Hey

So, did you miss me? Probably no where near as much as I missed you! I have been in a funk when it comes to the DOC because of something I had no control over but that I LET bring me down. 

It was silly and I am ready to come out of the shadows and be an active part of this community once again. 

A lot has changed. Not so many blogs. Lots more FB groups and such. Twitter used to be super hip and now that I heard OJ Simpson joined, well I am not sure what I would call Twitter now! LOL

The thing that has stayed the same is diabetes. The disease is still out there adding to its numbers with new people being diagnosed all the time and claiming the lives of people I know from this community. Can I say "this community?" I don't really feel apart of it anymore. *sad face

Here's the thing, the reason I started this blog 13 years ago was to hopefully help others feel less alone in their diabetes life. The reason I stopped blogging was stupid. 

My heart still wants to connect. To make sure no one feels the way I did over 13 years ago. I want people to know that they are not alone.

Wish me luck! I am doing this.

Third Ride's a Charm!

It's that time again to let you all know that little old me is gonna do that little old ride. Yes the Tour de Cure 2017 is coming up in my neck of the woods in a couple of weeks and I could use some love, encouragememt, and donations if you can.

This is my third ride, the first time a few months before I needed stents in my heart, the second before I had a heart attack, and now post bypass surgery I am ready to ride again. Nothing is going to stop me!

If you are going to be in the Southern California area on June 10 and would like to join Team Ninjabetic, we would love to have you. There is a button on the right to join my team. If you can donate to my ride I would greatly appreciate it. The American Diabetes Association is an awesome organization that helps many people with diabetes. Please use the button on the right to donate.

I have been blessed to have so much love and support from the Diabetes Online Community for the 10 plus years I have been blogging. Any donations and support is greatly apprecaited and I'll be sure to post some pics after the event. 

Thank you so much!

Breathe In

Even after all of this heart attack stuff and surgery mumbo jumbo, i am still having issues with my bg spiking after every meal. And now my meals are pretty tiny but I still spike. Sometimes I swear I just look at carbs and my bg spikes. The spikes are not as high as they used to be but still I spike. It sucks.

So my doctor thought it would be a good idea to try inhaled insulin. I asked him why he felt this would help. He said that our lungs have the surface area of a tennis court. Inhaled insulin can be absorbed at such a higher rate than a shot. He thought it may be a good way to curb some of those spikes.

I have only been using it a little while but I do like it. I have noticed that it does help those spikes. The thing is that I have to eat soon after I take it because of that absorption rate, I drop quickly.

Are any of you using Afreeza? What do you think? I am a little concerned about my lungs. Especially since I was a smoker all those years ago. But I trust my doctor. 

He once told me, "I am your primary care provider and my job is to care for you." Having a team you can trust is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It took me a long time to find a doctor i could trust but now that I have one, I follow his lead. 

Stained Shirt

This may be a little too much gore for the average blog reader so you may want to skip this post.

Okay, so the last 2 out of 3 Dexcom sensors have caused me to bleed, a lot.

Here’s what happened. Before work one day I put on a new Dexcom sensor. I noticed it was barely hanging on before I hopped in the shower so I figured I would pull it and replace it afterwards.

It went on with no issues and I got dressed and headed off to work. All was normal or so I thought.

At around 9AM a co-worker walks into my office and notices these red marks on my arm. It looked like I scraped my arm up pretty bad. It didn’t hurt to touch it so I thought maybe it was ink. I looked at my desk to see if something had spilled and I put my arm in it but nothing was there. I started to rub my arm and the color started to come off.

That was when it hit me. My side was wet.

Now I use Skin Tac wipes every time I put on a sensor or a pump site. It makes my skin super sticky but it also feels kind of gross. My shirt sticks to my skin and it makes my side feel wet for pretty much that entire first day.

So I didn’t think anything of the feeling on my side.

I lifted my shirt up and saw a giant bloody spot on my undershirt. Immediately I had my co-worker take a photo and sent it to my doctor. Yuck!

For the next 3 hours I tried putting band-aids on it, taping gauze over it, using masking tape to wrap around my belly and hold paper towels on it, and even had packing tape holding a maxi pad on it.

Nothing would stop this teeny tiny hole from bleeding.

My doctor told me to come into his office which I did that afternoon. I was there at 1:30PM and was still bleeding. STILL!!!

He used some stuff called Bleed Cease and wrapped my body up in an elastic band to hold it in place. He told me to check it at 6PM to see if it is still bleeding but to not take off the Bleed Cease bandage until after 8PM.

At 6PM I lifted up the elastic band and saw a lot of blood seeping through. I covered it up and didn’t think about it until 8PM.

Sure enough at 8PM when I took off all the bandages it had finally stopped.

The next day I put on another sensor and had no issue whatsoever.

After a week or so that sensor was ready to fall off. I pulled it and replaced it. That was last Saturday. By 10AM I noticed red marks on my arm.

This time it took all night but it finally stopped after losing a lot of blood. Now I am scared to put another one on.

Have any of you had an issue like this?

Can I Celebrate?

This blog was started on this day in 2006. That was 11 years ago! For many of those years I wrote quite often but not recently. 

So can I celebrate an 11 year old blog when the past few have been sparse? 

The thing is I have a lot to share since a lot has happened. Stuff that falls into the category of why I started this in the first place.

To help others by sharing my stories in hopes of making lives a little easier. And so people who read this blog never feel alone. 

So what happened in 2016 that needs to be shared? Well, my diabetes went out of control for starters. Nothing I did would get my post meal bg's anywhere near where my doctor wanted them.

We tried Victoza, Trulicity, and some other type 2 drugs but nothing worked. And through all this my weight kept increasing. 

I was refilling my pump every other day because I needed so much insulin. So my doctor had me start using U-500 insulin. That is basically concentrated Regular insulin. So 1 unit of U-500 is like 5 units of Regular. Now as you probably know, Regular insulin has been around for a long time and it is not a very stable and predictable insulin. That being said my control only seemed to get worse.

And I got to the heaviest I have ever been. 

340 pounds.

I cannot believe I typed that for all to see but I had to share it, I know I am not alone so its okay.

By the end of March my doctor said we needed to consider bariatric surgery. He felt it would be more dangerous to not have some sort of weight loss surgery. 

My family and I met with a surgeon and after many discussions I decided to do it. It was not an easy decision at all but I knew I was doing it for the right reasons. I had tried to lose weight. I had tried to control my numbers. Nothing was working and this very well could be the thing that gets me to be at my healthiest. 

Months of doctors appointments, arguments with insurance, and education classes helped prepare me for an August surgery date. 

15 days before surgery I went on a liquid diet. My doctor changed my insulin to Novolog and we came up with new basal rates to make sure I didn't go low with my new smaller stomach. By the time I was ready for surgery I had lost 12 pounds. Months before that I had a lost some weight but not enough to make a real difference.

The surgery when well. I felt great afterwards and moved my daughter to college the week following. All was good. I went back to work two weeks later and everything seemed to be progressing as planned. 

Then I got sick. It felt like I was not getting enough water and protein, something I was warned about, and I had zero energy. I tried to eat drink protein shakes but could not keep them down. Then my blood sugar started to rise to the point my meter only read "HI." Weak and nauseous, I tried to eat but kept throwing everything up. This was DKA no doubt. My wife called 911 and I was off to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital I was having a hard time breathing. It was like I was panting. This was a new symptom for me. The ER nurses drew blood to run tests and tried to calm me down. A bit later the ER Doc tells my wife that I had a heart attack.

WHAT THE HELL? A HEART ATTACK?!?

And from what the tests said, it looked to have happened a few days before. 

So now I was in the hospital for DKA after I had a heart attack I didn't know about! I spent a few days in the hospital as they worked to get my bg under control. Then after I was no longer DKA they transported me to another hospital to have an angiogram. The angio showed I needed triple bypass surgery. 

The next day I was in surgery again for the bypass and spent the next 2 months recovering at home.

In the end, everything is good now. I have lost over 70 pounds. My energy level and overall feeling is awesome. My post meal bg's are the best they have been (I also started using inhaled insulin for boluses) in a long time.

There was a lot of emotional stuff I went through around all of this. Many things I want to explore and share. I just wanted to update everyone on where I have been and what went on in 2016 for this old ninja.

So I have a lot to celebrate besides starting this blog. But today I'll celebrate "Ninjabetic" anyway.