Skip to main content

Month: March 2010

All Out of Strips, Mystery BG’s

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Today is going to be a busy day. It is the last day of the quarter, so I have a lot of paperwork and reporting that I have to prepare for reports that are due on the desk tomorrow. So, this post is going to be very short. Basically, all I wanted to talk about was that I have no more strips, completely out. I found about 5 boxes of OT Ultra strips laying around, but I can’t find my OT meter anywhere, and I didn’t see any on sale at the store. I think I will just have to call my doctor and see if I can get a free meter from them in the mean time.

So, I have no idea what my blood sugar is at all today, and that absolutely sucks.

Well have a good day ya’ll.

Contour USB Review

Chris Stocker 8 Comments

Before I start this review, let’s get to the disclosure.  Back in November I wrote a post about how I want a Contour USB meter.  Bayer’s PR or marketing team, must do a great job with social media and monitoring blogs because I was e-mailed within 24 hours asking for my address so they could send me one.  They did not ask me to do a review for this product, they just sent me a sample.  This review is my own personal review, not influenced by anything at all, but my own thoughts, so here we go:

Initial Thoughts

As soon as I saw the packaging I thought, “Wow, this things is freaking awesome.”  The black box it comes in is really sharp.  Upon opening it, I couldn’t use it right away because it had to charge for a while.  That was one thing that I did not like that I had to wait about 4-5 hours to use it for the first time.  Most meters, you just flop in the battery and it is ready to go.

The next thing that I saw and noticed inside the box was the multi-color lancets.  I don’t change my lancet very often, so I think this influenced me to change it more often because they were cool colors.  Finally, I got to the meter and liked the design of it.  It was thin and small, very large colored screen.

Usability

The meter was very simple to use.  I will admit that I did not use all of the features that I could have (I was restricted to the 20 sample strips that came with it).  One end of the meter is a USB that has a cap over it that you just pull off.  On the other end, it has a slot to put the test strip in.  It was self-explanatory what to do, put the strip in the machine and then it turned on.  Prick your finger, get the blood and let the meter show you your BG on a colored screen.  Once the reading comes up, you are able to categorize it by time of day, for instance, breakfast lunch or dinner.  I must say that I am not a big fan of the Microlet 2, at all.  I guess that I love the Freestyle lancing device so much, that there is nothing else out there that can compare.

Data Usage

Before I received the meter I had heard about it and heard about the great graph and data features that came along with the meter. The first time I plugged it into my computer, it took at least 20 minutes for the software to load up.  I know it wasn’t my computer because I run a lot of high powered software and applications on my computer and there’s never an issue.  Once it did finally load up, then it was still slow to click from graph to graph.  Once everything was up and running properly, I loved it.

Like I said before, I only had 20 test strips, and I tried to space it out as far as possible to test at different random times.  Here are a few snapshots from the photos below (click for full size):

As you can see from the first picture, the readings were color coded, would like to see more greens, but that’s the way it is.  I like this breakdown.  The second picture is easier on the eyes and see on a percentage basis where your numbers are based upon the ranges.  I really like the data summary on the left side of the image.  The last photo is a line graph which is useful to see visually how much your blood sugar is varying.

Overall I like the meter.  I would use it as my full time meter, but I have already put in a 3 month supply of Freestyle Lite strips, so I can’t afford to pay out of pocket for the Contour strips.  After this go-round, I may switch my strips and use the Contour ones instead.

If you have used this meter, please leave any additional feedback or comments that you have about it

What New Healthcare Bill Means to Me

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

Yesterday I came across a really good article on Yahoo Finance on the 10 ways the new healthcare bill may affect you.  I really liked the article because it breaks all the BS or politics down into 10 easy, simple descriptions of the bill.  There are some things that I love about the new bill and some things that I think are stupid.  Let’s start with what I like.

Bye-Bye Pre-Existing

By 2014, I will no longer have to call an insurance company wondering if I will get coverage or not.  This is something that I have been waiting for, for a long time and never thought I would see it.  Now that I own my own company, I have no way to get health insurance.  I am still covered through Cobra right now, but once that runs out, I have to go get another corporate job in order to get health insurance, unless I am married by the time that happens, which isn’t going to happen.  I will then be able to continue to run my own company and pay for my own insurance.

Along with that is the waiting period.  I haven’t been in this situation before, but there may come a day that I am.  I still need a little more clarity on the maximum benefits part of this bill, so I’ll do a little more research before I make a decision on that.  I am not sure if it is a yearly or life-long maximums.

Now, let me discuss the number one thing that I don’t like about this bill.

You Must Be Insured

From my memory of history classes and research projects that I’ve done, I could have sworn that this country was not built on the government telling you that you MUST do things.  The government already takes taxes from me and puts it towards things that I don’t want it going to, now they are going to tell me that I must pay for insurance as well?  Obviously with me being diabetic, I need health insurance, but I know people that haven’t coughed or sneezed in 10 years (obviously a little exaggeration). But if that person wants to take the risks, isn’t that their right as an United State citizens?

Overall, I think that the benefits outweigh the negatives.  That one negative that I discussed above, I do think is a huge negative and is 100% completely against what this country was built on.

How do you feel about it?  What do you like and dislike?

Results of My Endo Appointment

Chris Stocker

I had my endo appointment earlier today, so I wanted to share the results from it.

Going into the appointment I knew that my A1C was going to be bad and that my weight was too much and that my blood sugars were all over the map and that my doctor was not going to be very happy with me.  Luckily my doctor is diabetic herself, so she knows what it is like to live with diabetes.  I explained to her different things that were going on with my life that may be affecting my blood sugars and them being high too frequently.  Losing a job, starting my own company, working 80 hours a week and not eating or exercising properly, were all the reasons that I gave her, which I know are not excuses.

She told me that my A1C was 7.9 which we were both surprised at after looking at the blood sugars from my graphs.  We adjusted by basal rates again, which now total 66.6 units of insulin a day.  I do not like that number, but that’s what I am going to try my new basal rates at.  I use so much insulin, it’s ridiculous.  Almost 70 units from basal and about another 100 units a day from carbs.  That is why I am changing my reservoir every 1.5 – 2 days.

My blood pressure was a little high again, which has been 3 out of my last 4 visits.  I explained that I drink a lot of coffee, I mean a lot of coffee and that can be affecting the blood pressure.  I schedule my appointments early in the morning, so everytime I have an appointment, I have usually just finished a large iced coffee.  So my blood pressure could be high from that.  Next visit she wants me to come in and not drink any coffee before hand so that we can get a better reading on my blood pressure.

That was really about it.  She wanted me to exercise more, but not too much was discussed.  She also though that I should take more breaks from my work by taking a quick 10 minute walk which will give me my exercise needed and also reduce my stress levels.  Next visit, 6 weeks.

Start to a Good BG Roll?

Chris Stocker

I have my first endo appointment in almost 6 months on Thursday.  I have to get my blood work done tomorrow, so I am a little nervous.  I already know that my A1C is going to be high, probably around 8.  I haven’t had one that high since I was first diagnosed.  Yesterday was my best full day of blood sugars and I am going to try and copy it as much as I can for as long as I can.

First, to start the day, I actually ate breakfast.  It wasn’t a very healthy breakfast, a donut, but it was something in my stomach.  For lunch I had a chicken sandwich, not fried, grilled, so it was healthy.  For dinner I controlled my portion size and that was very tough for me later on at night.  I had one beef slider, a salad, and some brown rice.  Very small portion for me, I would normally eat about 3 sliders, 2 bowls of salad and 2 servings of rice.

For a snack at night, which I didn’t even want to eat, but my blood sugar was going down I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Why was my blood sugar going down finally?  Because I did this weird thing called exercising for 45 minutes.  First time that I had an intense exercise in months, seriously, months.  I went for a nice, fast 2 mile walk to start it off then came back to do some crunches, push-ups, leg raises and then did some curls.

I think that I have found the fix to always saying that I don’t have time to exercise.  Here it is.  I am backed up on some of my favorite podcasts all the way back to January because I never have time to listen to them, because when I do work, I don’t fully concentrate on the podcast or my work.  So, if I don’t have time to listen and don’t have time to exercise, why don’t I just do them together?  My new goal is to exercise my way through 2 separate podcasts, which are anywhere from 20-30 minutes each.  Last night I made it through two episodes of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

Let’s hope that this keeps up and I can start to lose some weight again before I head back up north to New York and home to visit family.

Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap Vol 4

Chris Stocker

Man did this weekend fly by or what!  I don’t think that I got a single thing accomplished at all.  Friday started out with some high blood sugars during the day and some stress.  That’s why there was no Fired Up Friday last week.  I test drove a Ford Edge on Thursday night and fell in love with it.  I have wanted one of those cars for a long time and finally found the perfect one I was looking for.  It didn’t go so well on Friday when I tried to get the financing for it.  Since I have had a credit score, I guess dating back 7-8 years ago, I have had almost perfect credit, about 730 score ( I don’t mind sharing it when it was that high, ha).  Unfortunately, back in November when I lost my job, my credit score took a little dip.  So, ultimately, I was not able to get the financing needed for the car.

That was very stressful, so my blood sugar spiked like crazy.  I finally got it back under control around 5 o’clock or so when Amanda and I headed out for dinner and to a different casino then last week.  I had a turkey club with some coleslaw and my sugars went high by the end of the night again.  I’m not sure what caused the spike, maybe my diabetes?  I won money at the casino, so that was good.  And if you have been reading my last few weekend recaps, I’m not addicted to gambling, I’ve just been feeling lucky.

Saturday morning was just lying around doing nothing.  My girlfriend’s older brother and I played a little wiffle ball golf in the morning.  Basically we took a basketball and just threw it in the air and wherever it landed, that was the whole and first one to hit their wiffle golf ball into the basketball one the hole.  We played 9-holes and unfortunately, I pulled a Phil Mickelson and choked on the last hole.  We all then went down to the Panthers game last night against the Buffalo Sabres.  Now, let me just say this, if you are from Buffalo, oh well.  I come from Philadelphia, so I know all about being an obnoxious fan, Philly fans are the best in the world, HOWEVER, Buffalo Sabre fans are just annoying!  I can’t stand people that have an excuse for everything, like the refs made that call to keep the game close, that was a lucky shot, but when you’re team scores it was an amazing shot and when the other team gets a penalty it was a great call.  Just shut up ok?

Moving on.  Sunday was another Panthers game, back to backs are rough.  I also wanted to watch the race and some of the Michigan St basketball game as well.  I had so much laundry to do and work to catch up on as well from the weekend and not doing anything.  Sunday is usually my planning day.  I get out my calendar and pen and start outlining the whole week.  Client projects, blog ideas for a few of the blogs I write, to dos, etc.

Well, happy Monday to everybody and have a great day.

High Blood Sugars at the Hockey Game

Chris Stocker

Last night I went to the Florida Panthers vs. Washington Capitals hockey game. It was embarrassing to be a Panthers fan last night because they got their butts handed to them, to speak in nice terms. My account rep had upgraded my seats for me for that game so we were sitting in the Lexus Club level where the food options are a lot larger than at the regular concession booths. This isn’t sounding good for somebody with type 1 diabetes who just had food court Chinese food about 2 hours prior to the game. Can you see where this is leading?

Amanda was hungry, so I told her to get whatever she wanted and I would just finish what she didn’t eat because I wasn’t really hungry. I tested my blood sugar before she ate and I was at 307. High, yes, but I wear an insulin pump, I can correct that easily. I take a correction bolus and wait about 5 minutes before I do my little insulin check. About 10-12 times a day I will rub the infusion set and then smell my fingers for insulin. Amanda tells me that I need to be less obvious when I do it, because I look really weird, which I agree, I probably do.

When I felt the infusion set, it was soaked, so I knew I was going to smell that disgusting smell of insulin, and I did! In a normal situation I would have freaked out and been worried that my sugar is going to stay high. Normally, I would just bolus like 25 units knowing that not all of it was going to get absorbed. Luckily, I had inserted an infusion set on my backside a few nights ago, but since my sugar was high at the time I put a second one in on my stomach. When my sugar is high, infusion sets on the butt don’t work. So I didn’t take that one out, so I was able to hook up the tubing to that.

Now the hardest part is trying to figure out how much insulin my body actually did absorb. I bolused at about 90% and when I went to bed I was at 195 and woke up at 156.

Now for a quick update on my cough and ear thing that I have had going on forever, it seems like. My ear is still clogged, the nasal spray I was prescribed doesn’t work and when I try to clear them myself, it just makes them more clogged. I am going to try the Neti Pot again tonight and see what that does for me. I have an appointment on Monday, so we will see how that goes.

Refilling a Reservoir at Work

Chris Stocker

Yesterday I had to refill my insulin cartridge at work and it made me think about a couple of things.  First, what reaction am I going to get from people who walk by? Why do I have two vials of insulin in my laptop bag and both have 2 refills left in them?  Why is this thing so damn loud when it is priming?

Well here were my answers to all of those questions.

Reaction from People

First and foremost, I don’t  really  care what their reaction is to it.  I am doing something that I need to do in order to survive, so get over it.  Do I look at you weird when you breathe or when you drink water or when you eat?  No, didn’t think so, so keep on walking.  But I do find it funny what most people say.  The most common phrase I hear is, “What are you shooting up or something?”  Some people mean it in a sense of am I shooting up insulin, but I think we all know what most others are referring to, obviously a joke.  I usually say, “Well, I’m already high, so I need to shoot up some more.”  That is when the other person doesn’t get the insulin and high blood sugar reference and thinks that I am just making a drug comment back to them.

What kind of reaction do you get?

Two Vials of Insulin

When it comes to insulin, I try to have only one open vial at a time, but that tends to not happen very often.  The reason is usually that I open one and put it in my laptop bag because that thing goes with me to work, home, and travel.  That way the insulin will be with me at all times.  Then there is usually one on my desk at home, maybe it’s empty and I forgot to throw it away, so when I see it, I think that I just finished one and go and open another one.  As soon as I used it to refill the reservoir, I throw it in my laptop bag and now I have two opened in the same location.

Do any of you do this as well, or am I just being a bad diabetic?

Loud Priming

The last part of what was going through my head was why this insulin pump is so damn loud when it is priming.  It beeps so many times, and it is extremely loud, so when my co-workers are working, they hear it beeping and then all the questions start.  Normally I don’t mind the questions, but when I am busy and trying to get work done so I can get home and start working on some other clients work, I’m not usually in the mood to lecture on diabetes.

Do you all refill right at your desk or do you go to restrooms or cars, or somewhere else to take care of it?

The Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap Vol 3

Chris Stocker

Another Monday, another weekend recap. Not too much to recap today though, not a very eventful weekend.  I’m starting to like these weekends where I don’t really do anything.  Friday night after I finished up on a few client’s sites, I decided that I wanted to go to the casino again, but this time we went to a different one, (we have 3 nearby).  What a lucky night to hit the casino!  Amanda said that she wasn’t feeling lucky that day, so she didn’t really want to go, but of course I convinced her to go, good thing I did.

Once we got there, we split up like we do for a while so she can play the machine that she likes and I can play the ones that I like.  After I lost some money, I went over to find her and she was up almost $200!  I walked away because I didn’t want to bring any bad luck.  Later that night, we were going to play just $20 more, that’s it, then we were leaving.  Down to $11 I hit a big win, $350.  It sounds good to win $350, but I was actually quite upset because I was one wild away from winning $2,500!  There was 15 spots on the screen and 14 had wilds, I was quite upset that I didn’t get the last one, but beggars can’t be choosers right?  I guess it’s like having an A1C below 7, but wanting it lower, I’ll take it, but would like better.

I did have a really high blood sugar on Friday, for a while too.  I had a bad site in the morning, because I was at 378 or so, I don’t remember exactly.  I went home and changed my site, but 2 hours later I was at the same exact number!  So, I had to change my site again, which irritated me because I only have like 3 sets left and my new supply order doesn’t come in for another week or so.

Saturday came and went by pretty fast.  During the afternoon I went to the big parade in downtown Delray Beach.  I absolutely HATE parades.  They are fine for kids or if you have kids, but when you’re 25 years old, and there are huge St. Patty’s Day parties going on, a parade just isn’t my choice for fun.  But, my girlfriend enjoys the parades, so guess where I was at?  Saturday night I laid around the house and watched some tv and did some more work.  I’m doing a full re-design on my company website, CSI Marketing Solutions, and it’s not quite done, so I am trying to finish it up as soon as possible, but with a lot of client work taking up my time, I’d rather spend my time doing that.

Sunday was yet another beautiful day in south Florida.  It started out with a nice morning walk to Dunkin Donuts, which is about 0.5 miles from the house, so a quick mile walk to start the morning off.  I hate sitting inside doing work when it is so beautiful out.  Amanda and I went to Barnes and Noble to sit outside, but we ended up sitting out by Whole Foods because we wanted to grab some lunch.  Let me explain this lunch that I had, and by the end of this, you will know why I can’t stand Whole Foods, hate the idea of the place, hate everything about it.  I went to the $7.99/lb salad bar.  I didn’t even make a large salad or put many fixings in it, but yet my salad, let me repeat, a SALAD, cost me $17.95!  You wouldn’t even pay that much for a salad at a five-star restaurant.  This is why I vowed several years ago to never step foot in a Whole Foods store ever again, unfortunately I did, but that will be the last.

This week is going to be pretty intense.  I have several projects that all have deadlines at the end of this week, gotta love those deadlines.  To add on to that, there is 3-4 Panthers games at home this week, so I will be attending all of them.  I don’t have any doctors appointments this week, but I will be placing an order to get more testing strips.  Can’t wait to spend that money!

Well have a great Monday and a great week.  Do something today to improve your life and somebody else’s life, and then try it again the next day.

Overall, not a bad weekend for my blood sugars.  Averaged probably around 160 for the weekend, which is better than what my last 3-4 months have bee, so I’ll take it.  Slowly improving.