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Category: Exercise and Diabetes

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.

Need to Wear CGM More Often

Chris Stocker

In a previous post that I had after my doctors visit I discussed that I promised not just my endo but myself that I would wear my CGM more often.  And I started to, but then I haven’t put it back on in a few days.  And why may you ask?  Because I am lazy, and since there are only certain times during the day that I can put it on, I usually decide not to do it.  They say to not put it on during a time that your blood sugars are fluxuating or not stable.  Well that eliminates the morning time and also night time.  So that leaves when I am at work.  Well, it’s not the most comfortable thing to do at work.  So then that leaves me doing it on the weekend, which allows me to have the CGM on from Saturday – Tuesday (unless it falls off during golfing.)

I know all the good things about the CGM.  That it is going to help me conquer my morning lows by knowing more of a minute by minute analysis of what my blood sugars are doing.  There are article out like this one from Science Daily, that states, which we all pretty much know by now anyway, “…patients averaging at least six days per week of CGM use had substantially greater improvements in HbA1c compared with those who used the device less often.”  Hmm, so do I need any more proof or any more of a fire lit under my butt?

I vow to wear my CGM for 7 straight days.  Then 14.  Then 21.  If I start with a goal of 30 days in a row, I have a problem reaching long goals without setting smaller ones in the short term.  This is my promise.

What is the longest that you have worn a CGM in a row?  I don’t mean, did you sneak 4 or 5 days out of a 3 day sensor from Medtronic.  But as in, you inserted a new sensor the same day you took an old one out, etc.

This all makes me think about my mindset.  I am usually so good about doing things the right way.  I have done things the right way my whole entire life.  I worked my butt off to be the best basketball and football player I could possibly be.  Of course there were times that I was lazy, but I would make up for it the next day or next week by working even harder.  Or if you have one of those days and you are a little slower at work, you can catch up on work the next day.  But diabetes is completely different.  If I want to take a day off, or be lazy, I can’t just make that time up or just work harder the next day.  This post could potentially become the change of my life and how I see things and act with my diabetes.  I have had A1c right around 7.0 or below for over 2 years,  but it’s time to stop being complacent with those numbers and continue to work harder.

I am committed to making this life of a diabetic a better one and in turn a longer one!

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.