Skip to main content

Category: Diet and Weight Loss

Using CGM, First Time in Two Months

Chris Stocker

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.

Diabetes Inventory Day – Time to Count

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Today it is diabetes inventory day.  How often do you do this?  I usually do it once every 3 or 4 months just to see how much I have and how much I will need to re-order.  Typically, I have a lot more infusion sets than I do reservoirs because I don’t change my site everytime I fill a new reservoir.  This is mainly just due to laziness.  Sometimes it is because I just can’t do it.  I may be driving and filling a new reservoir, or at work, or somewhere that I just don’t feel comfortable or have the opportunity to change the infusion set.  When I get a 90 day supply of my pump supplies the reservoirs are usually gone in those 90 days, but the infusion sets usually last about 5-6 months so I always have enough infusions.  Do you re-use your reservoirs at all?  I do from time to time just so I don’t run out.  Right now I don’t have insurance (looking into picking up Cobra), so I doubt I will be buying supplies any time soon.

I plan on counting everything diabetes related that I have.  Test strips, lancets, syringes, pen needles, infusion sets, reservoirs, sensors, IV prep pads, IV dressings, alcohol swabs, and anything else that I have in my diabetes cabinet.  I am hoping that I have enough of everything to last me at least 90 days because most companies will give you insurance after 90 days of employment.  It’s ironic that I worked for a company that helped uninsured people and now I am one of those uninsured.  My main concern is being able to get insulin.  I really need to work on exercising and eating less so that I use less insulin, especially until I am insured again.

I have no excuses anymore for not going to the gym.  I don’t have a job right now, so I have all the time in the world to go, but I am constantly doing things on the internet now.  These are productive things, so I’m not just sitting online all day looking at Twitter, I am trying to get things accomplished and do work on my clients sites.  That’s also one reason that I have decided to do the diabetes inventory later today because I have the time to count each and everything that I own.

I’ll give all the numbers tomorrow.

Lack of Exercise Has Brought Weight Back On

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

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.

“Liv-abetic” As Opposed to Diabetic

Chris Stocker

I was saying the word diabetic a lot over the past few days.  Well a lot more than normally.  Probably because I was having a few conversations with people about diabetes and my life of a diabetic blog and my insights on diabetes and healthcare.  After saying it a lot I thought, I never realized how much the word “die” is in this word.  And with the ignorance that is out there about diabetes, most people think that it is a death sentence and they are scared of it.  So I started to say I’m not a diabetic, it’s more like a “live”-abetic.  Because that is exactly what I am doing I am living, not dying.  The life of a diabetic is no different than anybody elses, we just have to do a few more things.  I’m just a high maintenance person I guess, my blood sugars require a lot of attention and my supplies are expensive.

Many newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics that I have met and spoke to are scared that they are on a clear path to living a shorter life.  Absolutely not is my first reaction.  I suggest that they be careful where they read their information on the web.  Too many articles, newsletter, and diabetes information or dis-information as I feel, have a negative tone to them.  They may or may not be done purposely like that, but they still are.  For instance, there could be two articles about diabetes and heart disease.  One will talk about how diabetes increases the rate of heart disease and risk of death.  Or you can have the same issue talked about in a way that explains, watching your diet, managing your blood sugars and exercising will decrease your risks.

Now these two things sound almost exactly the same, and to you maybe they are, but to me they are not.  I am a firm believer that you can control your diabetes, your diabetes doesn’t control you.  So, for this exact reason, I believe information should be written in the fashion that the author should explain what you can do to lower risks (you controlling your diabetes) as opposed to explaining what diabetes will do to you if you don’t do these things (diabetes controlling you).  I hope this all makes sense, because it makes great sense in my head, but it doesn’t always come out correctly.

I hope you all have an amazing day and wish you all the best in keeping your blood sugars at good numbers.

Results From Endo Appointment

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Today’s post, although later is about the results from my endo appointment today.  I just came home from football practice a little bit ago, so that is why it is such a late post tonight.  But anywho, onto the appointment.  A diabetic’s mandatory meeting.

I was actually on time so that started out well.  I handed my pump and my meter to the receptionist so they could pull the numbers off of the two.  For some reason, my meter decided that it didn’t want to work anymore and wouldn’t give the readings so they were going to give me a new Freestyle Lite meter.  I told them to just keep it because I have plenty of meters at home, leave it for somebody that needs one.  [Plus didn’t know if I’d have to report that to the FTC also 🙂 ]

Next up was the blood pressure.  If you recall from my last endo appointment, my blood pressure was a little high, 140/80.  I was very stressed out that day and was running around like crazy before the appointment.  Today I wasn’t stressed at all, it was a perfectly fine day.  My blood pressure was 122/70, perfect.  So there was nothing to worry about with that.  For some reason they weighed me after the blood pressure.  The scale at their office is always about a 10 pound difference then any other scale I step on.  Their scale last time said 254 when mine at home said about 244.  Today, their scale said 246.  So even though I’m not that heavy, I am obviously losing some weight.

As I explained recently, I have had a month full of highs and was trying to figure out why that was happening.  I discussed it with the doc today and we both agreed on all the possible reasons that I mentioned.  Probably a site issue.  We eliminated those highs so we could see patterns in normal days.  Overall, the sugars were pretty damn good.  Just those few high days did it to me.  Like usual my sugars overnight are killing me, literally!  We increased my basal rate during the late night / early morning hours to 1.8 and kept the rest of them at 2.2 – 2.4 depending on the time of day.  We also increased my carb ratio to 1 unit of insulin for every 4 carbs at night time and kept it at 5 carbs the rest of the day.

I felt very good after leaving today’s visit.  Things are going good and somethings are getting even better.  My goal for next month’s A1C is to have it below 7.  I have busted my butt exercising and eating better to do this, but I can’t stop now I have to continue.  Well, next appointment isn’t until end of November, so I’ll update you again after that appointment.

Too Many 400 Plus Sugars This Month

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I don’t know what is going on with my body right now.  My blood sugars are all over the map.  I am eating healthier and losing weight, but at the same time losing control of my blood sugars.  My 7 day average on my meter is 210, 14 day is 198 and my 30 day is 177.  What the hell is this?  I have had more readings over 400 in this past month then I have in my 6 years with diabetes.  I am still trying to figure out what is doing it to me.  Is it the exercise and feeling low while at practice and just drinking Gatorade?  Is it over correcting lows?  Is it bad sites?  Maybe even bad insulin?  Let me dig into each of these.

Football Practice

When I am at practice, I don’t really have time to test my sugar.  I will now make time, but up until now there are several water breaks, but this is the time that I have to take down one drill and set up the next drill so by the time the kids are done with their water break, I am ready for them to start the next thing.  I have them for 2 hours, only 2 nights a week.  For those of you that know anything about pop-warner ball, you know that this is nowhere near enough time to teach kids who haven’t really ever played football before, so I have to manage the time the best I can.  Obviously, my health needs to come first though.  So, what is an easy resolution?  Wear your god damn CGM Chris!

Everytime I wear it at football practice, it falls out.  I can’t seem to find a perfect place for it where it won’t fall out.  I have tried my stomach, and unfortunately until I lose some more weight (down 8 pounds since September 1) I will have some rolls on my stomach that don’t make it easy for the CGM to stay in place.  I have tried it on my backside, which seems to be the best place to wear it, but it is so freakin hard to get the thing inserted by myself back there.  Amanda doesn’t mind inserting an infusion set for me, but the CGM sensor is different because of how long the needle is, she just isn’t at that point yet to feel comfortable enough to do it.  The final place that I wear it is on my leg which is the easiest place for me to insert it, but at football is the quickest place for it to fall off. Reason being is because I am constantly running and cutting, and also punting to the kids, so everytime I do that, it starts to fall off.

All my Dexcom friends out there…..do those sensors stay in better?

Over-corecting Lows

Now I know this is a dilemna for just about all diabetics.  You see that 50 or 60 in your meter and you just chug a gallon of orange juice, eat a bag of skittles, follow it up with a case of sugar tabs, and then just unleash a pound of sugar into your body.  An hour later and your blood sugar went from 50 to 350.  WTF???!!???  Obviously, I am exaggerating here with how much we take, but you all know what I mean.  I know how much I need in order to correct my low, but I get nervous and continue to eat until I feel better, which means that the initial sugar I ate has taken affect, and now very shortly all the other sugar will take affect as well.  I am going to start making pre-filled baggies with just enough candy or sugar that I need to correct a low.  And once the bag is finished then that is it, no need to take more.  If I still feel crappy a little later, then I will take more just after that.

Bad Sites

This is definitely part of the problem, and is 100% my own fault.  I don’t think that I have ever switched out a set in only 3 days purposely since I have been on the pump (5 years).  I usually keep a site in for 5-7 days, sometimes even more when I am being extremely lazy.  Of course I know it’s not good, but I still do it.  It’s tough to break bad habits, but I have been trying to hard lately to stay on top of it.  So when I get a high, and I try to correct it takes forever because the insulin is not getting through the skin, or it’s leaking, whatever the reason.  I will change my set if I do get a reading over 400. That is the first thing that I do.  Usually if it is over 350 I keep the same one and correct, If I do a test again in an hour and it is not below the 350, then I will switch it out right away and correct again.

These are all my ideas on what has maybe played into the higher sugars.  One thing I didn’t talk about as a reason is the food that I have been eating, because I have been eating excellent…..most of the time.  So it could be those very few times, the 5% of the time foods that could have an affect.  So when most people are worrying why their electric bill was so high this month, but living this life of a diabetic requires me to not only worry about that, but also my blood sugars being high.

Weekly Weight loss update

Chris Stocker

Some computer problems prevented me from posting yesterday. My computer still isn’t up to par so I am trying to create a whole post from my WP IPhone app. Ouch my finger is getting tired already.

I wanted to give an update on my diet today. This weekend I slacked off just a bit because of the long weekend but that should not be an excuse at all. I am still right around 240. It seems that no matter what I do I can’t knock this weight off. I look skinnier I feel thinner and my clothes fit better so why does the scale say the damething.

Amy from DiabetesMine had a great post about this and a TIME front cover magazine article a few days ago which sums this whole thing up.

The number one reason that I am not losing the weight is because I am being lazy and not working out like I should. I will go to the gym for 20 minutes and then leave like that is enough time to do what I have to do. My eating habits have become better however still not the best. For instance, today I brought a Lean Cuisine meal with me for lunch that is only 250 calories but I decided to go with the group to Firehouse and eat a 400 calorie sandwich. Right there is 200 less calories that I could have had in my diet. Over 15 days of that 200 calories would be one pound.

Well that is it for today hopefully I can have my computer back up and running by tomorrow night.

Have a great night everybody.

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.