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High Blood Sugars at the Hockey Game

Chris Stocker

Last night I went to the Florida Panthers vs. Washington Capitals hockey game. It was embarrassing to be a Panthers fan last night because they got their butts handed to them, to speak in nice terms. My account rep had upgraded my seats for me for that game so we were sitting in the Lexus Club level where the food options are a lot larger than at the regular concession booths. This isn’t sounding good for somebody with type 1 diabetes who just had food court Chinese food about 2 hours prior to the game. Can you see where this is leading?

Amanda was hungry, so I told her to get whatever she wanted and I would just finish what she didn’t eat because I wasn’t really hungry. I tested my blood sugar before she ate and I was at 307. High, yes, but I wear an insulin pump, I can correct that easily. I take a correction bolus and wait about 5 minutes before I do my little insulin check. About 10-12 times a day I will rub the infusion set and then smell my fingers for insulin. Amanda tells me that I need to be less obvious when I do it, because I look really weird, which I agree, I probably do.

When I felt the infusion set, it was soaked, so I knew I was going to smell that disgusting smell of insulin, and I did! In a normal situation I would have freaked out and been worried that my sugar is going to stay high. Normally, I would just bolus like 25 units knowing that not all of it was going to get absorbed. Luckily, I had inserted an infusion set on my backside a few nights ago, but since my sugar was high at the time I put a second one in on my stomach. When my sugar is high, infusion sets on the butt don’t work. So I didn’t take that one out, so I was able to hook up the tubing to that.

Now the hardest part is trying to figure out how much insulin my body actually did absorb. I bolused at about 90% and when I went to bed I was at 195 and woke up at 156.

Now for a quick update on my cough and ear thing that I have had going on forever, it seems like. My ear is still clogged, the nasal spray I was prescribed doesn’t work and when I try to clear them myself, it just makes them more clogged. I am going to try the Neti Pot again tonight and see what that does for me. I have an appointment on Monday, so we will see how that goes.

Refilling a Reservoir at Work

Chris Stocker

Yesterday I had to refill my insulin cartridge at work and it made me think about a couple of things.  First, what reaction am I going to get from people who walk by? Why do I have two vials of insulin in my laptop bag and both have 2 refills left in them?  Why is this thing so damn loud when it is priming?

Well here were my answers to all of those questions.

Reaction from People

First and foremost, I don’t  really  care what their reaction is to it.  I am doing something that I need to do in order to survive, so get over it.  Do I look at you weird when you breathe or when you drink water or when you eat?  No, didn’t think so, so keep on walking.  But I do find it funny what most people say.  The most common phrase I hear is, “What are you shooting up or something?”  Some people mean it in a sense of am I shooting up insulin, but I think we all know what most others are referring to, obviously a joke.  I usually say, “Well, I’m already high, so I need to shoot up some more.”  That is when the other person doesn’t get the insulin and high blood sugar reference and thinks that I am just making a drug comment back to them.

What kind of reaction do you get?

Two Vials of Insulin

When it comes to insulin, I try to have only one open vial at a time, but that tends to not happen very often.  The reason is usually that I open one and put it in my laptop bag because that thing goes with me to work, home, and travel.  That way the insulin will be with me at all times.  Then there is usually one on my desk at home, maybe it’s empty and I forgot to throw it away, so when I see it, I think that I just finished one and go and open another one.  As soon as I used it to refill the reservoir, I throw it in my laptop bag and now I have two opened in the same location.

Do any of you do this as well, or am I just being a bad diabetic?

Loud Priming

The last part of what was going through my head was why this insulin pump is so damn loud when it is priming.  It beeps so many times, and it is extremely loud, so when my co-workers are working, they hear it beeping and then all the questions start.  Normally I don’t mind the questions, but when I am busy and trying to get work done so I can get home and start working on some other clients work, I’m not usually in the mood to lecture on diabetes.

Do you all refill right at your desk or do you go to restrooms or cars, or somewhere else to take care of it?

The Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap Vol 3

Chris Stocker

Another Monday, another weekend recap. Not too much to recap today though, not a very eventful weekend.  I’m starting to like these weekends where I don’t really do anything.  Friday night after I finished up on a few client’s sites, I decided that I wanted to go to the casino again, but this time we went to a different one, (we have 3 nearby).  What a lucky night to hit the casino!  Amanda said that she wasn’t feeling lucky that day, so she didn’t really want to go, but of course I convinced her to go, good thing I did.

Once we got there, we split up like we do for a while so she can play the machine that she likes and I can play the ones that I like.  After I lost some money, I went over to find her and she was up almost $200!  I walked away because I didn’t want to bring any bad luck.  Later that night, we were going to play just $20 more, that’s it, then we were leaving.  Down to $11 I hit a big win, $350.  It sounds good to win $350, but I was actually quite upset because I was one wild away from winning $2,500!  There was 15 spots on the screen and 14 had wilds, I was quite upset that I didn’t get the last one, but beggars can’t be choosers right?  I guess it’s like having an A1C below 7, but wanting it lower, I’ll take it, but would like better.

I did have a really high blood sugar on Friday, for a while too.  I had a bad site in the morning, because I was at 378 or so, I don’t remember exactly.  I went home and changed my site, but 2 hours later I was at the same exact number!  So, I had to change my site again, which irritated me because I only have like 3 sets left and my new supply order doesn’t come in for another week or so.

Saturday came and went by pretty fast.  During the afternoon I went to the big parade in downtown Delray Beach.  I absolutely HATE parades.  They are fine for kids or if you have kids, but when you’re 25 years old, and there are huge St. Patty’s Day parties going on, a parade just isn’t my choice for fun.  But, my girlfriend enjoys the parades, so guess where I was at?  Saturday night I laid around the house and watched some tv and did some more work.  I’m doing a full re-design on my company website, CSI Marketing Solutions, and it’s not quite done, so I am trying to finish it up as soon as possible, but with a lot of client work taking up my time, I’d rather spend my time doing that.

Sunday was yet another beautiful day in south Florida.  It started out with a nice morning walk to Dunkin Donuts, which is about 0.5 miles from the house, so a quick mile walk to start the morning off.  I hate sitting inside doing work when it is so beautiful out.  Amanda and I went to Barnes and Noble to sit outside, but we ended up sitting out by Whole Foods because we wanted to grab some lunch.  Let me explain this lunch that I had, and by the end of this, you will know why I can’t stand Whole Foods, hate the idea of the place, hate everything about it.  I went to the $7.99/lb salad bar.  I didn’t even make a large salad or put many fixings in it, but yet my salad, let me repeat, a SALAD, cost me $17.95!  You wouldn’t even pay that much for a salad at a five-star restaurant.  This is why I vowed several years ago to never step foot in a Whole Foods store ever again, unfortunately I did, but that will be the last.

This week is going to be pretty intense.  I have several projects that all have deadlines at the end of this week, gotta love those deadlines.  To add on to that, there is 3-4 Panthers games at home this week, so I will be attending all of them.  I don’t have any doctors appointments this week, but I will be placing an order to get more testing strips.  Can’t wait to spend that money!

Well have a great Monday and a great week.  Do something today to improve your life and somebody else’s life, and then try it again the next day.

Overall, not a bad weekend for my blood sugars.  Averaged probably around 160 for the weekend, which is better than what my last 3-4 months have bee, so I’ll take it.  Slowly improving.

Fired Up Friday – Diabetes Disrespect

Chris Stocker

Today’s Fired Up Friday is all about Diabetes Disrespect.  We have all seen it and heard it and have reacted in different ways to it.  There is a lot of disrespect to diabetics these days.  I don’t think that any of it is intentional, but it still happens.  I am going to just touch on three specific areas where I think people with diabetes are disrespecting: uneducated doctors, you have diabetes because your fat, and donations.

Uneducated Doctors

Just last week I had to educate an ENT specialist on diabetes.  Earlier in the year I had to give a quick lesson to a nurse at a CVS Minute-Clinic.  Do I expect every type of doctor to be as knowledgeable as my endocrinologist?  No, of course not.  But do I expect them to have a general understanding of diabetes and know about it?  Absolutely!

No matter what kind of doctor you are or what your area of expertise is, you should have an understanding of diabetes.  Don’t ask me if I’m type 1 and then ask if I take insulin, that’s an insult that you don’t know that.  I don’t feel comfortable with a doctor treating me that doesn’t know much about diabetes, because my treatment may need to be different because of my type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes just doesn’t get the respect

Fat and Diabetes

Have you ever heard somebody say that you have diabetes because you’re fat?  They’re not saying it in a mean way, but they just think that you get diabetes because you’re fat.  This is from a lack of knowledge that they have and how diabetes is portrayed in Hollywood and in magazines and news shows.  Yes, I am overweight, by about 30-40 pounds, but that is not the reason that I have diabetes.  I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was in the best shape of my life.  I was playing college football at the time when my blood sugar was in the 500-600’s for 2 straight months.  Now, I find it tough to lose weight with diabetes because every time that I exercise I have to end up eating Skittles or some sort of candy just afterward to get my blood sugar levels normal again.

I’m sick of people thinking that all diabetics have their diabetes because they are fat.  Sometimes I want to say to them what little kids in school say, “I can lose weight and not be fat, but you can’t do anything to change ugly!”, but I take the higher road and just try to explain to them that my weight did not cause diabetes, if anything, I feel that my diabetes caused my weight, (but I also think that is a poor excuse at times as well).

Diabetes is the Rodney Dangerfield of diseases; just get no respect I tell ya.

Non-Profits

There are a lot of diseases out there that deserve to have funds donated to them.  I think there are a lot of non-profits and organizations out there that are a waste of money and the funds can be spent better elsewhere, but I am not one to judge where you want to spend your money.  But I have heard from way too many people too frequently on why they have chosen to donate money to other disease, primarily cancer, rather than diabetes.  I’ll give an example of this that is happening now.  There is a local event coming up for cancer and a lot of my friends and family have donated to this event, and at the same time I will be asking for donations in about a week for the JDRF walk in Boca Raton, FL.  Some people just gave $20 to cancer, and they won’t have anything to give to diabetes.  When I asked somebody why they would donate to cancer and not to diabetes they said because, cancer is “such a horrifying and ugly disease.”  I have family members with cancer and who have passed away due to cancer, so I support funding for cancer research, let’s get that straight right now.  However, to tell me that my disease is not horrifying and ugly really pisses me off.

You don’t see the things that are going on inside of my body.  I can’t put that on a nice little brochure and collect money from you to help find a cure, so it is tough to explain to people the important of these funds.  So, since you are not able to physically see my disease affecting my body and the way I look, than you are not going to donate to help find a cure?

These are just a few reasons that I feel that diabetes is disrespected.  Do you agree / disagree?  Are there more reasons that you have that I didn’t mention?

Time To Re-Order Supplies ASAP

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

I contacted my endocrinologist today because I need a new prescription for my pump supplies before I see her later this morning.  I was hoping that I could just wait until I saw her on March 25 to get a prescription from her, but there is no way that I am going to have enough supplies until that time.  I only have four infusion sets left and about 7-8 reservoirs.  The reservoirs, I don’t really care too much about because I re-use them a couple times before I actually throw them away.  Infusion sets obviously can’t be re-used.  I have been keeping one set in for on average about 6 days, and that is not the best idea either.

I am also getting low on testing strips so I am going to get a prescription for that also.  I believe that I am going to stick with using my Freestyle Lite meter just because it is the one that I am the most comfortable with and have used for the longest time.  I don’t know if she will write the ‘script out until I actually see her, but I’m hoping that she will, she’s really nice, so I’m sure there is no reason why she won’t.

I have been out of sensors for a long time because the ones that I have expired in October or November, I’m not sure of the exact date, but I know that I shouldn’t be using them.  Thanks to a fellow d-blogger, not sure if you want to stay private or not, so I won’t mention your name unless you give the ok, was nice enough to lend me a few sensors until my insurance coverage gets a little better and I can start getting them on my own.  Now I just have to re-charge my transmitter because I haven’t used it in so long, not since October.  I am going to try and start using them on Wednesday, so I can get 2 full weeks worth of data for my doctor’s visit.

I hate being this low on supplies, but it is part of life.  I can get them, I just didn’t know the process of getting them and just became ignorant to that fact and haven’t taken initiative until recently to make a few phone calls to figure out what I was supposed to do.  Well, time to wait on the e-mail notification on whether or not I am going to get my scripts today or not.

Have a wonderful day everybody.

Details From My Appointment with an ENT

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

If you are wondering what an ENT is, don’t worry, I didn’t know what it was until recently as well.  I’ve heard of those kinds of doctors before, but never knew they were called ENT’s (Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist).  You all know of my clogged Eustachian tube problem that I have been having for the last month.  You all also know how freaked out I have been by it, because it just isn’t getting any better at all.  I finally decided to go see a specialist for this situation.  I didn’t want to because I have spent over $500 on medications and doctor’s visits on this whole ear thing already.

The doctor came in and checked out the ear and told me not to be worried or scared because this happens all the time.  When you get a really bad cold, stuff like this happens and he has seen them sometimes takes over 4 months to finally drain and there is no damage to the ear from it.  He explained that there is fluid in the ear, near the ear drum and that is the crackling nose that I hear sometimes when I blow my nose or cough.  He gave me two options, first one was to treat it with medication and two was to do a quick procedure that heals pretty quickly and easily.  The procedure involved putting a small needle sized hole into the ear drum and letting it drain, yea I cringed too!  I said no thanks to that.  He gave me Veramyst to use for 2 weeks and then come back and see him again.

He also advised me not to fly anytime soon, which could potentially be an issue because it is coming around to networking conference season, and I may be flying a lot very soon.  He was assured that my ear did not look that bad and it should be cleared up in no time with the medication and some manual clearing of the ears, as he said, “Just don’t blow your brains out doing it.”  Easy enough for me.  Hopefully this will end it because it is pissing me off now.

There was some good diabetes education going on in the appointment as well.  I first demonstrated my insulin pump to the nurse and then again to the doctor.  He had a few more questions about my diabetes.  He wanted to know if there was family history, or if there was any internal infection, or how the diabetes came about because it sounded very weird to him.  I love education people on diabetes, especially doctors because it just shows that they learned a little about it in their disease 101 class, but they never really learned a lot about it.

Well, still trying to catch back up on work, but I should be all caught up today.  I’m finalizing an outline for next month’s WordPress blog design specials, so if you’re interested, just drop me a line and you’ll get first dibs on timeslots.

The Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap Vol 3

Chris Stocker

Another Monday brings another weekend recap of a normal diabetic life.  This weekend I told myself that I was not going to do any work at all.  I had been working way too much, too late at night, too early in the morning and too much throughout the day.  I have been sick for about a month, so I wanted to get some rest.  Well, I didn’t do much work, but the rest didn’t come as easily as I had wanted.

Friday night, Amanda and I went to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino down in Hollywood, FL. Not a bad outcome, we came home with about $150, which is not usual for me when I go to the casino, I typically lose what I bring.  It took forever to find a parking spot, and then all night to eat dinner before we finally got to the casino.  There was an MMA fight there that night that we did not know about.  Before dinner my blood sugar was about 150, so I was happy with that.  We ate at Tequila Ranch which is one of the greatest Mexican food joints I’ve ever been to.  By the time we got home from the casino, my blood sugar was approaching 350, and I didn’t know how because it was fine at the casino.  Took a correction bolus and went to bed.  I had a very early morning on Saturday.

Saturday was an all day country concert, and when I say all day, I literally mean all day.  We got there at 9:45 a.m. and the last song didn’t end until about 11:30 p.m.  There was a full lineup of singers, but the number one singer was Billy Currington, and the number one song I wanted to hear all day long was “Good Directions”, well that ended up being the song that ended at 11:30 p.m. the very last song of the concert.  I had a lot of fun that day.  It was called the Rib Round Up, so they were selling ribs, $1 per rib, from a bunch of different vendors.  Amanda thought it would be funny for me to wear my “I <3 BBQ” shirt on a day of a rib eating contest, and people loved it.  I think I will be in more Facebook photos today than I ever have been in my life, and I don’t even know the people.  I will have more pictures posted tomorrow.  Join my Facebook page and you can see all of them (caution, this was a country concert so there is alcohol obviously involved!)

My blood sugars went a little out of control at one point.  I tested my sugar and it was at 450!  I had no idea how that happened because 2-3 hours before it was like 175 and all I had been some ribs.  I was drinking diet coke with the whiskey, so I know that wasn’t the issue.  I corrected and took a little nap and when I woke up my blood sugar was back down to about 215, so I was good to go.

On Sunday, I finally did what I wanted to do, absolutely nothing.  I slept till about noon, then woke up to watch the race, which I was falling in and out of sleep while watching.  I then watched about 4 movies the rest of the day.  I laid around all day long and it was amazing.  That was the first time that I did that in months, maybe even years.  Usually I feel guilty or disgusted with myself for not getting anything done, but yesterday I didn’t, it was amazing!

But, it is back to work today and going to be a long night tonight.

Take care everybody!

Fired Up Friday – Diabetic Supplies vs Durable Medical Equipment

Chris Stocker 9 Comments

I am sure you all know exactly what I am talking about just from reading the headline of the post.  If you don’t, then I will explain.  The insurance company looks at your different type of supplies in two main categories, prescription and durable medical equipment.  The way your insurance company defines them is most likely very similar, some minor differences I’m sure, but overall the same.  Now, what is the biggest difference to you?  Prescription is usually just a co-pay, for instance, $90 for a 90 day mail order supply.  Durable medical equipment (DME) products must be paid for with your deductible at first and then there is a yearly maximum that the insurance company will cover.

I’ll use my personal insurance numbers as examples for today because I don’t mind disclosing values.  I pay$115 a month for insurance through Cobra since I was fired back in November.  With that, I get my insulin which is a prescription, at $90 for a 90 day supply, which is about 16 vials of insulin.  My testing strips I get at the same rate, $90 for a 90 day supply.  I test about 10 times a day, so that’s 300 strips a month, so 6 boxes a month, which is an order of 18 boxes of strips for $90, can’t beat that. Now, the costly stuff comes in with the insulin pump supplies.  I have a $1,500 deductible, so I will have to pay $1,500 out of pocket before the insurance even begins to cover it.  This is about one 3 motnh supply worth of infusion sets and reservoirs, more on that later.  After that $1,500 is met, then insurance company covers only a maximum of $2,000 for the year, so they will cover only one more 90 day supply.  So that leaves me with 6 months to have to pay for infusion sets and reservoirs myself.

Here is where my problem with the insurance companies comes up.  Why do they consider my infusion sets durable medical equipment and not as a diabetic supply?  Diabetic supplies are covered by your prescription plan which would just be a $90 co-payment.  I understand that people use infusion sets for other things other than diabetes, but if I am using them to manage my diabetes, wouldn’t that be considered a diabetic supply?  This is just another way that the insurance companies can force you into paying extra money in order to survive.

Is there anything that we can do about this?  I really don’t think there is, but I wish that we could.  It is just irritating to know that this is a supply that I need to control my diabetes, so doesn’t that make it a diabetic supply?  Now, I don’t know if you all know how exactly products are billed to the insurance companies, but I will give a little advice on to how this is done.  Your supply company basically charges 3 times the amount of what you would pay to purchase it with cash online.  For instance, if you could buy directly from supplier at $100, they will bill the insurance company $300.  So that eats up your yearly maximum 3 times as fast.

First thing that I would suggest to you, is to find out the policy with your insurance company for reimbursement for submitting invoices.  Some insurance companies will allow you to purchase your insulin pump supplies in cash and then submit the invoice to them for payment.  This could save you a lot of money in the long term because you can get 3 times more in supplies.

Well, like always, I want to hear your feedback.  Leave a comment, hit me up on Twitter, e-mail me, do whatever you want, but I want to hear your opinions.

JDRF Walk in April

Chris Stocker

Next month is my local JDRF walk in Boca Raton, FL.  The walk is usually in March, but this year it is in April, which is actually better in my opinion.  For the past 3 years, at least from my understanding, the JDRF walk has been on the same day as an ADA Regional Conference, so two non-profits fighting for attention, I’ve expressed my opinion on the ADA-JDRF battle already as well.  My goal is to raise over $2,500 this year.  I would love to raise more, but I try and keep my goals realistic, so I can make them, but still challenge myself in the process.  I will be posting an online donation toolbar within the next few days.  I don’t expect to raise much from all you who are reading this because you have your own local JDRF initiatives to donate to, but it’s more for local friends and families who I don’t see enough to collect money from them.  But if you would like to donate, then be my guest.

As CEO of my own company, I can make pretty much all decisions on my own and have final say.  Because of this, I have established from day one that 25% of all my profits from my marketing consulting business are automatically donated to the JDRF on a quarterly basis.  I do not want any of the $2,500 goal to come from this, so in reality, I will be donating a lot more money throughout the year.

I am trying to create a few fundraisers to collect money before the walk, but I am still working on the planning of those.  If you live in this area and would like to meet up to do some sorts of fundraisers, then let me know.

That is it for today, really, really busy day today.

Time to Catch Up on Doctor’s Visits $$$

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I haven’t been to the doctor in a while.  Not just my endo, which was October of last year, but any other doctor.  This week I am setting up appointments with all the different doctors that I need for yearly check-ups.  The problem is that I don’t even have names of doctors to go and see down here in south Florida.  Even though I have been living here for 5 years, I was always using my doctors from back home in PA until last year when I wasn’t able to travel up there as much because of work related reasons.  I haven’t even had a general health physical / check up in almost 4 years.

I have just set up an appointment to go see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist because my ear is still clogged and it’s been almost a month.  I am still coughing every so often, so it was freaking me out.  I was concerned that I had something more serious then just a simple clogged ear that Mucinex D is going to help with.  Stacey gave me a heads up about getting it checked out because it could potentially be mono and I don’t think that I want to deal with that.  I never had mono, but my girlfriend has had it and she has been sick for a while as well as her mom, so who knows.

The other appointment that I set up is a dentist appointment.  I don’t have any delta insurance, so it is going to be expensive.  I tried to get private dental insurance and I told them I was diabetic and at least they didn’t hang up on me and tell me that they couldn’t help me, they actually gave me a quote, $350 a month for insurance.  Umm..no thanks.  It would make sense if I have to get all kinds of work done to my mouth, then I think I would pay for the insurance.  My first initial visit is going to cost $160, and that is just an evaluation and x-rays.  Then I can come back for a cleaning which is going to be approximately the same price, a little lower.  So that is $300 right there, but I won’t have to go back for at least another 6 months, so it just makes more sense for me to go without the insurance.  Type 1 diabetes and your teeth I know are important because of all the additional risks I have for being diabetic.  I don’t mind spending the money on things like that.

My endo appointment has been scheduled and is at the end of this month.  Before I get to that visit though I have to get blood work done, and I’m sure it is going to be a lot because I haven’t had any done since September of last year.  I know right now that my A1C is going to be bad, I’m guessing around 8-9.  After my initial A1C at diagnosis of 14.7, 6 months later it was down to 9, I haven’t gone abouve 7.5 in 5 years so that is going to be rough for me to handle.  I have made changes to my diet and also added more walking into my life to at least get some exercise because I wasn’t getting any at all.

While at the endo, I will be asking for a referral for a family doctor because I would like to get a physical or check-up once a year to make sure everything is going good.  I have slacked big time in this area of my diabetes management, but I am taking control of things again, my diabetes was starting to control my life a little, but not anymore.

The final visit that I need to make is for my eye doctor.  I just re-ordered more contacts because my prescription expired in about 2 days before I ordered them, so I am right on pace for the once a year eye doctor appointment.

Well, I am really far behind on work, so I need to catch up, so have a great day everybody.