Skip to main content

Category: Stress

Where Would You Be Without Diabetes Education?

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

So where would you be without diabetes education?  I can tell you where I’d be, and it wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure.  I am willing to bet that majority of you would say the same thing.  To me, diabetes education is the most important part of diabetes in general.  You can’t accept it if you don’t understand it.  You can’t manage it if you don’t know about it.  But there is always something more to learn about diabetes.  As soon as you think you know all there is, something else pops up.

I recently did a post on the old blog starting to get into this subject of diabetes education and that all the programs that are closing down.  Just locally here in south Florida where I live in the last year I have personally seen the JFK Medical Center diabetes center go down, along with the North Broward Hospital diabetes program go down.

I use Google Alerts for the keyword “diabetes education program” and it seems that almost everyday I receive another alert with a local newspaper writing about another program closing down.  I will admit that there are also some that talk about new ones starting up, which is amazing.  But when you read into it, the program is opening with minimal funds and sharing an office with the whole hopsital education system.  Now as someone with diabetes, I know how important it is for diabetes education programs.  I understand that this will lower my chances of any complications that may come in the future.

Now why do hospitals not think this way?  Oh I know, because this doesn’t allow their wallets to get fat.  It is very clear, there is no money in diabetes education, none!  The re-imbursment rates are minimal.  I see all the time in these articles that a reason the hospital will close the center down is because the amount of people coming to certain diabetes education classes or programs are decreasing.  The reasons they may be decreasing are because less people have health insurance, can’t afford to go to the classes, gas prices are getting better now, but during the gas spike of recent times people just couldn’t afford to drive to their local hospital to get the education they need.

So how do we solve this issue?  How do we get the education that we all need to the people that need it most.  One way I am personally trying to resolve this is to raise funds for diabetes education.  Raising funds in these times is a difficult thing to do.  There is a million charities out there and everybody thinks that theirs is the best and their cause is better.  Especially when you have a discussion about the ADA and JDRF, (tomorrow’s post).  Anyway, time to get back on subject.

Please let me know of any projects that you may be working on or that you have heard of or any local events.  I would love to help out and be as active as possible in fighting for the education that we need.  I continue to fight and do what I can to help find a cure, but until that day comes the best I can do is to help people get the same education that I received and still receive today that has helped me stay healthy.

I want everybody to be able to enjoy their lives and share their own stories of living a life of a diabetic.

Have a great night ya’ll

A Relaxing Weekend with Diabetes

Chris Stocker 4 Comments

This weekend was filled with a lot of excitement, well at least I think so.  What I mean by exciting is a relaxing weekend with diabetes.  I don’t even know where to begin, but I guess I will just start on Friday.  Friday night may have been boring for most people, but to me it was great because I had a chance to relax and catch up on some reading and reviewing certain things, mainly healthcare reform debates, and not have to worry about being anywhere in the morning or at night.  The night started out a little rocky because at football practice my infusion set had fallen out.  No big deal though because there was only about 20 minutes left of practice and when it fell out I checked my sugar and it was 75, so I didn’t need any insulin for a while anyway.

After I got home and showered, I sat down and reviewed President Obama’s speech from last week again, but this time with a little more detail and not just taking it all in like I did the first time.  But more on that later on in the week.  The rest of Friday night was spent researching the options in creating a business in the state of Florida.  A lot of paperwork and dumb fees, that’s what I concluded!  Finally the night ended with a refresher course on basic HTML.  I know how boring this night sounds, but it was so damn relaxing for me.  And the whole time my blood sugars were at great numbers.  Just to stress this point, a Friday night life of a diabetic is not much any different than a Friday night of someone who isn’t, so take that diabetes!

Saturday morning did not start off too well however.  I volunteered to help out with the local JDRF at a sidewalk sale where all profits went directly to JDRF.  I drove down to Boca and when I got there, I was getting out of the car and riipppp.  My infusion set tubing got caught on the door and it pulled my infusion set out.  Two infusion sets gone in 2 days, not a bad pace.  I had to go back home and by the time I did all of that, there was really no point in going back down to the fundraiser, so I had to miss out on this one.  Saturday night came and it was a little like the night before.  I didn’t do as much work because I decided to just relax and watch the USC-OSU game all night.  I did very little work.

Sunday came which means my Philadelphia Eagles.  I made myself a promise that I would not allow myself to get all worked up and make my blood pressure and blood sugars go crazy anymore. I would not allow these 5 reasons to affect me this week.  The game was pretty much wrapped up after the first or second quarter, so I was not on edge like I normally would be, but my blood sugars were perfect.  I tested before I went into the sports bar and then again 3 hours later after I left.  It was 175 when I entered and 106 when I left, and that was after French Onion soup and a chicken quesadilla.

So, that was my exciting weekend.  Not much to it, but just a normal day living with diabetes.  Now it is time to enjoy some Monday Night Football (Brady, Moss, Pats Defense all on my fantasy team) and watching this incredible match between Federer and Del Potro.

Have a great day and night everybody.

5 Reasons Why Watching Sports Affects Your Blood Sugar

Chris Stocker 4 Comments

I wasn’t able to get a post up yesterday because I was having computer issues.  I have a WP app on my IPhone, but there’s no way that I can type that much on that phone.  So it’s Saturday afternoon and I am at the Spanish River Library in Boca Raton with a nice venti bold from Starbucks, with my beautiful girlfriend and getting some work done.  Why am I at the library on a Saturday afternoon when I am no longer in college?  Because football officially begins tonight which means I will have just about zero time left from now until January to do anything at all. Tonight my Virginia Tech Hokies kick off against the Alabama Crimson Tide.  It also means that my diabetes gets tougher.

For those that have been following me for a while probably know that my Hokies and Philadephia Eagles screw with my blood sugars big time.  This year I have a CGM and vow to wear it for every single game so I can monitor how my sugars are going up and down.  At my last Endo visit I was told that I need to track my blood pressure a little more frequently as well since it was 140/80 when I came in and also when I left the visit.  During Eagles games I can feel my heart pounding rapidly on big plays and also at the end of the game.  When they are winning easily it doesn’t really affect me.  More on the Eagles in a further post when their game is coming up.  Right now, it is all about the Hokies.

I am already becoming a little nervous because our star running back is injured and not going to be playing.  Not to mention that we are playing the #5 team in the country.  Grant it, we are #7 in the country, I hate having to play these top teams during the first game of the year every single year.  Let’s get into the diabetes part of it though.  And the reasons for why my sugar goes up.  I have narrowed it down to 5 different reasons why they are all over the place.

# 1 – Passion and Nerves

I am a very passionate and die hard sports fan.  I have been fans of the teams I am fans of pretty much my whole entire life.  I grew up an Eagles fan, became a Hokies fan when I was about 7 or 8, so I feel attached to these teams.  I have also had no luck with my sporting teams winning championships, except the Phillies last year, that I want them to win every single game.  When they lose I become upset and pissed and feel like I am part of the actual team.  Obviously I don’t want to feel pissy but when it is fourth down or there is 2 minutes left in the game and we are down by 6 my blood pressure is shooting through the roof.  My goal this year is to take deep breathes and relax and tell myself that my life is not affected by this game.

# 2 Food Choices

During sports games I am not always able to watch the game at my own home just because of regional TV decisions.  So, at times I must go down to the local sports bar.  While I am there, I may as well make a meal out of it and eat also.  This leads to a game long appetizer of homemade buffalo fried chips from Bru’s Room in Delray Beach, FL.  Second part of the meal is usually a Memphis pulled pork sandwich or some sort of non-healthy meal with some mashed potatoes.  You may have guessed why I named a specific food, because I am extremely superstitious and don’t like to go away from something that I ate when my teams have won while I ate that.  I know, I know, I’m crazy!

# 3- Beer

Beer and football, just makes sense.  Do I really need to go into why the beer intake messes with my blood sugar?  I don’t think that I do, your educator can take care of that.

# 4 Guessing, not Testing

If I go to the sports bar then there is about a 5% chance that I take my meter with me.  During that 5%, there is about a 1% chance that I will test my sugar.  I also am kind of guessing how many carbs are in the food.  Usually what I do is just take a 25 unit max bolus and then eat to cover my insulin.  If I “feel” that I am getting low then I will just eat more of the chips or maybe even order a dessert or something else.  Not a great decision for a diabetic.

# 5 Stress

This one comes during the game which I started to get into during reason #1.  The stress gets even worse after a loss.  I will be stressed out and down in the dumps for a few hours or even the next day until I finally get over it and realize that next week we get another chance to win.  The later into the season the worse the stress gets.

I now know the reasons why sports affect my blood sugars, now it’s time to do something about it and fix these 5 things.  Well I am going to the sports bar tonight even though the game is nationally televised, but I am going to eat healthy.  No beer, no pulled pork.  I will have an un-sweetened iced tea, a cobb salad and maybe a cup of French Onion soup.  Maybe, just maybe I may cheat and get some jalapeno poppers because Amanda also likes them.

Insurance Companies, Did You Just Cringe?

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Insurance companies.  How many of you just cringed and made a sour face as soon as you read those first two words?  I know I do.  I don’t know what it is about that set of words. Even when I was younger I didn’t like those words, and I didn’t even know anything about them.  As my uncle always called them, “in-case-stuff-happens companies” as in they are useless unless stuff happens.  Insurance companies brought a whole new level of hatred into my life when I became diabetic.

I didn’t really deal with them the first 2 years of my diabetes because my mom handled just about everything.  I just simply went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions and went to the doctors office and handed them a card.  Once I moved to Florida to finish college, that’s when I had to deal with things myself.

I can remember the first bad experience that I had with them.  I had only 1 vial of insulin left and I pulled it out of the fridge to get it to room temperature about a day or 2 before I would actually use it.  As I was taking it out of the nice little box it comes in, it slipped out of my hands and smashed on the floor and insulin went everywhere.  Not only did I have an insulin smelling floor, (disgusting!) I was now going to be out of insulin within the next few days.

I went over to the student pharmacy the next day and pharmacist said ok it should be here tomorrow.  I get a phone call the next morning to come in and see him.  Guess what?  Insulin is there but the insurance company isn’t covering it so it is going to cost me approximately $500 with the student discount.  Reason for why they won’t cover it you may ask?  Because I have a 90 day supply and we are only on day number 78.  I still remember the day of my 90 day prescription I was on because it made me so pissed.  After I explained to the rep that I will be dead before day 90 comes around, she transferred me to multiple people.  Finally, on a one time basis, they will cover the insulin.

Now, fast forward 3 1/2 years to last week.  I received a new pump and CGM from my diabetes supplier earlier in the year. They are out of network with my insurance so no big deal, that will eat up my out of network deductible.  Well I keep receiving statements in the mail showing that none of my deductible has been met.  This doesn’t make sense to me.  Also, every month I receive a letter telling me that I haven’t sent in the additional information that was requested of me and I must send in something in writing or my claim will be denied.

Huh?  What?  I never received anything in the mail stating I had to send in anything!  Every single time I call they tell me that I just have to submit my appeal in writing.  Well, what the hell am I appealing?  I haven’t received anything telling me I need to appeal!  Long story short they are requesting months of blood sugar logs, CGM reports, A1C reports, etc.  If they just would have told me that months ago I could have had it to them right away.  Hopefully I can get this all straightened out and taken care of.  I don’t need the added stress.

Just another reason I can’t stand insurance companies!

And just another day in the life of a diabetic