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Power Through the Extraordinary Part 3 – Health Insurance

Chris Stocker

This is another post in the Power Through the Extraordinary series.

Being an entrepreneur comes with its ups and downs, just like any profession does, but there are some added stress levels that occur quite too frequently. One of the main issues is, how and where do you get insurance as an entrepreneur, then add to that, when you have type 1 diabetes, it makes it even that much more difficult.

When I first started this venture of running my own business, it was more of a freelance gig, but with a company name for tax purposes, so there was no way that I was getting “company” insurance that way. Keep in mind, I am not married, but that is changing soon.

There was also a point and time where I was receiving COBRA benefits from my previous employer, but there was a really big mishap with that and I lost that coverage almost a year ago.  After that, it left me with no insurance and having to pay for everything out of pocket.  This is where the challenge came about.  As an entrepreneur, I could power through this issue of not having insurance and work harder and grow my business to be able to afford the high costs of living with diabetes.  That is the decision that I made and I knew that I was going to have to work hard to meet the financial levels I needed to.

This led to late nights, long stretches of work with no breaks, missing or skipping meals, forgetting boluses, not testing my sugar.not exercising, etc. I was no beginning to create another problem by trying to solve the initial problem.  I knew that something had to change.  That something was to schedule breaks, create mandatory exercise and meal times and to set a reminder to test my blood sugar.

I have been checking my sugar frequently with the Accu-Chek Nano provided to me to help me power through this obstacle that diabetes has put in my way.

** **Disclosure: By agreeing to participate in this program Duracell will provide me with batteries and Accu-Chek will provide me with test strips for a month. In return, I will post several times in the month of June about powering through several stressful moments.

Powering Through Diabetes During a Client Meeting

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

This is another post in my series of posts about Powering Through the Extraordinary with my agreement with Duracell and Accu-Chek.  As I mentioned in my initial post about the series, I wanted to talk about the daily events that pop up in the life of being an entrepreneur with Type 1 diabetes and being able to power through those struggles or high stress levels.

As with any area of business that you may be in, entrepreneur or not, meetings can take up a large amount of time.  There is preparing for the meeting, thinking about the meeting, going through the actual meeting and then handling the follow up of the meeting afterwards.  Client meetings for me can become very stressful, especially when it is a new potential client.  As the person who writes the checks for the business, if these meetings go south, it can be bad news for the company.  This obviously causes me a lot of stress. Read More

First Day at Gym Off the Pump

Chris Stocker

Today was my first day at the gym without using my insulin pump.  There have been plenty of times where I removed my insulin pump while I worked out, but this was the first time while being back on MDI.  My first thought was, damn this feels great to not have my pump in my pocket or bouncing around while I am running or riding the bike.  I was also a bit nervous about it.

I am using my Dexcom along with MDI, so I feel a lot more comfortable on MDI this time around then I did 8 years ago…. I was also only diagnosed 9 months before that, so everything about diabetes was weird and uncomfortable at that time.  Going into the gym, my Dexcom was telling me I was about 135 and the One Touch Mini was giving me a 150, not too far off, at least for me.  Being at 150, I felt comfortable not needing to eat a granola bar or any other type of snack before I hit the gym, because I knew that I had my glucose tabs with me…… or at least I thought I did. Read More

30 Days and Counting

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

30 Days from today I will be marrying the love of my life. Before that day comes, there is a massive weight loss plan that I am looking to execute as close to the plan as I can. I have lost several pounds since I started at the gym two months ago, but nowhere near where I wanted to, so the next 30 days are going to be intense.

I wanted to be 30 pounds lighter, but 30 pounds in 30 days is not going to happen. I’m sure I can buy one of those pills or those books that promise me that I can lose 30 pounds in 30 days, but I’m not sure if I will be alive on that 31st day.

This is going to be a stressful 30 days, so I’m sure the gym will be a relief from the days leading up to the wedding.

Converting Pump Basals to Levemir Dosage

Chris Stocker

First, I want to start off by saying, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! No, this is not a Jackass or Tosh.O video, and no you shouldn’t try that stuff at home either, but just keep in mind, I am not a doctor, I am not a medical professional, I am just a dude with diabetes who can use a calculator.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I am going off of the pump for a few weeks, possibly longer, and will be using Apidra and Levemir pens. I cannot get in to my endo’s office for at least another week, but I want to start now.

I figured, no matter what basal dosage we come up with initially, there is going to need to be testing that is done, so I figured I might as well try and calculate an approximate basal dosage, but damn it sure came out to a lot of insulin.

I honestly don’t remember where I heard this, but I swear I heard somewhere that most people use 25% less basal when using fast-acting insulin in a pump as opposed to an insulin like Levemir.

So, based on that assumption, which like I said, is totally an assumption because I THINK I heard that somewhere, here is what my calculations would be like:

Total Daily Dosage for Basal = 56.25
Additional Insulin needed = 25%
Total Daily Levemir Dose = 70 units

I plan on splitting my Levemir half in the morning and half at night. However, 70 units sounds like a lot, but until I can somehow continue to lower my insulin dosages by losing a little bit more weight, I don’t care if it’s a lot of insulin, as long as it is keeping my sugars in check.

I haven’t started on this plan yet, but I’ve sent an e-mail to my doc to have her confirm this dosage to at least begin testing out the right basal.

Once again, do not try this at home. Consult with your doctor on any changes to your insulin intake.

11 Month Old Diagnosed with Type 1

Chris Stocker

Last night I received an e-mail that none of us want to ever receive. Somebody from my hometown who is friends with a family member e-mailed me that their 11 month old was just diagnosed with diabetes. Whenever I hear this, it breaks my heart, but I know that there are great resources out here for them. Since I was diagnosed at 19 and I don’t have a child with diabetes, I want to make sure that I provide the best possible information for them.

If you could please leave a comment or e-mail me any lists that you may have or contacts for this person, please do so.

I have already provided them information on the Children with Diabetes forums and the DRI’s P.E.P group.

Let’s help show the family of a newly diagnosed child that we are here for them.

Power Through the Extraordinary

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Accu-Chek and Duracell have partnered together for Power Through the Extraordinary, which is a way to announce their partnership that Duracell will be powering up the Accu-Chek Nano meters from now on.  You may have seen or read about a few other bloggers who have agreed to take part in Powering Through Diabetes.  There are a lot of examples of how you need to power through certain struggles of living with diabetes, especially when you are climbing mountains or running 5K’s.

I have decided to take part in this adventure, but with a little type of adventure, Powering Through Diabetes as an Entrepreneur.

I have written here before a little bit about the struggles that come along with being an entrepreneur with diabetes, so I will be writing a few more blogs this month about getting through certain struggles and hurdles in my daily life of running a business.

**Disclosure: By agreeing to participate in this program Duracell will provide me with batteries and Accu-Chek will provide me with test strips for a month. In return, I will post several times in the month of June about powering through several stressful moments.

Levemir and Apidra – My New Best Friends

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

levemir-flexpenA couple of weeks ago I started thinking about taking a break from the pump.  The reasons for doing this have been adding up for a long time, but I just always told myself that I would never go off of the pump because it just made my life so much easier than it was when I was on MDI.  That easier life began to change.  Over time my sets started to leak after only 1-2 days, when I would have a hard workout the set would start to peel off, injecting a Quick Set infusion set began to hurt a little bit more every time that I inserted a new one,  insurance changes made it more costly for me to pay for infusion sets (pay out of pocket) meaning that every time I lost a set or it leaked, it was about $10-15 I was losing (luckily the DOC is awesome and there are several people that helped me out during this time).

These were the main reasons for wanting to head off the pump for a little bit.  It was also the fact that corrections with my pump are not working as well as when I use a syringe or a pen and take a correction bolus.  The final reason is something that may not be true, but I definitely feel it has some thing to do with each other.

Since I have been on the pump, I have gained nearly 50 pounds.  I’m not blaming it on the pump, but I don’t think it’s just a coincidence.  When I was taking MDI’s, I counted carbs better because I only wanted to take one shot.  On the pump, if I mis-calculated, no problem, I just hit a few more buttons.  When I was on MDI’s I didn’t eat a second portion because then I had to dial up another shot, but on the pump, I went ahead and had that second plate, or random bag of chips or snack here and there, because all I had to do was hit a few buttons on the pump.

Just hitting a few buttons on the pump is also one of the reasons why I loved the insulin pump.

After many discussions with family and my doctor, and with the help of now having a Dexcom to better track my BG, I have decided to switch back to MDI.  I will be using Apidra pens and Levemir pens.  When I was using MDI back in the day, I used Lantus and not Levemir, but I’m giving it a shot.

So, here goes to being back on MDI.

Dollar Dance Donation

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Last night Amanda and I were reviewing some of the songs that were going to be played at our wedding in July.  We were discussing recessionals, bridal party intros, cocktail hour music, etc.  We came to the idea of a dollar dance and Amanda and I couldn’t decide if we wanted to do this.  Amanda is not a big fan of this, so I thought we could make it a bit more creative and we have decided that we will take whatever funds from the dollar dance and donate them.

I have been to weddings where the funds that would have spent on wedding favors was donated to charity, so it’s not like we are re-inventing the wheel.  I think that I’ve heard of others doing this also.

So, my question is, what ways have you taken something that is not really a fundraiser, but donated the funds from it to charity?

D-Blog Week Day Two – Petition to Diabetes Technology Software Creators

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Today is Day Two of Diabetes Blog Week.  Today’s blog prompt is:

Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own. Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) – get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change? (Thanks to Briley of inDpendence for this topic suggestion.)

I am writing a petition to all diabetes technology companies.  As with anything that I write, it’s going to be short and to the point.  There are a lot of us PWD’s that only use Mac products.  I converted several years ago, and I cringe at the site of a Windows based machine.  However, I have to turn on the dinosaur that I call my old Windows laptop in order to export some of my diabetes data from all of my diabetes gadgets.

So, to all of you out there that are decision makers behind diabetes technology, please, I am begging you, that any software that you develop, please make it Mac compatible.

Sincerely,

Mac Users