Pump Issues

My pump had a bad day today and when it's having a bad day I get upset because I tend not to function very well without it attached to me! The screen just started fading out on me after dinner tonight. Never had this problem before, so I called Animas and they are sending out another overnight. It had been doing better tonight, but it will occasionally fade out when I'm trying to do something on it. I also need to get a new bottle of Lantus, since my current one expired five days ago. So going on Lantus wasn't really an option, unless I wanted to risk it and end up getting high blood sugar readings when it runs out (one shot of Lantus can act as my pump would---for 24 hours; the problem with expired or older Lantus is that is doesn't work for the full 24 hours). As for the other issue...I just changed my infusion set on Monday and ever since then the site had been extremely painful when it shoots the insulin in during a bolus. And the first bolus I took after the site change, I get an occlusion alarm and this often occurs when the cannula is bent or there is a blockage in the cannula or tubing. Not wanting to change it, I just tried the bolus again and it went through fine. Well needless to say throughout the past two days I've had a few occlusion alarms go off, but my blood sugars have been very good so I figured the insulin must be getting in fine so I would just deal with the pain upon bolusing because my least favorite part of being on the insulin pump is changing the infusion set. I'll refer you to this article and this one too about the occasional pain that infusion sets can cause. I feel like I could have wrote those myself! So tonight, I'd had enough pain and occlusion alarms, so I took the infusion set out and went for a run and my blood sugar was 105 when I was done running! Perfect! As for the nasty infusion set...

Yes, I now know what the problem was...looks like the cannula had a bit of a kink in it. Not sure what all the pain was from though, because usually bent or kinked cannulas only cause problems with insulin delivery and don't cause a significant amount of pain. I'm just glad to have that stupid thing out of me and feel free for a little bit tonight!

Motivation Where Have You Gone?

My old computer decided it had had enough, so I got a new MacBook!

Jen and I :)

Mo and Jen!

So I was contacted by someone requesting an update. I haven't forgotten about my blog, I've just been busy with classes and trying to stay on top of everything while lacking the motivation to do much of anything else. I had the entire day off today and while I did get laundry done and made a visit to the dentist to get my temporary filling replaced with a permanent one, I haven't been very productive at all. I don't want to blame it on the fact that I haven't been feeling that great the past few days, but I'm not sure what else is to blame. Hopefully I'll be able to have a productive weekend because Tuesday through Thursday of next week I have finals! Then I will have over a month off of classes and I will only have clinic on Wednesday mornings and Friday evenings! I'm looking forward to the break from classes and my mini-vacation with my mom, aunt, and cousin! :) 

4th of July!

I have to start out with the shoes I found several days before the 4th...I think it was meant to be! I got a great deal on them and it always makes me happy when I find them online for way more than I paid. I wore them downtown on Thursdsay and walked over two miles in them! I did have the Insolia insoles in them though so I can't take all the credit!

Robyn and I at Red, White, and Boom!

Fireworks at Red, White, and Boom!

View of Cedar Point from the boat!

Fireworks at Cedar Point!

I had a pretty good holiday and enjoyed the nice long weekend as well as I could considering I had two tests the next week! I went to Columbus's celebration on Thursday, then drove up to Cedar Point Friday morning and spend the rest of the day relaxing on the boat and then went into Cedar Point and rode a few rides at night! I finally rode the Maverick and it was so sweet! I also got to ride it at night and in the front seat! :-)

Weekend in Cleveland!

The family

Lily and Betty

Lily and Chris's awesome cake

Trent and Betty

Lily trying to decide if this is Chris or not...

I just wanted to say a little bit about Lily and Chris's wedding this past weekend... Even though the weather wasn't the greatest at least the wedding wasn't outside! I had a great time and even danced! Guess I just needed a little Captain in me! They also had filet mignon as one of the entrees and there was no way I would have ordered anything else! It was so good too! 

Looking for a New Doctor

Why is it so hard to find a good doctor? Maybe I expect too much from my doctor. All I really want is someone who cares about me and is willing to understand that I'm human and can't be perfect all the time. I also would like someone who is respectful and doesn't think they're so much better than me. Sorry for the rant. I sometimes wish I could just forget about my diabetes for one day. But unfortunately that's not an option.

Milk...It Does a Body Good!

I've been drinking more milk lately, but not because it's good for me. I've actually been having cravings for it. This is quite strange, because I normally can't stand to just drink it. I also buy the 1/2 gallon jug, but tonight I decided to get the 1 gallon jug instead. The 1 gallon was only 50 cents more too. I normally wouldn't even think about getting that much milk because it would spoil before I could use it all, but being only a little bit more than the 1/2 gallon, I figured why not. I was just thinking about when I bought the 1/2 gallon that I just finished tonight and I got it on  Sunday afternoon. Yep, I've drank a 1/2 gallon since Sunday. Wow, I guess I was thirsty. I did use a little for cereal yesterday, but the rest I just drank!

Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day!

Diabetes...

I was diagnosed at age 12 and will turn 25 in October. Approaching 13 years...

It doesn't seem like that long, but I think I've adapted as well as I can and some days are definitely better than others. Today was a good day. I slept in till 1:00PM and my blood sugar was 103 when I woke up. I couldn't ask for much better. My blood sugars tend to be lower in the morning and often I wake earlier than I would like to with low blood sugar. I am grateful that my body knows that I need to wake up and I'm always aware and know what I need to do. I'm also grateful that I can live a healthy life and although diabetes sucks at times, I know life could be worse. I've learned to do things a certain way and although I have a lot more things to think about than most people, I try not to let it rule my life or get me down. There are times where I get upset about it, but I think that's normal with any chronic disease.

Carb Counting...

Sometimes I wish I could just eat anything and not worry about how many carbs are in it. I'm always adding and estimating the amount of carbs in any food that I eat. Try counting the carbs for every food you eat for one day. At the beginning when I started counting carbs, I had no clue how many were in all the foods I ate. For a month or so I carried about a carb counting book until I got the hang of things. I also love the nutritional labeling that accompanies almost every food product out there. It makes my life a lot easier, but there are still fruits and fresh things that make carb counting more challenging. I also love the "free" foods where I can pretty much eat any amount of that food and not count a single carb. Hard boiled egg whites, deli ham or turkey, almonds, sugar-free hard candy, light cheese sticks, salad, and green beans are some of my favorites. I'm always trying to find more foods that are low in carbs, but actually taste good and are healthy. Now that the Atkin's Diet Fad has gone away, it's harder to find too many low carb foods, but they're still out there and I just have to look harder to find them. Oh and probably the most annoying thing that people always assume is that I can't eat sweets or candy. I can eat anything I want to! Now, in saying that, I don't eat everything that I want to all the time. Having diabetes has made me very concerned about my diet and I usually try and eat a healthy diet. Blood sugar control is also a lot easier if you eat healthy. I also feel a lot better if I eat well. I do allow myself the occasional sweet, because I have a huge sweet tooth and if I didn't eat real sugar once in awhile I'd go insane. I also try not to keep real candy in my apartment. I do have some sugar free hard candy that I keep around for those times I need a little something sweet. I've found the sugar free Lifesavers are the best and I just recently bought the Lifesaver sugar free butter toffee hard candies and those are pretty good too. As far as chocolate goes, I'm going to eat the real stuff if I need a chocolate fix, because sugar free chocolate has the same amount of fat in it that regular does and regular chocolate is a lot better than sugar free chocolate. I don't really get chocolate cravings though and I keep diet hot chocolate mix around in case I feel the need for some chocolate. As you can see, I've tried almost every sugar free product out there. 

Exercise...

So I love running, but it always makes my blood sugar go down. I've now started taking off my insulin pump while I run, which usually helps my blood sugar stay steady, but I still have frequent lows when I run too far. I used to make sure my blood sugar was 200+ before I ran so it wouldn't get low, but I've noticed I don't feel as good running when it's that high to begin with. I'd prefer to drink water when I run too, but to keep my blood sugar steady I've been drinking Vitamin Water since it's not as sugary as Powerade and Gatorade. As for playing basketball, my blood sugar always increases. So while I'd like to take my insulin pump off when I'm playing because basketball tends to get quite intense, I don't like to because my blood sugar will then go even higher. 

Insulin pump...

I'm on my second insulin pump and this one (Animas IR1250) is waterproof which is nice feature that my last one didn't have. But, all machines tend to break at one time or another and recently it somehow got water in it and stopped working. This episode has happened several times with the Animas pump. The first time, there was crack near the battery well so I figured that is how the water got in. The second time, around the screen there was a suspicious area where I thought water may have been able to get in. This last time, I couldn't find any cracks or suspicious areas, so I'm not exactly sure how water got in it. And I hadn't taken it in any water recently, so I was really puzzled.

Sometimes I wish I didn't have the pump attached to me, but then again it's nice not to have to take several shots each day. And I love telling people about it, because it's a pretty cool little device and most people have no clue how it works.

Well, I'm tired of writing. This was pretty lengthy and if you got to the end I'm impressed. Sorry if I bored you, but hopefully I gave you some insight into what it's like. Oh and I forgot to add that I also prick my finger almost 10 times a day to check my blood sugar. Some people think that my insulin pump checks my sugar too, but maybe one day we'll see a device where it's all integrated and you won't have to wear a separate device to monitor your blood sugars!