three times. (Low being below 80) Tomorrow should be a little bit laid back so I'm hoping for a day of blood sugars around 130. 

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Off Season

10/14/2012

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As the winter months draw closer and the sun starts setting a little earlier each day it is a sad time of year for a cyclist.  The fall and winter means that it is the off season and a lot of my workouts will be done inside.  I still plan on being on the bike three days a week until Thanksgiving but the mileage and effort will be dialed down a bit.  My weekly mileage will be between 80-120 in the fall and winter down from 120-150 in the middle of summer. 

The off season means that it is time to get back to the weights and build muscle.  I'm very lucky to have a good friend that is a personal trainer, he is able to build training programs that are made for cyclists.  As a cyclist I don't need a lot of upper body strength, all of my power comes from my posterior chain, basically from my butt down needs to be all muscle.  Being in the gym is a whole different ball game, I'm an endurance athlete, I know when to push and when to get in my zone so I can ride for hour after hour.  In the gym it is high reps done quickly and that causes a problem but pushes me to complete a set of squats or whatever exercise I may be doing.  Digging deep and finding the strength to do another dead lift at 300 pounds will help me in June when I'm climbing a mountain on my bike.

Below is my reintroduction in to weights, the first two weeks are getting the body ready for what is to come.  Right now I'm in the gym three days a week slowly getting back to where I should be weight training wise.  After a month or so then the real weight training begins.  Below is an example

DAY 1

KB Swings
Week Sets Reps
      1        4    10
      2        4    10
      3        4    10
      4        4    10



Deadlift 
Week Sets Reps
Use KB  1 3 8
Use KB  2 3 8
3 3 8
4 3 8



Pushups
Week Sets Reps
1 3 AMRAP
2 3 AMRAP
3 3 AMRAP
4 3 AMRAP



Goblet Squat
Week Sets Reps
1 3 8 to 10
2 3 8 to 10
3 3 8 to 10
4 3 8 to 10



Equilizer Inverted Row
Week Sets Reps
1 3 10 to 12
2 3 10 to 12
3 3 10 to 12
4 3 10 to 12



Side Plank
Week Sets Reps
1 3 30s-60s
2 3 15reps
3 3 30s-60s
4 3 15reps




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Brain Fog

10/12/2012

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As a diabetic I tend to keep my blood sugars lower then most.  One reason is because my blood sugar was so high for so long that i never want to have that feeling again.  I'm terrified of being above 230, I'm not myself and I don't like that.  What I have started to realize is that being low is just as bad if not worse.  When my blood sugar is low i become very short tempered and often lose sense of what is going on around me.

This evening I decided to look at some side effects of low blood sugar.  What I found has me scared to be low.  I found a lot of information about brain fog.  Brain fog is primarily characterized by a general feeling of clouded vision and lack of clarity of thought.

Symptoms include: Forgetfulness or loss of short-term memory.
Decreased or poor attention span.
The lack of spatial awareness.
Lack of concentration and focus at any task.
Depression and anxiety.
Clouded thought process, where one may feel the inability to think clearly.

I honestly thought that what I was feeling during lows was unique to my body.  I was wrong, so that brings me back to the drawing board.  I want an A1C below 6.5 all the time but being low a lot is not something I want.  I believe I have very tight control over my blood sugar but I believe I need to not be worried so much about going above 150, I would much rather be 160 then 60.  Just when I thought I had everything figured out I find that I need to tweak somethings.  That is a bit annoying but it is a new challenge and I have never been one to back down from any challenge.  I say bring it on!!!


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Diabetic Dinner Planning

10/11/2012

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Planning a night out is always adventure for Leanne and I, we are both very busy and when you throw in the diabetes side of things it makes a little tougher.  My whole diabetes life is scheduled, I eat breakfast at 6am everyday, lunch at 12pm and dinner between 5:30 and 6:30.  Yes I can plan snacks in case I'm running late and can't stick to my schedule but that throws everything off.  If I have a snack at 6 to carry me to make a dinner at 730 then everything is pushed back an hour.  I will be taking my dinner insulin at 7:45 and if I miss calculate or something happens that means I will be low or high around 10pm which is when I'm getting ready for bed and a low or high is never good before bed.  It is crazy how scheduled my life is but it makes life a little bit easier.

This evening Leanne and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary.  Leanne and I had planned on a nice dinner and night out, but life and diabetes doesn't care.  We both got caught up at events that kept us from getting home when we normally do.  That is when the fun started, I needed to eat but didn't want to ruin our plans.  I quickly made a sandwich and waited to see what happened.  Leanne was stuck in traffic and was nice enough to say "Go ahead and eat and we can meet somewhere and have a low key dinner."  I felt horrible but I quickly realized that our anniversary isn't about a dinner.  I prepared some quinoa and veggies and then met Leanne at the local sports pub and had a couple of chicken wings.  Not what was planned but we got to be together and have our heart to heart dinner.  Life doesn't always go the way that you plan but when your ready for the occasional curve ball you have no problem handling it.  

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Technological Advances 

10/10/2012

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Yesterday I had the honor of meeting with Dr. David Harlan of UMASS.  I was given a tour of the UMASS Diabetes Center by Dr. Harlan and I was blown away.  I have a fear of hospitals that has gotten better recently but a hospital still scares me.  When I see a hospital all I can think of was when I was in the hospital for two weeks in February of 08, we all know what happened then.  When I got to the UMASS Diabetes Center those worries went away, the center has windows everywhere so the center is bright and uplifting.  On the walls are framed photos of famous people that have diabetes.  Below each photo is a page about the persons professional life as well as their diabetes life.  In the waiting room is a television with a video running, it is not your everyday boring diabetes video that describes what diabetes is and the risks and stuff like that.  It is a video of patients telling you their story, what they do and how they live with the disease.

As Dr. Harlan and I headed back to the offices I saw framed photos of people that I didn't know.  I learned that these people are patients and have their own little write ups just like the famous people out in the waiting room.  As diabetics it doesn't matter if your a rock star or a middle school student, the disease doesn't change.  While in the office I was shown the My Care Team software.  It is amazing, patients can upload information from their blood glucose monitor and the My Care Team software stores all of it.  It gives you all of your information in graphs, alerts you when you have been low or high at the same times, records a patients A1C.  Once the data is stored, physicians, care providers, and family members can use the tool to monitor glucose levels, understand lab values, and examine the effects that exercise and diet have on a patient’s health.  It is amazing technology and I encourage everyone to check out the Quick Tour of the technology.

I was honored to be a guest of Dr. Harlans and I love the dedication that he and his staff have for making life for people living with diabetes a little easier.  The doctor patient relationship is one of the major components in diabetes management.  As patients we need to remember that the doctors are people and don't have super powers.  They have the same everyday concerns as everyone else and once we learn that and accept a doctor as a normal person it opens the door for a very strong relationship.  With a strong relationship you are more likely to ask the tough questions and not be embarrassed.  As patients it is our job to trust and respect our doctor.  With a strong relationship I can guarantee  better blood glucose readings and a lower A1C.

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Control is a Great Thing

10/8/2012

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Before heading to the game yesterday morning I made sure that I had all of my rain gear and more importantly made sure that my sensor was charged and ready for the day.  Things didn't start off like they should however, at 11am my blood sugar was at 250 and I was not looking forward to the rest of the day.  I thought to myself everything has changed since the last time I went to a game but I still can't control my blood sugar.  I took four units of insulin to get back to a normal range and hoped for the best.

As we drove up to the stadium to tailgate I could feel my mood changing as my blood sugar began to drop.  I was talking and being my usual silly self, I checked my pump and was down to 150.  The timing couldn't have been better, I took my insulin at the right time.  We would setup our tailgating goodies and be eating as my blood sugar got down to 100.  It was a perfect storm, i could enjoy the food, a couple beers and the company of others.  As the rain began to fall my blood sugar began staying level, time for the game.  Unfortunately the Broncos got beat but my blood sugars were great and I was with great people.  The Broncos could have lost by fifty and I would have been smiling the whole time.  It was only one game but I feel that I slayed the monkey that was on my back.  I feel that I can now go to sporting events and not have my diabetes holding me back.  A lot of work goes in to controlling every aspect of my diabetes but I will be more then happy to do the work if it means I can have fun and enjoy the event.

Today I found a great clip from the movie Pursuit of Happiness, I'm not one for movies but I will watch the heart wrenching parts all day on YouTube.  I get the best parts of the movies and I get a little motivation.  Anyway enjoy the clip and always try to remember what is said in it.  DON'T EVER GIVE UP!!!


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