Dexcom Seven

I decided to write about my first week with the continuous glucose monitor. The first few hours I was constantly checking the receiver to see what my blood sugars were doing. As the week went on, I found myself checking the receiver less frequently. My first sensor was placed on my stomach as you can see in the picture below. I've also included a picture of the receiver and a good three hours! I hate giving myself shots in my stomach and have never placed a insulin pump infusion set there because it is the most uncomfortable spot for me. The first few days it was pretty uncomfortable, but I thought it would just take a little getting used to. As the week went on it just seemed to get more uncomfortable and I never got used to it being there. I took it off last night because it was really bothering me and the results I was getting were all over the place and not very accurate. I wasn't going to put a new one on until tomorrow, but I had a little extra time before dinner tonight with the girls, so I decided to try a new site. I decided to try my lower back and so far, so good! It's much more comfortable and I can't even feel it now. I figured I tend to sleep on my side, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue while sleeping. It was a little tricky bending back that way to insert the sensor, but not nearly as difficult as inserting my insulin pump infusion set! Here's a cool video of almost the same site that I used tonight. I really wanted to try the back of my arm, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it by myself...I might need the help of friend when I decide to try that! :) Well enough for now, I have to make Jell-O for tomorrow and then do a little last minute shopping in the morning before I head north for a few days!

Approved!

I was approved Tuesday for the Dexcom Seven! I can't believe it was that easy and apparently I didn't need prior approval from my insurance company, which is often not the case. I think more insurance companies are starting to cover them because of this trial. I'm getting excited and can't wait for it to arrive. I'll update everyone on how the new gadget and me are getting along once I figure everything out, but for now it's time to get back to studying for my five finals next week...

Continuous Glucose Monitoring System

I recently decided that I'm finally ready to get serious about getting a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) and I'm in the process of working with DexCom to see what my insurance will cover. I've thought about getting this device in the past, but I have issues with be "hooked up" to two machines at once. I figure I will try it out and wear the machine as needed (like when my blood sugars are being chaotic) or to get an idea of trends in my blood sugars. The machine starts at $600 and the sensors are about $250 for four and the sensors last about one week. It's pretty expensive, but I believe it will be very beneficial and allow me even tighter control of my blood sugars. I also called my insurance company the other day and the lady I spoke with said that CGMS's and sensors are covered at 90% if I choose an in-network provider, so now I just have to fax a few papers to the DexCom representative and hopefully the approval process won't take very long! I'm getting excited because I think this may help me get my HbA1c to 6.0%!

This is what I have to look forward to! I love this blog and Kerri's experience and another person I have spoken to have also made me want to take this next step in my diabetes management! I'll let everyone know when (and if) I get approved for the CGMS!

Fall!

I just wanted to share a picture of my pumpkin that I recently carved! It took forever and this will probably be the last time I try to use a stencil labeled difficult! But I think it turned out pretty good!

And some other photos from a fall party we had at Meg and Alex's house!

Early Mornings

I realized I hadn't posted in quite sometime, so I figured I needed an update! So this quarter is already making me drained and training for a half marathon doesn't make it much easier! I have class at 7:30 am every day except Tuesday. I also ran 10 miles on Monday and took Tuesday off and tonight I ran four, but I'm still a little sore from the 10 miler.

I've been keeping busy as usual, but the weekend of the 19th I went whitewater rafting in West Virginia and had a great time. It was perfect weather and I haven't been camping in so long. It was nice little break before school started up the next week :)

I also made a trip to Put-In-Bay with my parents and cousin Ryan over Labor Day Weekend. It was a fun time and I want to go back to go kayaking before it gets too cold...but it already might be too cold for that!

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! :)