Where did the week go?

So I had all of these plans and ideas to talk about this week. Yet somehow the week got ahead or away from me or something like that. I mean it's a good thing and all. This just means my grand plan is going to be delayed until I get more time to talk about things.
The bonus of the week for me is that I got to meet one of the members of the DOC who I met over at a little place called Juvenation. That was kinda cool. She is the same person in life as she is online. Which is awesome to know, cause well sometimes people just aren't who they plan to be. I did warn her though that if some crazy person had jumped out of the elevator. I was so set to run and hide behind a ficus or something like that. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, I got a lovely letter from my insurance company denying the submission from Dexcom back in October to pay for a new unit and transmitter. Nothing like quick notice after approving the claim. The reason, well the reason for those on paper may make sense, is that there is no documented history of recent major hypoglycemic events.... Yeah, that's right. As of late, maybe in the past year since having beepy, I have had what you may call a "major hypoglycemic event". Well okay, your right the CGM can help those who are hypo unaware avoid the lows which can lead to blackouts, car accidents, the 8 different types of hypos out there. I stumbled upon this link today and it made me laugh. So I hope Alison, doesn't mind that I am linking it. If she does, it will disappear one day.
But yes since starting with the Dexcom and even the MM Sensor before that, my major lows have more or less stopped. I mean, yes the freakish one has happened from time to time. I would think this is a huge success. But well, I will be fighting this one if my doctor ever calls me back. Sigh. Anyway, that was only two things for the week. I will catch up eventually. Next time, I discuss alert bracelets... I hope.

The GYM

Those words are words that can strike fear and intimidation into the hearts of many. Myself, sometimes but not always. There is something that can be so refreshing when one goes for a nice walk on the treadmill, run on the elliptical, lifts some weights. I used to do it all the time, however with work, life, and well being out of school I stopped the gym, cause well it is bloody expensive. This winter though with all the snow has made it difficult to actually go outside and play.
So I made myself a deal. I want to trim up and be ready for when I eventually go away on vacation, nothing major because people keep telling me I am thin enough or skinny. I know better, plus this winter has killed me. So this weekend I manned up and spent some money and got a gym membership, some friends of mine go there already and I figure if I can get a routine and the motivation going, it would all be good.
Today, I had my complimentary personal training session. What the hell was I thinking? That thing killed me. All very basic moves, good to know, but way past what I was in shape to do. Lunges, stretches, all stuff my wii tried to get me to do. Needless to say, I am kicking myself now. The interesting thing was during the personal training session I had to fill out a questionnaire about myself. The last thing on the list stated, are there any medical or personal issues your trainer should be aware of? So me being me, I put down diabetic. With my own beliefs and such, I should have put down type-1 diabetes, but well I didn't. The trainer looked everything over and surprised me with the question, "Type-1 or Type-2?" If nothing else he got a positive response in my book for that. At the end of the session he did make the blanket statement of the personal training would help me in general with my diabetes. I took it as just a comment, not based upon him not being educated about the two different types of diabetes. I mean at least I didn't think so. So it was pretty good.
Granted, while the training would be beneficial, would kick my ass, and would motivate me, at the same time paying $99 for a registration fee plus $30 a session on top of the $45 I am paying for my membership would cripple me financially. I mean I do have to have money to feed C tomorrow night and stuff like that.
Why are gym's so expensive??

Itchy

I hate the winter. I really do. The dries me out and makes me grumpy too.

Haha, bad poetry aside, there is something about having bits and pieces of sticky stuff attached to my skin over the course of the winter that just drives me absolutely nuts. Normally, my infusion sites and I play well, same can be said for my CGM to a lesser extent. However as the winter progresses, my already dry skin starts to go the south side of itchy. In years past I have tried so many different things to solve this problem. There were the attempts to use baby oil or cocoa butter daily. Yet that only resulted in my sites deciding that they only wanted to live for about a few hours before taking a nose dive outta my skin.

Truth be told I am at wits end, my infusion sites will start to go crazy by day two, even worse because I dry out like a bloody prune, when i comes time detach my site, not only is it dry and itchy, but it is stuck to me worse than  a puppy with a ball.

Yumm.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, itchy dry skin. The winter and I are enemies. Even worse is trying to stretch the CGM out for longer than a week. After about 4 days, the adhesive starts to play with the dry skin and man do I ever just want to rip my body parts off to stop the itching.

I love to ski, I love playing Ultimate in the snow, I love every and everything about the winter. Except for my dry body and the itchy, bitchy, dryness that comes with the heaters and everything else.

Top Ten Most Inappropriate Places for Beepy to Buzz

My CGM is set to vibrate as it can be less awkward at times when it just buzzes in my pocket. I realize on some level there is much irony in the fact that I call my CGM Beepy, when it hardly ever really does that. But who is to say that I am normal, not me.
Over the past few month's I have been thinking seriously about all of the times my CGM has decided now is a great time to make some type of noise when it really shouldn't have. Either because I missed the first Buzz as I was walking or just happily buzzing away in the silence. This list is in no particular order.
1.) In the middle of a conversation with my boss.
2.) While talking with students at my school.
3.) While celebrating morning mass.
4.) In the confessional.
5.) During the movies.
6.) While sleeping (granted it is good that it does, it is still annoying).
7.) During a Doctor's appointment with my Endo as I am telling her, oh things are pretty good, sure I get the occasional lows. (Buzz, Buzz), what's that? Uhhh.......
8.) While driving with my mom in the car, she over reacts.
9.) Roller coasters, it's really hard to do anything when the bloody CGM is beeping at me as I am holding on for dear life.
10.) When is the most annoying for you????

Things I'm tied to

These past few days I have been having some pump related "issues". Mind they are not malfunctions, but it seems I have had this unknown and undiagnosed desire to attach Muprh to any and everything I can get my hands on.
Many people out there I am sure have run into the random tubing issues, but apparently this week has been an epic fail for me in regards to who and what my tubing has become attached to. Mind you since my recent move of infusion sites I have had a little extra tubing to deal with but after a few years it's not like I am new to tubing sticking out of my pocket.
In the past two weeks, lets look at what I have attached or misplaced my pump tubing in:

1.) There was the door knob incident, that was a little painful, but hey we all catch our tubing on that from time to time.
2.) There was the time I caught myself in Victor or more precisely tangled up in the hands of Victor one of the kids in my Youth Group.
3.) After a recent run, I had to detangle myself from my iPod as there was an apparent meeting of the wires, which I was not invited to.
4.) The other morning, I guess I was just having one of those tossing and turning nights, I woke up with my pump wrapped around my waist twice, instead of clipped to my clothing. And as many of us know at 6:00 in the morning we are not always the most alive/awake/alert/enthusiastic people this early in the morning.
5.) Seatbelt, yeah, I was all about doing a coffee/dunkin bolus and when I pulled Murph out of my pocket to bolus I did not put him back in the same way and was tangled in my seatbelt.
6.) Sticking with the car them, I did shut my tubing in the door. That was just more annoying than anything else when I realized I had done it.
7.) Lastly, the zipper to my pants... Yeah, yeah, you would thing I would have the entire pants button/zipper thing figured out. Apparently not so much and I can't even count the number of times over the years that I have tangled my belt in my tubing.

The good news is that I just laughed about it. The bad news is well, really there is no bad news. We take things as they come and move forward. It could be worse, I could be talking about the places that I have misplaced my pump. (those are interesting, thankfully few and very uncommon)

As the Test Strip Fills

In world in which social networking is king, Twitter and Facebook definitely are the ones people know about. In the world of people dealing with diabetes either type 1 or type 2 there are sites out there as well. One being Juvenation while there is another one out there called TUDiabetes. Both sites offering a place for people to chat, talk, find friends, you know all the stuff out there designed to find our own "community" so to speak.

The thing that gets me is the characters that are out there, those who join the sites for various reasons. Support, friendship, just to overcome depression, newly diagnosed, and just for all and all joy in talking to those who understand what it truly means to be a person with diabetes. Where if we use certain terms it is all good, where SWAG bolus' is a normal phrase or when someone talks about how they have been high for two days straight no one looks at them funny. It's great, it's fun, and well it is normally a very welcoming community to all, even those who are just seeking attention (but that is a whole different issue).

Anyway as things come up in these conversations, one thing led to another and well it seemed like we had a small soap opera going on right in the middle of the forums. I for one was very entertained. As this continued though, it was mentioned that was a Soap Opera was forming and it needed a name. For me I really started to think about this, and concluded that the greatest name for a Diabetes themed Soap Opera would be "As the Test Strip Fills". This led to other thoughts and ideas though. If someone were cast to play you in this new Soap Opera, who would you have do it?
The answer is not as simple as one would think if you were being honest with yourself. I mean you would want an actor to be able to portray you in the essence of who you truly are. I mean, how awesome would it be to try and get Christian Bale or Orlando Bloom to play me? Cool, but come on Depp is to old, Bloom is well yeah. I mean to get to the character that makes me who I am. I don't know.

We are all complex characters, living with diabetes adds a whole new level to who is playing us. I mean anyway can imitate my sarcasm and sense of humor, well not anyone but many can nail that. But what about the rest of me? The other side of things to go through the sweats, shakes, black outs (thankfully none in the past year). To go through the annoyance at times of testing high and trying to figure out what the heck I just ate that did that to me. To show the vulnerability when I am just to tired to care, yet know I need to move forward with all things D, for my well being and the well being of those around me. It adds something. I don't know about this. In the end I think I know who I think would do a great job at being me, well other than myself of course. I would have it be either Elijah Wood even though he is like 6 inches shorter than myself or maybe Tobey Maguire. They might just get me.

But "As the Test Strip Fills", needs more actors. Who would be you and why?

Nerds and Taffy

So one of my constant quests for addressing the infamous lows we people with diabetes run into is the how and what to eat. Given a chance if my CGM tells me I am low, I get excited. I mean come on I can eat something without fear of having to bolus and just enjoy the sweetness of the yummy snack I have chosen.
The problem for me, is once I get started who wants to stop? Yes, I can always consume the chalky/tasteless glucose tabs in the various containers hidden throughout my room and office, yet they just don't do it for me anymore. For a bit I was using peanut butter cups, which was awesome, I bought the post Halloween sale candy and hid that in places. The problem though was well for me, that combination would result in me devouring a butt load more than I should. So I decided to graduate to something else, again small to eat because otherwise I would just devour the entire thing and well yeah. So what to try next?
Well the next culprit was a mixed bag of pocket sized nerds, figuring what the hey, I devour two of these boxes and I am all set:
Meet culprit number one.

Him and his friend, Laffy Taffy came in a Halloween size bag (again do I ever love discount candy, I admit it I am cheap). I wish I was able to post pictures of the Laffy Taffy, but well I ate the last piece in my desk yesterday and my trash has been emptied. Well downing a few of these or Laffy Taffy seems to not do much. In looking at the happy little trend graph I get from Beepy McBeeperson (yeah my Dexcom has an awesome first and last name), I will spike above what I was at for about an hour and resume my normal course of hanging out nice and low.

Long story short my Nerds and Laffy Taffy do not seem to work as they are supposed to. If I consume 5 pieces of Laffy Taffy it claims to give me 30 grams of carbs, i can only assume 2 small boxes of nerds from my online research gives me about 24 grams of carbs.

For me, they are not a success, unless I go for massive intake of either of them. Not much luck for me. They appear to be a phantom free food for me. I only get spikes before i flatline at whatever the number I get from my Dexcom. It is very bizarre.

Maybe one day I will find what works for me both in raising my sugar and keeping me from over devouring and needing to bolus and start the whole process over again.

Wading through my mind

Well, I told myself one day I would get around to possibly doing something like this. I have seen the fun some of my friends in the real world have with their own blogs and figured hey, I am a pretty funny guy on paper. In real life my jokes tend to die awkwardly and painfully for me at times. However, I found the best way around it is to laugh at my own jokes, not in that awkward laugh way but in a real time laughing style. This way people are forced to laugh with me and not at me.
So, while I hope that most of this will be about my life as a person with Type 1 Diabetes, I cannot be certain as to the direction or path I will go. Things change on a daily basis, sometimes they take off and move fast and other times we hit bumps along the way. The first thing is that grammar wise I tend to avoid the word "diabetic", unfortunately in society that word is used to classify people in many different ways. More often then not in a negative way. But this is not what I am here to complain or talk about. It can sometimes be the everyday challenges of dealing with being a person with diabetes, what I run into my own personal perspective on things, and well a hope to provide some entertainment as well.
A little more about me, I am 29 right now, I was diagnosed way back during my Freshman year in High School, January of 1996 to be precise. Roughly 15/16 years ago, I always mess that math up, and yet I was a banker before I decided to do something else with my life. (That will come up at a later point). So more than half my life I have lived through this disease and I have suffered and sucked and well had some major malfunctions over the years. Yet, I have survived through it all. Things have gotten better and now I am honestly trying hard to do what I need to live to be an old, old, grumpy man complaining about the good ol' days.
Now I am just rambling and once I do that I know I should probably stop for the day. However, I figure I should at least explain the name for my Blog. This is a line I say a few times a week. Obviously not the (Buzz, Buzz), that would be Beepy my Dexcom Seven Plus CGM. We get along great other then when he decides to Buzz at some very inappropriate times. That's when people look at me and say aren't you going to get that. My response is usually to grab my pocket to silence Beepy and just go whoops, sorry. Not my cell phone and continue on as they try to figure out what I keep in my pockets. (which is tons of stuff: cell phone, gum, wallet, keys, Beepy, Murph (my pump), and other things as well). So yes, that is a little bit of who I am and why I am here right now.