Casino Christmas - A Ninjabetic Vlog Post

Casinos? Bald spots? Bacon? Only yours truly could get all these things in one vlog post.

I hope you enjoy it and have a great weekend.

Alarm After Alarm

This is going to be a rant type post so I apologize beforehand.

I had the worst nights sleep last night or should I say, I hardly had a chance to sleep thanks for my Continuous Glucose Monitor system that I wear.

At about midnight after only 30 minutes of sleep I get a High BG alarm. Like the "bad" diabetic I am, I simply corrected according to the CGM's number it was giving me. You are instructed to never bolus using the number the CGM comes up with since it can be off but we had Chinese for dinner and I was expecting a high.

Just before 1am I get another High BG alarm. Again, I look at my number and correct accordingly. 

Somewhere after 2am I get another alarm. This one said Weak Signal. Ugh. Weak Sauce was more like it! Cleared that one, moved my pump so that the signal would not be "weaksauce" and went back to sleep.

In about a half an hour I got another Weak Signal alarm. DAMMIT! Cleared it and went back to sleep. 

The next Weak Signal alarm came and when I cleared it I got a Lost Sensor alarm. I cleared it and restarted the sensor using the Start Lost Sensor selection. I then turned on my side and went back to sleep.

Beep Boop Beep Boop Beep Boop!

I almost grabbed the sensor on my gut and yanked it off but chose not to. AgainWeak Signal and when cleared, Lost Sensor showed. I restarted the sensor, grabbed my pump held it in my hand up against the sensor and said, "Kiss the freaking sensor goodnight and work dammit!" 

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

You have got to be f**ing kidding me! CHECK BG was on my screen. I needed to calibrate my sensor. I cleared it and decided that I would do it later.

BEEEEHAAHHAHYOUSTUPIDIDIOTYOUWILLNEVERLEEEP! (I know that is not what it sounded like but that was what I heard)

CHECK BG. So I got up not even looking at the clock. Grabbed my machine which was out of strips. I went to the D-cupboard and grabbed a vial. Checked my blood. 128. I sat back down on the bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, no joke, my alarm went off. 

The amount of force I used to hit the snooze button almost broke the damn thing. I turned away from the clock and was determined to get a few minutes of sleep in when my wife's alarm went off. 

SCREW THIS!

I got up and went to the bathroom to shave. I set my pump on the counter, turned on the water, wet my face, filled my hands with shaving cream, and guess what happened?

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Sensor End.

Damn.

Spousal Support

My wife and I have been married for over 13 years. I have had diabetes for over 19 years. So diabetes has been apart of our marriage since the beginning. In fact, my wife went to high school with me and remembers when I was diagnosed. 

Through those years of marriage the focus on my diabetes changed a lot. That was all my doing. During my 20's I did not pay attention to my diabetes. I went to the doctor probably once a year to update my perscriptions, took whatever amount of insulin he told me to take, and kept on trucking until the following year. 

No eye exams. No A1C tests. None of that. In fact, I went months without ever checking my blood. I am sure I spent years over 200 the entire time. 

After finding the Diabetes Community Online I changed my ways. Diabetes became more of a focus as did my overall health. 

The one constant through it all was my wife and her support.

She would nudge me to go to the doctor and to quit smoking but never nagged or pushed me in any direction. She knew the first step had to be mine and then she would be there to support me along the way.

The path to get a pump, quit smoking, use a CGMS, and even start this site was not journeyed alone. My wife was there through it all and had supported me both emotionally and sometimes physically. 

I cannot count the number of times she has woken me up from a low and brought me my machine or glucose or whatever I needed. Never once being angry at me or resenting me for a disease I didn't ask for or choose. 

Hate Diabetes. Love the Diabetic! (that should be a magnet)

For better or worse. That is what we both agreed on. That is what we all agree to when we get married. I am thankful that my wife loves me no matter what happens. And I am thankful too that I get to return that favor.

You Tube Tuesday #153

I dig illusions. Not magic, but cool illusions. This one is nuts.

Literally.

Enjoy!

New Year. New Stuff. New Symptoms.

I am very excited about 2010 already. I had a great Christmas and New Year celebration and I really feel like this year is going to be awesome.

There are some things I am planning for Ninjabetic.com that I can tell you about and some I just can't. You all know how I love to surprise you!

First I decided to jump on board (like a wanna be cool kid) with all of you that are doing the Diabetes 365 project on Flickr. I have avoided attempting this since I am not a great photographer but I guess that is not the point. The point is to take a picture a day of your diabetes life for a year and here is my first entry. 

If you like this idea you should join up. You will automatically be a cool kid (probably already are), I am the only wanna be.

Second, I have added my first "member only" content. Sure its a cheesy ninja game and I know that being a member to another site is the last thing some of you want to do. I just thought I should add a different perk since the only reason to join prior was the ability to see your comments post immediately. Anyhow, if you are interested click here to read how to sign up.

Now about the symptoms. I guess the truth would be that they are not new, but different. Saturday night, my wife and I were at the store and I started to get this horrible headache. I felt a little light headed and since I had eaten a while before we left for the store, I was sure I was high. That is what it felt like.

Since I was in the store I didn't have my blood glucose machine with me and was not wearing a CGM, I decided just to fire in a couple of units knowing that my sugar was sky high.

Something told me to wait.

"Honey, we have to go to the car. I feel really bad and really high."

"Alright, lets go." My wife knows I don't normally have her escort me to my machine unless something is wrong.

As I was walking to the car the headache got worse. I am sure now it was the fear of the number I was going to see. I opened the car and pulled out my machine. Got a massive drop of blood to avoid any error on my meter. 

70.

"I must be dropping fast because I know I should have been higher than that." Having eaten 30 minutes before made me really confused by the low or the crashing. What was stranger was the way it felt. It felt the way my highs do. I never get a headache when I go low. 

Anyhow, it freaked me out and made me promptly put on a CGM. At least now I can see some trends but man, I never thought my low and high symptoms would switch places! 

Has this happened to any of you? Do you get a headache when you are crashing or are low? I typically sweat, get dizzy, and shake.

Well, that's it for the first post of 2010. Here's to an awesome year!