First Site Change

I've been whining all week because the first site I chose has been sensitive. Every little bump or rustle of clothing reminds me it's there with a little dull pain. And I think I'm getting Alzheimers, cause I just knew I put it in on Wednesday of last week, so I was super surprised to see Dex (who needs a new name) tell me I had 6 hours to change my sensor!

To be on the safe side, I pulled out the instructions and double checked that I did know what I thought I knew and got out my goodies:

The inserter

 What you can't see is the three alcohol swabs I also had with me.


In all it's glory!

 Step one: End the sensor session and remove the existing sensor.

Here is the 7 day old sensor/transmitter, prior to removal.

OUCH!

It looks worse than it really was. Didn't feel a thing when it came off/out.

Step two: Insert new sensor. Piece of cake! The needle isn't a 10 g, maybe more like 18 g. For the record though, it is still HUGE!

See the wickedly huge needle in there?

Step three: Remove the transmitter from the old sensor and attach to the new one.

Done, done, and done! The best part came when I had to put in two glucose readings after 2 hours to calibrate it. 101 on the index finger and 96 on the middle.

On a completely unrelated note, I have been asked to be a guest speaker for the Medical Careers Exploration class offered at Front Range Community College in October to talk about diabetes and tell my story. Is that way cool or what?

 

When Dex says this....

 

 

And Optimus says this....

You know you are not having a good day!

Good news, no ketones. Haven't really talked about life with Dex yet. I'll get there. What I will say is that I think I test more now because I think "that can't possibly be right, can it?" and I do a fingerstick just to prove him wrong. Sometimes he is, but mostly he is within 20 points of the fingerstick.

Bolused 3 units of Humalog and we'll see where that gets us. Last night was a long one for the same reason, fingerstick, cursing, bolus, wait, fingerstick, cursing, yawning, wait, fingerstick, cursing, read a d-blog for inspiration, wait, fingerstick, finally below 200, go to bed. YUCK!

BTW, looking for just the right name for Dex, any ideas?

Yeah!

Dex is in Fort Collins!

Of course I'm working a long day today, so even if he's delivered today, I can't play with him until tomorrow. That makes me so sad. :-(

But he's coming!

D@%#!

STILL.

IN.

DENVER.

 

Bastards.

/rant

A New Low

We all have had low experiences, in public, and been embarassed by peoples reactions. I thought I would share one of mine where the perfect stranger I was with at the time, had the best reaction.

No reaction at all.

None.

No faces, no strange comment, nothing.

I was with my son in said person's office. We were having a meeting. Part way through, I realized I was having to try too hard to follow the conversation, which then led me to notice that I was feeling a little funny too. I pulled out my meter and tested (I even licked the blood off my finger) and got a lovely little 58. Leaving the meter with it's bloody strip on his desk, I pulled some cookies out of my purse and with slightly shaky hands got them open.

The discussion continued without interruption. Well, my son made a comment about seeing the number, but otherwise uninterrupted. My hands quit shaking as the "medicine" started to work and I put the meter away. Not a word was said about the whole incident, which was SO TOTALLY COOL!

I don't know if that person has a connection with diabetes in his personal life, but I thought his LACK of reaction was the best reaction ever. Non-diabetics take note. If I can test and I'm not acting funny, I'm fine. I may be low but I'm fine, and if I need help, you'll know one way or another!

A New Week

Last Thursday, everything went through and was approved for me to order my Dexcom CGM. RED LETTER DAY!! The unit was sent that day and I have the confirmation emails from Dexcom and FedEx.

Email from Dexcom...

 

And from FedEx!

We live in the "Time of the Internet", where we can get information in tenths of seconds. I can see at any time, exactly where my Dex is hanging out. Yet, to have that little bitty 2 pound box sent to me from San Diego takes 6 days. (SIX DAYS?? Are you kidding me?)

And we can track it on the internet, and find out that in two days it is sitting in a distribution center about an hour away from my house, in Denver. And it is seriously going to take 4 days to get here.

FOUR DAYS???

What the heck are they doing for FOUR DAYS? I have no patience for this! I want to blow off work and drive down to Denver and get it NOW. Ok, it won't do me any good to blow off work. (Bummer..) But I am that excited to get it! And I'll be working like crazy Monday and Tuesday that I probably won't even have time to open it and figure it out until Wednesday! (Probably why my impatience is hanging out, I don't want to wait any longer)

Why can't we have replicators like in Star Trek? I'd have had it up and running last week! Of course, I don't ever recall seeing a diabetic on any of the Star Trek shows, probably because if a pancreas quit on them, they just grew a new one!

The BEST (worst?) News Ever!

I saw the endo for the first time today. I've been diagnosed with D for 3.5 years and finally got around to seeing her. I think she is fabulous! She looked at all 113 lbs of me and said, "Based on what you've told me, you are a Type 1." I was so relieved when she said that. So relieved in fact, that I had to tell her just that! It was the best news I could have gotten! It's been a long, LONG, LONG road of self advocacy and trial and error to get to here. To have the Dragon named is so incredibly AWESOME! Of course she drew labs to confirm, but I am so positive that it is now the correct diagnosis.

So.

It's the worst news ever, too. I mean, I was just diagnosed with a chronic, lifelong disease that I CANNOT ignore or it will kill me. End of discussion, game over, no more me.

Wild.

And I'm relieved that I have it? How strange is that? Name one person who has been relieved to be told they can loose a leg or go blind or have a stroke/heart attack? Not one.

I guess you could say I'm a little conflicted. OK, that was a HUGE understatement, I'm seriously conflicted. I've been so focused on what's really going on that I never thought to look to the future. Some of the random thoughts that have occurred to me in the last 12 hours since I was in her office:

• What is the average life span for T1D?
• I've been in health care for 15years, and I have NEVER taken care of a T1D. My friend has been a nurse for about the same length of time. She can think of 1 and that was a child. Where are the "old" T1D's?
• If there are "old" T1D's out there, where are they? Are they being well taken care of? Who manages their disease for them?
• Will they still let them have pumps or do they have to give that up and rely on injections again? 
• If there aren't any "old" T1D's, what does that mean? If it means anything.
• What happens if I get dementia, who will take care of me? Can anyone do as good a job as I do taking care of me?
• Holy crap, I've just gotten terrified of growing old!

Do T1D's get to do this?

I know when everything sinks in, in a few days, or over the next few months as we move forward obtaining a CGM and getting rolling with a pump, I'll get over these fears. The more I think about them, though, I realize that they are valid, incredibly valid questions, that I'm going to need answers to.

I go back to the endo in 6 weeks, to see how her changes are going, and I think I'm going to have to open that particular Pandora's Box. I need to know.

On a lighter note, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I overheard the doc talking about me to her nurse in the hallway. She said I was "really, really nice" and had "self advocated herself on to insulin and getting in here". It was so nice to hear, she sounded proud of me. What a cool feeling from someone I just met!