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We Had a Baby! Managing Labor with a Type 1 Child at Home

We Had a Baby! Managing Labor with a Type 1 Child at Home

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

If you follow me on my social media channels, then you already know this. In fact, our daughter is now 9 months old! She is starting to stand up by herself and babble and getting closer to walking.

Time flies.

The purpose of this post is not really to announce having a baby, but how we managed having another child while having our Type 1 daughter at home.

Not How we Planned the Gender Reveal

This all starts out when we were planning on how we were going to do a gender reveal. Spoiler alert – I don’t like gender reveal parties, but that’s a different conversation.

We decided to just do cupcakes with pink or blue filling on the inside. We were supposed to find out the gender on Valentine’s Day 2019.

Well, something happened on February 12, 2019.

That was the morning of not only a major snow storm in northeast Pennsylvania, but it was the day our oldest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

We spent 2.5 days in the hospital, but on the second day, our appointment to find out the gender of our baby was actually in the same exact hospital that we were in for our daughter.

My wife and my mother (who was visiting at the time) went to the appointment while I stayed back with our daughter.

This was not really the way that we had planned on finding out the gender and doing the reveal to ourselves and friends and family. We decided to postpone the reveal until we got home from the hospital, so that’s what we did.

When we left the hospital the first day, it was past dinner time, so we didn’t want to rush it. So, we waited until the next day for my sister-in-law to bake cupcakes.

It’s a…

This was also the first time our daughter was going to have cupcakes as a person with type 1 diabetes (and it definitely wasn’t her last).

Surprise – it was pink inside!

Stress Started to Kick In

The next few months we were just adjusting to life with Type 1 Diabetes and learning strategies to deal with stress. My wife was pregnant and I was constantly concerned how her new stress levels were going to be affecting her pregnancy…this led to my higher levels of stress.

The stress really started to increase the closer we came to the due date.

What are we going to do with our daughter?

Who is going to give her the nightly basal?

Who is going to count her carbs?

Who is going to give her the bolus?

Who is going to check her blood sugar?

What are we going to do?

These questions went through our mind about 100 different times a day.

Time to Make a Plan

That’s when we sat down and made a plan. Obviously, this is a pregnancy and birth of a child, it’s unpredictable, but we were going to do our best to try and plan.

We had a few different plans in place. One for each time of the day that we had to go to the hospital when my wife was going into labor.

Our preference was her to give birth in the middle of the night. This would mean that I could possibly give our daughter her basal insulin shot and then get her to bed and then my parents could just sleep at our house and keep an eye on her Dexcom.

Then, I could go home in the morning and give her breakfast and a bolus shot and then get back to the hospital.

Our best plan almost came to fruition, it was very close.

How did it all happen?

My mother-in-law was flying in for my wife’s birthday and to also try and time the birth of our new daughter. My MIL flew in the afternoon of my wife’s birthday. My wife decided to stay home and not go to the airport because she was feeling some contractions and feeling a little “off”.

We ordered some pizza for dinner and started our daughter on her dinner.

And then that’s when my wife said, “it’s time to go to the hospital”

Wait, it’s my wife’s birthday, her mother just flew in hours ago, it’s getting towards night time (our perfect plan)…. is this really happening?

Oh yeah, it was!

Once my parents came to our house, my wife, MIL and myself left for the hospital.

I’m going to fast forward through the rest of the labor and delivery, but while my wife was in active labor, I was checking my phone to see my daughter’s Dexcom numbers.

My sister-in-law came over to give her the nighttime basal shot. We chose this because my niece also lives with type 1 diabetes, so we trusted her decision making on diabetes. She’s seen needles, pen needles, meters, blood, etc.

Everything was going smooth. Her blood sugars were great while she was sleeping.

After Birth

After our second daughter was born, I was able to hold her and spend some time with her and also my wife who was recovering from delivery. My MIL was also there to be by her side which helped tremendously.

With my MIL being there, it allowed me to drive home at about 3 am to be home for my daughter. My parents stayed the rest of the night and morning, but it allowed me to get her breakfast ready and give her the breakfast shot and get her day started.

She was super excited to go and meet her new sister, so I brought her to the hospital with me.

From there, it became a little easier. She was with us at the hospital for most of the time. I hated leaving my wife and new daughter at the hospital, but she was never alone. Her mother was there when I would go home with our oldest daughter.

I’m not going to lie, this was very stressful trying to figure out how we were going to leave our 4-year old with Type 1 Diabetes with someone else for the first time, but also at the same time, enjoy the birth of our newest addition to our family.

It all worked out.

So, now, we are (well have been for 9 months now) a family of four. I am officially a 2X #girldad.

Starting our 4-Year Old on an Omnipod

Starting our 4-Year Old on an Omnipod

Chris Stocker

Yesterday, I wrote about our decision to start using an insulin pump as opposed to multiple daily injections. If you would like to learn more about why we made that particular decision, please go check out yesterday’s post.

Once we knew that we wanted her to be on an insulin pump, we needed to figure out which one. I pretty much already had an idea which one we were leaning towards.

We had a few options to choose from:

  1. Medtronic
  2. Tandem
  3. Omnipod

Medtronic

I personally used a Medtronic for 13 of my 16 years with diabetes. It was the first pump that I started on in December 2004 after my diagnosis in April of 2004 (couple days away from 16 years since diagnosis).

I was very comfortable with the Medtronic insulin pump and how it worked and how to use it. I also liked their low suspend technology that could detect a low blood sugar coming on and automatically shut the insulin delivery off.

However, that would require using their CGM, and I wrote last week about our reasoning for choosing Dexcom immediately for our CGM of choice.

The last, main reason, was I know our daughter. I know she runs around a lot and also bumps into plenty of things. I have also walked past a door and got my tubing snagged and had an infusion set rip out, and let me tell you…. it hurts!

Tubing was a no-go for us.

Tandem

Even though Tandem has tubing, it is integrated with Dexcom and offers their Basal-IQ technology, which was pretty appealing to me. If you’re not sure what technology I am talking about, you can check out an old post I wrote on it (and I’m also going to link to their site because they have had a bunch of updates since I last wrote about it).

In the end, we just knew we needed something without tubing.

So, that led to the choice of Omnipod.

Omnipod

After my 13 years with Medtronic, I chose to use MDI for a year. It worked out pretty well for me. I wrote about my decision to give up an insulin pump for MDI in the past.

When I decided that I was done with MDI (again), I wanted to go back onto an insulin pump, but I felt like it was time to give up Medtronic. Primarily because I switched over to Dexcom during my year of MDI.

I decided to use an Omnipod.

I tell you that story, to further explain why we chose Omnipod.

90% of the decision was because of it not having any tubing. It was a pretty clear cut decision for us to make.

90% of the decision was because of it not having any tubing. It was a pretty clear cut decision for us to make. Click To Tweet

The remaining 10% was a little bit of the fact that I currently used (and still use) asn Omnipod, so there was the comfort level of knowing how to troubleshoot it if needed.

Daddy, Daughter Diabetes Bond

daddy daughter omnipod

The other was purely mental.

My daughter has seen me put an Omnipod on 100 times. She’s even helped me do it. She decorates them by coloring or putting stickers on them.

She would love to be just like Daddy and share this bond with him…..right?

Well, that’s what we were hoping.

The first few times we put a new Pod on, I would do mine just before so that she could see me do it and get comfortable with it.

Six Months Later

We are now over 6 months with the Pod and we absolutely love it. It can still be a battle every so often on putting a new one one, but we know these struggles are going to happen. It simply comes with the territory of having a child with type 1 diabetes.

I will write in a future blog post about our tips for keeping the Omnipod on, how we take it off, how we rotate the sites and many more cool ideas that we have learned over the last 12 months of managing not only my own Type 1 Diabetes, but also our daughter’s.

I hope you are enjoying this content, if so, please leave a comment below or go share the love on Facebook and Instagram.

Insulin Pen vs Insulin Pump for our Child with Type 1 Diabetes

Insulin Pen vs Insulin Pump for our Child with Type 1 Diabetes

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

When our daughter was first diagnosed, we started on insulin pens. This is also how I started giving insulin injections when I was diagnosed in 2004. The pens are good for training and learning the basics of diabetes and forcing yourself to do math and think about sliding scales and correction doses.

In the long-run, for our family at least, we knew we wanted our daughter to be on an insulin pump.

Discussing with Our Daughter

This is something that we discussed with our daughter also so that she didn’t feel like it was being forced on her, but it was a simple conversation with her.

4 shots a day or one “shot” once every 3 days.

Her answer was pretty quick.

Giving her insulin early on after her diagnosis was difficult at times. We didn’t want to make too many changes to our life. We wanted her to continue to do the same things she was doing before she was diagnosed.

Eating Out

One of those things was eating out. We ate out usually 2-3 times a week. Usually one night for dinner, and 1-2 times a week for lunch. We did this because we were always out on the weekends and then we try to enjoy one night out a week together as a family.

Eating at a restaurant was tough because we never knew exactly how many carbs she was going to eat. We would look at the menu beforehand, and by before I mean, my wife would be looking on her phone in the car about 5 minutes before we pulled into a restaurant because it took us 30 minutes debating on what restaurant we were going to go to.

We also could never tell when the food would come out, so pre-bolusing was tough, but that is the same no matter if you are doing MDI or using an insulin pump. The difference is that we could just give her insulin at the table and not have to go to the bathroom and leave the table.

If she wanted to be able to eat a little bit more than what we initially bolused for or if we decided to all share a dessert, we could do it much easier with an insulin pump. It wasn’t going to require the trauma or getting another shot, but a simple few button pushes on the insulin pump.

Corrections

Another reason we wanted to use an insulin pump was for corrections. We found ourselves waiting until the next meal time in order to give a correction. If it was a large correction, we would do it, but we avoided giving extra shots as much as possible.

Waiting until the next meal to correct a blood sugar that was not too high, but something that we would correct now with an insulin pump, was not good management. Her A1C was higher and we knew we couldn’t continue on that path for the long run.

Snacking

Luckily, even before diabetes, our daughter was not much of a snacker. She didn’t just randomly eat throughout the day. She ate breakfast, lunch and dinner and sometimes would have a little snack somewhere throughout the day. But, she never just randomly was given food to eat all throughout the day.

That was a big plus for being on MDI, because we didn’t need to bolus any additional shots.

On her insulin pump, if she wants a snack, it’s easier to give a snack. Now, we don’t just give a snack because we can quickly bolus for it, we still follow our same rules. But, it is easier to go for ice cream after the park or having some cracker and cheese between lunch and dinner.

Check back for future blog posts on how living with an insulin pump has been for her.

Please go follow along at Facebook or Instagram

We Chose to Use Dexcom Immediately!

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

One of the first discussions that we had with our Pediatric Endo was the plan to start using a Dexcom almost immediately. Unfortuantely, the insurance requires 90 day of blood sugar logs, so we couldn’t get started for at least 90 days.

I know that for people who may be new to diabetes, learning the basics for 90 days and having logs for 90 days is beneficial before jumping right into using a CGM, however, with my 10 years of CGM experience, I was adamant that I wanted a Dexcom as soon as possible.

Our endo was OK with that, as long as I promised not to make rash decisions and quickly give a correction just because I started to see a CGM arrow somewhere.

I agreed with her because we were still figuring out how insulin worked in our daughter’s body. We didn’t know exactly what her ratios and correction factors should be set at, so I didn’t want to make quick decisions to stop an arrow (like I do for myself) and then cause a quick drop in her glucose level.

Why Did We Choose Dexcom

I knew that I wanted her to use a Dexcom for a few reasons.

Ease of Insertion

I had previously used a Medtronic CGM and I hated it. It was primarily because I didn’t like the insertion process. I actually hated the old Dexcom insertion process even more, which is why I used Medtronic for some time. But, with the new Dexcom insertion device, it’s a breeze and much easier and doesn’t look as scary, so I knew that was going to be part of the decision of being able to get her to let us do this every 10 days.

Not as Painful

As compared to the Medtronic CGM, the Dexcom is not as painful of an insertion. For myself, I don’t even feel it going in and sometimes wonder if it’s even in properly. Of course not every insertion is painless, but majority of them are. Pain was obvious a huge decision factor because what kid is going to want something super painful every 10 days being inserted into them?

My Comfort Level

I use Dexcom and I trust Dexcom. There is a comfort level like no other with Dexcom

I literally trust my own life with it. I check my blood sugar with test strips maybe once a month, I’d say in the last 12 months of using Dexcom G6, I have tested manually less than 10 times. I don’t feel the need to test, that’s how much I trust it.

Now, when it comes to our daughter, we still check her blood sugar on her finger about 3 times a day. We have become a lot more comfortable bolusing off of her Dexcom, but we still do check several times a day.

Future Compatability with Omnipod

I also knew that we would be putting her on an Omnipod as soon as we could also. So, I wanted to use Dexcom so that when the Omnipod and Dexcom are fully compatible and working together for a semi-closed loop system, we would already be ready with the Dexcom.

Why CGM So Quickly

The reason why we wanted a CGM as soon as possible was pretty obvious. We wanted to know as close to real-time glucose levels as possible. The thought of not knowing what our daughter’s glucose levels were drove us insane.

We went to Target one day and she said that she felt wobbly and dizzy, so we checked her. She was 42. This was only about an hour after eating lunch. I ran to the front of the store with her and grabbed an apple juice and just had her start drinking.

With a Dexcom, we could have spotted that low coming before it was freak out time. That was when my wife knew she did not ever want her to not have a Dexcom on at some point. Those 2 hour warm up times are still the most stressful 2 hours for my wife.

I know, we could do it without a CGM

I know that there are plenty of people without CGMs and do perfectly fine and when I was first diagnosed, we didn’t have CGMs and I made it through. They also didn’t have showers 100 years ago but I’d prefer running water and showers over using a bucket to wash myself.

But, I digress, back to the story.

My endo worked with us to ensure that on day 90 we were able to submit all of our logs and get started on the Dexcom. We used her diagnosis day as day 1 of starting her logs so we could get approved a few days earlier.

It took a few days for the supplies to come in and then we did a training in the diabetes educator’s office and that was a nightmare. Our daughter freaked out and cried a lot, however, it was a good sensor and it made it all 10 days. It took her a little while to get used to it, but the second one we inserted, we did from the comfort of our own home and she was perfectly fine.

Now, a year later, she gets a little nervous right before we put a new Dexcom on, but we let her watch a video or watch a cartoon on TV and she is good to go.

Distraction is the best method of diabetes device insertion for us.

What kind of distractions do you use for inserting Dexcom or Omnipod on your children? Comment below or join the conversation on Facebook.

quarantine blogging return

Quarantine Blogging Return

Chris Stocker

I know that I said I was going to start blogging again however that obviously didn’t happen. I had all the intentions to start writing about my life, and now also my daughter’s life with diabetes, but I just couldn’t find the time or the passion to want to continue to do it.

But as I’m sitting here in quarantine like the rest of the country I really started thinking about it and I wanted to start writing again. I would love to write about sports however there are not many sports related items going on. So I thought about why not just share the last year of my life as someone living with type one diabetes and also being the caregiver of my daughter who also has type one diabetes.

So much has been happening, and I’ve also been learning a ton over the last year. After living with type one diabetes for 15 years before my daughter was diagnosed I started to get set in my own ways and just continue on with bad habits. Since her diagnosis it really took me back to square one and the basics of diabetes, carb counting, correction amounts, basal testing, etc.

My daughter catching up on her diabetes information

I really was on cruise control for so long with my own management that a lot of times I just would not count carbs, I could just look at a slice of pizza no it was either 20 g or 25 or maybe 30 g.

Or because I eat so unhealthy majority of the time, I will just take a max bolus from my pump and correct afterwards. After her diagnosis that was much more of a lazy way to do things, I finally realized.

My wife has become a master carb counter and diabetes manager, so much to the point that now I just ask her how many carbs I’m eating and she can easily and quickly calculate it for me.

Obviously life has been a huge challenge and a much different pace, since my daughter’s diagnosis, but we have managed and we have found the silver linings in all of it. She recently just made it to her one year diaversary, which we celebrated with a cupcake.

I know I just said this recently but I really am going to start sharing our story and our experiences from the last 12 months of her living with diabetes.

So I hope you come back I promise you that I will continue to write.

Until next time …..

hello again - diabetes blog

Hello, Again

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Wow, it’s been a long time.

I almost forgot how to sign in and post a new blog on this site.

I have been gone for a while, a long while. I disappeared from Twitter, the blog, the podcast I started last year, Instagram for a while and anything diabetes related.

So, why come back? Why now? And why did I leave?

Leaving was not something that I planned, but I knew it was coming for a while.

I was becoming so drained by all the negativity on every single post that I posted or tweet that I made. If my tweet or post did not align 100% with people’s views, they would just go on a full blown attack on me.

I guess that’s just the society we live in now, unfortunately in my opinion. Everyone’s opinion can be expressed, which is great, but you are not allowed to express an opinion that differs from someone else without being attacked.

And, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I couldn’t deal with people that woke up everyday looking for a fight, looking to just be negative and looking to just attack people for every little thing.

You could do 10 things and 9 of them be great, but the 1 that may not be perfect, just gets attacked. And I was sick of it….I am still am, but as I said above, it’s the society we live in now. It is our new reality.

I just needed a break from it.

A Diagnosis Changed it All

Then, in February, our lives changed forever. My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1. At first, it made me want to advocate even more and do even more. And then the double alerts started going off, one for me, one for her. Then she started on a Dexcom and we had two Dexcoms to change.

Then she started on an OmniPod and then we had two OP changes. Next thing you know, it was all day, every day mixed with alerts. Not managing my diabetes to the fullest because I’m too concerned with a 4 year old.

It became overwhelming, very fast.

I had nothing in me to write about the disease. For the first time in a long time, I had a totally different hatred towards this disease.

Add Another Child to the Mix

In the summertime, we welcomed another baby girl into our family.

No Sleep + Two PWDs + Newborn + Buying a House + No Sleep + Anxiety = Total Disaster!

I started to have multiple panic attacks every day. My blood pressure was rising (I had to increase my meds). I was not able to function throughout the day because I would become lightheaded and very foggy for hours straight. I couldn’t concentrate on conversations because I felt like I was just floating.

I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t eating well. I wasn’t managing my own diabetes well. I was constantly worrying about my daughter’s T1D. I was worrying about our newborn. I was worrying about whether our new home would close.

The absolute last thing I needed at that time was to be writing about all of this and then getting attacked by people.

So, I stepped away.

I wanted nothing to do with diabetes other than having to go through the motions of doing what I needed to do to survive each day and keep my daughter alive.

The Message

And then one day I got a message from someone. They told me that they used to read my blog for 7 years when they were first diagnosed. Then, later on they ended up having a kid and my articles about my fears when I first found out my wife was pregnant helped them get through their pregnancy.

Then their child was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as well. And my post last year talking about my daughter’s diagnoses helped them realize that everything is going to be OK.

That message started to drive me again to know that I couldn’t just give up on everything that I have been doing for the last 10-11 years.

And with that long story, I’m back.

So, Hello, Again.

Medical IDs for Children

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I wrote a few months ago about how I never really wore a medical ID necklace or bracelet until recently. My thoughts on medical IDs definitely changed when my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes back in February of this year.

I’m sure just like any other kid, my daughter was not going to wear something that wasn’t cool, flashy or something that did not fit into her princess style.

The search was on.

I’ve been at this blogging thing for over a decade now, so I’ve seen my fair share of medical ID jewelry companies and I think they are all amazing. Since I love the one that I have from American Medical ID, I decided to check out the ones that they have for children.

They have a lot of cool designs, 2 of which you can see below; including the butterfly and kids dinosaur medical ID.

These are just a couple of the awesome designs that are available.

Having a child with type one diabetes is a lot different than managing my own type one diabetes. There are a lot more challenges that I have seen, now that my daughter has had type one for about five months now. There are times where my blood sugar goes low and I know that it’s going low and I can easily do something about it. With my daughter even though we have a Dexcom, there are still times that technology may not just be as perfect as it supposed to be.

So one day when we were at Target shopping for new shoes like any normal family would do, when my daughter just so happens to say that she felt “wobbly”. Now this is before she had an actual Dexcom. So I pulled out the meter in the middle of Target and checked her blood sugar.

It was 47.

First thing that I did was obviously just pick her up and rush her to the front of the store and grabbed a juice. The juice that I had with us I did not feel like it was going to be enough so I wanted to make sure that I got a larger juice with more sugar for her to drink. Luckily everything was OK. Her blood sugar came up quickly and that was that. We went on with life.

Now why did I tell that story on an article about medical ID bracelet? Simply for the fact that this could’ve happened at any time whether I was around my child or not. Let’s say for example she was at the park with a babysitter or she was at school or preschool or anywhere where she was not with me or her mother or somebody that knew a lot about her diabetes. Without a medical ID bracelet most people would not of known what to do they would not of known that she has diabetes she could have possibly had one of many medical concerns that forced her to start slurring her words possibly pass out or who knows what else.

That was the day that I said why do we not already have a medical ID bracelet for her. I knew that she needed one but it was something that we kind of just kept pushing off as we were adjusting to this new lifestyle.

Four-year-old is just like any other four-year-old if she’s forced to wear a piece of jewelry that is not cute or pretty or have princesses dinosaurs or any other fun characters she’s most likely not going to want to wear. In fact it’s going to be more of an inconvenience for her to wear then she will actually want to wear. When it comes to something like a medical ID bracelet we want her to wear it at all times, which is exactly why we needed to have something that was cool and fun. In fact we decided to have two different ones that way she can pick and choose which one she wants and which one she wants to wear.

I could go on and on with different examples of why a medical ID bracelet is so important for not just anybody what type type one diabetes but more specifically a child with type one diabetes . But if you are reading this article changes or you know those reasons why because you either live with type one diabetes yourself or you care for somebody that lives with type one diabetes. Or are you just here reading my blog because I’ve kind of forced you to because your family or friends.

I know that there are a lot of websites out there that sell medical ID bracelets but American Medical ID is my choice and I highly recommend you check that now.

LetsGetChecked – Antibody and Vitamin Testing

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

In the 15 years that I have lived with diabetes I have learned as much as I could about the disease because if I have to live with it, I want to know everything I can about it.

During that time, I’ve learned about the potential of having thyroid problems and other autoimmune diseases. I’ve also found out that you could test your body for antibodies that would tell you if you are at risk for some of those autoimmune diseases.

Get 15% Off Your Order with Discount Code – Chris15

The discussion of antibodies came back recently when my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At diagnosis, the pediatric endo ordered antibody tests to be done. My daughter does carry the antibodies for thyroid disease and also Celiacs. Her endo also said that her Vitamin D levels were quite low.

There have been studies done about the correlation between low Vitamin D levels and the diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes, so I found that interesting.

Just like anything that sparks my interest, I went right to Google to start searching.

I came across LetsGetChecked

LetsGetChecked describes themselves on their About Us as:

LetsGetChecked is all about personal health testing, making healthcare and health screening open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple but powerful way and giving greater control of their personal health.

https://www.letsgetchecked.com/us/en/about-us/

LetsGetChecked offers tests in the following categories:

Some of the tests include:

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The best part about all of this is that it is an at-home test. They send all of the materials to you and you are able to collect the blood sample yourself and mail it back to them and wait for your results.

The entire process keeps you informed along the way as well. When it is shipped, you will receive a notification, as well as when it is delivered.

From there, you will need to complete your full health profile online. One of their real time physicians will review and recommend any additional services to you at that time.

Once done with that, you are able to collect your sample wherever you choose to do so, I would assume preferably in the comfort of your own home.

Simply follow the instructions to get your sample into the shipping container and have it shipped back to their lab and just wait for your results.

Once shipped out, you should expect your results in about two days. Once your results are in, you will receive a call from the LetsGetChecked nursing team to discuss the results and any actions that may be required.

From their website...

How it works? 

Order your test online and get a confidential delivery to your home.

Activate your test and answer a number of health-related questions from your personalized dashboard.

Collect your sample and return it with our pre-paid return envelope.

Review your results on your personal online dashboard within 5 days.

Speak to our dedicated nursing team who will help you track & improve your health over time.

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Why At Home Testing and LetsGetChecked

So, why at home testing? I think at home testing is great for a few reasons. First, it can save you a lot of money. In order to get blood drawn in a lab, you need a prescription which means you first need to see a doctor. That requires either a co-pay if you have insurance and if you don’t have insurance, you’re footing the bill out of pocket.

Next, the labs themselves can be quite expensive if you don’t have insurance or even if you do have insurance depending on what your copay is.

Convenience

Since these tests can be ordered by yourself, you can have the peace of mind of being able to order the Celiac test to determine whether or not you have a Celiac antibody or not. This is not something that your doctor may order for you or not.

Confidential

Your test results are completely confidential. LetsGetChecked does not share them with your doctor unless you specifically ask. They can provide you with results via PDF files to send to your healthcare team.

Accurate Results

LetsGetChecked uses the same labs that your doctors, clinics and hospitals would use, so the accuracy is as accurate as you would get from those results.

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Online Results in 2-5 Business Days

Your results will be provided to you from LetsGetChecked within 2-5 business days via a secure password that only you can view. I know that I have gone through the process of waiting around for lab results and then the lab just telling me they sent them to my doctor, but then my doctor not providing me the results unless I schedule an appointment.

There are certain tests that I just want to know the answer to immediately and not have to wait around for a doctor or lab to give me the run around.

CLIA Approved and CAP-Accredited Laboratories

I highly recommend giving LetsGetChecked a chance.

Get 15% Off Your Order with Discount Code – Chris15

biggest fear featured image

My Biggest Fear Came True

Chris Stocker 10 Comments

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.
nugo slim protein bar review featured image

NuGo Slim Protein Bar Review

Chris Stocker 5 Comments

Ever since my diagnosis in 2004, one of the biggest issues that I’ve had in my diabetes management are spikes in my blood glucose levels after meals. Because of this, snacking in-between meals has always been difficult. The primary reason of why it’s been difficult is because, even though I need a snack, I’m trying to bring my blood glucose levels down, so a snack may just keep them spiked (if it’s not a typical low-carb snack, which sometimes I want something other than low-carb).

I have tried so many different granola bars, fruit bars, nuts, this, that and everything else in the middle, and I just couldn’t seem to find something that worked great for me.

Then I found NuGo Slim.

nugo slim life of a diabetic 3

So, here is exactly what I was looking for. Something high in protein and fiber and low in carbs.

Here is some information from NuGo about their healthy protein bars:

NuGo is the only company to make REAL Dark Chocolate coated protein bars for many lifestyles. NuGo’s REAL Dark Chocolate melts in your mouth, releasing a luscious flavor. Other ‘dark chocolate’ protein bars substitute unhealthy palm kernel oil for the natural cocoa butter, raising the melt point above body temp, making it waxy and too sweet.

NuGo Slim contains 16-18g protein, 5-6 grams net carbs, and has a tested and verified very low glycemic index of 24-29 to help avoid blood sugar spikes. These gluten-free, low sugar bars are sweetened with luscious real dark chocolate and chicory root fiber without using maltitol or artificial sweeteners. Four flavors are vegan and Kosher Pareve: Crunchy Peanut Butter, Espresso, Toasted Coconut, and Chocolate Mint. http://www.nugonutrition.com/products/slim/

Read and sign the petition created on change.org by NuGo Nutrition to create a FDA standard for dark chocolate.https://www.change.org/petitions/dark-chocolate-food-labeling-tell-the-fda-to-stop-the-deception

So, why am I so bullish on these NuGo Slim bars? Simple.

Steady Blood Sugar Levels

They help me when I need a snack and and most importantly, there’s no blood sugar spikes and they help maintain a steady blood sugar. Here are a couple of Dexcom screenshots to show my blood sugar graphs before and after eating NuGo Slim.


Here is a Dexcom screenshot from when I don’t eat a Low Glycemic index snack or foods. You can see the crazy spikes which then lead to a rapid decline which just makes my body feel like absolute crap!


Flavors of NuGo Slim Bars

So far, I’ve had a few different flavors:

Crunchy Peanut Butter

Brownie Crunch

Vegan Chocolate Mint

Other Flavors Include

Raspberry Truffle

Toasted Coconut

Roasted Peanut

Espresso

NuGo Slim Sample Pack

NuGo Slim Sample Pack – Vegan

COUPON CODE – USE CODE “DIABETES” for 15% off NuGo Slim through June 30, 2019

Low Glycemic Index

As you know, I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I also do not claim to fully understand how the body works and how exactly the glycemic index works, but I do know the basics. For example, foods with low glycemic index have much less of an effect on blood sugar levels, especially post meal spikes.

NuGo Slim bars have a low glycemic index of 24-29, verified by GI Labs of Toronto.

nugo slim life of a diabetic 4

When I decided to sample and try these products, I wanted to wait until a time where my blood sugar was not jumping all around, up and down, so that I could get a good gauge on what the bar would actually do. As you saw in the Dexcom screen grabs above, my blood sugar did not spike after eating.

Why is that?

Chicory Root Fiber

NuGo Slim bars use a Chicory Root Fiber, which according to the NuGo website;

Has virtually no effect on blood sugar levels because it doesn’t absorb or digest until it reached the large intestine.

nugo slim life of a diabetic 2

Another important reason as to why I have enjoyed the NuGo Slim bars is because I am NOT a fan of sugar substitutes. I try to eliminate any forms of sorbitol, maltitol, or anything else. The sugar substitutes are typically used to help avoid a blood sugar spike, but there are a plethora of other negatives about using them.

NuGo Slim bars contain NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS!

Energy, Energy, Energy

I am awake about 18-19 hours a day. I am working on getting a better amount of sleep, but currently, that’s just where my life is at. During these times between meals where I need a snack, I tend to get a bit low on energy as well. That is another reason why I’m loving these bars. With about 16-18g of protein in each bar, they help sustain your energy, and I sure need that!

If you are looking for an in-between meal snack, a protein bar for breakfast, maybe before or after a gym workout, then I highly recommend the NuGo Slim bars.

Where to Buy NuGo – NuGo Store Locator – Find NuGo Nutrition

Find out where you can pick up NuGo protein bars at a location near you! NuGo Nutrition makes the finest, healthiest, most delicious protein bars and snacks available.

COUPON CODE – USE CODE “DIABETES” for 15% off NuGo Slim through June 30, 2019