Category: Living Normally with Diabetes

I have been doing a lot of work “offline” the past week.  This has made me extremely tired when I finally get home, and I haven’t been keeping up with the blog lately.  I am working to get some programs off the ground here in south Florida, but it’s not very easy.  I have scheduled a few face to face meetings with some local reps for next month, so I am extremely excited about that.  It is very tough to meet with them because they can typically only meeting during 9-5 during the weekdays and I work 45 minutes from my house, so I can’t really make the times they are always suggesting.

My parents are coming back down here to visit again in September, so I thought that would be a great time to take the Diabetes Research Institute tour with them and my girlfriend.  I’m sure my parents will find it very exciting.  They are not very involved with my diabetes because I was 19 when I was diagnosed and I pretty much took control of it myself and didn’t rely on them for help with it.  So I see this as a great opportunity for them to learn a little more about diabetes.

By the way, I’ve lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks, and that was with NO exercise, just changing portions that I eat.Have a great day everybody.

It’s been over a week since my last post and I really did not want to go this long without posting anymore, but I guess it just happened, but what are you going to do.  My last several posts have been about the Roche Social Media Summit, but this post is going to be just a simple post about what has been going on in my life lately.  Let’s start with the weight issue.  I haven’t lost any weight lately.  I have been eating a little healthier again and eating better at lunch time than I have been.  My endo appointment is approaching and I know that she is going to recommend that I go on Symlin to help me lose weight.  I spoke with George and Scott briefly at the summit about Symlin and some pro’s and con’s so if that suggestion is brought up to me by her again, then I will have to think a little more deeply into that route.

The next area is my blood sugars.  I have been going through about a month long period that my normal level is about 225.  I am not getting my sugar under 200 very often, so I am trying to figure out exactly what is going on.  I think that it is because my portion control was….well, way out of control recently.  Now that my portion control is getting better again, my sugar levels are getting better again too.  I know that my A1C is going to be high this month, but that gives me something to work towards and a goal to accomplish.

Other than that, there is not a whole lot going on.  Work has been incredibly busy, my dog is going great, my girlfriend is doing great, so life is just great. Hopefully tomorrow I will have something a little more exciting for you to read, but we will see.

It’s been another long period in-between my blog posts, but man, it’s been worth it, ha.  As some of you may know, Amanda and I recently got a new puppy last weekend.  A 9 week old Cavalier King Charles that we named Ruby.  You can see her cute self below.  This dog has kept me busy like no other over the last week and a half.  The first few days it was just non-stop following her around the house.  She was just peeing and pooping everywhere and chewing anything and everything she can get her hands on.  After a while she has calmed down, plays by herself for periods of time, and has managed to go pee and poop on the pads in the area that we have designated.  It was a huge change to our normal lives.  Learning a lot of new things about dogs, our patience, and took ourselves to the extreme of wondering if this was something that we can handle.

Then it got me thinking.  Re-read that last paragraph and change the subject of it from a 9 week old puppy to diabetes.  It was a shock and a complete change up of how I knew and lived life.  I did not choose diabetes however, like we chose the dog, (well, after we saw it, we didn’t really have a choice, I mean, could you have said no to this face).  But, it really did make me think about learning about diabetes and adapting my life to be able to manage diabetes and control it.  The second night we had Ruby, she would not sleep at all and Amanda and I had to go to work the next day.  I remember telling Amanda, “if I can get through a diabetes diagnosis, I can get through handling a new puppy.”  And so far, so good.  It has been getting better and getting easier, but as soon as you let your guard down for a second, she makes you pay for it, but chewing on wood…. or how diabetes hits ya with a 400+ blood sugar.

I continue to see and think about comparisons between the new dog and my diagnosis of diabetes.  Which leads me to ask you, was there something in your life that happened that you can compare to your diabetes diagnosis?  I think this would be interesting to hear.

Please comment and share because, well, isn’t that what the DOC is all about?

Yesterday was combined with some good blood sugars and some not so good ones, but in the overall game of diabetes, I was happy with them, not satisfied, but happy.  In the middle of the night I could just tell that my blood sugar was high so I blind bolused and guestimated that my blood sugar was about 350-400, I took the recommended amount of insulin from the pump.  When I woke up in the morning, my blood sugar was about 125, so I guessed right and my morning blood sugar was awesome.  For breakfast I had 3 mini pancakes and a few sausage patties.  When I tested before lunch, I had gone up to about 225.  I was having one of those Healthy Choice lunches that were about 250 calories and 35 grams of carbs.  I don’t know why, but my blood sugar dropped after lunch and I tested out with a 65.  Time for the Skittles!  But, they are Skittles, so who can seriously only eat enough Skittles or candy to fix their low.  With that being said, I was about 230 the next time that I tested.

Neither Amanda or myself felt like cooking last night, so we decided it would be a good idea to go to Chili’s.  I always seem to over eat there, even though I tell myself not to.  But when that chips and queso comes to the table, it’s just unstoppable, you can’t stop until the whole thing is gone.  I did bring some of both of our meals home though, normally I finish mine and then attempt to finish hers.  Chili’s usually messes with my blood sugar, so I made sure to test every hour until I went to bed to look for any reasons to think that it may go up really high in the middle of the night.  It went pretty well.

I am typing this bright and early in the morning as I prepare for my day.  Today is the day that I take my car to the auto shop to see what kind of damages were done in the accident.  I’m assuming that they are not going to fix the car today because they are going to need to order parts or something.  I am getting a rental car, hopefully, so I should be able to make it to work.  I sure hope so, because there’s too much work to be done to take off today, especially for the fact that my parents are coming down next week for a few days to visit, so I am taking off for those days.  Not to mention, I will have to miss some time from work to get my blood work done. AHHHH, all these things to do, it is never ending!

Well, I just finished my first cup of coffee, so if I don’t get another one soon, then I am really going to get angry.

Have a great day, ya’ll.

I have been living with diabetes for over 6 years now, my 7th diaversary is coming up on April 3, right around the corner.  I try not to celebrate or give this day any special attention because it’s not a fun day to remember.  Remembering being rushed to the hospital with a blood sugar of over 850 is not something that I like to remember.  It definitely was the first day of a new life, and a new beginning for me.  Unfortunately, the life hasn’t been so great lately.

We all handle our diabetes situations differently, believe in different methods of management and believe in different advocacy struggles.  The tagline of my blog is, “Living Normally with Diabetes”.  So what exactly does that mean?

What it means to me is going to be completely different than what it means to you.  What I mean by this is that I have diabetes, but I still live a normal life.  I have some additional things that I have to do on a daily, hourly, basis that others may not have to do, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t live a life just like everyone else.  I eat whatever foods I want, I can go on whatever rides I want, I can go to places I want, I can do the same “normal” things that you can do, except I have diabetes.

I’ve been talking lately about lifestyle changes, because without a full-blown change of the way that I live, I am not going to be healthy in older ages.  I can’t just say that I’m going to lose weight, and then not do it, because that has been going on for way too long.  I need to make a change in my lifestyle, as in, not wanting to eat a second portion, or not wanting to go out to dinner every other night, or buy lunch everyday at work.  These lifestyle changes are not easy to make, but I am making strides in doing this.

Anybody else that is trying to make lifestyle changes, best of luck to you, because it’s not easy!

Is it really Thursday night already? I could have sworn that I just woke up for work on Monday morning.  This week has been one hell of a week.  Traffic this week has been worse than ever, it is ridiculous.  Yesterday morning, there was a fatal crash on 95 involving a motorcycle, so my heart goes out to the family of the man that was killed.  It was pretty crazy to drive by that accident and see the motorcycle under the car, ya kinda knew what happened when you drove by.

It’s sad news and makes me realize that when my 35 minute drive takes me two hours, that I should just be happy that I got there safely.  This week has been hard for me though. I am leaving for work at almost 7:30 in the morning now and staying later, so by the time I get home, it is about 7:30-8 at night.  I lay down for bed around 11 now that Amanda and I are living together.  So that leaves me with 3-4 hours in the entire day that I am actually home and awake and have time to spend with Amanda.  This is the main reason why you haven’t seen me blogging or on Twitter a lot because I just don’t have the time.  I want to start my days at 6:30 in the morning now in order to get my blogs written and anything else that I have to do.

As I’m sure you can tell my diet has not been going according to plan with living hours like this.  But I am not killing my diet like I have before.  When we order out, I am eating only my portion and not finishing Amanda’s portion like I usually do.

Well, it’s Jers-day, which I can’t believe that I just said that and admitted to watching this show, but it’s funny, and it’s a good time to make fun of these people.

Well, I finally moved the rest of my crap out of my old condo on Sunday.  I thought moving all the stuff was brutal, but now I’m realizing that unpacking it all is even worse.  I am gone for nearly 12 hours during the day, so when I do get home, I don’t feel like doing anything at all, so I’ll most likely be living out of boxes until at least Saturday when I hope that I can get it all unpacked.  Amanda and I are both serious about losing weight and eating healthy and not spending as much money.  We have been together for over 5 years, but this is our first place together, so we are not all over the place trying to see each other and always going out to eat or bringing bad food home to eat.  For the first time in a very long time, I actually packed a decent, healthy lunch and I am excited to eat it today and continue to eat healthy at lunch.  Lunch and breakfast are my two main goals that I am trying to conquer right now.  My breakfast goal is to eliminate Dunkin Donuts to save money and calories.  My lunch goal is to pack a lunch, and not over eat at lunch time.  Dinner is a different story and will take a little longer to overcome that, but I will.

Let’s get into the blood sugars now.  My blood sugars have been a lot better over the last few weeks.  Now, even though I said a lot better, that does not mean that they are still good, it’s just that they are better than before.  I have managed to keep my sugars under the 225 range and under 200 for the most part.  But it’s still not where they need to be, but hey, ya gotta start somewhere right?  My internet was down for like a week at my new place and I couldn’t get Comcast out there soon enough to fix it.  I really, really, really, hate Comcast, but that’s a side note.

Well, I need to get ready for work, so have a great day everyone.