dead islets

World Diabetes Day

2009-11-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

The last couple of years, when I come to my blog I always notice that I haven't posted in a long time, this time no exception and that bothers me a little. I may be the only one but it seems like the diabetic community has become more fragmented. The advent of twitter and facebook has pulled many away (me included) from blogging. Instead, we hear 140 byte snippets about what's going on in people's lives rather than a fully developed thought. Not good or bad, just different I suppose.

In a little under three months I will celebrate by 41st D anniversary. It seems like just a few short years ago, it was uncommon to bump into folks who had reached that milestone, now it's reasonably common. It's good that people are living long, healthly lives with T1 but quite frankly I'm tired of it. The week has been particularly trying and I've fought high blood sugars on and off all week and I know that affects my attitude. But still I ask, can't we find a cure?

I almost feel guilty for asking that. A 22 year old friend of ours has Muscular Dystrophy and probably doesn't have too much longer to live and here I am bitchen' about diabetes. I am thankful there are groups attempting to find a cure for MD for his sake and thankful there are groups trying to find a cure for diabetes. Hopefully before too long we can look back on both of these diseases and talk about them in the past tense.

I hope this World Diabetes Day finds you well. Many of you have done a great job spreading awareness today and that is sooo important especially to those who have T2 and don't know it. And for those of us with Type 1 let's keep pressing on till we find that cure!

Insulin Usage Up in America

2008-11-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

Dateline America: Preliminary figures released today indicated that insulin usage across the country is up 52.9% over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Final figures may be significantly higher as weekend nears end.

I feel like this could have been me this weekend. Thanksgiving is inheritly a high carb meal full of atomic sugar spikers like mashed potatoes, white bread, dressing and cranberry sauce. This is just in the main course let's not even talk about dessert with it's luscious pies: pumpkin, pecan(one of my pre-D favorites), mincemeat(another favorite).

I managed to keep things under pretty good control on Turkey day. The dessert cause was helped by the fact that I made dLife sugar free cheesecake. I personally think this is some of the best cheesecake I've eaten, primarily because of the texture. Nice and light. My youngest son vehemently disagrees with me as he likes the heavier, goo up your mouth kind. Of course, his dislike saves more for me!

Again this year we fried our turkey. This is the second year we've done this While on first thought, it seems this would create a greasey bird, it does not. We are big Alton Brown fans and again we used his recipe. When you fry a turkey safety is of utmost concern. This cannot be emphasized enough when you've got a 4 gallon vat of hot oil you're working with. Alton cautions to use a turkey derrick when frying your bird so last year we made one from a pulley we had here at the house and a step ladder. It is a good investment. Safety over the ER anyday!

My oldest holding the turkey in 'pre-dunk' position.

The Turkey cooking safely in the HOT oil (plywood windbreak in place!).

We had a great meal and we've really enjoyed the leftovers all weekend. The best part has to be spending time with family. It was just the four of us again this year but we enjoyed the relaxed pace of a weekend spent together. Family is one of my biggest blessings and I hope it is your's too.

World Diabetes Day (the weekend edition)

2008-11-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

It's World Diabetes Day (plus two) and I've been to several sites on the net reading superbly written blog and vlog posts. Kudos to my friend George for putting his thoughts to song.

My overwhelming thought today concerns the amount of time this disease robs from lives. To borrow an analogy from my programming days, living with diabetes is like a task on your computer, constantly consuming precious, limited resources. Most of the time idling quietly, basically unseen, in the background, other times jumping quickly do the foreground and hogging the CPU.

In the background I take care of things like, how I'm feeling, did I do something because I'm nervous or is my sugar low or do I need a drink (of water) because I'm high or am I just plain thirsty. Throughout the course of the day, D jumps to the foreground: when testing, calculating carbs, bolusing; or when I'm sick, it becomes an all comsuming resource hog while I attempt to drive down a high and stop my system from sliding down the ketone slope.

I also think about where society could be if PWDs weren't consumed with diabetes management tasks or where we could be individually if we didn't have this time commitment. As I look back over the past forty years I fear diabetes has taken a toll on my personal life, especially in the early years. Before blood glucose monitoring, my sugars and probably everyone of that era, our levels were bouncing like a superball dropped off a four story building. How can a PWD possibly maintain focus and make clear decisions with this kind of activity going on in their systems?

Of course this whole thought process is futile, at least in the short term, as we are likely to be dealing with diabetes for the foreseeable future. Diabetes is the hand many of us have been dealt. It's important to play it to the best of our ability, regardless of the time commitment. The time invested will hopefully pay big dividends in the form of a long and healthy life. However, I'd just as soon live a long and healthy life without diabetes. Let's find a cure.

D-Blog Day

2008-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post today in honor of the 4th annual D-Blog Day. It's my understanding that Gina Copone over at diabetesdaily christened Nov 9th as the official D-Blog Day in order to unite the world of Diabetic bloggers back in 2005. Good idea Gina!

I enjoy blogging, but unfortunately don't make the time to post nearly often enough. There are several that post daily or almost daily and I don't see how they have the time to do it. Regardless of whether or not I post, a day is not complete without checking with several of my favorite bloggers to see what, if anything new is going on in their and/or their family's lives. I got away from this for awhile and missed it, but I'm glad to say I'm back reading regularly.

I am thankful for the OC even though I have never felt particularly alone with diabetes as many seem to do, It's always felt it was my lot in life and I try to handly it wisely and with grace and aplomb. However the DOC has given me a sense of comaraderie that I've come to enjoy. It's great to belong to a community where you can give as well as receive support.

Happy D-Blog Day everyone!

Its Been Too Long

2008-10-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

I went to post a while back and couldn't believe how long it had been. It felt like a couple of months but I couldn't believe it when I saw it had been Chrismas. Time flies when you're having fun I guess. Several of you have stopped by to check on me and I'm grateful.

Well I'm thoroughly hacked at blogger this morning. I had a entry all ready to post and was checking out my links and lost it. I know this happens, but it happened back in September too and I, like most people, simply don't have time to recreate entries gone wrong.

I had a birthday back in September. This year (age year not calendar year) I will celebrate my 40^th anniversary with diabetes. I'm doing OK, but I'll admit that the diabetes is more difficult to control of late than it was say two years ago. One reason I'm not exercising as frequently as I need to. I'm in desperate need of another 100 days of fitness that several of us disciplined ourselves to do. Secondly I'm eating little or no lunch. For the most part this is OK except somedays I go low in the late afternoon. I probably need to set my temp basal back .1 on these days. The larger problem is I come home famished and as you know that leads to overeating and the challenges of adjusting for that.

I've been hanging out over a Manny's place - tudiabetes lately. I came across a small group dedicated to summer camps for diabetics. I mentioned before that I went to Camp Sweeney for a couple of years right after my diagnosis and it was a great experience. Between all the support I received at home as well as at camp, I got the tools I needed to live healthfully with diabetes for these almost 40 years. I want to leave you with this cool Camp Sweeney video I found over at youtube. Camp is certainly not what it was, but nobody said it had to be. I love their rendition of Sweet Home Camp Sweeney a.k.a.Sweet Home Alabama.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's now 1:20a on Christmas morning and I just finished wrapping presents. Hope by this time you're fast asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. If you have little ones, no doubt you will be up in a few short hours as their internal alarm clocks will ring in anticipation of discovering Santa's gifts. Those days are over for us, but I enjoy this season of life as well as it's much more laid back... and I get to sleep later too.

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and leave you with the poem my wife wrote to enclose in our Christmas cards this year.

TIME TO GO

Time to go the Father said
as He sent His Son to earth.
Time to go said Joseph to Bethlehem
where the virgin Mary would give birth.
Time to go the angels said
to the shepherds on the hill.
Time to go the magi said
to find the King who brings peace & good will.
Time to go the Spirit prompts
to the foot of the tree where Jesus died.
To behold the Lamb that takes away
the sins of the world as the prophets testified.
Time to go down on your knees
and accept Christ's atonement for your sin.
Time to go and spread the Word
of how Christmas did truly begin.
-Nina

May the peace that passes understanding be yours this Christmas season.

Hello again

2007-12-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

Well I can't believe it's been 8 months since I last posted. It's been a heck (insert strong language here) of a year. I've come very close to posting several times. Even a couple of times sat down and opened up the word processor, but something would intervene before I even got to the thought collection stage. Now I sit here at 2:30 in the morning after getting to sleep and then reawakening.

Thanks to all those that have mentioned me in a blog post or dropped by to comment. It was very much appreciated. It's nice to know you're missed in a community where very few of us have ever met face to face.

I'll have to bring you guy's up to date over the course of the next week... here again, as time permits. I'm OK diabetically speaking, even though my bG readings have been swinging widely of late. As most of you know they are difficult to control tightly, especially this time of year. I continually thank God for my body's ability to tolerate bG swings. In about 6 weeks I will celebrate(?) 39 years with this disease and I'm still in good health.

Back in March I began slipping off the exercise wagon. For a while I held onto the wagon while it drug me down the road and then I finally fell off completely. After missing only 10 days in 2006, the current year has been dismal. Over the holidays I'm going to try to get consistent again, meaning I hope to do something every day in hopes I will set a precedent for the new year.

Here it is Christmas eve. I will join you in the morning scurrying around town to pick up a few last minute items. Later in the day we'll go over to a friends house for Christmas eve dinner. We've traditionally gone to church on Christmas eve, but this year finds us, oddly enough, without a church home so this invitation is a nice change to what has become our holiday tradition.

Here's to your Christmas celebration being filled with hope, happiness and great memories. Blessings to all.

Happy Birthday Sam!

2007-04-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today is my oldest son’s birthday. I can hardly believe that he is turning 22. It seems like just a short time ago he entered this world, a squalling pink bundle of joy, amidst my wife’s shrieks of agony. It’s incredible how quickly the years have flown by.

He’s turned out to be a fine young man. His moral compass is set to true North and he’s looking to graduate in December with a Bachelor’s degree in economics, very possibly summa cum laude. He has great relationships with his professors and has insight into events that are wise beyond his years.

What a joy this journey has been. As I look back I can’t remember any significant periods of turmoil. I know what your saying, “Diabetes has clouded your memory Keith!”, but in all honesty it hasn’t. Yes we’ve had a few squabbles, but mostly it’s been smooth sailing. I credit most of it to the Lord’s guiding hand and that my wife and I have picked our battles carefully.

One battle I specifically chose not to have was over hair. During my teenage years my parents and I fought terribly, mostly over hair length. I wanted it longer and my mom, in particular wanted it short. It was the early 70’s. Things were in transition. In many circles it was about appearances. The older folks viewed longer hair as aberrant while shorter hair was viewed as good or ‘the norm’. Most of my friends had longer hair while mine wasn’t. It made for some nasty, tearful arguments and for hurt feelings. Bruised feelings don’t heal quickly. Unfortunately, when I was in my late teens my mom became mentally ill and then when I was 21, she died unexpectedly. I feel badly that we had never truly turned the corner from parent-child to adult-friend and healed those wounds.

I told my boys early on I had two rules about hair: 1) it had to be neat (relatively speaking) and 2) it had to be clean, after that anything goes. My oldest never cared too much about hair and his has fluctuated moderately with the current style. However, my youngest has gone from mid-shoulder length to buzzed, then to spiked and then to red, to green and to blue. If it had to do with hair, he’s covered the gamut. Does it matter? I guess it could, but if kids are being responsible, doing the things they should and have good moral character, why make it an issue?

I’m counting my blessings tonight. I hope I have many more years to watch these guys grow, revel in their accomplishments and most of all, enjoy their friendship.

The Courage To Forgive

2007-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

What does it take to forgive someone? … or, for that matter, for someone to forgive you?

Does a person have to ask for forgiveness? ‘Of course’, you say and I think you would be right. If someone truly seeks our forgiveness they will come and ask us to forgive them. The Bible even says, “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

You would probably add, the person needs to have a repentant attitude and again I think you would be right. I’m not inclined to forgive someone if I don’t see some outward reflection that makes me think they are sincerely sorry. If they just turn around and intentionally commit the same act again I have to wonder if they were sorry at all or just playing a game.

Enter on the scene the latest public display of non-forgiveness – Imus. I don’t want to get into his remark… it was thoughtless. Yet, he has done both of the above: 1) he has asked for forgiveness and 2) he is sincerely sorry. Many still seem not to forgive him. It would be different if he lived a life of contempt and discrimination, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. I don’t know (or want to know) the intimate details of his personal life, but I would guess that under the veneer he is a regular guy filled with most of the foibles that regular people have. Yet because of a careless remark, sponsors are jumping ship right and left and kowtowing to the whiners.

Wouldn’t it be a nice change hear sponsors say, ‘You know, we all let our mouth get a little ahead of our brain occasionally, and this guy seems to be sincerely sorry. He has been good for our products and just because he had a brain failure, we’re going to give him another chance’, and stick with him.’

My what a courageous and refreshing change that would be.

Doing My Part

2007-04-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA from the OC for awhile. We've been really busy and while I've had ample subject matter to post, the time factor has been lacking. I'll try to post more about the specifics later.

In a recent post, Amy over at diabetesmine posted that there are several hundred diabetes related clinical studies underway and mucho PWDs, yet most of these studies lack for willing participants.

Enter Keith - several weeks ago the local paper posted a notice requesting T1 diabetics who would like to participate in a gene expression study contact the local college of medicine. The lack of studies in our area of Tennessee is one thing I have missed tremendously since we moved from TX several years ago, so I called and volunteered.

I had a lenghty conversation with the supervising physician, and was still a little unclear as to the exact hypothesis of this study. It wasn't until today, when I went in for the procedure, that I think I understand.

Here's the lowdown: there are glucose transport proteins located on the side of the muscle cell wall, the one being studied here is known as GLUT5. A previous study has indicated that there are about twice as many GLUT5 transport proteins on the cell wall in type 2 PWDs as in the general population. This study ultimately attempts to determine if the increase in number is caused by elevated blood sugars (obviously present in both T1s & T2s) or do people who eventially develop type 2 have a previously elevated GLUT5 count and thus GLUT5 count can be used as predictor of type 2 diabetes.

I didn't ask this question specifically, but I can only assume that the researchers will look at the T1 muscle cells to see if the GLUT5 count is elevated. If so, I think the conclusion to be drawn is that elevated blood sugars are the cause.

The procedure itself didn't hurt, but it was more invasive than I had anticipated. I had to be absolutely still and waiting on the operation chair/table for two hours before the procedure (to allow the proteins to settle). That wasn't bad as I visited with the Dr for the first hour and occupied myself with some papers I needed to read for the second.

Heres where it gets interesting. The procedure itself involved sticking a 5mm diameter (yes, that's half a centimeter folks) muscle biopsy needle about 3" into my thigh (vastus lateralis muscle specifically) and taking a 100mg (1/4" x 1/2") sample of muscle. The Doc did a good job of deadening the area before making the incision and subsequent insertion, but when I saw the size of the biopsy needle I decided it was not in my best interest to watch. I occupied myself by talking with the research assistant (there to immediately freeze the extracted muscle in liquid nitrogen) who interestingly enough didn't want to watch the procedure either.

It was over in 2-3 minutes and they all raved about what a good sample it was. If you've seen Alton Brown's episode of Tuna: The Other Red Meat (sorry tuna lover's) it looked just like the raw tuna before he rolls it in sesame seeds and cooks it over the blazing hot chimney... I must admit I haven't viewed my muscle in quite this fashion before, but it did look nice.

I'm glad to have done my part in this, even if it was fairly inconvenient (I now have a couple of stitches in my leg to be removed next week). I will receive a nice little check, but that was not ultimately my goal. I invited the researchers to contact me again should they have more studies (hopefully not involving large diameter biopsy needles) and they indicated that they would.

The bottom line is we have got to get this diabetes thing, both type 1 and type 2, CURED and we need to work together to do it!

Alarming Statistics

2007-03-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone else caught this article in the New York Times this morning, but this is pretty shocking. I had no idea that 1 in 4 Americans are uninsured! The article says there's approximately 47 million of us and it's growing. I knew this was a problem but man alive 1/4 of the country. I don't have the solution, but you can bet I will be paying attention when candidates discuss this issue!

Update: It's been awhile since I made this post but I wanted to leave you with the correct information. The ratio of uninsured people in this country is approximately 1 in 6, not 1 in 4 that I posted above. Thanks kevin for pointing this out.

Raw

2007-02-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

My nerves are raw this morning and I just can’t seem to settle them.

A young lady at our church was involved in a severe car accident yesterday afternoon. She was on one of the many two lane roads in our area when her tires slipped off the right side of the road. Being a young driver she over-corrected and her car crossed lanes and slid sideways into the path of an oncoming Dodge Truck. She suffered many injuries but the worse was the head-trauma.

I received a call just after dinner and went to the hospital shortly thereafter to pray and visit with the family. Even though the prognosis wasn’t good I felt in my soul that things would be OK.

Neither my wife or I could sleep well last night. She confided in me this morning that every time she awoke she would pray for this girl. Little did she know I was doing the same thing.

Unfortunately, this young lady passed away about 8:00 this morning. I went back to the hospital to console the family. The Dad, at least on the surface, appears to be doing OK. The Mom, as you would expect, not so good.

Having kids just a couple of years older, makes this all the more painful and real to me. If I had to walk this out in my own life, I could do it but it would be O’ so excruciatingly agonizing. As individuals and as a church we’ll help the family get though this... and they will. It’s just that my heart hurts so bad for them right now.

Today, in particular, I wish I could rewrite the rule book:

Rule 1: Parents do not bury their children!

Rumors Of My Death

2007-02-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

To quote Mark Twain, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”! Thanks for those who’ve checked on me (esp, Allison and Vivian). It’s nice to know you’re part of a community where people care about each other even though very few of us have ever met face to face.

Sorry I’ve been away so long. I’ve picked up a couple of new responsibilities this year and they’ve taken a fair amount of my time. As you read my blog you don’t have to dig very deep to guess that we’re heavily involved in our church. Specifically, two years ago I was elected as a deacon for my second term since at this church. Last year I was elected Vice-chairman and this year I’m serving as Chairman of that 10 member team. We have a church body with about 700 in attendance on Sunday morning. Deacons are servants at our church, we visit the sick and shut-ins and deal with benevolence issues, administer communion and several other tasks. It’s basically a cool job and I enjoy ministering and helping people.

By Chairing the Deacons I’m also by default on the Board of Directors. The board has been wrestling with an important theological issue that I inherited when my term took effect Jan 1. The board has met several times and exchanged countless emails trying to come to some sort of resolution. We’ve all lost sleep over the issue and last Friday I fasted and prayed, petitioning the Almighty for an amicable resolution. Yesterday, after a 3 plus hour meeting, I believe we reached that resolution. We have one more meeting later in the week and a church business meeting next Sunday (where it could rear its head) and then I believe we will be done. Hallelujah!

On another subject, after Christmas we spent three days with my wife’s sister and her husband in Garland, TX. Even though the weather was nice, except for the first day, I fell off the exercise wagon. The good news is two-fold: one, my left hamstring which had been bothering me since I started continually exercising back in Feb ’06 healed and is a problem no more and secondly, I climbed back on the wagon immediately upon returning home. I guess I’ve become a little OCD about exercising, but it has really helped my overall control. However, it’s still not where I would like it to be.

I probably won’t get to post tomorrow, but it is the day I officially celebrate my 38th anniversary with diabetes. All is well on that front or at least as well as can be expected. At some point I’d really like to have a CGMS to tighten my contol. Things are going to have to change on the monetary front before that will happen.

Peace and love to you all.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

It's almost 5:00p here in the east and a hush is beginning to fall over our town and will work its way across the country as the sun sets. I wanted to take a moment to wish you a Merry Christmas. I follow several of your blogs and thoroughly enjoy keeping up with you and your families... many of you are almost an extension of my own.

Before I sign-off, I wanted to leave you with the Christmas story as taken from the New International Version of the Bible, the book of Luke, 2nd chapter. (If you're not familiar with the Bible, the numbers are for reference... just read over them and my appologies for not removing them for easier reading.)

The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas everyone and may the Lord richly bless you!

Christmas Music Meme

2006-12-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

I seem to be late to respond the these memes and this seems to be no exception. I started responding quite a few days ago and for some reason didn't get it published. I was tagged by 'G-Money' George over at The Born Again Diabetic (B.A.D.) Blog. So here goes with my top 5 selections in Christmas music.

My bottom 4 are pretty easy as they are all Transiberian Orchestra songs. In fact you could list any of the songs off the Christmas Eve and Other Stories CD and you would pick songs I really like, but I'll list my favorites for you.

5. Good King Joy - This is a great song, it starts really slow and mellow and then builds till about 3:00 minutes it breaks into a blusey, dialected narrative of the Christmas story. Great stuff!

4. Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)

3. The First Noel

2. Prince of Peace

1. Holy Night - My mom was a public school music teacher and was responsible for the musical portion of several PTA programs throughout the year. She taught at a different school than I attended. Regardless, my attendance was mandatory, but I didn't really mind. She was a very good pianist and one year I heard her accompany a male teacher whose awesome bass voice really did justice to this song.

I cherish her memory every time I hear this song.

The Frugal PWD

2006-12-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'm attempting something new today in the way of infusion set management. It started a couple of months ago after the check-out lady at my pharmacy said she had four boxes of 9mm canula Quick Sets with 47" tubing and didn't want to use them anymore as she was switching to the 6mm - 23" tubing sets. She asked me if I wanted them, otherwise they were going in the trash bin. Naturally I was appalled at the idea of discarding these precious necessities and immediately said I would take and use them or else find them a good home.

A few days later we made the handoff and they have been sitting upstairs for serveral weeks while I tried to decide how to best utilize these little blessings from heaven.

Let me digress for just a moment and tell you that I only use my mid-section for infusion set placement. I don't think I have enough fat to try other spots comfortably. My method is to draw an imaginary horizontal line around myself from my spinal column to my mid-front, starting about 1" above my pelvic bone. At the first of the month I start placing infusion sets as far back as I can reach and with each successive set change I move forward slightly over half the width of the set being careful to not cover the previous puncture site. I generally use 8 sets per month or two per week. (I read that many of you experience bad sets but I've simply not had this experience.) At the beginning of the next month I draw another imaginary horizontal line approximately 1 1/2" above the previous line and start over again at the back, moving forward with each change as before. After three months I go to the other side.

By doing it this way there is only the remote possiblity that I could hit the exact same point twice in one year. So far this has worked well for me.

Back to my story. Since I have more fat on my stomach than on my lower back I'm using my standard 6mm sets for the first two weeks of the month and then the 9mm's as I work around towards the fattier front. Today's set change felt comfortable so I think I'm on the right track.

I wear my pump on my belt so I don't need (or like) the 47" tubing. Since my previous 23" tubing should be OK (right?), after I inserted the set I switched back to my old pre-primed 23" tubing. I finished by doing a .5 unit fixed prime.

As I write this at approximately 10:00p ET, everything is going well. I did wake up high this morning, for reasons I can't totally explain and it took me till slightly after noon to drive my readings back into the normal range. Since then my readings have been within reason.

Talk about the things we do save a few bucks, but as we all know this can be an expensive condition, especially when trying to maintain tight numbers.

I going to try to use these 9mm sets for the remainder of the month. I'll keep you posted should I encounter any problems.

Sign Of The Times

2006-12-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

Thursday I had a half-day board meeting for the local non-profit entity I serve. One of my fellow board members works for a nationwide credit card firm whose telemarketing center is located right up the road and he was nice to procure a large state-of-the-art conference room for us to use.

While visiting the men's room at this facility I noticed half-full Sharp's container mounted on the wall. Upon closer inspection I saw it was filled with disposable insulin pen needles and assorted used test strips. This came as somewhat of a shock to me. I don't think I've heard of a non-medical related firm that makes these containers available to their employees. It makes me wonder does this firm employ an above average number of PWDs or is this somehow representative of the population as a whole? Maybe East TN has an above average population of PWDs... I don't know.

Overall we have a hard working demographic, but standing at the entrance to Wal-Mart for a few minutes you can tell most folks here aren't going to win a twiggy look alike contest. On the other hand I think this is true for most of America.

Regardless it's nice that this firm provides Sharps containers for its employees. In the past there have been many days I carried around a used syringe in my pocket or I broke off the needle, put the needle back in the cap and put the cap back on the syringe before throwing the whole assembly in the trash. It would have been nice to dispose my syringes in a legitimate fashion... at least while at work.

That Was Easy

2006-12-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

I finally took a few minutes to convert to Blogger Beta and it was amazing quick and simple. (Murphy must have been looking the other way!) I probably won't look at all the cool new features till after the New Year rolls in, but it will be nice to comment on blogs again.

Frustration

2006-12-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

I've been attempting to leave comments on other blogs for a couple of days without much success. I've tried using not only my standard browser - IE7, but also Firefox but neither is successful so I guess the only thing to try is to upgrade to the new blogger. I was trying to put this off for awhile as Murphy tends to jump up and insert himself in these situations, but if I'm going to continue to be a part of the blogging community it looks like now is the time for action.

If I'm down for a while you'll know I'm merely having a long chat with Murphy!

Man It's Early

2006-12-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

Well here I sit at 5:30 in the morning… awake and feeling pretty good, but I’d rather be in bed catching a few more Z’s before the alarm goes off. Unfortunately I don’t think the ‘feeling good’ will hold as I’ve been awake since 3:45. That’s when I fought myself out of a fitful sleep and realized I’m probably having a hypo. I traipsed downstairs and sure enough the meter popped up a 54. I’m now 216 with 30 minutes of insulin on board and a little frustrated that I once again over corrected. Fortunately I didn’t blow it badly, but still I overate.

Recently it’s come to my attention that I’ve gotten slightly sloppy with my diet and since we’re going to Texas to visit kin and friends shortly after Christmas I’m taking some time to focus on calorie/carb reduction. I think I’ve mentioned here before that I try to keep my TDD < 40. I use this as just a broad indicator that I’m hitting my reduced (well actually my daily goal) carb requirements. Yes I realize this is not a perfect system as it leaves very little room for stress or other non-food induced spikes and their subsequent correction boluses. So far this month I’ve done pretty well: 36.6, 35.7, 35.0, 33.7, 35.6, down from several weeks of 45+ TDDs. It will probably take a small correction bolus to bring me down into range this morning, plus I have a prayer luncheon today where I’ll have to monitor food intake closely.

Well hypos happen and I refuse to let them (or just about anything else) rob me of the incredible joy of life.

I see now that it’s slightly after 6:00a so it’s time to get this day rolling. Hope everyone has a totally awesome day!

T1 begets T1 x2

2006-11-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

This is my D-blog post and is going to be very short. I have a night full of work to do and it's already later than I would like.

Yesterday I found this video on MSN entitled, Raising Awareness of Diabetes. On it is a short segment about a mother/daughter duo, Karen and Elena Gunter, who both have T1.

Evidently this is much more common than I had imagined. Yikes!

T1 begets T1

2006-11-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

Did anyone catch the article in Sunday’s Parade Magazine by James Hirsch entitled, “What I wish for Garrett”? Mr. Hirsch is a T1D and before his eyes began noticing T1 onset symptoms in his 3 year old son, Garrett. This article succinctly captures what I think many parents of CWDs feel, as well as the hope for their children.

This has been one of my biggest fears for my boys; that I would pass on this genetic propensity and it would manifest itself in one of my offspring. While my youngest is a little person and as far as we can determine this is in no way connected with diabetes, they have been spared, at least so far, dealing with the beast of diabetes. They have passed the years where T1 typically manifests itself (statistically speaking) and while this is certainly no guarantee, I can only hope they have escaped permanent detection by this consuming monster.

Faux Blind

2006-11-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

If you’ve had diabetes any time at all you’ve probably thought about the possibility of complications. After all, that’s why we try to keep tight reign on our blood glucose levels in order to avoid potential nasty issues down the line. Over time I’ve tried to prepare myself for the possibility of complications even by going so far as visualizing and preparing a response. For instance, if, heaven forbid, I ever lost my eyesight I’d get the best seeing-eye dog I could and try to resume as normal a life as possible. I know it wouldn’t be easy but I think I could do it if I absolutely necessary.

On Tuesday I got an opportunity to experience my little scenario, in a more true to life fashion than I’d wished. Fortunately it was only temporary and non-D related. Somehow, after reading an article in the morning paper about the Google’s acquisition of Jotspot, I was in the process of folding the unruly paper back in shape and promptly stuck it in my eye… OK, don’t laugh… Well I have to admit it is somewhat funny. I have no idea how I did it either, but it was one of those things that made me sit back down in the chair for a moment and say, “Yyyeeeooowww… that REALLY hurt!!!” and it didn’t take long till I realized the pain was going to be with me for a while.

After several minutes passed and the pain subsided somewhat I went into my office to attempt to get some work done and realized the only way I could keep the pain down was to keep my right eye shut. This in itself is difficult as I am right eye dominant. After the pain went on for a while I surfed over to WebMD and searched on scratched cornea. The research yielded that a scratch would heal on it’s own in 24-48 hours… oh great!

To cut to the chase, I was pretty much useless the rest of the day. You probably know this, but if you move the open eye, the closed eye ‘eyeball’ moves along with it, so when I would move my left eye to see anything other than what I was absolutely straight ahead, the right eye would move, thereby being irritated and letting me know in no uncertain terms it was not a happy camper! A couple of times during the day, the pain got very intense and I would close both eyes and attempt to ‘feel’ my way around the house. This can really slow one's daily activities down. During these painful times, I re-realized just how absolutely thankful I am for my eyesight.

Thursday around noon we left the house to vote early. I had been doing much better on Thursday, particularly after a good night's sleep. It was while standing in line (an hour wait I might add) that the eye seemed like it healed. While it was ‘scratchey’ the rest of the day, I could keep both eyes open and function pretty normally. Thank Heaven!!!

This is one activity I hope I don’t repeat for awhile. Maybe it will help if I get all my news off the internet. At least then maybe I’ll be able to keep the monitor out of my eye!

Another Pint

2006-10-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post that I had just returned from giving another pint of blood. This brings me to a total of three. Next time will make me ½ gallon giver. Sort of sounds like a lot doesn’t it? It’s not really, close to half what’s in a man’s body, but it sounds impressive. OK, I’m visualizing a ½ gallon of blood… OK, let’s stop.

Anyway, the process is becoming fairly routine and my body seems to handle it reasonably well. Although, it is somewhat hard to tell as last night my wife fixed roast and veggies (mmmmm!) along with some homemade rolls (double mmmmm!) and once again I underestimated the amount of carbs in her dinner rolls.

I need that little guy from calorieking to jump out and say, “Keith, that roll is at least 45 maybe even 52, grams of carb, will you please quit guesstimating it at 23! You know that messes you up EVERY time!” If that happened a few times I’d probably get it right more often. However, I suspect that everyone struggles with these foods that we don’t eat often.

Back on track, I read on the web today that the Red Cross receives $225 for every pint of blood it sells. This figure was from a post written in 2001 and I have no idea how accurate or legitimate the figure is. I also found out (and verified) that the Red Cross has an annual budge of approximately 3.9 billion dollars (yes, that’s billion with a B folks) and that 60 percent of their money comes from revenues received as a byproduct of blood donations. So I suspect $225 or more for a pint of blood is about right (my own calculations put this up around $325-$350). Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad for the good it does and that organizations such as this exist, but I’m not going to feel bad about the two bottles of water and the 6oz can of V8 I had… I don’t care how much of an evil eye that volunteer gave me!

8th Month Anniversary

2006-10-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Exactly 8 months ago today I started what I then dubbed the jb100. Following johnboy's lead my goal was to exercise 100 days straight… no days off, no excuses… 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day for 100 days. In the back of my mind I wanted to make exercise stick permanently, but I knew it was too big a chunk to bite off initially… and probably still is.

I am now at 243 days or 8 months 1 day minus the 1 day I missed in July. So given the duration what are the results?

Well I feel great. I’ve toned up, but my girth still isn’t exactly where I want it. I had to buy more jeans recently and was able to get into a 34” waist comfortably. I had been wearing 34’s before but so tightly that it caused the material to eventually tear at the back pocket gusset. I’m still in a 35 dress pant but here again much more comfortably than I was before.

I could probably drop back to my goal of a 33 waist if I cut back on my diet a little. Over the summer I let my daily carb count slip up to the 150 – 165 gram range from my usual 120g. With all the fresh fruit around and not to mention my arch nemesis-- ice cream I’ve let the carb count rise. So far this fall I’ve cut back a little but still not to where I need for further reduction.

The benefit I enjoy most from exercising everyday is predictability of insulin. A 1.5 unit correction bolus will adjust my blood glucose level downward 50 mg/dl every time. Before exercising so regularly I got into S.W.A.G. bolus periods, where doubling and sometimes tripling the correction bolus wouldn’t effect my sugar levels in a predictable manner. This is currently not an issue… woohoo!

I hope the next time I write about this is at the successful celebration of the one year mark.

The 12th Hole

2006-10-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Previously I’ve alluded to the fact that I’m on the board of the local chapter of a non-profit entity. This entity provides room and board for families with hospitalized children. If I wrote the name you’d recognize it, but I don’t want it popping up on a search engine so it’ll remain anonymous for the time being, but you get the idea and hey, the name doesn’t really matter anyway.

Yesterday we held our annual golf fundraiser. We rent what many consider to be the best golf course here in East Tennessee and then teams play for various donated prizes. We had 120 players and the entry fees go towards the operating budget of the entity. I couldn’t help with the event in the morning but I went out for the afternoon to ‘do my share’.

A car was to be given away to anyone who could make a hole-in-one at the 12th hole. So ‘my share’ was to stand at tee box of the 12th hole and make sure players teed up at the right spot so if they made a hole-in-one it would qualify and they would win the car. (Unfortunately noone won the car, but one guy did hit the flag!) I don’t play golf but it doesn’t take a pro golfer to note that this is a really beautiful place. In addition to the course quality the leaves are about peak here, adding to the awesome beauty.

I ended up being on the course about 5 hours yesterday afternoon, a good ways from the clubhouse and without test equipment or hypo treatment material. Before you panic let me say that my blood sugars aren’t as volatile as they once were and they tend to move in slower swings rather than volatile shock waves. I think this is the result of a low(er) carb diet and that I’m maturing (at least age wise). When I was younger small amounts of insulin used to have drastic effects. Now, even though I exercise daily, the net effect of insulin is less. Anyway as luck would have it I could feel myself getting low about 3 hours into my duty. Since I had no sweets on hand, I cut my basal rate in half and fortunately this seemed to do the trick. When I was able to test again I was 98 mg/dl.

On a similar (and maybe TMI) note, one of the hypo symptoms I’ve noticed lately is that my bladder fills just about the time I ‘feel’ the hypo. I’ve noticed this several times before and have been keeping a mental log to verify this symptom. I’m about 90% sure I’m right about this. I’ve never read or heard about anyone else having this symptom so I’m passing it along for anyones' edification that can use it.

The final two hours I ended up standing in a drizzle with a slight breeze from the northwest. I was pretty chilly when I finally got back to the clubhouse, but no worse for wear. Diabetically speaking though, I am going to have to start living up to the Boy Scout motto and “Be Prepared!”.

Bye Summer Hello Tomato

2006-10-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

We’ve basically had beautiful weather here in East Tennessee since the heat began to wane about mid-August. All good things must come to an end however and last Thursday it ended with a bang. We had two cold fronts blow thru within 12 hours and that night the weatherman was on the border about whether or not to predict frost. Well frost slipped across the border during the night and we awoke Friday to a heavy covering of frosty white. Friday morning also initiated the start of the winter heating bill season as I slid the thermostat control from Off over to Heat.

We have a garden every summer and it generally does well. We plant about 25 tomato plants along with various kinds of peppers and some years (not this one) squash and green beans. This year I got our tomatoes in the ground about a month late, about mid-june. That ‘one month’ late has thrown the harvest two months late… funny how that works. When the frost hit last Thursday we had tons of ripe and almost ripe tomatoes on the vines. So Friday evening I went out to pick the remaining goods ones. I kept picking and picking until I lost most of the sunlight. At the end of the evening I had 16 gallons of tomatoes. Yes, that was Gallons with a ‘G’ and there were 16 of them.

So what does one do with 16 gallons of tomatoes? Well, we canned them until we ran out of canning jars. No more jars means we hit our storage limit and no more canning! So now we’re trying to give tomatoes away and attempting to eat everything tomato we can think of. (I guess our licopine levels will be high for a while.) As I write this a bunch of them just left via two nice friends from church. Now we’re down to six gallons.

They say if you eat too many carrots you’ll turn a light shade of orange… check with me next week as I may be a nice shade of red!

Meme time again

2006-10-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

I though I would join in on this meme that I believe Penny started.

1. Do you still have tonsils?

No, I lost mine about 8 years of age. I think my parents and the Dr were attempting to get me well as I was a sickly child. I now wonder if all this sickness was caused by D trying to rear its head before its official DX 3 years later.

2. Would you bungee jump?

If I was absolutely sure it was safe. While I’m not a wimp, life doesn’t go on forever and I don’t want to end it prematurely by doing something stupid.

3. If You Could Do Anything In The World For A Living What Would It Be?

Fly a medical rescue helicopter.

4. How many tattoos do you have?

None. I’ve always been afraid I wouldn’t like it later or I would change my mind.

5. Your favorite fictional animal?

I don’t have one… sorry.

6. One person that never fails to make you laugh?

My youngest son ‘T’. He’s a little person and has the keen wit and good sense of humor that so many little people seem to have. He can always cheer me up.

7. Do you consider yourself well organized?

I try very hard to be, but don’t look at my desk.

8. Any Addictions?

Probably good chocolate and a good cup of coffee.

9. From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news?

We read the local paper for local news and events. Robin and Company (CNN) many mornings while I exercise. The internet for indepth news… we alternate between FOX and CNN to try to get a balanced perspective.

10. Would you rather go to a carnival or circus?

I really don’t care for either, you can have my ticket.

11. When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An commercial aircraft pilot. I was DX’d the year before and was still trying to come to terms with the fact that this was no longer an option.

12. Best Movie You've Seen This Year?

Enemy of the State. Yes, I know this movie is 8 years old but I still loved it.

13.Favorite alcoholic drink?

I don't drink much alcohol anymore. I used to really like a good frozen Marguarita though.

14. What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Go downstairs, get my Bible and a cup of coffee.

15. Siblings?

None. Like Tigger, I'm the only one.

16. What is the best thing about your job?

Freedom. Good thing as there’s not much money at the current time.

17. Have you ever gone to therapy?

No.

18. If you could have one super power what would it be?

The power to heal, but the responsibility would be incredibly heavy.

19. Do you own any furniture from Ikea?

No.

20. Have you ever gone camping?

Yes, many, many times. It’s still some of the best times I have all year.

21. Gas prices! First thought?

I’m in the wrong business. Just how do I go about getting 100 oil wells?

22. Your favorite cartoon character?

Dexter.

23. What was your first car?

A ’66 Dodge Coronet. My aging grandfather used to haul pigs to market in the backseat of this car!

24. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?

No. I think it’s still the best way to preserve the family and have stable, well adjusted kids. (I’m aware there are problems with many marriages and I'm sorry about this.)

25. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons?

The Cosby Show.

26. Do you go to church?

Yes. I’m on a couple of leadership teams at church. I can’t imagine life without it.

27. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?

Condoleezza Rice

28. What errand/chore do you despise?

I’m getting where I hate to mow the grass. I didn’t use to mind it. My youngest can’t mow the grass easily and my oldest absolutely hates it so that leaves dear ole dad… there’s got to be something better to do with the time.

29. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?

”Got to move Sam’s car”. ‘T’ just started a new job this week and has to leave at 6:30a. We didn’t juggle cars last night before bed.

30. Last time you puked from drinking?

About 34 years ago… once is enough!

31. What is your heritage?

Scotch Irish.

32. Favorite flower?

Begonias.

33. Disney or Warner Bros?

Warner Bros, I guess. I used to be a big fan of the Road Runner.

34. What is your best childhood memory?

In my early teen’s my parents bought a truck camper and a modest ski boat. We camped almost every weekend during the summer… it was a blast!

35. Your favorite potato chip?

A Lay’s Ruffle potato chip with a big bowl of French Onion dip.

36. What is your favorite candy?

A dark chocolate Milky Way.

37. Do you burn or tan?

I grew up in Texas, it’s a good thing I tan!

38. Astrological sign?

Virgo

39. Do you own a gun?

Yes. I never shoot them but I’m glad we live in a country where ownership is possible I hate it when guns aren’t used responsibly though.

40. What do you think of hot dogs?

I love them. My best endo ever told me that a quality turkey frank is a good alternative to high fat breakfast meats. I still have one with breakfast 2-3 times a week even now.

On the unhealthy side of the fence, have you tried the jalepeno and cheese hot dogs available at Pilot Truck Stops? These things rock, baby and at 2 for $2.00 it makes for cheap road food! (I eat one with the bun and one without to keep the carb count down. Bolus for 45g and you’re good to go!… is that ironic or what?)

The OC is a Small World

2006-09-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

This morning, before my day got started I cruised over to George's blog and began looking at the 'updated' blogs.

As I surfed, I came across Heidi over at D-Log Cabin and to my surprise I discovered that yesterday was her birthday. I say surprised because yesterday was my birthday as well. OK, too cool. Both T1 Ds, both OCer's, both pumper's, we're state neighbors and share the same birthday. I wish I could say we're the same age but I have to admit I've got a couple of decades on her. Anyway, it's nice to share the same birthday with a fellow OCer.

Happy Birthday Heidi!

Shout out

2006-08-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm totally aware I haven't posted much lately. I hope to change this, but no promises. The problem is I spend too much time editing my posts and I get bogged down. I think it was Thoreau that said, "Life is frittered away by detail". Someone else said, "If the shoe fits then wear it"... trouble is I've got those shoes on both feet!

I wanted to give a quick shout out to my fellow OCer Wil over at LifeAfterDx for his article in The Medtronic Diabetes connection newsletter. For those unfamiliar with connection, it is Medtronic's quarterly newsletter, sent to what I can only assume is their consumer base and other interested parties. The article discusses the events surrounding Wil's utilization of the Guardian RT System. Sorry I can't provide a link, I think this is a hardcopy only publication.

Kudos Wil!

The Streak - An Update

2006-07-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

I’ve read about this affliction on several other blogs and now I've caught it, I too have become a blog slacker. I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything thus far in July and, by George, I’m running out of time.

The exercise streak stands at 159 days –1. I am very glad I joined johnboy on this endeavor. Exercise has always been one component of my control that’s been hit or miss. This time I feel like I’m in it for the long haul.

All other times I’ve tried to implement something similar, it’s always been a routine based on exercising every other day. Eventually, the ‘off’ day leads into two and then three days, and pretty soon I’m out of the habit. By doing it every day if you get up in the morning you better have a plan to ‘git ‘r done’ sometime during the day. This seems to work better than anything else I’ve tried.

The only negative is there is no time for resting muscle groups, or at least there wasn’t in the beginning. My left hamstring is still very tight and I’m trying to implement a stretching routine somewhere into my day to alleviate this. On the days I actually stretch it seems to do much better.

The second week of July, we visited my 89 year old Aunt in Western Kentucky. While there she gave me her late husband’s (Uncle Sam, from the previous post) rowing machine, a Precor Amerec 610. It’s an older machine, but yet a very nice twin piston design. This has allowed me to implement more variation into my program and rest my legs. And didn’t someone say, ‘Variety is the spice of exercise?’… or a least something like that.

You’ll notice that earlier I said 159 days –1. The –1 happened on July 3rd, the 131st day of the streak. As you recall July 3rd was on a Monday. Our area pretty much celebrated the 4th on the 3rd, beginning with the City who arranged (and paid for) a very elaborate 30 minute firework display that evening.

Now our rather large church sits on top of a hill probably 300 yards from where the fireworks are launched and as a result our parking lot is sought out by those wishing to have a good view of the display yet not be among the huddled masses that gather closer in. We take this opportunity to minister to the community by having a free carnival. The church provides big blow up toys for the kids to play on, face painting, music, lots of bottled water and hot dogs. All at no charge!

Our class was in charge of cooking and serving the 500+ hot dogs. (Unfortunately, we depleted our supply just before dusk. Note to us, increase supply next year!) Anyway, after cooking and serving hot dogs all evening, watching the display, waiting for 50,000 people to clear from a 1 square mile area so I can drive home and then driving home, when I looked at my watch prior to exercising it was 1am on July 4th. So I had good intentions but just waited too late in the day.

C'est la vie! No big deal. I just picked up where I left off the day before and have been going strong ever since.

As a result of this I’m trying to exercise in the mornings. I think this will ultimately result in less skipped days. Right now I’m going to have to work into it. I’m at about 3 out of 7 currently, the rest still in the evening. I am still very pleased with my streak and hope I can continue on.... indefinately!

Late to the Interview

2006-06-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

I am very late to this interview meme. Back in May I told Vivian of DanielDoo that I'd like to participate, not dreaming that she'd ask such thought provoking questions. I'm afraid the words written hear do not relect the amount of time I've spent thinking about these issues, but here goes anyway:

1. What is your favorite memory?

My favorite memories revolve around camping, which is still a favorite activity of mine. When I was 12, my parents picked me up from Camp Sweeney in a new cabover camper. There ensued several years of great camping experiences. My family already owned a modest ski/fishing boat and I spent many a weekend waterskiing till my arms literally could not hold onto the rope handle any longer. Many an evening was spent with my Dad anchored off the point of a small Lake Texoma island fishing for Sand Bass.

Shortly after the camper’s purchase, we joined a camper club in Irving, TX where I grew up. Many of the families in the club had kids that I attended school with and we all became good friends. Every October the club went to Platt National Park in southern Oklahoma where the kids would hike up to a small cave we located, ride our bikes and just generally have loads of fun. Great times!

2. Who did you look up to as a child?

I looked up to my Uncle Sam (not the government icon), probably more than any one person. I was very blessed to have great, Godly parents and this is in no way an afront to them. My Uncle Sam was very a strong Christian man, very intelligent and a successful businessman. He always had thoughtful word and good advice. As a testiment to his life and character, I named my oldest son after him.

3. What is one thing you would like to accomplish in your lifetime?

See Uncle Sam number 2! In addition, I'd like to have a successful business.

4. What is the most important piece of advice you have given your boys?

I cannot think of one particular piece of advice stands out in my mind. I have tried to live a life of character, compassion, honesty and integrity before them with a liberal dose of respect, both toward women and their fellow man, thrown in. Of course, I’ve given them (and continue to do so) advice, guidance and discipline as needed (not necessarily in that order). At nineteen and twenty-one my job is nearing completion (I think) and I like what I see. My wife deserves as much if not more credit than I do in their upbringing and I would be remiss if I left out God’s hand of direction on their lives, which I very plainly see.

Our relationship is rapidly changing from one of parent-child to close friends. This is really neat to see and I very much enjoy their company. While they both still live at home I will very much miss them when they inevitably leave the nest and start lives and families of their own.

5. What has diabetes taught you?

Whoa, that’s a tough one. I think the old motto of Camp Sweeney says alot here. PFC - Perseverance, Faith and Courage (oddly coincident, this also stands for Proteins, Fats and Carbohydrates which the camp staff taught liberally).

Perseverance to keep on with the discipline of good control, which included testing (back in the day it was all urine testing), diet and medication. Overall I did OK with this and of course perseverance spills over into other aspects of life.

Faith that all this is not in vain and without purpose, but is an aspect of molding me into the individual God wants me to be. See Paul in II Cor 12:7-10.

Courage to face tomorrow no matter what challenges (or complications--hopefully not) it may bring.

One additional point, diabetes has taught me to be thankful for life. Everytime I read something similar to Shannon’s cousin Scott, first my empathy goes out to that person and secondly I’m doubly thankful for my own health. I realize there may be complications in my future, as complications can happen to individuals who are trying diligently to control their glucose levels. Regardless, life is good and I try to enjoy and make the best use of each day possible.

CNN Type 1 Video

2006-05-31T05:17:00.000-07:00

The CNN site has a short video (1:36 minutes) about four famous type 1 PWDs: Halley Berry, Elliot Yamin, Adam Morrison and Gary Hall. Go to the CNN video site, in the Search Videos box enter 'Living with Diabetes'. It will be the only one returned from the search. Click and view.

(Sorry for the hassle on this, due to the CNN video viewer I couldn't insert a direct link).

The Blood Donation

2006-05-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last weeks blood donation went off without a hitch. I thought my T1DM status would flag me for some 'off to the side' questions outside the battery of normal ones. It didn’t. In fact, noone seemed to care.

My goal was to go into the donation process with a bG as close to 100 as possible. I was almost thwarted in this as I awoke Saturday with a bG of 221. After administering a correction bolus and eating a modest breakfast I was off. At an in route stoplight I took a reading – 75. I had about 15 minutes of IOB from the correction bolus and an hours worth from breakfast. I did a quick check-in with my hypo sensors, but everything felt fine. I was a little concerned nonetheless

Fortunately, shortly after beginning the reading/sign-your-life-away process a lady came around asking if we wanted anything to drink. I immediately snagged a small OJ (21 grams of carb) and relaxed.

The rest of the time was uneventful. I gleened some tips from Ryan Bruner in his post about donating. Because of his dehydration issues I took it upon myself to drink plenty of fluids the day before as well as that morning. I filled the bag in a little over 10 minutes. I felt slightly dizzy upon initially standing, but otherwise I was fine.

My readings have been pretty erratic this week, but I actually think this has more to do with allergies and the sickeningly sweet smelling shrub blooming beside our house (and all over town) than it does with blood donation.

My advice is to give if you can. It seems the general consensus, around here anyway, is the available supply of clean donors is dwindling. This may be the reason they’re now allowing T1DMs to donate. I don’t really know. Regardless, I hope this small act will help someone in their own health crisis.

IE7 vs Blogger

2006-05-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure where the problem is, but I created another post in blogger, I went to save it and it was lost. This is at least the second time this has happened and it’s getting very frustrating. I think the solution is to compose in something else then cut-and-paste into blogger to see if this won’t help the situation. Actually, I think the problem lies between the Microsoft browser and Google owned blogger.

About three weeks ago I downloaded the beta version of IE7. Last week I noticed after performing a Google search and selecting a link., the back button does not take you back to the Google search but to the page you were viewing prior to that. It did not work this way in IE6.

To say Microsoft and Google are less than friends would be an understatement. Microsoft is poised to release some new tools shortly and Google is also making headway into markets not heretofore explored. Regardless of their animosity towards one another, I’m tired of loosing posts.

Given' Blood?

2006-05-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

I received an email yesterday concerning the blood drive our church is sponsoring. I've always wanted to give and everytime I've inquired about it, I've been met with a negative response due to the diabetes issue.

There was a number to call on the email so just for grins I gave it a ring. The person to whom I spoke said as long as your blood sugar was reasonably stable and your sliding scale hadn't changed in the last couple of weeks type 1's are good to go.

Wow, after all the years of hearing 'no' I'm finally hearing 'yes'. So now I'm in a quandry. Do I give or not?

So this morning I'm wondering if any other type 1's have given and if you experienced any adverse effects. Whether you have or haven't I'd love to hear your opinion.

Smiling --- well mostly?!

2006-05-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

Monday I went by my endo's to drop off a couple of vials of blood. Yesterday was the big day... the results are in.

OK, I'm pleased, but not as jubilant as I wanted to be or thought I would be. I had hoped with all the exercise from the jb100 (today is day 78, btw) I was fully expecting (or hoping really hard) for a below 7 reading. Unfortunately it was just not to be. A 7.3 is all I could pull off. I guess this is OK considering my last couple have been in the 7.8 to 7.9 range, but I would really like to see this drop below 7... consistantly.

I think my problem is I refrain from using quite enough insulin. The reason I do this is my reluctance to gain weight. My main problem comes in the afternoons. Since I work from home I have easy access to the kitchen. I go into the kitchen to refill my coffee cup or tea glass and while I'm there I pick. Oh not much. Just 2-3, maybe 5 grams of carb. A pinch of this or a corner of that. Not really enough for a bolus or at least I think, but then my pre-dinner bG is a little high. Obviously I need to take care of this issue, either quite picking or pick and bolus for it. My NP recommended I raise my afternoon basal by .1, so I'll try that.

Also on the mixed results front, the jb100 helped me get my HDL up nicely. Unfortunately, my LDL is also up a little, so it's back on the statin for me.

Oh Wow!

2006-04-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Knoxville and when I returned home I found this from the Diabetes Sports and Exercise Association in my mailbox. After my bellyaching about Skateboard Hill and no more twentysomething fat meltaway, here's a 72 year old lady that runs 10 miles a day.

Talk about an example! Strap on the running shoes and lets go!!!

Day 61 - Woot!

2006-04-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a nice post prepared last night and when I tried to 'publish', blogger lost it... grrrr! I've had this happen a couple of times lately, but all other times I've copied the post to the clipboard and had a recovery path. Anyway I wanted to give a quick update since it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Also, a quick shout out to johnboy for checking on my progress and to my neighbor vivian for her support... thanks friends!

In the quest for 100 continuous days of areobic exercise, yesterday was day 61. The good news is I've lost slightly over 2" in my waist. The discouraging news is it comes off pathetically slow. Now that I'm well into my 40's I miss those twenty-something days when a couple of weeks of serious exercise would yield some dramatic results. Oh, well. If your in that enviable age range, enjoy it. My attempts to hang onto it have been in vain, my sincere hope is that it won't slip through your grasp as well.

Now that the weather here in East Tennesse has turned absolutely gorgeous, I'm trying to run outside. My favorite path lies up the hill from my house where a 2.8 mile jogging trail wraps around the city's high school, middle school and civic complex. About half way around the trail is a hill I've affectionately named, Skateboard Hill because of the skate park that lies at its base. Skateboard Hill continues to defeat me in my quest to complete this almost 3 mile loop. Ever since we've lived here I have been unsuccessful. On a few occassions, I've made it to the top, but my heart rate was so dramatic I feared an explosion of nuclear proportions. On these occassions I've stopped running and walked till my heart rate returned to at least the three digit range and then began running again.

Again last Sunday I met with defeat. About half way up the hill I had a meltdown. I think with a little more training and some rockin' music on the mp3 player I can win this battle. My hope is to complete the loop while running, including the conquest of the infamous Skateboard Hill, by the middle of May. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Skateboard Hill is goin' down!!!

What a day!

2006-04-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

The second week of every month is particularly challenging. Besides my weekly 7:30 Tuesday meeting, I have a 7:09 (go figure?) Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Wednesday and a 7:00 non-profit Board meeting on Thursday. These early meetings combined with my inability to get into bed before 11:00 or 11:30 at the earliest, mean by the end of the week I'm ready to shoot the alarm clock.

Yesterday, my quest for technology knowledge took me to the Carolina IT Professionals group in Charlotte for their monthly meeting. Charlotte is approximately 200 miles from my little burg. As I did a mental walk-through of the day's agenda, I could see it would be a tight squeeze to get in 30 minutes of exercise and keep the jb100 streak going. My plan was to exercise at noon, grab a quick lunch and leave the house at 1:00. OK, good plan.

My 7:30 meeting was over at 8:45. Just enought time to slide by the auto shop for my 9:00 brake appointment. As it always seems to go with these things, the car needed more work than originally anticipated. Diagnosis: I needed new rotors along with brake pads. By the time the new rotors and brake pads were delivered to the shop and installed, the clock was pushing 11:00, but good to know the car was in shape for the trip. One more stop before the treadmill.

Well, that stop also took longer than expected and I arrived home around 12:15... not enough time to jump on the treadmill for a half-hour and still get out the door on time. OK, I'll have to wing it. I managed to grab a bite, get packed and leave by 1:00.

Maybe it was those new brakes or the new tires I had installed on Monday, but the car flew. I was around Asheville in a little over an hour and headed east, changed highways in Hickory and arrived Gastonia at 4:00. Wow, remarkable time! I had been thinking about what to do for exercise when I spied a mall out of the corner of my eye. I thought, I've got plenty of time and just a short distance to my destination, I'll stop in the mall and walk for 30 minutes. So I did. I'm not crazy about being a mall walker but hey, it worked.

So one more day checked off on the jb100. I thought this would be close and I was right. I'm don't want to seem braggadocios but it does show what dedication to a cause can accomplish. I have to admit I'm a little surprised, but very pleased that I've now completed day 48. The only negative is since I wasn't in my workout shoes I now have a nice blister on the ball of my right foot. Not to worry though, I drained it when I arrived home and it appears to be healing fine.

I arrived at the Forest Hill Church at 5:30, right on time and stayed till 9:00. I must say it's very commendable that the church opens their facilities to an outside group like this and it was definately a very beautiful facility. Heard some super good speakers, it was well worth the trip.

Thank goodness for dark roast coffee as it's the only thing that helped me get home safely. Man, am I ever going to sleep good tonight!

It Must Be Love!!!

2006-04-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a very pleasant surprise. I was sitting at my desk, wrestling with a programming issue when in walked my sweetie with lunch. I was surprised on a couple of different fronts. A little surprised that I hadn't raised her ire as she had already asked me about my lunch plans a couple of times. Seeing how I was nearing completion of this specific task, I wanted to finish before munching. The second, because she brought my lunch to me. However pleasant, the real surprise was she told me exactly the number of carbohydrates on the plate.

She has always been very suportive of me and my diabetes, but I think this is the first time she's told me the exact carb count on the plate. Surely this is a direct result of the jb100, of which yesterday completed day 42. I think the moral of the story is this: when we are truly serious about taking care of ourselves, our loved ones will join in with us. As an additional bonus, when I returned from a 7:15 meeting this morning she was just completing her exercise video, so maybe I'm setting a good example as well.

On a humerous note, one evening last week my oldest son and I were sitting at the dinner table talking and looking over some printed material. My wife was across the room making some relatively diabetic friendly chocolate chip cookies. My son looked up from our conversation and said, "Mom, I believe I'll lick the beater". When I glanced her direction this is what I saw (Sorry about the pic quality). Wonder how much I'd have to bolus for this kitchen cleanup duty? Hey, maybe she knew the carb cout on this too but was just holding out!

Day 33 Status Report

2006-03-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but then Johnboy gave me a gentle nudge and I said I've got to give an update.

The jb100 is still alive and well and a 40 minute bike ride earlier tonight completed day 33. Exercise is so good for people with diabetes and I have really been reaping the benefits, especially in the bG range. Most of the time my readings have been very good... most of the time. There is still the occasional dietary indiscretion or missed carb estimate that throws me above 200 and I guess there will always be. Exercise manages to cover a multitude of these sins, however.

Another benefit is that I've lost between 6 and 8 pounds, depending on the day and how gently I step on the scales. At this point I'm not too concerned with my weight as my BMI currently calculates to 22.4. What I really want to work on the next 33 days (or however long it takes) is reducing my waist size. If I could drop 3" in jean sizes I would be delighted. I'm really trying to avoid that middle-age belly that so many guys get, so as of a few days ago I've incorporated 50 crunches and a bicycling type manuever that's helping to tighten those abs. I may have to 'kick it up' a couple more notches to achieve the results I striving for. I'll see how it goes.

My posting may continue to be light as I am in hot pursuit of a job or contract work, whichever appears first. I'm also trying to upgrade my skills on some .NET (pronounced 'dot net') developer software as well as pursing a certification or two. I've got a good handle on a couple of these areas but still not as comfortable as I want to be before sitting for an exam. A day is never complete, however, without checking the blogs of my fellow OC'ers.

Peace and good bG's to all.

A Quick Update

2006-03-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

First off, you may remember my post on the CGMS I made after our last area meeting of diabetic groupies. The meeting speaker was our area Minimed rep sporting a new Guardian RT. He had an endo appt the next day and I indicated I would post his A1c number when it became available. Last week I received word his A1c was 5.9... a pretty awesome number. I'm further impressed as he spends alot of time on the road and I know his diet is less than optimal. Okay, I'm pretty much sold at this point although I don't really want the bother or the expense just yet. I guess it's a good thing I can't afford it. It's reassuring to know when I get ready for a Guardian it will be more refined than the one currently available.

Second. After my mild rant on the Choice A1c Home Test, I was impressed that my refund check came in the mail Saturday, 8 days after my conversation with their support person. My opinion on the product hasn't changed and was confirmed by several fellow bloggers, but I'm impressed that Norartis stood by their word and refunded my money quickly, not the usual 4-6 weeks that everyone else seems to take.

Finally. I'm still on track with the jb100, the 100 days of fitness inspired by johnboy. Today is day 22 for me. I've had a couple of close calls with not getting it done or not wanting to get it done, but I've managed to prevail. The accountability to this group has much to do with it. I don't want to tell you guys I missed a day unless I have a very good reason.

I will say my stomach has been a little queasy the last couple of days, so rather than do my usual full workouts I've walked on the treadmill for 35 minutes at a 3.5 - 3.7 mph pace. Enough to get my heartrate up but not so much as to further agravate my stomach. I think I will feel better soon and walking at this brisk clip still fufills the 100 day requirement. My house was filled with sickness last week as both my boys were on spring break and came down with some kind of yucky head/chest/stomach condition where they felt miserable most of the week. I've probably had a minor brush with whatever that was. It's looking like I will escape the full brunt of this particular bug.

I know it's only Thursday, but here's to starting the weekend early if you can. Hope everyone has a good one!

The Case of the Troublesome Treadmill

2006-03-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

I've been having some trouble with my treadmill. Last Friday was the worst. Twice, both times during running portions of my workout, it just quit. The power went off and it stopped. Dead. This is very annoying, especially when I'm in full stride run. Actually it's beyond annoying.

I've suspected I knew the cause of the problem for some time. The safety switch. So Sunday afternoon I got ambitious and took the control panel off the base, brought it upstairs and had a look. What I discovered was the little microswitch on the inside was faulty. When I hooked my volt-ohm meter to the switch I found that it had a partial connection even in the open position. In the closed position, sometimes it was completely on other times off.

It was beginning to get on towards workout time so I had an idea. I'll remove the switch and solder the two wires together. Not the safest thing but it would get me through a workout. So I did it.

What I didn't realize, the EE's that designed the board knew there would be guys like me. When I plugged in the treadmill it displayed 'PO' on the panel. I pushed every button and combination of buttons to try to reset the panel, but to no avail. "Curses, Red Baron!"

I had to unsolder the wires, plug the treadmill back into the power source and reconnect the safety wires to get the panel to display/function correctly. Fortunately, I had a pair of alligator clips attached to a short length of wire that I used to complete the connection. It sufficed for the evening and I was able to complete my workout. I was still somewhat nervous. I had the two safety switch wires protruding out the slot where the plastic safety key normally resides and attached to them was the yellow alligator clip assembly. I could envision the clips coming off, either by becoming entangled in my swinging arm motion or via the vibration produced by my running strides, but they held fast.

Since Sunday, I have taken the microswitch assembly down to my local electronics store, found a replacement and installed it. It has worked perfectly throughout two sessions and I'm regaining confidence in the treadmill again. Treadmill workouts are slightly easier when I'm not so concerned about coming to an abrupt stop.

P.S. I still have my exercise streak going. As of tonight it's 9 official days (since March 1^st) or 15 days actual. A couple of days it's been rocky but I've managed to forge ahead. For those participating lets keep moving ahead!

Choice A1c Home Test

2006-03-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I purchased a Choice brand A1c home test. I had to cancel my February Endo appt partly due to financial reasons and I've been curious to know what my latest A1c results would show. I've been shopping around for a several days but ended up at Wal-Mart as they are the only ones who had it in stock. FYI, I paid $18.98. I tried to get it cheaper, but this is the going rate.

I couldn't wait to get home and try it. My bG's have been good for the last month and I was hoping I would be rewarded by a nice low A1c number. By "good bG's" I mean my meter is telling me I have a 14 day average of 134 and a 30 day average of 139. Not bad and I give most of the credit to launch preparation for the 100 days of fitness - the jb100.

If you've never run one of these tests it's a little more complicated than I originally thought, but nothing that can't be handled. After carefully following the directions and meticulously getting the right size blood sample, mixing it with the dilution kit, you then apply the diluted blood sample to the monitor opening. You then wait for what seems like an eternity (8 minutes) to get what you hope is a great number... 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1......... (flash) QCOK (flash) 8.9 (flash) QCOK (flash) 8.9 over and over and over. I was in disbelief, it had to be wrong.

This result got me re-reading the instructions, even more closely this time. The temperature range for the test is between 64° and 82° F. It's been in the low 40's here today and our house is between 65° and 68°. Close, but in range. The other thing I noticed is the test expires on the 28th of this month, 25 days hence. I could find nothing else that might possibly make the result erroneous.

I called the 800 number listed in the documentation. After a about a five minute wait I was connected to a customer service rep no doubt located in India who, I must admit spoke pretty good english. Twice, she made it a point to tell me she was a health care professional. I explained the situation to her emphasising the the temperature range and expiration date concerns. She agreed that they were close but within range. I also told her about the 14 and 30 day meter averages. She asked about my last A1c and said she needed to talk with her supervisor. When she returned she again said that everything appeared normal but if I was unhappy the company would send me a refund. Somewhere during the course of the conversation she also said that as of December 31st, 2005 they company is no longer manufacturing these kits.

I was very pleased that the company offered me my money back, less sales tax of course and I took them up on their offer. At this point I am unsure I'm going to try this again. I need to do research on why they are no longer manufacturing these kits and if there are other kits available. I've read and re-read Mendosa's page on A1c home test kits and have still not come to a definitive conclusion. I've gone to my endo before and been surprised by my A1c results, both pleasantly and otherwise. Most of the time I know roughly what to expect and I feel strongly this result was out of line.

Launch - The jb100 Is Away!

2006-03-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

On the very first day I had a brush with failure... fortunately things turned out OK. On Tuesday evening I went to a Geek meeting and had dinner complete with iced tea. The dinner was great, white chicken chili and an great salad garnished with russian and bleu cheese chunk dressing. The tea, however, must of had a triple dose of caffeine as I could not get to sleep later that evening. Actually I think it was a combination of miscalculating the meal's carb value and the caffeine. I was 245 when I got home, promptly bolused and ended at 72 right before bed. Normally a 72 is not a sleep destroyer but it combined with the caffeine evidently turned into a stimulant elixer. To cut to the chase, I got four hours sleep. About 6pm I started getting really tired, but managed to push through it. Got on the bike about 8pm and had a really good ride. I pushed the resistance up another level for a couple of minutes before backing it down. Day 1 successful.

The good news is I'm beginning to see results. This is, however, the fourth week of exercise, it's just gotten intense for the last two weeks. My TDD is averaging ~37 even with a few 4.5 unit correction boluses thrown in. My bGs are pretty much in the 80-150 range (notice I said pretty much) and I think my clothes may be fitting a little better. Possibly the best news is my sweetie wants to start exercising too. I'll keep you posted on the results as they develop.

T-Minus 1 Day And Counting

2006-02-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting tonight and figured I would get back to the house too late to hit the treadmill. About 5:15p I decided to 'git ur dun' and headed downstairs. Fortunately, the treadmill behaved itself, unlike Sunday night, so I got in a good 30+ minute workout. Looks like treadmill workouts are going to consist of three 10 minute segments. Ten minutes of jogging at 5 mph sandwiched between 10 minutes of of brisk (3.8 mph) walking for warm-up/cool-down. I'm at an in-between stage. The walking is too easy but the jogging gets tough beyond ~8 minutes. Increased speed and distance will come with time so I've just got to hang in there.

Last week I speculated, I would take either Monday or Tuesday off. That hasn't happened. I'm leaving my official start date at tomorrow, March 1st, but I've actually been going since last Thursday. I've already got a six day streak, so I feel good about that.

T-Minus 2 Days And Counting

2006-02-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

I was surprised when I reviewed last week. I accomplished the 30 minute workout for 6 days and took Wednesday off. My bGs have been very good and my average TDD for the week is 37.4. I hope the pounds and inches will start slidding off soon as I'm not seeing any results on those fronts.

Last night was spent on the treadmill. I got an earlier start than on Saturday, but not as early as I'd like. I'll have to work on this issue. I hadn't been on the treadmill but about 3 minutes when it gave me an E3 error. Besides sounding like a pump error, I don't have any specifics as the treadmill was gifted to me and came without documentation. Upon observation, I noticed the belt had slipped to the side somewhat so I found the allen wrench and recentered it. No more E3s. I started with a brisk walk and at the 10 minute mark, broke into a 5mph jog. At 12+ minutes the treadmill abruptly stopped. I think there is a loosened conection inside the safety switch which will require some adjustment. Anyway I reset the switch and resumed jogging for another eight minutes and finished with a 3.8mph walk. 30 minutes accomplished.

My legs have been very tight all day from last nights workout. I took 2 ibuprofen earlier to help with inflamation and I've drunk lots of H20 to try to cleanse my system of the excess lactic acid. Neither one of those things helped much and I was considering taking a rest day. However, habits are hard to break, and I got on the bike for 30 minutes earier this evening for a less intense workout and I believe that has helped more than anything. The increased circulation has probably flushed the muscle tissues as the soreness has decreased measureably.

T-minus 3 Days And Counting

2006-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

Had a close call with consistancy last night. It was a day of "honey-do's", the last one being to wire a cable outlet in the kitchen. I just about lost my cool till my sweetie came to the rescue with a fresh idea and an infusion of patience. I had to drill a hole up through the base plate in the basement and run coax cable up through the insulated wall to be 'fished out' the pre-cut hole in the kitchen wall. If you've done any of this type work it can be pretty frustrating as the cable kept getting tangled in the insulation, not to mention the initial tedium of finding the right place to drill in a almost 100 year old house. To make a long story short, we got it done but at the expense of time.

I didn't make it down to the basement for a date with the bike till 10:15p. I wrapped it up about 10:55 including a couple of minutes on each end of the 30 for warm-up/cool down. This is a little on the late side for exercising but I 'got it done'. This is one of the hazards of scheduling this in the evenings, as it's subject to the other activities of the day. I may have to reschedule for early mornings, as that's been my most successful time in the past.

T-minus 4 Days And Counting

2006-02-25T12:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had a good workout on the treadmill. I try to walk at a 4 mph pace but this is ending up at about 3.7 to 3.8. I know this doesn't sound particularly fast but try it. I keeps you moving. About 15 minutes in, I kicked it up to 5 mph and ran (actually jogged is more like it) for 5 minutes until kicking it back down to a brisk walk (3.8) for the remaining 10 minutes and then tacked on a few cool down minutes for good measure.

I aggravated my left knee in college while trying to do too much too soon, after a several month running sabatical. It's never been quite the same and even now I feel it. It doesn't hurt but I know something is not quite right. I probably need to get this looked at in the future, but for now I'm going to try to keep it strong and back off when I sense it's becoming irritated. My left hamstring is still tight but seems to be getting better. My wife gave it a deep tissue massage earlier today and that helped too.

After my walk/jog, I came back upstairs and noticed I didn't feel quite right so I tested... 32. OK, this is aggravating. One of my goals is to lose a little weight around the mid-section, so feeding my insulin is not what I had in mind. I over did the correction slightly and had a 200 prior to going to bed. Bolused 3 units and this morning awoke at a good solid 83. I'm going so have to back down on the dinner bolus slightly and cut the pre/during/post-exercise basal rate back a little too. In spite of the hypo correction, I ended the day with a TDD of 34.1. I consider anything below a 39.9 good. It's all part of the learning curve to begin the 100 days.

Another good ride

2006-02-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

I had another good ride last night in preparation of the 100 day kickoff. I did a couple of minutes of light (60 rpm) spinning on 'Lo' resistance both before and after the main 30-minute workout. Gradually worked my way up to 'my' high setting (at 90 rpm) for 10 minutes before starting to gradually back the resistance down. My heart rate was strong and I was really sweating towards the end, both indicators of a good workout. Maybe later I'll invest in a heart rate monitor as I'd like to track this closely during my workout.

The value of exercise proves itself again as my morning bG was 79 even after a Mexican meal out last night. I don't know why exercise is such a struggle as it reinforces itself with good results.

Don't know what I'm going to do for riding/treadmill entertainment after the Olympics are over. I was hoping Irina Slutskaya would pull out a gold last night but it just didn't happen. Didn't seem like anyone but Arakawa could keep their bum off the ice, including out own top contender who smacked it once and then had to put her hands down a second time. I feel a particular empathy with Irina. She has been caring for her mother who has kidney disease and is on dialysis after her initial transplant failed. It's that diabetes/kidney link thing going on there. I'm so thankful mine are working well... especially after all these years.

On Track

2006-02-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

I'm still on track to begin the 100 days next Wednesday, March 1st. I had good bike rides on Sunday and Tuesday evenings and did 30+ minutes on the Treadmill on Monday. I took last night off just to rest my legs a little as my hamstings and calves are pretty tight in spite of the fact that I've been trying to stretch at every possible opportunity. On Tuesday evening's ride I felt strong and kept the trainer on my current high setting for an extra five minutes. That made 32 minutes total.

I'm in the process of determining my schedule before Wednesday's kick off. I want to take at least one day off between now and then. I'm thinking it will probably be Monday... that will be four days straight before kickoff. However, if I feel good on Monday then may take Tuesday off, to make five straight. I'll see how it goes.

The awesome effects of exercise have shown themselves. For most of the week I've been between 75 and 140, except for last night when we had homemade pizza. I'd been famished all day for no apparent reason and I overate. That fact combined with the high fat meal made bolusing difficult and I awoke at 200 this morning. I'm thinking about getting an OTC A1C kit next week to give me a baseline, especially since I had to reschedule my January Endo appt and now can't get in till late April.

I'm off to the trainer. I have the old Sony B&W TV set up so I can watch the Olympics while I pedal. This is the Lady figure skating's big night. It's the first time I can't bring myself to root for the good ole USA's top contender. Sorry folks, my blood runs red, white and blue but her attitude is just outright arrogant. Oh well, you know what they say, 'Pride goes before a fall'...... literally.

100 Days

2006-02-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today I'm inspired by a combination of Elizabeth's post on The Tipping Point and John Boy's 100 Days. After the Christmas holiday's I typically go through a several weeks where my blood sugars swing erratically. There's no big secret to this, it has to do with the fact that I've been off the exercise routine for too long. This year I managed to come through Christmas pretty much unscathed food wise. We kept most of the junk out of the house and if it's not here then I don't eat it and that's good.

Exericse is another issue altogether. Exercise does more to stabilize my bG's more than any other factor, but probably the one I wrestle with the most. While insulin and diet are important and not to be discounted, exercise, at least for me, covers a myriad of sins. I've been off a regular exercise program since late fall, when all the mowing, raking and various outside activites drew to a close. (I count those things as exercise as it has the same effect, if done with enough vigor.)

When I read Elizabeth's post on The Tipping Point I knew my aggravation with swinging bG's had just about reached critical mass. Critical mass defined as the point when I finally get off my keester and go down to the basement for my date with the bike. The bike is my old road bike set up on a stationary trainer. Thirty minutes on it can make me sweat like a marathon runner on a Texas summer day. Not only does it give me a great workout, but for the next 48 hours the blood sugars tend to be good, unless I do something dumb like hit the chocolate donuts at Krispy Kreme (which rarely happens).

Another event adding to critical mass is that my clothes are not fitting as well as they once did. If I buy the next larger size then I'll just unwittingly allow myself to get a little larger in the comfort of new clothes. By refusing to buy a larger size then the snug fit serves as a constant reminder that something needs to be done.

Enter John Boy's 100 Day post. When I read this it struck a chord with me that resounded with action. 100 days of consistant 30 minute per day areobic exercise will certainly do what I need it to do: stabilize my bGs, lower my A1C, drop about 7 pounds, decrease my girth and increase my cardio-vascular fitness. Best of all it's do-able.

My plan is to start the 100 Day's on March 1st. I would have already started but I've been away long enough that I'm having to work up to it. I exercised two days, two weeks ago, three times last week and I'll go either 4 or 5 times this week. I'll be pushing it on March 1st, but I should be OK.

I hope you'll join John Boy and myself. It won't be easy, I know it will require staying up late some nights or rising way too early some mornings to accomplish the goal. If, however, it does what I think it will do then it will be worth it.

CGMS

2006-02-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the monthly gathering of our local PWD group. The speaker, himself a T1 of 27 years, was none other than our own Minimed rep, sporting a Guardian RT. Not coincidently, it was the subject of the presentation. Many of us who followed Wil's blog got a very indepth day by day review of the subject and I don't think I can add anything to what Wil has already extolled.

However, a couple of interesting points were made tonight that I wanted to pass on to the OC.

If your considering the Guardian RT, hold off, better things are coming. While I don't have specifics, the indication was that the external unit will be smaller and the whole unit will be more refined. I have to admit that the external unit is a little bulky and smaller is usually better when it comes to these devices that imbed themselves into the most intimate happenings of our day to day lives. I don't have further information on what exactly 'refined' means. My guess is that Minimed has learned several things from their limited release and are incorporating these lessons into the production release. The rep indicated the new Guardian would probably be available next year.

The new pump/sensor combination unit should be available in the US in the next 12-18 months. It is already available in Europe. For those of you who are following this story closely this is probably just a reconfirmation of what you already know. Since I'm currently in no position to purchase (read: no health insurance) I'm following both these stories from an informational perspective. (I think this situation will rectify itself shortly so that I won't be just a window shopper.)

I'm becoming a believer that this is the next step in my personal diabetes management. Due to my years of experience in software development, I'm always leary of the infamous 1.0 releases which are typically bug laden. I think the new Guardian unit, I'll dub it the 2.0, when released will be a good jumping off point.

Our area rep, has a personal endo visit tomorrow. He indicates his A1c typically runs about 6.7. With the additional information provided by the Guardian. he's expecting something in the 5's. I'll let you know how he does.

Tagged by Vivian

2006-02-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

In the latest round of 'tag, your it', I'm 'it'!

Four jobs I've had in my life:

Hamburger cook at Whataburger
Waiter/Head Waiter at Red Lobster
Bookkeeper
Project Manager

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Forrest Gump
The Untouchables (You just can't beat Sean Connery)
The Parent Trap (1998 remake with Lindsay Lohen, the music is great and it's pretty romantic towards the end. It has our song too... L is for the way you look at me... sing it Nat!)
The Princess Bride

Four places I have lived:

Texas (I was raised there... Hook 'em Horns and go Cowboys!)
Olympia, Washington (Great place to get married... and we did.)
North Carolina
Tennessee

Four TV shows I love to watch:

Good Eats (Alton Brown just rocks when it comes to food, science and humor!)
30 Minute Meals (Rachael Ray's spunkiness is just fun to watch and for the most part she cooks pretty healthy too!)
The Apprentice (This appeals to the entrepreneur in me.)
This Old House (Hey, a man's got to have his tools.)

Four places I have been on vacation:

Leon, Nicaragua
Budapest, Hungary (OK, both of these were technically mission trips, but it was still enjoyable.)
Vienna, Austria
Fairbanks, Alaska (Great place to honeymoon with your sweetie!)

Four of my favorite foods:

Lasagna (My wife can whip up a pretty mean batch on occasion!)
Lasagna (Angelos in Irving, TX makes some of the best, heavy on the cheese and at a great price too.)
Lasagna - Not to brag, but I can make a pretty good batch in a Lodge #12 Dutch Oven around a campfire... this is life at it's finest.
Lasagna - we just got a Johnny Carino's in town and I must say their's is mightly tasty too... but a tad pricey!

Four websites I visit daily:

msdn.microsoft.com - good site for software developers and I do believe the the content is infinite!
weather.com
The OC
monster.com - hey, I'm looking always looking for opportunity!

Four places I'd rather be right now:

This is a hard one, but as long as it's with my family I guess it doesn't really matter. However, it would be nice to be someplace warmer.

Sebastian, FL (My inlaws used to live here. In the heart of citrus country, we really enjoyed our January visits and in addition a refreshing respite from the cold.)
Hawaii (I've never been and I think it would be a nice place.)
Las Mercedes hotel in Managua, Nicaragua. Good pool, good eats, nice warm weather and a stroll down memory lane!
I'm keeping my options open on this one.

I'm tagging Laura and Kathleen.

Happy Anniversary Baby Got You On My Mind

2006-02-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

Todays post is in honor of the Little River Band, their song Happy Anniversary as well as my 37th diabetic anniversary!

Yes, it was 37 years ago today that my Mom woke me up on that fateful morning and couldn't understand what I was saying. Not the bleary eyed grumblings of a sleepy pre-teen, but the honest to goodness "I can't understand what your saying!" because I think somethings wrong, kind of understand. Being the clean freak that I was (and still am), I was trying to tell her that I wanted to take a shower! But she just wouldn't listen... or maybe I just couldn't talk. If memory serves me correctly, I remember getting somewhat adamant (as adamant as I dared) somewhere in the discourse. Well, fortunately her prudence prevailed as she bundled me up in my bathrobe and slippers (the second thing that didn't make me happy that February morning-- not getting dressed) and shuffled me out to the car.

I remember a VERY brief sit in the waiting room and then back to an examinination room. I had barely gotten seated on the paper covered table when you guessed it ... I HAD and I mean HAAADD to go the bathroom. My Mom and the nurse were reluctant to let me go, but this time I prevailed. I can still remember them saying, "Don't lock the door!. Just shut it but DON'T lock the door!" They were emphatic. Best I can remember, I just closed the door to where it touched the jam. Both they and my youthfully shy bladder were appeased.

After that point things get really foggy. My memories are really just snapshots in time. I remember coming back in to the examining room and laying back on that 'wonderful' crinkley paper... ... ... ... I remember being on a stretcher and being carried down the large spiral staircase of my pediatricians second floor office building... ... ... ... I remember being in motion and hearing the muffled sound of a nearby siren... ... ... ... I remember rolling down a hospital corridor... ... ... ... and that was it.

That was it for about 36 hours and then I began to awaken. I remember my Mom sitting in the chair beside me, she was crying as she talked on the phone. When I was fully awake I remember a Doctor entering my room and telling me I had diabetes. My immediate answer was, "I know how I got it! Two weeks ago Bill breathed on me!"

Bill was a boy in my fifth grade class with diabetes. He was a nice enough guy. I knew he ate a mid-morning snack in the back of the classroom, but I hadn't paid much attention. I did know that he had passed out one day as we lined up to go to lunch. Later that year, in some pre-adolescent wrestling scuffle he had deliberately breathed on me.

Well, the Doctor set me straight. He told me a nurse would be in later that day with an orange and a syringe so I could practice giving injections. The orange never materialized but the syringe came the next morning loaded with insulin. The nurse was kind, appologised for the lack of orange training even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't her fault, gave me thorough instructions on how to perform the real thing and encouraged me to try. I did and in a miracle moment it didn't hurt... not at all! I got off to a beautiful start. Later I would find that all injections aren't that way, but for that day and several after, they were relatively painless.

I ended up staying in the hospital 7 days. I developed pneumonia while there and wasn't allowed to leave until I was better. In the day, at least for me, the prescription was penicillin by injection... in the rump. One in the morning, one in the evening-- it was terrible. This went on at the most 3, maybe 4 days max, but my skinny, emaciated little butt didn't have a place on it that wasn't sore. I sure did hate to see that nurse come down the hall.

My Mom, a school teacher from the old school who loved me dearly, let me lay out of school several days before going back. I remember napping in class many days after I returned. I had a very kind, compassionate fifth grade teacher who just let me sleep and get my strength back. Somehow I managed my studies... she helped me catch up and unbeknownest to me at the time, simply forgave several assignments. Bill and I became good friends for the rest of that year. The next year we were in different classes and naturally drifted apart.

Such was my onset. To the trained eye, it was readily apparent what had been happening over several months prior to my onset. You have to know the signs of hyperglycemia and most people didn't know the signs in that day, especially if diabetes didn't run in your family. It doesn't in ours. I've had and am having a great life. Yes, I have bends in the road like everyone, but I sit here 37 years later without complications, without seizures and without any hospital stays other than the inital onset. I look forward to the next 37 years for as John Avery Whittaker once said, "The best is yet to come!"

WV Miners - Sago and Melville

2006-01-23T08:01:00.000-08:00

My wife came into my office Saturday afternoon, her voice trembling and said simply, "They found them...".

It's been a tough year in West Virginia. Let's not forget to thank them everytime we turn up the heat or turn on the lights.

Crazy

2006-01-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

We've all had them, you know, that bG reading that just didn't make any sense. Not very often am I still perplexed by an event that happened three days ago, but this is one.

I really try to keep my carb levels consistant from day to day. Yes, I break over occasionally, but as a general rule I keep it at 30-30-60... 30 grams for breakfast/lunch and 60 for supper. I've found this keeps my readings from swinging wildly and it keeps my waistline under control too. It's all good.

We've been on an oatmeal kick around here recently, so it's no wonder I got up thinking about it as a possible breakfast option. As I studied the label it revealed, 1 serving equals 27 grams of carb. Ok, that's more than I want to eat as we still have some great navel oranges we bought to support the local high school band and I want at least part of one for breakfast. I cut the oatmeal recipe in half, so 1/4 cup dry oatmeal and 1/2 cup water and into the nuclear accelerator. After the ding and a quick taste, I discovered it needed some sweetening and a little liquid. I added approximately 2 tablespoons of milk and a teaspoon of brown sugar. As Goldilocks said, "... and it was just right." Sure, by adding the accouterments, I upped the carb count a little so I'll compensate and only eat 1/2 an orange, still keeping within my 30 gram limit. I was good to go for the morning.

Lunch time rolled around and for some crazy reason I didn't test. I'm not sure why. I always test before lunch, but this time I didn't. Go figure. Anyway, the night before we had set some my wife's cure-all chicken-noodle soup out of the freezer to thaw. She's been battling a wicked chest cold all week and we were hoping the soup would do for her what it always does for me--cure all. We each sat down to 1 cup. Again I approximate from rough calculations and previous exprerience-- 30 grams and bolus accordingly.

About mid-afternoon, while working my way through the book SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers, I notice I'm fuzzy headed and can NOT concentrate. Time to test. 335! Yeow!!! Where did that come from?

After three days, I still haven't figured it out. Sometimes I spike before getting sick and with my wife having a bad cough this week I first thought I might be headed down that road. So far I'm still healthy. I didn't have any unbolused snacks that morning . Working from home it's tempting to graze in the kitchen while getting a refill/reheat on the ole black nectar... but not this day. I did change infusion sets Thursday morning. Maybe this is it. As I write this I'm coming to the conclusion that this is the most likely culprit. Although I just checked the prime history and I show a 5.9 for infusion set prime and .3 for post-insertion canula prime. In three years of pumping I have never knowingly had a bubble but that's certainly a possiblity. I guess I'll have to leave it at that.

Fortunately, a 7.5 unit bolus brought everything back to normal in a little over an hour. TGFBB (Thank goodness for Banting and Best) and it was back to the book!

Tagged!

2006-01-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I was tagged by Nicole. It's time I got up off my duff and responded so here goes:

Factoid #1

I'm a Sweeny Guy. Ok, there's alot of talk in the OC about the Barton Girls and their comeraderie, so I'm officially coming forth to declare the Camp Sweeny Guys! My first two years after dx I attended camp and had a blast. It also taught me to like vegetables, something I previously avoided like the plague. Camp sessions were three weeks long so I had plenty of time to make some good friends. Unfortunately, guys don't keep up with friends like the gals seem to do and I've lost track of everyone who attended camp at the same time.

Factoid #2

I'm working on a second degree in nursing. After picking up my first degree in Business years ago, the shortage of nurses and my interest in medicine prompted me to return to school for a BS in Nursing. For those that don't know a BSN (or even associates in Nursing for that matter) and an RN license can open a world of doors career wise. I made straight A's in my intial courses of Anatomy I & II, Physiology, and Microbiology and got accepted in Nursing school. I completed the first courses in the program and am currently taking a sabatical. I have two son's in college and with three of us attending school at the same time is was really tough on my wife, hence the time off. BTW, it's kind of neat to run into your kids on campus.

Factoid #3

My youngest son, T, is a little person. For those of you unfamiliar with little people they are officially defined as anyone under 4'6" tall... my son, now fully grown, stands 4'3". Little person is the polite (and politically correct) term used to describe anyone with dwarfism; he has the most common type, achondroplasia. People with achrondroplasia have a normal sized torso and shortened forelimbs. He has life by the horns and last semester made a 3.4 gpa. He is one of my heros!

Factoid #4

My oldest son is 6'3". I guess this, in itself, is really no big deal, but combined with Factoid #3 you can see I have either David and Goliath or Mutt and Jeff at my house depending on how you look at it. His name is Sam. He and 'T' are really good friends and video gaming buds. Sam has a gpa of 3.8 and occasionally likes to come thru the house and just pick me up for the heck of it. We have a pretty tight family.

Factoid #5

Like several others here on the OC, I married my best friend. I managed to snag an awesome little lady from West Virginia. She is beautiful inside and out and I revel in her accomplishments. She is incredibly intelligent, intuitive, fearless and best of all fiesty. When awards are passed out in heaven you can tell who I am... I'll be the one in the back shouting, "Woohoo ... Allright ... Way To Go Girl!!!!".

That's all for my five random factoids. I'm a relative newbie to the blogging world and the OC so I don't know anyone who hasn't yet been tagged but, as always, be sure to read the fine print.

I reserve the right to tag anyone who, I discover, has not been tagged. I am not waiving this right. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited by law. You have been warned!

Update: Kathleen, has been overlooked and graciously tagged herself. Go check out her blog Living with Diabetes.

Throwing in the towel ...

2006-01-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

I'm throwing in the towel... well, at least temporarily. See, I've been self employed for almost 15 years and I think it's time to give it up.

I love self employment! Yes it can be hard and demanding, especially when you work by yourself and there's noone to delegate anything to. One of the great things I like is being your own boss, especially on sick days. If you're sick, you're sick. Stay in bed, drink some hot tea, eat some cure-all chicken noodle soup (my wife makes the best) and get well. If you've had an early morning hypo like Kerri did the other morning, drink a little, eat a little, get yourself back together and start your day a little later. No big deal and no groveling with your boss making you feel guilty, etc, etc, etc.

So you ask, "Keith why are you throwing in the towel after 15 years?". Well two reasons actually. Our income is always on a roller coaster and lately it's been mostly down. That get's very tiring. Second, we don't have any health insurance. Yikes!! A diabetic without health insurance... not a good deal.

For some time we've had spotty insurance coverage, but several years ago the state of Tennessee had a great plan for all us "uninsurables" and I was able to enroll. Unfortunately, this great plan was just about to bankrupt the state, so they did the logical thing (for govenment), they kicked everyone over 18 off. So I have limited prescription coverage for another 6 weeks and then ta'ta. (I just today got a letter in the mail saying it's extended until the end of June!)

I've got the resume' polished and have been submitting it around and I'm doing alot of networking as well. I know it's just a matter of time till I get a bite.

So, here's my dilemma. What do I do with my pump? I've only been pumping for a little over 3 years so the last time I interviewed and had a regular job I didn't have a 'pager' with a funny tube hanging out on my belt. When I was on MDI it's no big deal, you don't carry around a little pager and you can discretely reveal your diabetes after you've been there 3 or 4 months and clearly shown them what an awesome employee you are. Yes, it's a pain in the rump being overly discrete with testing, but hey it works.

I also have concerns about career limitations. I like what Violet said, in a response to Kerri's low post, "I keep those diabetes cards pretty close to my chest. I've found I don't like the idea of the disease making me vulnerable in my career, which is feasible even though we would all agree it never should. " Right on sister, me neither.

During the interview process it shouldn't be a problem. I'll have on a suit jacket and noone will notice. However, come that first day on the job do I keep it in my pocket for the designated 3 - 4 months and then 'come out of the closet' so to speak. I don't know, but I'd be interested in hearing comments/wisdom from the Dblog community on what you did and how it worked out!

Sago Mine Explosion

2006-01-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

I'm saddened today by the Sago mine explosion in Tallmansville, WV. My wife and I both have coal mining in our lineage and even in the best of situations it's a dangerous business. The great number of S&S (Serious and Significant) citations this mine has incurred certainly makes me suspect that this could have been avoided. Regardless, let's not forget that these are real families trying desperately to hang onto hope in the face of ever worsening odds. They will be utterly crushed if their friend, brother, husband or father does not come out alive. If your a person of faith I'd ask that you join me in petitioning God to save the lives of these brave men and that He would comfort their families.

The First Post on the First Day

2006-01-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

I've known about blogging for some time now but until late November did not feel compelled to not only read any blogs let alone write one. Like many folks my schedule is full and I'm not looking for additional unsolicited items to fill what few discresionary minutes I may have in the course of a day.

However, change being a constant in our universe, in short order my opinions have changed drastically. My journey of discovery has gone briefly like this: I used to visit Diabetes Portal from time to time to see what was new. Not having a great amount of faith that a cure will be found, at least in my lifetime, I still like to keep up with new developments, and ponder what life might be like without fingersticks, infusion sets and the constant monitoring of diet and exercise that defines this condition. Unfortunately, upon my arrival at one of my favorite URLs, low and behold I find the gate closed and a signpost complete with explanation. So, let me take a moment to thank Deb Butterfield and the others who invested their time to give us this great information resource and additionally, my congratulations go out to her in the adoption of their second daughter!!!

Somehow that same evening (probably via Google) I ended up over at Scott Johnson's blog. From there my travels took me to Sandra Miller's and then on to Wil's place. Needless to say after these three stops I was hooked. Here are my own people struggling with many of the same issues I'm either dealing with currently or have dealt with in the past. As I've discovered other sites around the OC I've been amazed at the quality of writing and the information, commaraderie and encouragement between others with this condition.

It's my desire to share my experiences in the hope that others can benefit from the almost 37 year road I've traveled with this condition. I certainly don't have all the answers but I'm pleased that I'm complication free and still sailing strong. Let's tack into the wind, tighten the mainsail and we're off on what hopes to be another great year!