Happy Diabetes Awareness Month!

mollyt1dLeave a comment

It’s November 1st, which means…

Diabetes Awareness Month is here!!!

To celebrate, I’ll be posting a variety of content that’ll give non-T1Ds a bit more insight into life with diabetes. I’m going to *attempt* to respond to the many wonderful prompts provided by Beyond Type 1 and the College Diabetes Network, starting today!

Beyond Type 1’s first prompt is easy enough: Post a photo of your #bgnow! (This is a hashtag commonly used on Twitter to share current blood sugar readings.)

So here it is:

IMG_4393

Hey, not bad! Especially for a post-breakfast blood sugar! I’m hoping for some tighter numbers this month, seeing as I just saw my endocrinologist a few days ago. I had a good A1c reading, but not my best, so I was a little disappointed. But she reminded me that my A1c is just an average, and that I should be proud of the progress I’ve made in the last few years. Her faith in my ability to take the best care of my diabetes that I can is super reassuring. That, combined with my excitement to advocate all month long, is exactly what I need to meet my personal goals.

Looking forward to an awesome month of diabetes advocacy!

Happy Halloween, Boos and Ghouls!

mollyt1dLeave a comment

(Yes, the “boos and ghouls” is a cheesy take on “boy and girls”…I have a goofy sense of humor, what can I say?!)

Happy Halloween! Just a friendly post to say: Yes, people with T1D can enjoy Halloween. Whether they choose to eat candies or stay away from them, there’s haunted happenings of all varieties that they can partake in. Here’s a little glimpse at what I did today to celebrate:

IMG_4381

  • I dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast! I love all things related to Disney, so I happily donned this costume to work today.

IMG_4385

  • Speaking of work, we had a small Halloween celebration in the office! Pictured are several of the sweets we offered throughout the day. We also did a “spooky” scavenger hunt and had a costume parade, both of which were as awesome and fun as they sound!

IMG_4349IMG_4346

  • I also baked cupcakes for my coworkers! I didn’t eat any (I wanted to save my insulin for a few Reese’s cups, instead – they’re my favorite), but I had a blast baking these and using fondant to create some festive designs.

It doesn’t matter if you’re low-carb, sugar free, T1D, or none of those things – Halloween is for everyone to make whatever they want out of it! With that said…

Have a SPOOK–tacular day, readers!!!

French Fries are Evil

mollyt1d1 Comment

Last week, my mom and I both rediscovered the reason why we usually order side salads with burgers or sandwiches served in restaurants: french fries. They’re tasty, carb-y, salt bombs that wreak havoc on our blood sugar. We’re both convinced that our indulgence in fries at dinner was responsible for the dramatic spikes, followed by sharp plummets, that interrupted our sleep overnight and made us understandably grumpy the following morning.

Here’s the timeline of what happened:

6:30 P.M. – Dinnertime. Ordered a chicken pesto sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries. I thought I’d be safe as long as I didn’t eat all of my fries, and if I left behind half of the bun. This certainly helped, but my carb counting was either severely off or the high amount of fat that I consumed threw my blood sugar for a loop.

7:30 P.M. – Blood sugar holding fairly steady around 160 mg/dL. Maybe restraining my carb consumption worked, after all!

9:00 P.M. – Eh, not so much. I’m seeing a diagonal arrow pointing up, indicating that I’m slowly creeping into the 200s. I’m not pleased.

10:13 P.M. – Yep, topping out at about 255 mg/dL. Gross! I take some insulin and wait for it to kick in.

IMG_4313
This is as high as my blood sugar got after eating the evil french fries…

11:30 P.M. – I feel relieved, I’ve come down to below 180 mg/dL and I can now go to sleep. I’m not dropping fast and I suspect that, due to the insulin I have left on board, I’ll level out around 130 mg/dL overnight.

5:28 A.M. – Ah, a blissful five and a half hours of sleep before my diabetes said “LOL nope” and woke me up. I’m feeling shaky, so I roll over to check my CGM. Sure enough, I’m below my low limit (which is set at 80). My symptoms match my Dexcom graph, so I pop three glucose tablets into my mouth and plop my head back down on my pillow. I should be okay until I get up in a few hours.

IMG_4314
…and this is one of the multiple low points I hit in the wee hours of the morning.

7:00 A.M. – Except nope! My CGM’s alarms and my low symptoms wake me up again. I’m frustrated, because it’s beyond annoying to wake up at the same time I normally do for work on a Sunday morning, and especially since it’s because of my diabetes. I reach for a granola bar that contained 22 grams of carbs (way more than I needed for my correction) and wolf it down. I toss and turn for the next hour. I can’t fall back asleep because it feels like my CGM won’t stop alerting me to what my blood sugar’s doing. It’s almost 8:00 A.M. when I decide to take a small bolus, because I definitely over-corrected for the last low.

9:30 A.M. – I get up for real and start my day. Miraculously, I test my blood sugar and it’s 148 mg/dL. I thought it would be worse but I guess the single unit of insulin I took did its job.

This is a night in the life of a PWD. This is what it’s like to have a chronic illness that doesn’t sleep. This is what it’s like to feel out of control of your own body.

And this is why I think french fries are evil – because they’re fatty, slow-releasing but high carb little jerks.

Why it’s Worth it to Work Out Your Ratios

mollyt1dLeave a comment

It’s not easy to figure out the insulin-to-carb ratio and basal rates that work best for you. In fact, it involves commitment, communication with your diabetes care team, and solid carb counting skills. But the work is so, totally worth it, because your blood sugar readings can look like this:

These 12- and 24-hour graphs were the result of me kicking it into high gear with my diabetes management in recent days. I can’t explain how awesome it felt to achieve graphs like this. Yes, I dipped a little lower than I would have preferred a few times, but the main accomplishment here is that I avoided the sticky highs that were frustrating me in the afternoons and in the middle of the night. Just looking at those smooth, nearly straight lines overnight brings a smile to my face.

I’d like to note that I did this WITHOUT making any special changes to my diet. In a single day, I ate fairly high carb for a PWD: around 30 grams of carbs at breakfast, another 30 at lunch, and between 40 and 50 at dinner. And depending on what my blood sugar is before bed, I’ll have another small snack, between 10 and 15 grams of carbs. So I think the main factors at play that lead to these beautiful graphs are 1) I bolused for my meals 10-20 minutes before eating them, 2) I ate the right balance (for me) of carbs, fats, and proteins, and 3) My insulin-to-carb ratios are spot-on at this time.

As long as I continue to put forth the right amount of effort, I think I’ll continue to have graphs like this. Of course, I know I’m going to slip up from time to time – occasions during which meals are a little more difficult to predict, or periods in which I experience higher stress levels – but this is okay. I constantly remind myself that diabetes is not something that can be completely tamed, no matter how hard I try. I accept that mistakes will happen along the way, and the best thing I can do is to learn from them to avoid making the same ones in the future. This acceptance, combined with perseverance and a willingness to always learn more about how my body reacts to certain foods and events, will help me meet my blood sugar goals on a more regular basis, which makes it an incredibly worthwhile pursuit.

Diabetes Products That Should Exist

mollyt1d3 Comments

Every now and then, I’ll think longingly about the diabetes products that should exist, but either don’t because nobody’s thought of them yet, or because I’m the only one who thinks they might be a good idea. Here’s my running list of diabetes products that I wish existed – what would your list look like?

  • A snack that keeps your blood sugar totally level while working out. No, not a low carb snack per se, but something that releases a small amount of carbohydrates into the system just as you need them. So it’s kind of a magic snack in that it predicts where your blood glucose is headed? In any case, I wish this was around because going low in the middle of a workout sucks, and I hate having to stop my activity to go drink a juice box or eat glucose tablets.
  • A portable sanitary station for changing insulin pump sites. This would look either like a small, collapsible table or a tray. But it would be a super clean and secure surface on which insulin pump sites could be changed, because I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather that than a dirty public bathroom sink.
  • Painless injections/cannulas/sensors. Yeah, I know that these things all need to puncture the surface of my skin in order to get insulin into my system or glucose readings, but I wouldn’t mind them so much if they didn’t sting. Don’t get me wrong, not all shots or needle pricks are painful – I’d estimate they only hurt 10% of the time. But that’s still too much.
  • A smaller, less invasive pod design. This one’s another practicality issue. I get that pods are kind of bulky because they’re supposed to be able to hold a three-day supply of insulin. And I wouldn’t trade the tubeless system for anything (except a cure, obviously). However, it would be awesome to wear a pump that’s tube-free and doesn’t create awkward bulges underneath my clothing.
  • A pump that needs to be changed once a month rather than once every three days. Hell, I’d take one that needs to be changed once a week, because rotating sites multiple times throughout the week can be inconvenient and exhausting. Again, there’s some logistical issues with this one – we rotate sites often to prevent scar tissue buildup and there’s a limited amount of insulin that one pump can accommodate. But this is wishful thinking, people! The sky’s the limit. And on that note, the last thing I wish existed?

A damn cure.

IMG_3097
Hey, it’s me as a kiddo! It’d be nice if that little girl grew up knowing a cure for diabetes existed.

Favorite Things Friday: Myabetic

mollyt1d2 Comments

One Friday per month, I’ll write about my favorite diabetes products. These items make the cut because they’re functional, fashionable, or fun – but usually, all three at once!

I can’t think of a better brand than Myabetic to kick off Favorite Things Friday. I was first introduced to their products about two years ago, when I happened across a giveaway they were hosting on Twitter. I was curious about what kind of products I might be able to win, so I visited their website to learn more.

And holy crap, it was like coming across the holy grail of cute diabetes bags. I saw a variety of wallets and purses that were designed specifically to hold a number of diabetes supplies. Each pouch and pocket within the cases had a purpose and could fit many different kinds of important gear that PWD need to tote around on a daily basis.

Immediately, I entered the giveaway, knowing that my chances of winning were slim but it couldn’t hurt to try. And wouldn’t you know it, I actually was randomly selected to choose any product I wanted from the site!

It was a tough decision, but I chose the Banting Diabetes Wallet as my prize because it was sleek and would coordinate well with my purses. Plus, the name of the item was a little shout-out to one of the men responsible for discovering insulin nearly 100 years ago.

myabetuc
The Banting Diabetes Wallet holds my meter, test strips, lancing device, glucose tablets, spare needles, batteries, medical tape, and so much more.

Ever since winning my wallet, I’ve gone on to add other items from the Myabetic lineup to my collection, including a cross-body bag and an armband that can hold my CGM and PDM when I’m in the middle of a workout. Myabetic has also recently expanded on their offerings, and they now offer a one-of-a-kind backpack made for PWD. It’s absolutely adorable and comes in several shades (personally, I’m partial to the pink frost hue – so pretty!).

The bottom line is, I couldn’t recommend Myabetic more for any PWD who wants to keep their diabetes supplies organized in a fashion-forward way. Be sure to visit their website to check out their full array of products!

My Experience Attending the 2017 Weekend for Women DiabetesSisters Conference

mollyt1d1 Comment

It’s always amazing to me how powerful it is to be in a room filled with people with diabetes.

I was lucky enough to experience that wonderful sensation this past weekend as I attended the 2017 Weekend for Women Conference held in Alexandria, Virginia. This conference brought together all sorts of individuals: people with type 1 diabetes (and people with T2D), people who love or care for someone with diabetes, diabetes educators, registered dietitians, certified personal trainers, gifted public speakers, and individuals who came to the conference willing to share with and learn from others. It was also a bit different from standard conferences because it was coordinated by two groups – DiabetesSisters and Diabetes Collective, Inc. (which created the Diabetes UnConference).

The 48 hours that I spent at the conference were an absolute whirlwind, but I’ll do my best to recap it for you here.

Let’s start with Friday evening. Almost immediately after arriving at the Embassy Suites hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, I sat down for my first session of the weekend: The Diabetes Policy Advocacy Coalition (DPAC) boot camp. I learned what exactly diabetes advocacy policy is and how easy it is for me to get involved with it. Now more than ever, it’s extremely important for PWD and those who care for them to push our policymakers into supporting public policy initiatives that improve the health of those with diabetes.

After this energizing session, it was time to mingle with all the other conference attendees. It was really neat to meet people who I previously “knew” from interacting with them online and make that face-to-face connection. I also enjoyed meeting new people and expanding my own personal diabetes network. We rounded off the evening by attending a hilarious forum called Sex, Pods, and Rock n Roll, where a panel of diabetes all-stars answered questions from the audience about the more “taboo” diabetes topics. All you need to know is that this session resulted in a room full of PWD brainstorming a new product idea: edible underwear. It’d be perfect for low blood sugars when you’re in…the heat of the moment, no?

Fast-forward to Saturday, a day with an extremely full agenda. It was hard to choose which workshops to attend, but I wound up going to sessions about mindful eating, the physiology of diabetes and exercise, balancing an active life and diabetes, and making use of the glycemic index. I found myself learning something new in each session, which is really cool. After all, I’ve had diabetes for almost 20 years, but it goes to show that you can always learn something new and useful about your chronic condition by listening to others.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In between the sessions, we enjoyed an extended lunch break in which I got to meet even more new people. I was particularly excited to meet and interview with Stacey Simms, who hosts the podcast called Diabetes Connections. That means there’s a chance you’ll hear my voice in one of her upcoming podcasts!

The evening ended with a reception hosted by Dexcom, similar to the one the night before. I didn’t stay for the whole thing, but I loved every second of it because I became immersed in a thoughtful conversation with other women with T1D. We talked about healthcare, politics, and what it’s like to be a woman with T1D in this day and age. It was a pleasure listening to what each lady had to say and again, really great to be talking to a like-minded group.

And just like that, it was Sunday morning – the final day of the conference. We only had a half day together, but it was just as awesome as the previous days. One session I went to was about diabetes and pregnancy, and the other was about being the CEO of your own healthcare. Just like the previous days, the speakers presented fantastic information and I found myself feeling sad that it was my last day with this group of people.

I had to duck out of the last group-wide activity a bit early, but I got the gist of the message it was meant to convey: Invest in you. Take time to look at the areas in your life that need attention, and come up with a plan to improve them. Put in the hard work to make your life what you want it to be and you’ll reap the rewards. I thought this was an especially good way to end the conference because it wasn’t necessarily related to our diabetes. It was a reminder that we are MORE than our diabetes and that we, ultimately, have control on how to live our lives happily and fully.

This was the conference, from my perspective, in a nutshell.

A special thank you to Anna Norton from DiabetesSisters and Christel Marchand Aprigliano from DPAC/the Diabetes Collective for their efforts to make this weekend a success. Thank you to each of the speakers for being engaging and putting together magnificent presentations. I wish I could personally thank each and every single attendee for being an active participant and making this conference worthwhile. I’m extra grateful to the people who I got to make more personal connections with, and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with them. Thanks to YOU, if you were at the conference, and are now reading this recap! I’d love to hear from you what your favorite parts were – please feel free to leave a comment about your experience. Here’s to connecting with more members of the incredible diabetes community.

Hypoglycemia Strikes Again

mollyt1dLeave a comment

I rolled over onto my stomach and groggily opened my eyes. I checked the time – 1:30 A.M. I felt beads of sweat form on my forehead and back. I kicked my blankets off my body just as I heard my CGM vibrate: five urgent, successive buzzes, a grating sound. I knew what it meant without looking at the screen. My blood sugar was low, and I had to do something about it.

lowbg
Low blood sugar is never fun, but especially when it happens in the middle of the night.

Blindly, I groped around in the dark, my arm hanging off my bed as I searched the floor for my purse. Once I located it, I rummaged through the inside, looking for a miniature box of raisins that I knew would boost my blood glucose up. I found them and ate them quickly, sitting upright in bed. As I chewed, I registered the sensation that occurs once in a blue moon with these middle-of-the-night lows…

…Raging hunger.

It’s that feeling that you have when your blood sugar gets below a certain point.

That feeling of utter starvation.

That feeling that deprives you of good common sense.

That feeling that forces you to get out of bed, even though the rational part of your mind just wants you to go back to sleep.

Damn it. I’ve succumbed to it, again.

It’s not like this happens every time I have a low at ungodly hours of the morning. In fact, it probably only happens to me four or five times throughout the year. Maybe because I fight against it so hard, since I know that it’ll lead to nothing but high blood sugar and regret.

These thoughts cross my mind, but it’s fleeting. I make my way down the stairs, pausing to grab my bathrobe to keep me warm (the sweating will stop soon and it will be replaced by nonstop chills). Hey, at least I have enough logic at this moment in time to remember the BATHROBE of all things!!!

I turn the light on in the kitchen, blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from my eyes. And then I raid the cabinets.

Fistfuls of Smart Food popcorn are devoured one minute, and in the next, I’m swallowing spoonfuls of crunchy peanut butter (my dear, delicious vice). I take a pinch of Parmesan from the fridge and a tiny tower of Toasteds crackers to complete my smorgasbord. I wash it all down with sparkling water and remove myself from the kitchen before I can do any more damage.

I don’t know what’s more sad – the fact that I gave in to these carnal hunger pangs even though I knew my blood sugar would be fine after having the raisins, or that my snacking was absurdly out of control for 1:30 in the morning. Truly, the knowledge that I must’ve consumed close to 400 calories – roughly how much I eat at lunchtime each day – was disgusting to me.

I could blame it on my lack of self-control. I could blame it on the early morning hours and my sleepy state. I could blame it on the peanut butter for being so addicting.

But instead of beating myself up for a snack attack in the witching hours, I’ll just accept it happened and blame it on the hypoglycemia for striking me when I was vulnerable. It happened, it’s over, it’s time to move on and try harder next time.

 

Memory Monday: It’s Time to Learn About Diabetes!

mollyt1d1 Comment

One Monday per month, I’ll take a trip down memory lane and reflect on how much diabetes technology, education, and stigma has changed over the years. Remember when…

…”It’s Time to Learn About Diabetes” came out on VHS, with a workbook to accompany it?

Oh, the ’90s. What a time to be alive. Nickelodeon was in its prime, boy bands and Britney Spears were all the rage, and VHS tapes preceded DVDs and Blu-Rays as the way to watch movies. In 1995, one particular VHS tape conveniently debuted one year after my diagnosis that quickly became one of my most-watched tapes of that decade:

“It’s Time to Learn About Diabetes” told the tale of two fellow ’90s kids, Cindy and Mike. This 20 minute video walked viewers through diabetes basics and it couldn’t be more supremely cheesy. I’m certain that if I were to unearth the tape today (and a VCR to play it, to boot), I would cringe for the duration of it.

This video definitely shows its age…
…which is approximately 22 years old.

It’s been about 20 years (!!!) since I last watched the tape, but here’s what I remember about it: 1) mentions of NPH and regular; 2) the kids playing on a playground when one of them experiences a low blood sugar; 3) tacky illustrations of beta cells (I think that’s what they were, anyways); 4) 60-second meter countdowns; 5) zero inclusion of insulin pumps or CGMs, because they weren’t invented yet; 6) no explanation of the difference between T1D and T2D (for that matter, I don’t think T2 was mentioned at all); and 7) really bad you’re-about-to-learn-yay-for-education-in-the-’90s introductory music.

I’m really selling this tape here, huh? In all honesty, it wasn’t a bad way for me to really understand my diabetes at a young age. After all, how many other small children do you know that can tell you what the purpose of a pancreas is? It was a different way to present vital information I needed to know and clearly, it stuck with me pretty well.

I guess it just resonates more strongly than ever with me today because it’s a reminder of how much technology and the way information is presented has changed since my diagnosis. The Internet was still pretty new when I was diagnosed, and smartphones didn’t even exist yet. Just as phones and computers were bulky and slow in those days, so was the DTech at my disposal. 20 years later, though, information is readily available at our fingertips. It’s incredibly fast and detailed, and as technology evolves, it continues to become even more streamlined. In this way, I’m glad to have been exposed to the technology, both medical and otherwise, of the ’90s: because it makes me grateful for the incredible improvements we’ve experienced since then.

Dexcom Drama: Waiting for a New CGM

mollyt1dLeave a comment

It all started when I realized my Dexcom CGM wasn’t holding a charge. It went from needing a charge twice a week to practically every day. I knew this wasn’t right, so during the first week of July, I found myself reaching out to Dexcom support to see how I could go about getting it replaced.

Three months later, I finally have my new Dexcom G5 CGM.

Of course, it shouldn’t have taken most of July, all of August, and part of September for me to get my new CGM. But it did, and resulted in my mother spending hours on the phone with Dexcom and our insurance provider on my behalf as well as countless communications exchanged between me and my endocrinologist’s office.

What was with the holdup? There were a few factors at play here, which is why I thought it was important to share this ordeal with you all. That way, if you or a loved one encounter an issue like this in the future, maybe you can learn from my mistakes and get your CGM sooner rather than later.

IMG_4162
At last, my new (pink!) Dexcom has arrived.

Factor #1: The CGM was out of warranty. Normally, I would’ve had it replaced much faster if my Dexcom drama happened within one year of initially receiving the device. But I’d been using the same receiver (the handheld component of the CGM that displays blood sugars in real time) for like…four years. That was issue number one because Dexcom can’t do anything about products that have an expired warranty. Now, I know to get in touch with them every year to get a new receiver and to ensure that I’ll always have one that can be replaced.

Factor #2: My medical supply providers have changed recently. This one’s a bit out of my control, but a couple years ago, Neighborhood Diabetes was divested and sold to Liberty Medical. This meant I wouldn’t receive my sensors or any other CGM supplies from Neighborhood, like I had for a few years. So from then until now, I was getting my sensors from Express Scripts, which also ships my insulin to my home. But for other reasons, my mom and I discovered back in August that we would need to use Better Living Now to supply my Dexcom sensors. Getting confused yet? Yeah, this all went over my head, too. I’m extremely lucky that my mom helped me out and solved this confusing insurance situation.

Factor #3: Communication was poor. And I have to take some blame here, because I should’ve been checking the inbox that my endocrinologist’s office uses to communicate with me. I missed a couple of messages sent by a nurse at the office, and when I did finally see them, I was in a rush to reply and didn’t read his messages as thoroughly as I should have. This resulted in, I’m sure, frustration on both ends as we tried to explain what was going on to one another. There’s a reason why people say that communication is key, and I bet we would’ve had answers a little sooner if we had been on top of things.

That’s the story, in a nutshell and without getting too much into the insurance side of things. I’m just relieved that I finally have my new CGM, and it works great. It’s pretty cool to see my blood sugars displayed on my iPhone, too, using the Dexcom app. And I’m pretty grateful that I have an awesome mother who really came through for me, as well as an endocrinology team that was willing to bear with me through all this Dexcom drama.