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My Life Before Diabetes

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

This blog is obviously titled The Life of a Diabetic because I have a life and I just so happened to be diabetic.  But what about that life I had before diabetes.  I always hear people ask, are you glad you were diagnosed at 19 or would you rather have been diagnosed as a young child and not know anything different?  Well, I don’t have an answer to that because I’ve only lived through one situation.  But I will be the first to tell you, it is one hell of a reality check and a complete shock and change of lifestyle.  If you have ever heard me speak or talk about my diagnosis, you would have heard the story of me being a freshman in college and being rushed to the ER with a blood sugar level of 858.  And then life changed.  Let’s take an adventure into Chris before diabetes (kinda like Behind the Music).

Growing up, I was just like any other child.  I was very athletic so I played every sport possible, football, basketball, baseball, track.  I was always an outgoing person that just wanted to do something to make myself better at a sport to try and get a scholarship one day, that was my whole goal.  I was a fit, in shape kid. Hit 6’0″ in 8th grade and stayed that height through high school.  I weighed about 180 going into high school and got up to about 215 before graduation.  My life was starting to take shape.  I was all about football and basketball, constantly practicing to get better.  My parents supported me in anything that I wanted to do for sports.  Camps, clinics, late night practice sessions, driving me from place to place.  My dad always told me that I didn’t need to work through high school because my job was sports.

Towards the end of high school I started to see my life path and where I wanted to be in several years.  I had a scholarship offer to play QB at the University of Maryland during my junior year of high school.  I suffered a knee injury that required ACL, MCL, LCL, and cartilage removal (more on this later about how a doctor said this could have triggered my diagnosis).  After that knee surgery, Maryland ripped up the scholarship.  I was knocked down, but I picked myself back up and worked hard through rehab to get a full ride offer from Rutgers.  Well, there was the next step of my life, I was going to play QB at Rutgers and pursue my dream of the NFL.  And then a tweak to my ACL happened again, and my scholarship got taken away, because it was too much of a risk (kinda sounds like a pre-existing condition clause to an insurance company).  Once again, dealt another bad hand, but got back up and kept moving.

Finally, I decided that instead of going to a junior college that Rutgers suggested, I would go to King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA for a year and get better.  Second week of practice another knee injury set me back, once again.  These knee injuries are like high blood sugars it seems like.  I made it through the season successfully though.  After the season was over, I began working out right away to put myself in a good position.  Then I started to get tired, and even more tired everyday.  I started to lose weight because I was working out.  And then I started drinking a lot of water because my body was dehydrated.  Then I kept urinating a lot because I was drinking so much water.  Then I started losing an appetite because my body was getting worn out, so I decided to stop working out.  I couldn’t keep up with the workouts anymore so I had to quit something for the first time in my life, I had to hang up the cleats.  Fast forward to that night in college throwing up all day and night and being rushed to the ER.

That is a general summary of my life before diabetes.  My whole life was sports, so I wanted to relate the sporting events to diabetes.  So who knows if I would have had those opportunities to play division 1 football if I had diabetes.  Knowing what I know now, and seeing Jay Cutler, of course I could.  There were some obvious changes from my life before diabetes and my life now, but I am happy where this life sent me.  I would have never moved to Florida, which means I would have never met Amanda.  If it weren’t for diabetes, I would not own my own company right now.  I would not be blogging.  I would not have the opportunities now that I have.

That was my life and it made me the person I am today.  However, today, I am the person I am….today.

World Diabetes Day Post Card Exchange

Chris Stocker

If you are reading this blog and you haven’t read a post from Lee Ann Thill yet, then you need to go right now.  One of her latest great ideas is the World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange, link included there.  Basically, here are the rules and the concept.  You e-mail Lee Ann your postal address and then you will receive an e-mail with the recipients address that you are to send the postcard too.  You then add the blue WDD circle to the post card and any other fancy artwork you can come up with and then you mail to the recipient.

Lee Ann can explain it better over at her blog.  Go…..NOW!

 

USB Contour – Need More Strips

Chris Stocker

I have documented my testing strip sagas throughout the years here on this blog. (Sidenote: still can’t believe that I am saying years about the blog).  I was using One Touch Ultra when I first started blogging, but then switched over to Freestyle Lite for a couple of years because I just liked the meter better.  Just earlier this year, my insurance company decided that my Freestyle Lite strips would be $150 for a 90 day supply and One Touch strips would still be only $50.  So I did what was in my best interest and switched back to the One Touch strips.  The only One Touch meter that I kept (since I’m an idiot and threw all the others way when I moved last year), was the Ultra Mini.

I like the size of the Ultra Mini and the convenience of it fitting in Amanda’s purse or bag when we go out, or even just in my back pocket.  But, I don’t have any way currently to download the data from the meter.  So I started to think, I still have the Contour USB meter that I was sent as a demo some time last year.  However, I don’t have anymore strips for that meter.  This meter was easy for me to upload the data and see it in nice, pretty charts and graphs.

So, what would be my best option?  To completely switch over to the Contour USB again or try and get 50% One Touch strips and 50% Contour strips?  That then means that I am going to need two new prescriptions from my doctor, and then take twice as long for Medco to process this order, and blah blah blah.

I am re-ordering one more time in December, remember my whole method of getting one last insurance order before the end of the year?  I think that maybe in February or March when I have to re-order I will make that switch to the 50-50.  I am also not sure if I even want to go back to the Contour because I don’t remember the accuracy of it.  I know that I wrote a review of it, but I did not have enough strips of my other meter to compare the accuracy of them.

Maybe another switch is occuring?

JDRF Not Giving Me the Time I’m Requesting

Chris Stocker

JDRF not being responsiveI have been mentioning lately that my local chapters of the ADA and JDRF have not been very responsive to me. I have been sending emails and tweeting to them trying to get their attention. My local JDRF chapter is usually pretty good with responding to me but not much gets done because things have to be approved by the area manager and it seems to stop there every time. It makes me mad because I know that Jeffrey Brewer is receptive to the ideas that I and others share because I have spoken with him directly about it. This is one of the obstacles of taking the online world offline.

I would really like to work with them for World Diabetes Day but it’s tough to plan things when it is a one way conversation. At times I just think that people don’t see or get the big picture.

Don’t even get me started on the Diabetes Hero video. I emailed them multiple times about it and no response. They could get a $10,000 donation and no response. I know that a lot of chapters just don’t have the resources because they have 2-3 people trying to do the job on 10-15. I’ve offered to help them with some of their social strategies and outreach but no response. This is what I do for a living and I’m willing to help them for free, it’s almost like a donation. But like I said before, I don’t think that they get it.

Maybe there needs to be some form of communication from the top down explaining to all the local chapters that there will be some people contacting them and talking about the DOC and they should listen to what they have to say.

Luckily, there are a few others in this area that are as passionate about this as I am and hopefully we can all work together to get things done.  Mike Hoskins has provided me with some great details and information on ways that him and his area have been able to form a great relationship with their local JDRF chapter.  I would love to hear from everybody on what has worked and has not worked in getting more done with your local chapter.

Have a great day everybody.

Living Normal with Diabetes

Chris Stocker

If you have been reading my blog frequently over the last 3-4 years or have spoken to me in person, then you will know that I speak frequently about “living normal with diabetes.”  What does “normal” mean?  I don’t know, but on the opposite end, what does not normal mean?  Normal to me is the average.  So, the average person does not have to worry about diabetes.  So, when I say that I live normal with diabetes this is what I mean.

If I want to eat a piece of cheesecake, I will.  It’s still normal because I just hit a few buttons on my “pager” and next thing ya know my body is receiving insulin just like a normal person.  Now that I wear a Dexcom CGM, it makes me feel even more normal, but I had to check my blood sugar multiple times a day.  That may seem un-normal, which is fair to say.  But, I only did that in order to maintain my normalcy.

I exercise like a normal person.  I eat like a normal person. I have ups and downs like a normal person.  I do everything that a normal person does.  I just have a few additional things that I have to do.  Because of this, I get upset and happy over “normal people” things.  I don’t get upset about diabetes.  I get upset about my Philadelphia Eagles having a horrible season, like a normal person would (although some would say my state of depression from a 4-8 season is not normal).

There is one main thing that does not make me normal.  And that is the fact that I have 1,000 friends that I’ve never met before.  I have the DOC, and normal people can’t say that!

Disconnecting from the Diabetes Online Community

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Disconnecting from the community is not something that I like to do, but it is something that I think we all must do from time to time.  I don’t mean that we should just stop talking to everybody in the online community for a certain period of time, but getting away from tweeting all day, and writing long blog posts and reading all the long posts.  These are things that can help you come back refreshed and even better than ever.  Grant it, disconnection does not always work for everybody, so what works for me, may be useless to you.  I recently took two disconnection breaks from the community and it gave me a better perspective and drive for what I am trying to accomplish.

I made a new goal for myself that there is one day a week that I am going to disconnect myself from the online community and focus that time and effort on establishing a better relationship and foundation with my local offline communities.  I have been reaching out to several different local groups and chapters and you will see in an upcoming post, that it hasn’t been very successful of late.  I refuse to be turned down by the local chapters, I will continue to fight.  The only way that I can seem to have this strength to continue to fight hard, day in and day out, is to have this little time of disconnection.

I love my diabetes online community, even if we’re discussing things that we feel differently about, we all have the same goal or goals.  If you are not doing many things in your local communities for advocacy and education and support, than I encourage you to take some of the time you spend with the online community and put that towards your offline.  If you still have the time to do both, than that’s even better.

No A1C Test in Forever

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

It has been a really long time since my last A1C test.  I mentioned yesterday about the unusual amount of high blood sugars that I have been experiencing over the past few months and I am not very happy with this.  My last A1C was almost a year ago.  The last 4 appointments that I had for blood work, have been cancelled.  It seems that every time that I have an appointment with the endo or for blood work it ends up being cancelled or re-scheduled.  There is absolutely nothing stopping me from having this appointment next month.  I do have to verify the date though because I have a wedding in PA that I will be attending on 11-11-11.  Let’s hope it’s not on that day 🙂

forrreevvveerrrAnyway, back to the A1C in forever.  I am not too concerned about what my A1C results are going to be, because to me, it is just a measure and it gives me feedback on how I can work to make it better.  I have already been eating better and just purchased a brand new recumbent exercise bike, but just havent put it together yet, probably won’t be until this weekend.  But just purchasing this bike has gotten me a step further than I have been in the past by just saying I am going to exercise more.  I have seen people around me losing weight lately, and I know that by losing some weight I can manage my diabetes a lot better.  For one, by losing weight, I can eventually start using less insulin and be able to use the insulin pump that I prefer, the OmniPod.

My next A1C test will be soon and I will be sure to share it once I have it 🙂

Take care everyone

Too Many High Blood Sugars

Chris Stocker

Over the last few weeks I have been noticing a lot more highs.  Like, way too many more high blood sugars.  Too many for my liking.  I am not exactly sure why these highs are coming because I have been eating a lot better.  Not eating as well as I would like to, but definitely not eating as much fast food or crappy food as I once had.  I am also testing my blood sugar more frequently.  This may be why I am noticing more highs because I am actually testing to see the highs, as opposed to not noticing when I was not testing as much.  I have gotten back into the habit of testing every hour while I am at work and then a couple of times while I am at home.  I am not happy with these numbers at all, so the only way to change them is to make a change and do something about it.

I am excited for my endo visit next month (It’s been almost 9-10 months since I last saw her due to schedules never matching up).  I am super excited because I will be getting a new prescription for more sensors for Medtronic.  I would love to try to the Dexcom, but I haven’t had a chance to yet.

Back to making changes to get my blood sugars lower.  Here are the 5 things that I’m going to do in the month of October to try and reach my blood sugar goals.

  1. Eat a salad for lunch – not only is this going to help keep the blood sugars down, but it will also help my diet.  For the last month or two my lunches consisted of dinner left overs or pizza or a hoagie from the restaurant right next to my office.
  2. Exercise consistently – Not only am I going to get more of a planned daily exercise, but anytime that I see that my blood sugar is going high, or it is already high, then I am going to go for a walk.  Going for a walk in the middle of the day may seem fun, except, it is in south Florida, where it is still 90 degrees, one day away from October.
  3. Test more often – I mentioned this above, but without knowing what my blood sugar is when I go several hours without testing, than I can not successfully manage my blood sugar and get it to where I want it to be.
  4. Overall healthier lifestyle – I mentioned eating salad for lunch and exercising consistently, but there are other things that lead to a healthier lifestyle.  Trying to get to bed earlier (which usually doesn’t happen), eating healthier breakfast and dinner and snacks, more water, less soda, etc.
  5. Eliminate stress – this is a lot easier said than done, but high stress definitely leads to higher blood sugars for me.  Just test my sugar during an Eagles game, especially the way that they are playing now.  I need to take a deep breathe and eliminate as many stressful things as possible.
Well, these are the 5 things that I plan on doing this month. Let’s see how long they last.

End of the year Diabetes Supplies

Chris Stocker

It is now the Fall time which means that the end of the year is right around the corner, and it will be here before we know it.  This means a lot of things.  Snow in the northeast, traveling home for the holidays, hopefully some cold weather in south Florida, but more importantly, a final re-order of supplies.  By now, all of my deductibles have been covered, so now I can get one last 90 day supply towards the end of December right before the beginning of the year and before the deductibles reset.  I love this time of the year.  It is like my one and only chance to stick it to the insurance companies who have been giving it to me all year long.  That’s not a very nice way of saying this, but oh well, it’s the truth.

This weekend I will take an inventory of my supplies and then I will figure out when the latest time frame is that I can re-order my supplies and then make sure to get an order in before that.

This time of the year is such a great time.!

Diabetes Research Institute and Hope

Chris Stocker

Diabetes Research InstituteLast week I wrote a post about my visit to the Diabetes Research Institute and briefly touched on some of the research and progress that they are making.  I wanted to write this follow up post last week, but I’ve had some big things going on in my life lately that I can’t really speak about publicly yet, but I will soon enough, don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch.

Anyway, I want to get to the idea of hope.  I have had mixed feelings about a cure throughout the years I’ve had diabetes.  I’ve had the, there will never be a cure attitude.  I have also had the, a cure is right around the corner idea.  I’ve thought to myself, should I advocate for a cure, or should I advocate for a better life with diabetes?  Well, I basically advocate for both now.  I advocate for everything.  My theory is this: I will fight for a cure, but until that time happens and during this trial and tribulation period, I will try and do everything that I can to make sure that every diabetic gets the respect that they deserve.

But why am I talking about Hope now? Because that is exactly what the DRI restored into my brain.  I now have hope again, and not just hope, but confidence in a cure.  I now know that there will be a cure.  Sure, there are still the economics behind it.  Where will all this money go after there is a cure found, but there will then become other ways to make that money in another form.

The scientists here all communicate with each other.  There is no withholding of facts and findings in order to have their name on the groundbreaking study that just occurred.  It is very difficult to succeed as a team and reach a larger goal when information is not being passed along.  I saw the passion in their eyes, in their voices when they were speaking to me.  The people in charge are just as fantastic.  The leadership and focus is one that you don’t see very often.

Thank you to the Diabetes Research Institute for restoring hope in my eyes.

***Disclosure: I was not paid in any way be the Diabetes Research Institute to attend this tour, to write posts about it, or to include links.  These are my opinions and thoughts based upon the information that I was provided during my tour.  I am not a doctor, a scientists, or any form of medical professional.***