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Category: Insulin Pump Problems

Long Days, Late Nights, No Sleep

Chris Stocker

Last week was filled with a lot of work, I mean a lot of work for me.  I have been working on continuing to re-design this blog because to me it just doesn’t seem right.  Is it easy for you to read, anything distracting you, or fonts too difficult to read?  Along with that blog I have been working on a re-design on the other blog that I write about internet marketing and social media, Chris Stocker, Inc.  I have also been updating the Facebook accounts I have, and my LinkedIn, and Flickr, and about 10 other things including designing a website for my new company, CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC.  I also recently read Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck, which if you want to get things and not sleep for about a week, I recommend that book.

With all of this work, and it’s not been completed yet, I foresee the same thing going on this week as well.  Last week from Monday-Friday I slept, in total, about 15 hours.  I was going to bed at 3:30 and waking up at 6:30 and getting back at it for an hour before I would begin getting ready for work.  See I work a 9-5, and run a business and do contract work on the side so I need about 8-10 hours a day to do that.  Then there is the 2 blogs that I write on a daily basis which adds about another 10 hours a week.  So, adding that up, we’re looking at around 20 hours of work a day, and no time for sleep.  This picture pretty much sums up my week last week.Coffee and SF Red Bull

Typically, the later I stay up, the more my blood sugars go up.  It’s basically a hand in hand thing.  I tend to start eating snacks in the middle of the night as well because I am up later and getting hungry and need to eat something.  I told myself last week that I am not going to let this happen, if I’m staying up later, I will make sure my sugars don’t go crazy.  I have done a pretty damn good job of it.  Throughout the nights my sugar didn’t really go over 200 maybe once or twice.  Here is a breakdown of my morning sugars this past week (my best ever):

Monday – 112

Tuesday – 88

Wednesday – 94

Thursday – 104

Friday – 125

Friday night however ended up being a different story.  My sugar, after being great in the morning, just shot up all day long and didn’t come back down.  It was on average about 325, with a high of 496.  I went to the movies to see Saw VI and I went to the bathroom when I got there and then I usually will go right before the movie starts so I don’t miss any of the movie.  So, I went as soon as the previews started but when I came back I told Amanda that I feel like I already have to go again.  I just thought that maybe my jeans were a little too tight and they were pushing in on my bladder, because that sometimes happens if I’m wearing a pair of jeans that don’t fit me the best.  About halfway through the movie I just had to go again, I couldn’t hold it any longer.  And for those of you that know the Saw movies, you know you can’t miss a second, because something is going to happen.  I literally ran out to the bathroom and ran back within about 20 seconds and didn’t miss anything.  As soon as the movie was over, I had to go again.sawVi

When we got out to the car I tested and that’s when I was at 496.  I was about to correct, but I knew that it was a bad site, so putting more insulin into it wasn’t going to do a damn thing.  I took just a little bit just so it wouldn’t go any higher, I knew it wouldn’t bring it down, but I was just trying to eliminate an even higher number.  Once we got home I took out the old site and was getting the stuff together to put in a new one.  Well guess what, I couldn’t find the pretty blue insertion device to put in the infusion set.  Finally after digging through my room Amanda found it, in the first place that I looked.  In the morning when I woke up my sugar was down to 185, so it went down.  Saturday was a little of the same story, high all day long, but not as high, this was in the mid 200’s.  So, I wasn’t sure what was going on.

Throughout the daytime hours my sugars aren’t going all over the place either.  Even with drinking about 4-5 cups of coffee and drinking at least 1 energy drink, sometimes 2 a day are not affecting my sugars. The coffee usually does, but energy drinks don’t ever make a difference on my sugar levels.  I know that the sleep deprivation is not good for me, but I don’t plan on doing it for a while, just until I get this work finished and everything is up and running.  I just fear that when I am done with the work and want to go to bed early, I’m not going to be able to because I will be so used to staying up later.

We shall see.

Diabetes Doesn’t Make Sense Sometimes

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Sometimes diabetes just doesn’t make any sense.  As soon as you think you are understanding it, there it goes again.  Most recent example was last night.  Throughout most of the day my sugar was low, I was eating glucose tabs and Skittles all day at work because it just kept going back down.  When I got home at about 5:30 and went to the gym my blood sugar was right around 110 or so.  I ate, then worked out at the gym for 45 minutes went to Wal-Mart and Target and then came home and checked my sugar and it was up to 230 – something.  Unbelievable.  I didn’t even eat anything that would have caused it to go high like that.  Like I said, it confuses me at times.

Then there are times like Sunday when I went to Olive Garden.  It has been well documented on what happens to my body and sugars when I go to Olive Garden.  I overeat and then next thing you know my sugar is soaring over 350 just about everytime.  So I took just a little more insulin than usual but spaced it out a little more this time with a wave bolus.  Well, instead of my sugar getting up to 350, it was about 300 points lower, about 67 when I tested 3 hours later.  What the heck is that all about?  I have no idea.  Once again, diabetes confusing me.

I guess if I was wearing my CGM I would be able to catch these things a little easier.  But I’m not wearing it.  The sensors that I have are expired, even though I think that they would still work, I have just been too lazy.  I’m not going to get more sensors until next year because of the whole deductible thing.  There was a span in there that I didn’t test for close to 4 hours, so that is my own fault.  Especially when at work I test once an hour, so it’s almost like I am wearing a CGM.

Please remember to dedicate at least one blog post to getting diabetes awareness into the faces of professional athletes so we can have even a bigger voice.

Thank you all.

Took a Little Break, Except from Diabetes

Chris Stocker

Last week I decided to take some time off from Twitter, Facebook, blogging and every other online outlet for 4-5 days.  I had a lot of things coming up and just needed a break.  It’s now time to get back to work however and catch back up, which is harder than actually doing the work in the first place.  I needed to get some offline things done, it’s crazy that theirs actually an offline life out there.  You know, all the fun stuff plus the diabetes stuff.  The life of a diabetic always consists of making sure you have the essentials.  Since I am type 1, I had to make sure that I had enough insulin in my pump before I went to do all of the fun events thisweekend because there is nothing worse than going out somewhere and not having enough insulin.

Friday night after work I headed down to the Panthers game for their exciting win over the Flyers.  It was a stressful event for me.  The Phillies started at 4:00 p.m on Friday, so I was wearing my Chase Utley jersey all day long and had Amanda drive down to the BankAtlantic Center so I could pay attention to the game on my phone.  When I got to the arena, I had to take the Phillies shirt off because the Panthers were playing a Philly team (Flyers), so I was in a little predicament.  Ultimately, the Phillies lost and the Panthers won.  During the game I decided to get some nachos, so I bolused for them and chowed down.  After eating them I started to feel a little low in the middle of the period, so Amanda went out and bought me a huge $4.00 chocolate chip cookie.  I didn’t test to see how low my sugar was because of course my meter was out in the car.  Finally, I felt better and my sugar was about 160 after the game.

As soon as the game was over, Amanda and I went to Super Wal-Mart because I had to get all the fixings for pasta salad (my favorite food in the world).  Saturday was my future father in-law’s birthday party for his 60th birthday, which is actually today.  My roommate (my girlfriend’s brother) and I decided to get a keg for the party because there was going to be a good amount of people there.  But that wasn’t the main reason for the keg.  We knew that the Oklahoma – Texas, Gators – Razorbacks, Virginia Tech – Georgia Tech, and the Yankees games were all on Saturday, so we knew there was a lot of beer to go through for the day.  I’m not even going to get into Virginia Tech blowing any chance that they have to play for the national championships.   At the party I didn’t have my meter again, starting to be a not so good recurring theme here.  I was eating a lot of pasta salad, macaroni salad, beer, chicken tenders and mini subs.  So a lot of insulin wasb eing consumed there.  When I went home I tested and I was near the low 200’s, which is where I stayed pretty much all night long.

And to top it off the Eagles barely outscored the Phillies on Sunday.  The Eagles game did have my stress levels at a high so far this season because they have been playing well so it hasn’t affected me too much.  Since my meter was left in my car, surprise surprise, I had no idea what my sugar was.  All I knew was that I didn’t feel dizzy and I didn’t have to pee a lot so I knew I wasn’t at either extreme.  I know this isn’t good because sometimes I am just dehydrated and drinking a lot because I was sweating so much.  Sometimes I will take some insulin because of that, which is not a good idea, so don’t try that at home kids.  But at the end of the night the Phils win at least made it a little better.

Last night after work I had to coach a game which was the best game all season so far.  It was a 12-6 loss for my kids that have been averaging about 21-0 losses.  Then at night, Mr. Jimmy Rollins rocked Philly with a walk-off double, which sent me running and screaming around my house at about midnight, waking up my roommate who is cheering for the Dodgers.

Long Stressful Drive Back from Orlando

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Yesterday involved a long, stressful drive back home from Orlando.  After spending a great weekend up there, Amanda and I were headed home on the Florida Turnpike in seperate cars.  We were flying down the highway and making great time.  We were on pace for about 2 1/2 hours which is great time for where we live.  My sugar was about 220 at this time.  It was above 200 all day while at Sea World.  I couldn’t seem to get the numbers down, I don’t know why.

So, we were just north of the Ft. Pierce exit on the Turnpike when I heard a little noise, almost like I hit a bump in the road.  About 2 miles later the loudest noise of my live occurred.  It sounded like someone let go a shotgun right next to my head.  I knew it exactly what it was when it happened though, and the first thing I thought was $#!t.  My spare tire is already on the back right side of my car because I had a flat several weeks ago.  And no, my spare is not a donut tire, it was a real tire so that is why I was able to drive on it for so long.

I called Amanda and told her to get behind my car and she said that it didn’t look like my tire was flat, but then she said that she thought that she just saw the tire spark.  She saw it again, so I said ok we need to get off at this next exit.  We pull off into the nearest gas station (with a Dunkin Donuts) so I could get a coffee if needed.  I looked at the tire and there was a huge hole in it, but it wasn’t flat.  The wires were sticking out of the tire, so that explains the sparks.  I called AAA right away and they were going to send a truck out to me and tow it to a tire service and I would have to get it the next morning.  I definitely did not want to do that, but what the hell else was I going to do on a Sunday night at 8 p.m.

I called a 24 hour tire service to come out and fix the tire and they wanted to charge me over $300, uhh yea right!  After 30 minutes of waiting for the AAA truck, it was the wrong kind of truck.  They didn’t get the correct information from dispatch and they needed a flatbed truck.  It was going to be another 30 minutes, which I didn’t want to wait.  I asked the driver what his honest opinion was, if he felt I could drive it about one mile to the Super Wal-Mart and he felt that I could.  I drove it down there about 10-15 MPH and took all of my belongings and then drove home with Amanda.  I wanted to stay in a hotel and just get the car fixed first thing in the morning, but it didn’t make sense to spend the $70, even though it probably would have worked out better that way.

Finally, this afternoon after a half day of work, we drove back up to the Ft. Pierce area and went back to the Super-Walmart.  Luckily my car was s till there and intact and I was able to drive it over to the tire service center and get 2 new tires and put the spare back into the truck.  I drove the car back home and the tires felt fine.  The car was riding smooth again, so I was happy.

Meanwhile, the whole time this was going on my sugar was just skyrocketing because all of the stress.  It went up to about 375 because I was freaking out.  I was so hungry and there was a Sonic right there, but I knew I couldn’t eat because I could tell my sugars were in just one of those moods that they were not going to come down, especially with more food going in.  I woke up this morning with a 245 blood sugar.  Things were fine with the blood sugars all day today after that, a few lows, but no highs.

So that was the wonderful life of a diabetic this weekend and the stressful drive back from Orlando.  It was a long, exhausting, stressful night.  But I made it through it, and have another diabetes related story to share with people that want to know about diabetes.

Weekend Full of Highs…Went over 500

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

This weekend involved a lot of highs.  I hit over 250 Friday night, reached 300 on Saturday and was over 500 on Sunday.  Sunday’s was the worst.  It was also the scariest, and also made me feel like crap.  I was coaching a football game Sunday afternoon and I was sweating a lot and felt a little low so I drank some Gatorade.  After the game and when I got home I tested and I was at about 240.  I then ate Arby’s because Sunday is my diet cheat day.  About 2 hours later I started to feel a little crappy, just felt like laying down. No big deal I thought because I was up early and was out in the sun all day.  I tested and I was now up to 300.  I figured it was because I ate fatty food so it will take a while for my levels to get back down.

Then I started to feel really thirsty and my stomach was starting to hurt.  I tested again and now it was over 400.  So I take some more insulin to correct.  About an hour later, or maybe even less then that, I tested again because I was even more dehydrated, and that’s when the meter gave the worst reading, “HI”  HI Blood Sugar

I didn’t panic because I knew I could bring it down, just do everything that I was always taught from my diabetes educator, thank god I’m able to still have a CDE!  I corrected on my pump and took the necessary insulin.  I tested 30 minutes later, still says high, so I changed my site and corrected with insulin in the new site.  I layed down and tried to fall asleep and wake up and hope that it was lowered.  I woke up about 45 minutes later and now finally I got a reading, it was down to 435.

Before I finally went to bed at midnight, it was down to 235.  I woke up at 4:30 this morning with a blood sugar of 65.  Talk about going from one extreme to the other.  I went downstairs and had some OJ and of course a few Skittles.  I went back to sleep and when I woke up and went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, I tested and I was at 106.  So luckily I was able to get it down and get it back to where it needed to be.  I ran a little high all day today as well, around 200 all day long.  I just came back from the gym for an hour and I am about 160 right now.  I thought my sugar was running high because I was starting to feel sick, but now I think that I felt sick because my sugars were high.

Well I guess this is part of living the life of a diabetic.

Review From Doctor’s Visit Last Friday, To Symlin or To Not Symlin

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

Friday brought me another doctors visit. Let’s go through the checklist for the visit.

Insurance card, ID, meter, pump, clean socks, clean feet, food log, reasons for why I didn’t wear my cgm all month long.

Ok I have everything I need so now I can go to the visit, let’s check my sugar one more tome before we go. Ut-oh I ran out of strips. Once again I don’t have an extra box at work or in my laptop bag.  Going into the visit, I wanted to accomplish a few things.  They were to get my basal rates at right levels, get my morning sugars lower, figure out a better diet plan, learn more about temp basals and square wave boluses.

To start the visit off, I had weight a few pounds lighter than the last visit, even though that scale is way off.  Next came time for the blood pressure, not so good, it was 140-80.  I don’t know why it was so high.  I have been a little stressed lately with less sleep and some things going on at work.  Once the doctor came in the very first thing we discussed was why I didn’t have a lot of readings from the CGM.  So good thing I prepared for that one.  But I told her straight out that I just didn’t wear it as often as I should.  Then we started to look at the levels from the meter.  At previous visits, I had brought in 3 or 4 different meters and gave them the readings from those because I used different meters at different places.  That was one of the things from last visit I tried to stop and attempted to use the same meter almost every time, and I was pretty successful at doing so.

Now it was time to take a look at the bolus readings from the pump.  There were a lot of 25 unit (max) boluses without even having a blood sugar reading.  She did not like that very much.  The reason for those is when I know I am eating bad, and I don’t test before I eat, I just take 25 units, then will test later and correct from there.  Usually because I know I am eating enough carbs to cover that 25, which at my ratio, 5:1, that is at least 125 carbs in one meal, not too good.  There was even one in there just from last week that was two different 25 unit boluses within an hour of each other, (Olive Garden visit).

The last part of the visit was doc and I discussing the possibility of using Symlin.  The reason being is because she wants me to lose weight and she thinks just by my eating habits that I am not going to be able to do that.  This was brought to my attention with my previous doctor as well, and I had decided to throw the sample away and lose the weight myself.  Pretty much the same result this time.  I told my doctor that I want to attempt to lose the weight myself and by the next month if I don’t lose weight, then I will go on the Symlin.  I really don’t want to do that, but if I have to then I will.

Which leads to me to my question of the day.  How many people out there are currently or have previously used Symlin?  How did it make you feel?  Did it make you lose weight?  Was feeling like crap worth the weight loss?  Please let me know your experiences with Symlin.