The Countdown

Since Friday I have been in my target range every time I checked my BG! So awesome! I have taken everyone’s advice and kept tight records of everything. Also I have been adamant about my carb counting and apparently, it is paying off.

Although I must share a strange moment that occurred early this morning around 2. I awoke in a pool of sweat but I noticed a very strange feeling in my head as if I was dreaming. I immediately figured I must be super low. I sat up very slowly, turned on my light, grabbed my machine, woke up my wife, and popped open the lid to the glucose tabs all at once it seemed. My wife went to the kitchen to get me some carbs to last me through the night while I took a few tabs and got my machine ready to test.

I easily slid the strip in the machine and hit a major artery on the first try so that was good because I hate it when no blood comes out when I am in semi-panic mode.

I closely watched the blood get sucked up into the strip and watched the countdown to status begin.

5
“I am going to die from this disease. This is going to kill me. This sucks, I hate this shit!”

4
“What did I do wrong? I should have had a snack, I am such an idiot”

3
“What would I do if I were alone, I would be screwed. Thank God my wife said yes to me”

2
“I am seriously going to die from this. My poor kids. This sucks.”

1
“I am so done with this. I am tired. Why do I even care?”

53

How can my brain be filled with so many thoughts in such a short amount of time?

I apologize if this post went from positive to negative but that is life I guess, not just life with Diabetes.

Should I blame Kerri?

I had an email from Scott this morning saying...
"Dude!! You're famous!!!"
Attached to the email was the dLife weekly news letter and my face right there for all the world to see as a member of the dLife Wall!
Wow I look like a dork. Too funny.
I am just gonna pretend that the newest employee of dLife had something to do with it!
OMG I am on the homepage too.
Are any of you on the dlife wall?

We have an ID-10-T problem here.

I feel like an idiot. A few weeks ago, I just took my Lantus shot once a night and Humalog according to my sliding scale before each meal. It wasn’t perfect at least according to my A1C but it made sense to me.

Now with “Master P” (my pump) I am totally confused. I bought a carb counting book and have been really good at only eating things on it and not snacking in between meals or trying to psyche out the pump and my machine (they seem to know all). But I cannot figure out why my BG reading suck!

So I have the Paradigm (this is the only pump I know about so if all the others have this feature then I apologize for stating the obvious) and there is the feature on it called a Dual Wave Bolus. Seems like a cool idea I mean at least it sounds cool right? Anyhow, after I enter my BG and the carbs I am going to scarf down, it asks me…

“Yo G! So what do you want Master P to do? You want 50% of the insulin now or 36% now and the other 64% later? Oh yeah and let me know do want that extra 64 over the next half or an hour and a half or 5 hours or what? Talk to me G, YOU TELL ME cuz man, I’m cool with whatever!” He is a very hip pump.

I stare at the screen like a kid watching a Sponge Bob marathon and have no clue what to do. My Pump Trainer told me “You just have to figure it out!” as she quickly skipped away on another call or something. So I guess, I try different combinations, I pray, I cry, I get pissed off, I toss a coin, I try and I try and have yet to get it right.

On a side note, my night time basal rate seems to be set. I have been testing at 2AM in range and waking up also in range so I guess that is something. But I just want to know NOW how to do this. Isn’t there a chart or a diagram or spreadsheet or something??!?!? I am so annoyed because I cannot stand to feel dumb. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed but I know I am not a complete idiot but right now, I feel hopeless.

Well, I am going to a Normal Bolus day today and screwing the Dual Wave thing to see what that does. I will let you all know soon.

I gotta go, Master P is complaining that I don’t have any bling on him. I hope the Groovy Patches I ordered will chill him out!

Blooper Time

I really wanted to wait to post something with some substance to it but I had to share what happened last night.

I changed out my infusion set last night. I pulled out all of the little pieces, grabbed my insulin, a diet pepsi (for mental clarity), and laid them all out on the coffee table ready to start anew.

Reservoir filled? CHECK
Infusion set connected? CHECK
Chose a site, cleaned with IV Prep Pad? AFFIRMATIVE
Loaded “Quick-serter” device and removed paper to reveal adhesive? YUP
BAM! We are in, the site looks good, doesn’t hurt, and um… oh crap.
I forgot to prime.

My wife looks at me like "What the hell are you doing?." I just cracked up and said, “I cannot be the first person to do this.”

On a good note, I went to bed with a 120 and woke this morning with a 105 (I slept through my 2AM alarm) so it looks as though my night time basal rate is pretty good.

Well, back to the lab.

So far, so good.

Well it has been 3 days now and all is well with "Master P" (my pump)
I changed my infusion set today and it is sore a little. Actually it kind of hurts. Not like the first one I put in Thursday. I am not sure if i should change it. I am concerned becuase as soon as I put it in, I remembered that this was an area I used for injections and I was going to try and avoid those for a while. I am a little concerned about absorbing issues. I will see about this tomorrow I guess.

I have made some adjustments but all and all things are okay. I think all of the "don't get frustrated" advise really helped. I know it is a major leaning curve and I will get it down. One thing I did learn is that I suck at Carb counting! I am tempted to only eat prepackaged food so I do not have to guess but I am sure my wife will not let that happen!

Not much more to report. I am loving it a whole lot. I am going to send back the unopened boxes of 23" tubing and replace it with 43" and other then that, I am going to keep plugging away!

More updates soon.