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My Biggest Fear Came True
As you know, living with Type 1 Diabetes comes with many side effects. These side effects are not just physical, but also mental. Living with Type 1 Diabetes before being married and having a child was simple. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about long-term effects on my body and how it would or could effect everyone’s lives around me.
That all changed when I found out that my wife was pregnant back in 2014.
That is when the anxiety began.
In fact, I wrote about this several times for Medtronic and also on my own blog.
I started to research every possible way to decrease the chances of my daughter, who wasn’t even born at that time, to not be diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
Once she was born, it was something that I thought about every single day of my life.
Every time she would drink water, I’d ask my wife, “has she been drinking a lot?”
Every time she peed, I’d say, “didn’t she just pee, has she been peeing more frequently?”
Well, back in December and January of 2018 my wife and I started to notice that our daughter was getting up in the middle of the night a bit more frequently than she used to in order to go potty.
Finally, I decided to have her pee on a ketone strip before I go through the dramatic experience of pricking her finger.
Ketones
Moderate ketones were in her urine.
I knew what it meant, but she did have a bit of a cold, so I had her drink a lot more water because I knew that you could possibly have ketones from an infection.
I knew I had to check her blood sugar, so we had to bribe her to let me do it.
As I put the blood on the test strip, my heart was beating faster than it ever had before and it was also the longest 3-5 seconds of my life.
And then it popped up.
258.
I let out a loud yell and then realized what it meant and how are lives were going to change from here on out and it was going to be my responsible to stay strong for my wife.
We called the pediatrician and they told us to go straight to the ER.
Is This a Movie?
This is where I began to feel like I was in a movie and it wasn’t real. We were having a mini-blizzard that day here in Eastern Pennsylvania, so I had to go down and clean off the car while my wife had to explain to our daughter who was 1 month away from turning 4 that we had to get dressed and go to the hospital.
As I’m writing this, it is bringing up all these memories again that I have tried to block away from my pain because they are the most painful memories that I have.
That is partly the reason why it’s taken me 3 months to talk about it publicly.
I used to wake up, go to bed and throughout the day worry about my daughter being with Type 1 Diabetes and now I live every single day feeling guilt for having passed this on to my innocent child.
Three Months In
We are now 3 months in and she’s wearing a Dexcom and she loves doing Dexcom high fives with daddy. This, now 4 year old, has taken this like a champ. After crying her first few days of shots, she never complains.
She doesn’t complain about a prick on her finger.
She doesn’t complain during the 4 shots a day she gets.
She is my true champion.
Not only her, but my wife also. My wife is the strongest person I know because she has lived with me and my diabetes for 14 years and from day 1 in the hospital she took charge of learning how to manage our daughter’s diabetes.
She didn’t just sit back and let me do it.
I am honored to be able to call those two my wife and daughter.
Thank You
I wanted to give a shout out to some people below who I reached out to either immediately or shortly after coming home from the hospital. And if I forgot to mention you here, it’s not because I don’t appreciate you, it’s because that time period was a blur in my life.
- My brother and sister in law. They have a T1D daughter and were there to help support us emotionally during the entire process and continue to every day.
- My mother and father. My parents met us at the emergency room and were with us from the open of visiting hours to closing of visiting hours pretty much and were there for us for everything we needed, whether it was support, movie time with our daughter so we could just get out of the room for a minute or anything else we asked.
- My In-Laws for being there for support for my wife who, at the time was an emotional wreck, and she had every right to be.
- Scott Benner. Scott was one of the first people that I reached out to, obviously. The text messages back and forth with Scott were reassuring to know that I can do this and I need to be the one to be the support system.
- Kerri Sparling. I reached out to Kerri because who else in the diabetes space are you going to reach out to? Kerri was listed on a sheet in the diabetes binder that they hand out to all newly diagnosed parents.
- Scott Johnson. I’ve known Scott a long time and he’s always been there for any request I’ve ever had. Scott was able to send out some awesome Sugar Monster stickers that my daughter absolutely loves. Any way we could make her laugh during that time was worth it.
- JDRF / Novo Nordisk / Lily – All of these companies graciously sent out Bags of Hope and the Coco Diabetes plush animal that my daughter plays with almost every day still to this day.
- As I mentioned, if I didn’t mention you here, it’s not because I don’t appreciate what you did for me. It’s been 3 months and those days following the diagnosis were a blur.
January 25, 2019 Diabetes News
AMA Lobbies for More Telehealth in Diabetes Prevention Programs
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/ama-lobbies-for-more-telehealth-in-diabetes-prevention-programs
One serving of fried chicken a day linked to 13% higher risk of death, study finds
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/fried-food-fish-chicken-higher-risk-of-death-intl/
Aspirin lowers heart attack risk but raises risk of dangerous bleeding
MAJORITY OF CONSUMERS LACK CONFIDENCE TO TAKE NEW MEDS
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/majority-consumers-lack-confidence-take-new-meds
Rate of Americans without insurance rises to 4-year high as Trump weakens Obama health law, Gallup survey finds
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/22/rate-of-americans-without-insurance-rises-to-4-year-high-survey.html
Highest A1C Since Diagnosis
At my last endo appointment, I already knew that my A1C was going to be high. How did I know this? My Dexcom Clarity report told me what my 90 day average was.
Knowing this information going into the appointment, I knew it was going to be a topic of discussion, so instead of trying to delay that discussion or hide it, I started the appointment off with it. I simply said, “just a heads up, my A1C is going to come in as the highest since my diagnosis and here’s why..”
Read MoreWelcome to 2019
Every year on January 1, people usually feel excited about what the New Year is going to bring. Sometimes after the hangover from the night before starts to fade away.
For me, there is definitely excitement for what this New Year holds. There is also a high level of anxiety that comes along with it for me. I’ve kept my anxiety out of this blog for a long time, but not in 2019. 2019 holds a brand new future to The Life of a Diabetic.
You will see more blogging, more news with my insights, more Vlogs and a brand new podcast.
I will be announcing the relaunch of my podcast, with a brand new name, brand new concept and brand new fire that you know I’m going to bring with it.
So, stay tuned, because 2019 is going to be one for the ages. In fact, go ahead and screen grab this post and come back to me on January 1, 2020 and see if I am saying the same ole stuff, or I actually accomplished something.
Here’s to a great year.
My 2018 Year in Review
2018 came with a lot of changes in my life.
Bye-Bye Pump
The first one started with deciding to give up pumping and go back to MDI. This also meant that I was going to start using Dexcom as my CGM of choice. 12 months later and I do not regret this decision. Dexcom has been amazing, and I absolutely love the choice that I made to switch to Dexcom.
Fiasp
In March, I was able to get my hands on free samples of Fiasp. I wrote about my feelings on Fiasp, but to summarize, I loved it. The faster acting insulin really did help decrease the spikes that I have after meals.
Advocating My Way
During 2018, I was attacked personally because of the way that I decide to advocate. If I didn’t advocate the way a certain group of people wanted me to advocate, they would attack me (and many others that I know). So, I wrote an article about why I will advocate my way, and you can advocate your way. We all have different ways of advocating, or doing anything really. So, I felt that I needed to write a post explaining that my way works for me, and everybody can advocate whatever way they feel like, as long as it is effective and not putting others down at the same time.
Read MoreThanksgiving Day Dexcom Review
Let’s take it back a few days to Thanksgiving Eve and how I planned out my attack against my diabetes.
It all started with taking about 50% more Tresiba at night. Why did I do this? Well, I knew that I would need an increased basal the next day, so, why the hell not?
When I woke up in the morning, my BG was what it normally is in the morning, around 220. And it did what it does every morning, it shot up.
For breakfast, we had sausage, biscuits and gravy, a Thanksgiving tradition. Of course, it made my sugar spike up, I already knew it would do that.
So, I waited until about 3 PM and knew that we were going to eat around 4:30 to take my massive action.
I took a pre, pre-bolus for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a bit of a correction and a bit of a get ahead of the curve. This is exactly what my plan was.
Right before dinner, my BG was about 88 with a diagonal arrow down.
AWESOME.
Exactly what I wanted.
I started to eat, whatever I wanted and after my first plate, I then bolused for that plate and my next plate of course.
Everything was good until dessert time. That’s when I forgot to bolus for the ice cream.
I’m not a pie guy, so I didn’t think that I was even going to eat dessert, so that’s why I wasn’t thinking about bolusing. But, when I saw the ice cream was there, it was time to eat it.
I don’t think that I went above 250 at all on Thanksgiving and that was my goal.
All in all, it was a good day.
11 of The Top Diabetes Hacks from the Diabetes Community
I reached out to the diabetes community and asked for their top diabetes hacks, and here are your top 11. Please click the image below to take you to the Hack Sheet:
Losing Weight is Hard, It’s Really Hard
From the age of 21 to 31, I gained about 60-70 pounds. That part was easy. Really easy. Going to dinner and eating my food and then half of my wife’s. Running to Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s in the morning for a coffee and getting something (or two) off the dollar menu. All of that is super easy and super simple.
Losing weight is hard. It’s really effing hard! I’ve been trying for a couple of years to lose weight. I’ve had a lot of success, but it hasn’t lasted. I’ll lose 10-15 pounds and feel good and then I travel for a couple of weeks and gain it all back. I stop going to the gym and increasing the carbs, which is a recipe for disaster.
I just got back from PA again after spending the last month or so visiting family again, but this time I went to the gym a few times a week. Thanks to Planet Fitness for opening up in this area in PA!
I was able to maintain my weight, but didn’t lose any while up there because there were a lot of temptations. There are a lot of things to do, friends and family to see, activities we can only do while up here, so the gym ends up getting pushed to the side.
I grew up in PA for the first 3/4 of my life, so I know all the great food places. When I go back there, that’s all I want to do. I just want to eat at all of the great places that I grew up eating and then eating some of mom’s good ole home cooking. That tends to lead to disaster. Big disasters.
My endo appointments are usually right after I get back from these trips. This leads to bad lab results and not a true picture of how my life is the remaining 9 months of the year.
This year, I decided to push my appointment back and force myself to lose weight. This is hard.
Here’s my diet:
Breakfast – 3 egg omelette. Every. Single. Day. I change it up a bit with some cheese one day. Peppers and onions the next. And then some ham the following. By switching this up, it makes me feel like I’m eating different foods and keeping it fresh.
Lunch – Salad every day. This doesn’t bother me because I love salad. I have eaten a salad a day, pretty much almost everyday for the last 15 years. I usually throw some chicken or whatever meat was for dinner the night before in the salad and just mix it all up. Actually, I shake it up. I put it all in a bowl, put a lid over it and shake the hell out of it. Only way to eat a salad. Shout out to my older brother for giving me this tip!
Dinner – Meat and 2 veggies. We eat a lot of chicken. Like, a lot of eat. And ground beef. We use the crockpot 3-4 days a week. We put the chicken in during breakfast, put some veggies in there and some sort of seasoning or oil based marinade and just let it cook all day. We use the ground beef for burgers (with lettuce buns) and tacos (with lettuce wraps).
This sounds delicious and sounds simple. But, damn, it’s not.
Going to the gym consistently is hard for me. I get so caught up in my business that I forget to go to the gym. Then, I don’t want to miss out on family fun time before and after dinner, so I don’t go to the gym then either.
I can’t go to the gym in the morning because I pee a lot throughout the night (even when my BG is perfect), so I wake up in the morning extremely dehydrated.
I don’t like going to the gym shortly after drinking coffee. Well, I always end up getting a cup of coffee right before it should be gym time.
But these are a lot of excuses.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
This should be tough.
This should be tough as hell.
And that’s why I’m going to tackle it. Because I’m getting too old for this extra weight to be hanging out. It’s time to set it free.
Sharing More
Sharing more.
That’s what I want to do. Sure, I have a blog which means I overshare as is. But, I don’t feel like I share enough of the ups and downs. I tend to share a lot of good stuff, because honestly, that’s just how I choose to live my life. I don’t allow myself to fret about the small stuff and constantly be down or upset about stuff that I can’t control.
However, there are plenty of downs that come along with this disease and that’s where I’d like to share more.
For example, my laziness when it comes to this disease. With access to all the technology I have, sometimes I just get lazy and I don’t feel like wearing my pump. Simply because I don’t feel like taking 10 seconds to insert a new infusion set. Because of this laziness, I will then go back to MDI, except sometimes I don’t have any Tresiba or Lantau or any other basal insulins.
I’ll wake up in the morning with a high blood sugar, but still that won’t make me have the motivation to insert a new infusion set.
Is it because I sometimes am tired of being connected? Or, am I tired of the infusion set falling out because I’m using too much insulin? Or do I honestly, just don’t feel like managing my diabetes?
I don’t know what it is.
But, I am making a promise to myself, and all of you, that I am going to share more of those down times and not just the ups.