Had a business lunch today and only had 3/4 of a club sandwich…maybe had 20 or 25 homemade potato chips….Took additional insulin to cover and 2 hours after lunch and I am pinging 244 on my Dexcom…..What the heck?  It is times like these that you question yourself and your ability to estimate carbs. I’m guessing I mis figured but that is sure a pretty good size miss.  Oh well…..........what are you gonna do?  Keep on fighting the good fight and just plow on…...it seems to be the only thing that makes any kind of sense to me.. Helllooo insulin….

Ah, the joys of diabetes….........................

I have been blessed to have been using a Dexcom cgms for close to 4 years now and have religiously had my Dex by my side. Amazingly I have not lost it in all that time and have found it to be a great tool in helping me manage my disease. My most recent A1C was 5.9 woo hoo…...and that is because with the pump and the cgms, I can make decisions and get feed back quickly.
In the last 6 months however, I have drowned 2 Receivers and have had to buy new ones because of it..
How…..well, let me paint the picture for you.
Yaaaaawnnnn…..stumble out of bed, clip my Dex to my pajamas…..stumble into the bathrooom, pull up my t shirt…..splash….Dex jumps right into the toilet. Pull it out within 1/10th of a second, and alas it is completely dead. It wont dry out, it just dies. The receiver is not anywhere even close to being water resistant.How did this happen….well, in my sleepy state, I probably got part of my tshirt caught in the clip and when moving my shirt, splash down!!!
It sounds stupid I know, but I am guessing this happens to folks pretty often when you figure the thousands and thousands of folks using them.
After recently spending a bunch of money again to buy a new one, I figured I would plan for the ultimate inevetabilty of my cgms getting wet again.Storms or dropped in puddles, or a sink….what have you.

I looked online for simple solutions….water proof cases and the like….but I couldnt find anything that was small enough, didn’t look like a big ole box on my hip, or was inconspicuous.
My solution…..a small Hefty sandwich bag. I wrote “Reward” and my phone number on the back of the unit in case I ever mistakingly lose it some where. I put the cgms in the bag and slide and stuff it all into my cgms case from Descom. It is very simple and cheap, and effective. The cgms is still visible as the bag is clear and functionality is not affected. You do have to take it out to charge it however…but it’s not a big deal. And you can replace the bag if you ever think its torn.
You may not even think it is a problem for you, and I didn’t for 3.5 years with this never happening to me either. Not me..I said to myself. ..I am extremely careful, I wouldn’t ever drop my cgms into water….Yeah right!!!!
I would recommend you do something….Trust me, you dont want to look at that dieing cgms and think Oh man, its over….Dex is dead…...

As usual, I think it makes sense to look at things from many angles, and then make up your own mind…........................

Aggressive measures to treat diabetics make many of them worse, studies show

Rigorous treatment to bring down blood pressure and cholesterol is not beneficial and increases side effects, researchers say.

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The results are disappointing, researchers say, because they suggest that clinicians may have reached the limit of what they can do for diabetic patients without developing new therapeutic approaches.

But the good news is, the findings “reduce the cost and potential side effects of drug therapy” and mean that patients will not have to work as hard at reducing blood sugars, lipids and blood pressure, said Dr. Denise Simons-Morton of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the trial.

“The take-home message is that the standard care approaches are pretty good. If we try to go beyond them, it doesn’t provide additional benefit,” she said.

Diabetes has become a tremendous problem in the United States, with at least 21 million people afflicted with Type 2 diabetes—in which cells do not respond properly to insulin produced by the pancreas—and millions more at risk because of obesity. Most diabetics also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, factors that raise their risk of heart attack and stroke to the same level as that of people who already have suffered a heart attack.

Many doctors have reasoned that aggressively lowering blood pressure and lipids below nationally recommended levels might decrease the risk of heart disease, and ACCORD, or Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes, was created to study the possibility.

In one arm of the study, Dr. William C. Cushman of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., and his colleagues at 77 medical centers enrolled 4,733 Type 2 diabetics with high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease or a high risk of developing it. They were randomly assigned to treatment regimens to lower their systolic blood pressure—the top number in a blood pressure measurement—below 140 mm Hg, the standard treatment goal for diabetics, or below 120 mm Hg, the target goal.

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I have posted on this previously but I think it’s important. I used to think that was a crazy question. Now I’m not so sure. Tony at Dsainsights posed that question a while back and I told him I thought he had lost his mind. After paying attention for quite a few months now, Im not positive, but I think he is right. I have noticed that I do tend to trend upward pretty dramatically in the a.m. after drinking coffee. I can’t prove it 100% but it sure seems  like coffee is the cause of it…   Adrenaline and all that…...

Keep an eye out and see what you think. Watch it over time and see what your conclusion is….

oh yeah,   and chocolate mocha latte doesn’t count….  I’m talking coffee coffee….the straight stuff with just cream or sweet and low…
let me know …................

Ahhhhh, the joys of flying while D…..

Sir you’re gonna need to remove your pager…..Ummmm it’s an insulin pump. Oh….Ok, take it off please..Ummm, Id really rather not if I don’t have to…as I unclip it and show it to him. .Ok, I guess. You need to put everything else including your pager in the xray machine. Ummmm, its a glucose meter…. A what? A glucose meter, I’d rather not run it through the xray machine (I understand you probably can, but as I am gonna be on airplanes for the next 5 hours, I’m not really willing to chance anything including it happening to alarm while being off my body. I probably would be hog tied and tasered …lol)

Ok , Sir, Please put it in the basket and come with me says the security lady after I walk through the xray machine. I am directed to a little holding area off from everyone else right by the xray machine, and told not to touch anything and to keep my hands out of my pockets. A little holding area “fenced in” by ropes as I stand there with my shoes off and feeling like a square peg in a round hole.

The following is Loudly announced by the female security officer who is not allowing other folks to proceed….. to the other 5 security folks and the 50 people now starting to back up in line.

WHITE MALE…NO ALARM…. No response…
WHITE MALE…NO ALARM.!!!!!....as she holds up my cgms in the basket
WHITE MALE….NO ALARM.!!!!!!...again, no response
For the fourth time….WHITE MALE !!!!!.....NO ALARM…..
Ok, now I’m starting to feel like a suspected terrorist…
WHITE MALE….NO ALARM…..!!!!!!!

At this point I’m starting to think, jeeessshhh, it isn’t bad enough that I have to deal with this in my own way 24 hours a day and struggle to stay motivated, regulated, and healthy, Now I am being treated like a domestic terrorist.

At that point, a man comes over and and says he wants to wand me…. Sir, I need you to hold your hands out and spread your legs…. Ok, fine… go ahead…. I say in my sock feet and assume the crucifixion position. Ok great. Sir, I’m gonna need to pat you down. Ok, as he feels anything that could be in any spot on my body. Now I’m starting to feel like I am being singled out because of my diabetes needs and am starting to take offense. Sir keep your arms up, don’t touch anything, and keep your hands out of your pockets. Ok, great! he says after he pats me down.

Step over here please sir, and don’t touch any of your stuff and keep your hands out of your pockets….Dont touch anything sir….
I now move to the “other” holding cell of ropes…as I slough over in my sock feet.

Sir, I’m gonna have to wipe down your insulin pump and your glucose meter and place it in this chemical reader over here to check for traces of potential chemicals. Please keep your hands out and stand in place. Please don’t move and keep your hands out of your pockets.

At this point, I truly was having emotional feelings. I understand that they have a job to do, but I was really feeling denigrated. I remembered at that point that I had been shooting targets at the gun range the day before, I was hoping I wouldn’t have a problem with gunpowder on my cgms or pump. I imagine I would have been gang tackled if the chemical reader had had a problem…lol

The man wipes down my cgms with a cloth on a set of tongs and then wipes down my insulin pump….He wipes the whole outside of each, front, back, and sides. He puts it in the chemical reader, and we wait….. hmmm hmmm hmmmm hmmmm hmmm de hmmmm woo doot doo hmmm de hmmm hmmm

After what seems like a minute… beeep Ok, sir, you’re fine, thanks for your cooperation. Have a nice flight.

No problem I say as I put my shoes on and collect my stuff which has been seperated by itself in it’s own area. I gather my belongings and try to put everything back as it was, but as I walk away, I really wasn’t ok…

I was very offended and upset and I’m not the type to feel that way.

Hey thanks for degrading me in public before I get on the plane, No problem, just one more thing I will have to accept that goes along with being D. I sit where I can, put on my shoes, reorganize, regroup, and recover mentally.

I’m not sure why it hit me so hard, I’ve been through this before…maybe it was just that I was “In a fish bowl” in the middle of the crowd and being singled out for something that I don’t have a lot of options to control. The whole process was probably less than 5 or 6 minutes, but it seemed like forever.

Oh well, alls well that ends well. After a day of flying, I got to come home to my kids and wife and give them all a hug. I realize that I am very in love with my family…especially when I am separated from them on my business trips. Life goes on. However, I am guessing I will probably cringe next time I hear: Step over here please sir!!!

Yesterday I was able to kick back and relax a little and lo and behold….I fell asleep on the couch. After about a 2 hour deep sleep nap, I awoke with some unexplained high numbers. Am I the only one who sometimes seems to get a liver dump after a long nap?  This is not the first time it has happened, and it is always hard to manage as you have no idea it is coming, and no idea how much insulin to take to offset it…..Ahhh, the Diabetic Birdstrike…...The Liver dump.  My cgms alarm was working overtime…..

Listen to an Interview I gave on the Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore http://cli.gs/LivinLowCarbInterview

Later this week my family and I are going on a cruise to Mexico. I always get hyped up about long trips and know that I will be trying to manage the plethora of all you can eat buffets, long days, sunshine, and being on the run.   I will suffer through this …...gladly.  

Does anyone else always winding up bringing 2 to 3x more diabetic supplies than what you actually use?  

I always seem to drag along everything but the kitchen sink…........

Keep Going….......Peace, Bob

I was at a soccer tournament today and noticed a coach who was going off on his kids. (He is a type 1 on a pump) I thought to myself..”Oh man, I hope he’s not low.”  I always try to make sure I am alright during coaching stints so as not to get easily frustrated and take it out on the kids….I know I have run into that before, and I always regret any times I may have been a “grumpy diabetic” with my kids.

If you are a diabetic coach…...Stay in the zone…Little kiddies are counting on you.

Keep going…..Peace,   Bob