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Category: High Blood Sugar

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.

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.

Endo Appointment Tomorrow, Charlie Kimball Friday

Chris Stocker

I received a phone call today from my endo’s office to confirm my appointment for Friday and I was confused.  I said, there’s no way that I could have scheduled an appointment for that day because Friday is Charlie Kimball’s race down in Homestead – Miami that I am going to so I can’t have that appointment.  She said, well I don’t think that we have any other openings.  I said, you don’t understand, I can’t miss this race, I am going to meet Charlie and be at the race.  So she said she would look and see where she could fit me in and give me a call back.  5 minutes later I get a phone call and somebody had cancelled for tomorrow, so it looks like now I have an appointment for tomorrow.

First thing that I am going to explain to the doc when I get in there is come straight out and admit that it hasn’t been a good month for me.  In fact, a pretty effin’ bad month.  I had a lot of highs, some major lows and just been all over the map with my sugars.  However, I did manage to find more time for exercise and lost some weight.  I put a little on over the last week, but I had lost enough before that to still be down some weight since the last visit.  The last thing is to explain that I haven’t worn the sensor at all for multiple reasons.  For one, it started to fall out all the time.  Secondly, the ones that I had expired way back in May and never realized it because I just kept thinking, well I still have 2 full boxes.  I will probably still attempt to use them though.

I must also remember to get new prescriptions from her however because I am almost out of insulin.  That also reminds me that I better re-order very soon because there is always an issue, especially when I need a new prescription sent in.  The first time that I had to send in a new prescription, it took me almost 2 weeks to get my insulin delivered, not good customer service in my eyes.

Today’s post a little short because I just got back from the gym and I am tired and I am trying to cook dinner and do laundry and have a lot of work to catch up on tonight.  So you all have a great day and I will have a better post tomorrow.  Hopefully something positive from the endo appointment.

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.

Diabetes 2.0 at Diabetes Research Institute

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Quick follow up from yesterday’s post about the gnocci’s, 425 blood sugar at 1 a.m.  Enough said.  Now onto some other things that are more important.  I signed up finally today to go to the Diabetes 2.0 conference at the Diabetes Research Institute on November, 7.  I am very excited to attend this year.  I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to attend, but my football schedule changed, so now I can go.  There is so much going on down there so I don’t know what I am the most excited about.

I have met Jay Skyler before and he was one of the best speakers that I have ever heard, so I can’t wait to get another chance to speak with him.  Then there is all of the fellow members of the diabetes community.  I feel like I know all of you already, but have never met any of you, well some.  I was able to finally meet Kerri and Sara up in Orlando at the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life conference this past year.  Definitely looking forward to finally meeting Manny, Allison and Gina.

Then there is so many good things going on at once, so I don’t know which to go to.  I went to a conference in New York back in August and all of the sessions were video-taped and attendees were given a username and password weeks later in order to view the recordings of all the sessions, because it was impossible to make it to all of them.  I love this idea and think that all conferences should be exactly the same way.  Of course it will increase the cost of the conference, but you get more out of it.  All in all, I’m still excited about this one.

I know there are petitions going around, can we start one to get an additional 4 hours in in the day so I can have more time to catch up on blogs.  I thought working through college was tough and time consuming, yeah right!  I’m doing more learning and reading now then I ever did in college.

Time to get back to living the life of a diabetic.

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.

Diabetes and Feet – Not Enough Effort

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Well today had a lot better blood sugars then Sunday did that’s for sure.  I didn’t go over 200 at all today, the closet I came was just right now right before dinner and after 2 hours of coaching football, it was 178.  I just had a pulled chicken sandwich and 1/4 cup of baked beans.  I don’t like eating this late because typically it will lead to higher 3 a.m. blood sugars, but I didn’t over eat, I ate very small.  Today is all about my feet.  First, I want to thank my doctor for taking time to check my feet every single visit.  So far they have been pretty good.  I do have a few calouses but I have always had them from sports.

I try to lotion my feet every single night, but I don’t always remember to.  Luckily I have an amazing girlfriend that is willing to do this for me with a special diabetes foot cream.  I use Neoteric primarily, but there are a few others I have tried, but don’t recall their names.  I have also tried the Anastasia foot cream as well, and liked it, but just didn’t want to pay the higher prices for it.  I don’t feel that I pay enough attention to my feet.  How much attention do you pay towards your feet?  I sometimes get the attitude, well I’m only 25, that stuff will only happen when I’m older.  Well I try to smack myself in the face when I say that.

For instance, I just came home from football practice tonight and my feet are soar.  I’m only 25 like I said and still “fresh” out of football so I am very active with the kids and running pass patterns and throwing them passes so I am running around in cleats all night.  Then I come home and my feet kill, my calouses are even bigger and my feet are as dry as can be.  I am about to take a shower shortly, but as soon as I get out, my feet will be extremely dry.

In the industry that I work in, I see a lot of different wound care products and items and sometimes wonder what they are for or how they are used.  Then I see some of the promotional materials or product catalogs for some manufacturers and then I see examples of open wounds, and sores that can come from not taking care of your feet.  This makes me sick to my stomach and do not want to allow myself to get that way.  I know that sometimes it may not be your fault, but if there are things that I can do to prevent it, I want to make sure that I am doing them all.

One of the keys to my health as living a life of a diabetic is that I must keep my feet in great condition and not allow them to crack or get sores on them.

Hope you all have a great day.

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.