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Day One of Diabetes Blog Week – Share and Don’t Share

Chris Stocker

If you haven’t heard of Diabetes Blog Week, then click the link and read all about it.  Today’s prompt is:

Often our health care team only sees us for about 15 minutes several times a year, and they might not have a sense of what our lives are really like. Today, let’s pretend our medical team is reading our blogs. What do you wish they could see about your and/or your loved one’s daily life with diabetes? On the other hand, what do you hope they don’t see?  (Thanks to Melissa Lee of Sweetly Voiced for this topic suggestion.)

I have blogged before that I am very lucky to have the medical team that I have. My previous endo was type 1 herself and wore a pump and knew the daily struggles that I was going through, so I never had to feel like I was making excuses for things.  She totally understood, but would push me to be better. Read More

Contributing to dLife

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

I have been blogging for almost 4-5 years now and although I don’t look at myself as a writer, it is something that I enjoy to do, especially when it is about things that I love, or hate. So, that is why I will be contributing to dLife on the subject of diabetes technology. I am a lover of technology, primarily Apple based products, but the great technology that is always coming out in the diabetes world. For example, please see the Diabetes Mine post from the other day about the new Dexcom Share.

I am excited to be joining Blogabetes on dLife as one of their new Diabetes Technology Blogger.

Look out for the first blog post shortly.

ROI of Social Good in the Diabetes Industry

Chris Stocker

diabetesbluecircleThe other night during DSMA, there was a question posed that had to do with social good and the big players in the diabetes industry understanding the positives of social good.  I mentioned to Bennet  that the shift has began for companies to see the ROI of social good.  But what is the ROI?

This is something that I have written about before in a couple of my other blogs that I write, but I thought it was a good fit to write about here.

The ROI of social media in general has always been difficult to calculate, especially when it’s not defined at the very beginning what the goal is. Typically, the C-Suiters need to see numbers like this. I spent $10, we made $20 from that $10, that means we made a profit.  How can you tell exactly how much money you made by somebody building trust and a relationship with your company?  Trust me, I own a business, it’s difficult to see that connection.  However, a lot of businesses are able to see that connection, at least are starting to. Read More

Being an Entrepreneur with Type 1 Diabetes

Chris Stocker

EntrepreneurAs some or most, or even none of you may know, I own CSI Marketing Solutions.  Owning my own business has been one of my dreams since I was a kid.  It is extremely cliche to hear from just about every entrepreneur, “I had a lemonade stand when I was 6, hustling in the neighborhood.”  Yes, I did have a lemonade stand, but majority of kids had a lemonade stand when they were kids.  I never knew exactly what sort of business I wanted to own, even going into college.  Until about my junior year of college I wanted to have my own financial advising firm, but obviously that never happened. Read More

5th Annual Swing 4 Diabetes

Chris Stocker

swing-4-diabetesYou may recall my interview with Kendall Simmons from a couple of months ago.  In this interview he spoke about the Swing 4 Diabetes golf tournament.  The golf tournament is a large fundraiser for the needs of those living with diabetes.  The money from this year’s event will benefit the Diabetes and Nutrition Center of East Alabama Medical Center.

For more information please visit – http://www.swingfordiabetesauburn.com/

I am not able to attend this outing, but I love golf and I love helping those with diabetes and I know you all do. If you’re in the area, please contact them to find out what you can do to help. Volunteers are always needed for events like this.

1,000 Down and A Lot More to Go

Chris Stocker

Last night’s gym trip led to 1,000 calories burned.  My daily goal is to reach the 500-600 mark and then once a week I want to hit the 1,000 mark.  This consisted of about 2.5 miles on the elliptical, 4.5 mile spin, a short jog and few other cool down exercises.

I knew that once I was able to get back into a real gym that I would become more motivated than using the at home exercise equipment that I have.  It’s tough to focus on exercising like a beast when your bike is in the same room as your home office, which you spend about 8-10 hours a day in working from. Read More

After Meal Spikes

Chris Stocker 9 Comments

This is one of those areas of my diabetes management where I am almost at the point of just throwing up my hands and saying, “I give up”.  I know that we all have those moments where we feel like giving up on something, diabetes related or not, but I know that I can’t.  It is just becoming frustrating beyond belief as to why I can’t seem to figure this out.

I have taken insulin 10 minutes before meal time, 20 minutes before, even 30 minutes before meal time!  None of them seem to work.  My average spike is about 75-100 higher.  I’ll go from 125 to 200 easily after a meal and then it takes a while to come down.

I have tried different sites, even “virgin sites” as my endo referred to them.  To make sure that after 7 years on a pump that it’s not the site areas that are giving me the problems.  That is another topic for another day.

I am using Apidra with a pump.

Anybody have any advice?

Free Gym Trial Day One

Chris Stocker

Amanda and I started our free trial at the new gym today. We were initially going to join a gym last month, but the costs were a bit high, but we were willing to pay them, especially with the wedding coming up in 3 months. We found another local gym that was a lot cheaper long term and didn’t seem to have so many juice heads when we went to visit it. I figured a one week trial and going there between 5-7 would give us a good idea of what type of people are in there and if it’s too crowded or not. Read More

Finally Some at Home Dexcom Reporting

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

If you know me, or have seen any pictures of my technology, you will know that I am a Mac user.  After spending the first 23 years of my life hating Apple, for no apparent reason, and thinking that people that used Macs are a bunch of dorks, I made the switch to an iPhone several years back and then the conversion took place quickly.  iPad and then a Macbook Pro.  I do use VirtualBox on my MBP, but I don’t ever use it, because just like with any Windows machine, there are updates and installs I have to do every single day.  So, when I don’t use it for 30-45 days, it takes 2 hours just to go through all of the updates.

Without being able to run my reports for my Dexcom on my MBP, I could only get reports when I went to the endo, and that usually only consisted of the last 7 days.

I have an old laptop from my Windows days that I have been wanting to re-install Windows, clean it up and be able to run my Dexcom reporting on there.  After about a year, I finally got around to it and I installed the Dexcom software and ran my own Dexcom reports at home for the first time since I’ve had a Dexcom.

As much as I hated working with Windows again, I was just as excited to finally have access to data that I’ve always wanted.

6 Month Old Dexcom Sensors

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

It was time to insert a new Dexcom sensor yesterday, so I decided to use one of the sensors that expired in November.  I was a little weary of using a sensor with that long of an expiration date, but I figured that I better use it now before it gets even further past the expiration date.

Long story short, the first 24 hours have been pretty spot on.  There was a little stretch of having a wacky BG reading, but that is no different than a sensor that isn’t expired.  My main concern is that the sensor won’t give me a full 7 days, or even longer, but we shall see.

If you are reading this, please remember that I am not a doctor, I never wanted to be a doctor, and I never will be a doctor. I don’t give medical advice because I am not qualified to do so. What I do to manage my diabetes may not be things that you should do to manage your diabetes.

Let me know your past experiences with older sensors.