The Life of a Diabetic » Endo Appointment

New Year New Diet

Chris — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:07:39 +0000

2012 brings the opportunity to start fresh and start new things. Every year I set a few goals, and last years goals I did not do a good job in accomplishing them. As I stated yesterday, I plan on setting smaller goals throughout the year that lead up to the big 2012 total goal. Today, I am going to talk about the dieting goals that I have.

During my last visit to the endo, I spoke with the nurse practitioner and the dietician about me losing weight. They mentioned that I should go on a 2 week vegan diet and that I would lose a healthy amount of weight during that 2 week time frame. I shot down the idea of a vegan diet right away. So, since I can’t just jump right not that, I’ve decided to cut MOST meats out of my diet. The only meat that I am going to eat is chicken. That means no more burgers, no more hot dogs, no more turkey, no more pork, sausage, bacon…. chicken only. I am also going to cut out cheese and high fat foods. No more mayo, no more cheese, no more ranch dressing, etc.

Within this 2 weeks, I am also cutting out fast food. Once I reach this 2 week goal, I will be going camping, so I know for a fact that I will be eating poorly, so that is going to be my reward for reaching a short term goal.

One goal that Amanda and I made together was to not eat out anymore, well at least not as much. So I will be cooking more often. I have a lot of recipes that I have tweaked that are healthy that I can’t wait to make. I am looking for a good recipe for tuna fish and chicken salad. I am cutting out mayo, and that was what I used to make it awesome. Mayo and relish and onions. Anybody know of a good alternative and a healthier solution?

Let me know.

Thanks.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Thank You for Your Donation to Diabetes Research Institute I mentioned back in late October and early in November...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

My Awesome Endo Office Appointment

Chris — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:30:36 +0000

I had my endo appointment last Friday and I haven’t had much of a chance to post about it, so here we go.

I knew going into the appointment that I wouldn’t be meeting with my actual endo that day because she was out of the office, but I would be meeting with a nurse that I’ve known from a past career and ventures that I have done. A quick background and explanation of that. I used to travel to a lot of local diabetes event when I worked for a horrible company. One of the events that I regularly attended was a CEU class that was taught by a diabetes educator and an MSRNP. This MSRNP is now part of my official diabetes team.

Going into this appointment, I already knew how much respect I had for this medical professional. Then our first conversation about my specific health issues began, and the respect grew even more.

First, we did not have my Dexcom graphs because their office computer was not working properly with the Dexcom software. And I use a Mac so was not able to get the results ready before the meeting. I explained what I was seeing in the results and explained that I noticed a large spike in my blood sugar right after I ate. I told her that I felt it was because I was not taking my insulin enough time before I was eating. She agreed. We worked out a schedule and set a goal in trying to take my insulin 10-15 minutes before I actually eat. She recommended that I set an alarm on my phone about 15-20 minutes before the times that I normally eat. I said that this might work because I eat breakfast at 8 a.m. every day, lunch at 12-12:30 and dinner at 7. I’ve set the alarms and so far they have worked

The next item we looked at was when she asked me why I was over-riding all of the bolus suggestions from the bolus wizard from the Medtronic pump. My earlier suspicions were confirmed. Since I am taking a lot of insulin and I have a 3:1 carb ratio, I’ve been taking more than 25 units at almost every meal. If I have to take 32 units because of a meal and a correction, my pump maxes out at 25, so it looks like I am over-riding it, but I’m not, I’m just taking the max amount allowed. Then once that 25 is finished, I have to take the remaining insulin….which never happens because I always forget. So, there lies a problem. She said that she never thought about that before and that’s something that Medtronic should fix. I agree…Medtronic, you should fix that.

Next topic of discussion… where my Dexcom all the time. Next topic.

Dual wave bolus. I hardly ever use this, but I have been trying to learn, test and try it more often. We discussed the 80-20 rule and went over a study from the ADA Scientific Sessions in San Diego about a possible 70-30 rule. I loved the fact that during my appointment we spoke about studies and I actually remembered hearing something about that during the time the Sessions were going on.

The final part of the appointment was changing my basal rates to get my nighttime / morning sugars to a reasonable level. My basal rates are ridiculously high, I really need to bring them down. This is where the conversation moved to talking about my weight and dieting. She mentioned that if I can just cut out some of the meat that I eat, that I could potentially cut down on the amount of body fat that I have. I am trying this at lunch, but it is damn hard for me.

Once the appointment was over, I started talking to her about the diabetes community and blogging and tweeting and the advocacy and all that fun stuff. Then she hit me with one of the ideas that she has had, and I told her that I will do what I can to help her. Her idea is that when she is going to speak to kids with diabetes, or the camps, or whatever group of kids she is working with, they are always in a classroom setting learning about diabetes. She wants to get the kids active. Her idea is to create a basketball team, a baseball team, a cheerleading team, some sort of team that can go and compete against others. Not just any others, but children with diabetes from a different area. It’s basically like a travel league team, but for diabetics. I think it’s an awesome idea…. awesome I say.

Get back to me after the New Year and we’ll see how well all of this has been going for me.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Thank You for Your Donation to Diabetes Research Institute I mentioned back in late October and early in November...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Diabetes in December

Chris — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:05:04 +0000

Another month has come and gone and now we are in the finally month of the year. Are you serious??!!?? It seems like just yesterday that I was writing a post outlining my goals for 2010. Well I can tell you one thing now, I did not reach those goals. The year is not over so I still have a month to try and accomplish some of them, but I defimitely wont be meeting them all. One of my main goals of the year was losing weight and I have not done a good job at that. I have been spinning at home, but after just two days of doing it, my ass hurts so bad from the seat, so I have to buy something comfortable or else I can’t make it more than 5 minutes on the bike.

I had to get blood work done this morning for my doctors appointment on Friday. This is the big test of the year where I get pretty much everything tested, so that means lots of blood. I know that the results are not going to be good, but all I can do is try and make them better next time. I’ve already cut back on my insulin intake which means that I am eating less.

So here is to another month and the ending of a year. Stay strong in December and carry it through to the new year.

Take care everyone

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Results of My Endo Appointment

Chris — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:39:23 +0000

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Start to a Good BG Roll?

Chris — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:36:47 +0000

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Time To Re-Order Supplies ASAP

Chris — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:30:50 +0000

I contacted my endocrinologist today because I need a new prescription for my pump supplies before I see her later this morning. I was hoping that I could just wait until I saw her on March 25 to get a prescription from her, but there is no way that I am going to have enough supplies until that time. I only have four infusion sets left and about 7-8 reservoirs. The reservoirs, I don’t really care too much about because I re-use them a couple times before I actually throw them away. Infusion sets obviously can’t be re-used. I have been keeping one set in for on average about 6 days, and that is not the best idea either.

I am also getting low on testing strips so I am going to get a prescription for that also. I believe that I am going to stick with using my Freestyle Lite meter just because it is the one that I am the most comfortable with and have used for the longest time. I don’t know if she will write the ‘script out until I actually see her, but I’m hoping that she will, she’s really nice, so I’m sure there is no reason why she won’t.

I have been out of sensors for a long time because the ones that I have expired in October or November, I’m not sure of the exact date, but I know that I shouldn’t be using them. Thanks to a fellow d-blogger, not sure if you want to stay private or not, so I won’t mention your name unless you give the ok, was nice enough to lend me a few sensors until my insurance coverage gets a little better and I can start getting them on my own. Now I just have to re-charge my transmitter because I haven’t used it in so long, not since October. I am going to try and start using them on Wednesday, so I can get 2 full weeks worth of data for my doctor’s visit.

I hate being this low on supplies, but it is part of life. I can get them, I just didn’t know the process of getting them and just became ignorant to that fact and haven’t taken initiative until recently to make a few phone calls to figure out what I was supposed to do. Well, time to wait on the e-mail notification on whether or not I am going to get my scripts today or not.

Have a wonderful day everybody.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Diabetes Makes Me Think A Lot

Chris — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:14:57 +0000

Last night I started to think about some things, usually not good when I do this kind of stuff. Diabetes makes me think a lot. Let me exaplain the background of the story first and why it came about. Over the last, I’d say 2-3 weeks I have fell in love with this new bbq sauce. It is the Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Chipotle. I am not getting paid by them, nor have I received anything for free, even though, I will admit I wish I did! This bbq was found randomly because a local grocery store, Albertson’s, is closing down. I tasted it, and that was the end of that. I have eaten it on literally everything. Salad, sandwiches, steak, fries, crackers, bagels, EVERYTHING!

Last night we decided to look at the ingredients and the very first one on there was high fructose corn syrup. Hmm, probably not the best thing for somebody, especially a diabetic. So my girlfriend asked, “is it healthy for your to be eating this much of this when you have diabetes?” My quick reply was no, “no definitely not, but it is amazing!”

About 2 hours later that situation popped into my head and I started to think about it. Has that ever happened to you? Somebody says something to you, and it means nothing but then some time passes and you actually think about what they really said. And on went my brain.

How much are my “live for right now” decisions hurting me in the long run? When will I get back in to see my doctor? Can I get private dental insurance as a diabetic? Why can’t I just stick to my diet? Why am I asking so many questions?

Those are just a few of the thoughts that went flying through my mind last night. Usually it gets me into a little bit of a down mood, but last night I snapped out of it pretty quickly. They have recently built a new Dollar Tree across the street from where I am living, so I wanted to walk there and get exercise. Amanda and I also decided to stop into Office Depot because there was a paper shredder there that I wanted last week. It wasn’t on sale anymore. This is when my mood changed.

As I was walking out the door to leave I glanced down and just so happened to see a different paper shredder in the ad for even less money. So I went and asked an employee if they had more because I didn’t initially see them the first time I looked. They did, but they were all on top of the shelf. As I was waiting for somebody to climb up and get the shredder for me, Amanda brought my attention to a $200 desk on sale for $45. It is a large desk, with storage, and lots of room for lots of stuff I have. SOLD!

The desk was already assembled, but I had to take it pretty much completely apart once I got it home in order to get it upstairs to my make-shift home office. And if you are wondering, didn’t you say you walked to the store? Yes, but we had her brothers come pick us up with the truck. I am working on-site today, so I won’t get to use the desk until tonight, but a good desk makes you do a lot better work. Or is that just me?

Sorry about the 2 or 3 different things I was talking about in this post, but that was everything that happened to me yesterday. Good thing I started a diabetes blog a long time ago to get this stuff off of my mind and know that there are others going through the same crap.

Just another day in the life of a diabetic!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Using CGM, First Time in Two Months

Chris — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:47:18 +0000

Today I have decided to wear my sensor for the first time in almost two months. I had it charging all night long because it wasn’t even connected to the charger during that 2 months. I am not even sure if the sensors are still good because I know that they have short expiration date. Oh well, I will still use it and see how it goes. I better change the battery in my pump though because I think it is almost at half life and the sensor kills the battery within a few days, even when it’s a brand new one. I use the Medtronic CGMS just in case you didn’t remember.

I have a doctor’s appointment coming up in a few weeks and she really wants to see the results from the CGM and she usually only looks at the 2-3 weeks prior, so this is good enough amount of time for her to see, and also for me not to get in trouble again for not doing it. I also have to get my A1C down next week, which I am not looking forward to because I don’t think that it is going to be a good number. I have managed my sugars pretty well the last 3 months, but there have just been some random highs here and there that just concern me.

Today is also Monday, so we all know what that means, time to start the diet again. I had coffee to start off the morning, but didn’t eat anything. For lunch I am going to have a salad and a little bit of left over pasta. Tonight for dinner I am going to a banquet for the football league that I coached this year. There is going to be a lot of different random food because I believe it is a pot luck type style. My assistant coach and myself are supposed to bring pizza, so I’ll be bringing whatever pizza is on sale, the kids won’t care, they will love it either way.

The afternoon today is also going to consist of more job hunting and submitting resume’s online. I’m not just looking for a regular 9-5 but also some contract or telecommuting type jobs as well for CSI Marketing Solutions. I haven’t been real aggressive in looking for clients, but I think it’s about time that I start to do that.

Well have a good week everybody.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Lack of Exercise Has Brought Weight Back On

Chris — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:11:15 +0000

In a post I did earlier in the week, I explained that I was working a lot and not really sleeping at all. Well, along with that I have been working right through exercise time as well. My exercise has consisted of throwing footballs and doing a little jogging at football practice when I am coaching, that is about it. I also have not been eating healthy again because I haven’t really gone to the grocery store in a long time. I don’t really have the funds right now to go out and by $100 worth of groceries. Business is good, but there are plenty of other things that require my money at the current time. Back to the subject, I have put some weight back on unfortunately. Not a lot, I am still down a few pounds from back in September when I got serious about losing weight, but still not down to what I want to be.

I have a monthly goal of losing 5 pounds before every doctor visit, which at this time is every 4-6 weeks. I may have to cancel my next visit that is scheduled for later this month because I may not have insurance coverage at the time, we shall see and I should have a better answer shortly about that situation. Once again, if anybody has information about being on Cobra, I really need your help. I’ll post more tomorrow, but I no longer work at the diabetes supply company that I worked at for 2 1/2 years.

I will get back into my workout habits again, it doesn’t take much for me to get back into the gym, it’s just making sure that I continue to go everyday, well at least 5 times a week. I also need to cut back on my coffee intake and fast food. Lately I have not been cooking breakfast, instead I have just been going to Dunkin Donuts and getting a large coffee and a sausage biscuit (it’s only $0.99 so that’s why.)

Here is my goal and I will keep a daily record on my blog of this starting on Friday November 6, 2009. I’m going to look for a cool WordPress plugin, if anybody knows of one, let me know, that will put a chart or graph into my blog and I will add it into here. But I will keep track of my daily calorie intake, as well as how much exercise and energy drinks that I intake.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

MMM….Insulin

Chris — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:17:18 +0000

MMM….Insulin. That’s what I said to myself today around 10:00 a.m. when a co-worker came up to my desk and said, there’s a package downstairs for you. I was starting to get extremely nervous because about 20 minutes before that, my pump beeped and said “Low Reservoir” and I was completely out of insulin. I am supposed to get a phone call when my insulin is shipped, but I never received a phone call, so I was really worried because it was Friday and I knew it wouldn’t be delivered on the weekend. I finally received that call about 3 hours after the insulin was delivered, what good was that?

Once that new shipment of insulin came I took out 1 vial to let it settle to room temperature because I knew I would need to re-fill it soon. I think we all know that cold insulin does not feel good at all. I can remember the first time I took cold insulin, it was through an insulin pen, it burned like crazy. I felt like somebody took a lighter and just put it up to my skin. Never did that ever again. Now, into the problem that I have with my insulin company.

I have never seen a company so…ridiculous…for a lack of words. It is the mail order company that my insurance requires me to use for my mail order services. Last Friday I filled out the order form and faxed it in and faxed in the prescription that my doctor had just written out for me. Not good enough for them because the prescription has to come directly from the doctor. So, I called the doctor’s office and they then faxed it over to them. Nope, still not good enough. I have to fill out the order form myself, with my insurance information, billing, shipping, all the good stuff. Then I have to fax that form to my doctor, who then has to fill out the prescription on that piece of paper, so it can’t be a separate prescription, it has to be hand-written onto that sheet. Then finally my doctor’s office can fax it over. So this took up until Monday to finally complete. Then once they receive it, it takes 24-48 hours to enter the order into the system (I don’t know how it can take that long). Once the order is in the system it takes 3-5 business to process the order (once again, no idea how it takes that long), but oh don’t worry they ship it overnight for free. Well you freakin should for taking a damn week to process it!

Well, as you see here, my insulin is in my possession, finally, and I am very happy to see it here. Time to now put it into the fridge and let it stay there until I need it. Luckily I won’t have to go through this in December when I re-order because the prescription will be on file.

Well, it’s 8:00 p.m. Friday night, I need to go. Good news today, my LLC finally went through, official company name is “CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.