#BlueFridays !
My buddy Stephen over at Happy-Medium referenced my blue boots this morning in a post explaining Blue Fridays. Check out his post to learn more about why we participate in Blue Fridays.
Oh and here’s my contribution (yes, my pants are neon blue, don’t judge me. It’s OK to dress like Charo). So happy Friday and cuchi-cuchi.
Neon anyone?
I am currently on vacation. As any D knows, there’s a lot of planning that goes into packing D supplies… getting prescriptions filled, double checking all your gear, bringing back-ups to your back-ups.
Things have changed in my diabetes world in the past 2 years. Well lots of things have changed but the one that explains this post is that I have rechargeable devices. These devices combined with all the other rechargeable, non-diabetes devices that may eventually lead to my mental demise.
1 charger didn’t come on vacation.
My current cast of mental demise making characters involve the following items: Macbook (1 charger), Kindle (1 charger that charges from Macbook), IPhone 5 (1 charger that charges from Macbook), Mophie case (to give Iphone extra charge so I don’t run out of power) (1 charger), Dexcom (looks EXACTLY like charger for Mophie case but they don’t work interchangeably) (1 charger), Verio IQ (charger looks like the old, old blackberry charger, 1 charger).
So yes, I should have 6 chargers with me on this trip. I have 5. I am missing the Verio IQ charger. I am with most of my family. I have ransacked their bags. There are a ton of chargers. 3 different types of cellphone chargers, 4 different laptop chargers, one iPod charger, an iPad charger, and a Kindle charger. There is NOT one charger out of all these items that will fit my Verio IQ. THIS is a problem.
I was in Manhattan when hurricane Sandy struck. I had plenty of time to prepare. I had my to-go bags. My dog had a to-go bag. I reinforced my windows. I had a flashlight. I saved water. I watched the news and worried UNTIL my power went out. I kept texting my sister (a newbie Manhattanite). I wanted her to stay safely inside and be prepared. Power gradually diminished on my phone. By “gradually”, I mean really quickly. I did all the things you do to conserve power on your phone… turned off apps, reduced the brightness, turned off wifi. The next morning my phone had barely any power. My home had NO power. I could not reach my sister. I packed-up and headed north. I found power at Avis on 43rd street. They let me charge my phone. My sister was ok and not evacuated (her whole neighborhood lacked power too).
I didn’t get power back for over a week. When I say I didn’t get power back, I mean my home, office and gym, all the places I would have gone to charge stuff. I stuck it out 3 days in my home but the lack of running water and the creepiness of my neighborhood eventually got the best of me. The dog and I sofa surfed for 4 days. I was constantly turning off my phone because I was concerned, when I was below Manhattan’s power line, I needed to save it for an emergency. Although batteries were at a premium, I watched people with powerstrip cords charging all their gear at ATM terminals. I pretty much decided that week that this rechargeable stuff may be “better’ for the environment BUT it is super stressful to me.
Chase Bank ATM – Manhattan above 42nd street
I saw someone with a T-Slim pump last week in my endo’s office. I saw the pump for maybe 2 seconds. Seeing the T-Slim being used in real life was cool. Diabetes technology is cool. A rechargeable pump would give me a friggin’ heart attack. Seriously my stomach just did that knotty, No-No thing just thinking about it.
I gotta stop writing this post now. I’m on vacation and have to figure out how I’m going to charge my glucose meter. Give me a damn battery please.
I’ve been struggling (read: procrastinating) about my 34th diaversary blog post. I’m in a different spot than I was a year ago. In putting this off, it’s hard not to focus on what seems like an incredible amount of flat-out craziness in the past 2 months. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have picked up on my health insurance woes (I mean it’s just nuts). Bronchitis and emotional turmoil/lack of sleep/ and not eating much didn’t do my BGs any favors. During the bronchitis that wouldn’t quit incident (come on lungs, enough already), I kept taking more and more insulin, pulling pump sites I had hoped were “bad”, and switching vials of insulin. I’d get those bg’s down to the low 200s but just couldn’t get them to budge any further. These issues were just the tip of the iceberg. In the interest of preserving other people’s privacy (and perhaps my own sanity), I will simply say I have endured and been surrounded by a heck of a lot of heartbreaking loss recently. When I really think about it, it’s overwhelming and completely surreal. Then, I think of my diaversary and I’m just like, yeah, whatever. I have bigger fish to fry.
Monday night I attended my very first JDRF NYC Board meeting. I only knew one other person there, it started late, I got there early and it was, well, a bit awkward on my part. I felt very “new” in an organization where I often feel “old”.
Yes this was the view from the meeting. Yes, this is insane.
Fast forward to the dinner presentation. Tom Brobson spoke (if you don’t know who he is, he is the National Director of Research Investment Opportunities at JDRF). Yes, THAT Tom. Tom spoke and I was elated. I’ve watched Bob’s artificial pancreas videos before. As you may know, diabetes discoveries really do occur, another mouse is sometimes cured and I make the same comment for the upteenth time, “Oh to be Minnie Mouse”. Tom, in my view, is sort of like Mighty Mouse. He’s been IN these clinical trials. He has seen and been part of an experience that I don’t know.
As Tom spoke on Monday night, I felt a sense of levity. When he talked about not having to think (stress) about what he was eating (during his study out in the wild… AKA the real world), his enthusiasm was evident. It was intoxicating.
I read a lot about what some term “practical cures”. Hmpf. Let me get this straight, I could eat or not eat what I want and not think about bolusing, or splitting a bolus, or needing to bolus earlier or later or not at all or dropping after all this bolusing hours later? Are you frigging kidding me? I’d have to wear some devices and carry a smartphone? Oh that would be so tricky since that’s EXACTLY what I do now but I have to think about this stuff ALL the time. A steady stream of checking and reacting, reacting and checking.
Tom spoke about other technologies on the horizon. Other clinical trials funded by JDRF. I could go on for pages, Some I knew of and others were new to me, but here’s the part that was the happiest to me. When the presentation concluded (also note he fielded questions the ENTIRE time he spoke which was also awesome), I decided I wanted to hug him. Yeah that’s right. If this guy is the Mighty Mouse of clinical trials and the technologies I fantasize about, you sure as hell can bet I’m going to thank him and hug him like there’s no tomorrow (and take photos of course).
Tom is awesome.
As is often the case in my hugging world, Tom seemed quite surprised and offered me his smart phone to take a photo while I held it (with the artificial app screen showing). What the heck, humble guy? I didn’t cry but I did tell him about how much I have loved watching his videos. How I send them out to the people who love and support me on this fight against T1D. That I show his videos to our Alecia’s Stem Cells supporters to show them WHAT they are funding. That I admire the trials he’s been in, by choice, that sounded awful. Trials hooked up to 2 IVs and being all bundled up so his veins wouldn’t collapse as he sat in a hospital bed. So yes, I hugged him and I hugged him hard!
So here’s the scoop kids. Happy 34th diaversary to me. I still have hope. Pure and simple. I am still me. I have hope that technology will continue to better my future. I acknowledge that there is such a small percentage of people who are T1Ds in the world, that I need to push this agenda for a cure and better treatment options. I need to raise money and take part in grass root efforts and get other people to support these ideas. I’m still not giving up. I will continue find joy in life and I will fight like hell to keep living. I will also fight like mad for a better future for my fellow T1Ds.
A week from tomorrow is my 34th Diaversary. I need to organize my thoughts for my diaversary post as I really liked the one I wrote last year. I’ve been through a lot in the past few months (well especially last few weeks) and I’m a little concerned what the tone of diaversary post may be. I’m incredibly bummed that I will be away on a business trip on my diaversary and so doing something nice for myself (i.e. dinner with family or friends) is not going to happen. Maybe I can postpone celebrating 6/19? No, I’m alive. That’s worth celebrating even if it’s running on a hotel treadmill.
As you may know, I’ve written 2 posts recently involving my rain boots. Last night, I got caught in a down pour and decided to jump in every puddle I saw along the way. Boots, a dress, a raincoat and a horrible dome shaped umbrella. I toned the jumping down in the really dirty puddles, and around people who would get splashed but at one point I gave up on the umbrella, closed it up and just kept going. It felt good. I was soaked.
Early this morning, I saw this quote:
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. Its about learning to dance in the rain.
Right after that, my Dexcom was beeping that I was over 180. I’ve been running too high a lot recently. A few basal tweaks, a ton of exercise and nothing seems to be budging much. I looked at Dex, but I couldn’t get the screen to change. It was frozen on HIGH over 180. I got a little worried, figured how to shut it down but then I couldn’t get it back on! Trying and waiting, waiting and trying.
Then this:
Dexcom- you may have been talking about yourself and that you’re back in action but I’m choosing to believe you were talking about me. System Check. Passed. Next time, I hope to see: System Check. Awesome.
I have a lot to do before then. And with that, I’m off to the doctor.
XO
Every diabetic (regardless of type) knows the importance of heart health. At the risk of sounding harsh and/or critical, if you are diabetic and NOT concerned about your heart and circulatory system, then I hope the rock you are living under is warm and cozy.
Months ago, in the depths of winter, Cherise hosted a DSMA chat (diabetes social media advocacy chat) about exercising during the cold winter months and how do we stay motivated. I ended up in a conversation during the chat with some of my #DOC Dweeps (diabetic Twitter friends) about keeping each other motivated and that I would essentially take the role of “Drill Sargent”. Our group has grown over the months and there are so many “@” names on the tweets that there is barely room for a message (140 characters is clearly not enough). It is not particularly organized but the tweets are a great reminder to keep yourself moving and nice little pat on the back from your friends.
This morning it was POURING rain here in NYC. I had plans to be at the gym before work. I packed up my bags, put on my rain gear and sloshed through puddles on my way to the gym, quickly realizing that the rain was already IN my boots, soaking through every layer of my clothing and my umbrella was serving as little more than a lightning stick. When I arrived at the gym, my fingerprint wouldn’t register at check-in because water was pouring out the cuffs of my raincoat sleeves. It’s funny that I considered this a problem because about 1 second later I discovered a far greater problem, I’d worn my rain/snow boots and FORGOT my sneakers!
There was no chance to run home and get my sneakers, workout and make it to work on time, even if I skipped a shower (EWWWWW). Some quick thinking and a bunch of questions later, a decision was made. I believe strongly in commitments. I believe in having goals. I believe in ME (even if I don’t feel that confident all the time). My only regret is that I lacked a cape. Enjoy this one folks!
Yes, my boots are BLUE.
A few items about this photo:
From top left: There was a day this week that the Dexcom graph looked THAT nice. 100 seems like a pretty special number, worthy of Photo of the Week.
This is a pic of what a diabetes headache looks like. At one point towards the end of that graph I was on a very crowded subway at rush hour. I could feel something vibrating in my front pocket and something also vibrating on the back of my waistband. My winter coat is long, zipped up, and there was no room to move (plus I’m paranoid of losing my Dex on the subway). When I got to my stop and had a chance to look, the Dexcom was alarming with a Double Arrow down at 137. My pump on my back waistband was alarming because the low battery had turned to “your battery is DEAD”. Yikes! I drank an entire bottle of cranberry juice in line at the bodega and luckily had an extra lithium battery in my purse. A very wicked headache indeed. A few hours later I was crashing again. Ugh.
That baby carrot came out of the bag that way, last night (doggie snack time). It seemed appropriate as it was Valentine’s Day.
When my Valentine’s Day plans got canceled, I decided it was time to be brave. I did my first site insertion in my (sort of) back area. It’s only taken me almost 13 years of pumping and a few months of considering this spot to finally just do it. Truth be told, I don’t like it. I’m wearing ridiculously low jeans today because the site placement is just in-the-way. It annoyed me multiple times in the gym this morning. The site itself isn’t absorbing any better and in my opinion, the absorption seems better on my upper tummy. Also, I highly dislike this photo. I am as pale as Casper and definitely need to spend more time in the gym before my vacation! Next back site, I think I’ll try lower, more at the top of my butt.
Happy Friday! xo
Just some images that explain this week (and happy Friday).
From top left: NEW D toys matched up for the first time since my robot self was upgraded in December. I love that they matched at an awesome number (yes, I have doggie sheets).
My Dec G4 sensor was more OFF than stuck ON me by Tuesday. I was waiting it out since I still hadn’t received new sensors and was growing concerned. I’d only received 4 sensors with my initial shipment (unlike my 7+ where I got 3 boxes from the beginning).
Look what arrived! Yep, a phone call and less than 48 hours and *presto*! Sensors Ahoy!
It’s Friday which means Blue Friday and me taking off pics of myself at my desk. Since it is FREEZING in my office, I will be wearing this cozy scarf all day and possibly gloves and my hat with ear flaps.
Since switching to the Verio IQ meter and Dexcom G4, this is the very 1st time this has happened (yes this happened Monday, what of it?).
Look what I noticed while working on a new project tonight:
That’s the bruise from the pump site I replaced yesterday at work. It was hurting a little while at work. I replaced it in a dimly lit conference room, wore 2 “sites” the rest of the day and removed the old one when I returned home. Tonight I noticed the bruise. My tummy was sticking out between my shirt and sweatpants. I was sitting Indian style on my floor while working on a rather messy jewelry design project. Rather messy is the nice way of saying “What-the-heck-happened-in-here?” and “This-will-never-truly-be-cleaned-up-will-it?”. I wanted to pull down my sweatshirt but my hands were covered in stickiness (used a paper towel and a knuckle to take the pic). I adjusted my shirt over my stomach and jumped right back into mess making 101.
20 minutes later, I took a break. Then I noticed it…. “NO!!!!!!!!!!”….Seriously, NO!
A pump bruise is nothing, but resin on my favorite, super cozy, softer than soft sweatpants???
NO!!!!!!!!
