Premature congratulation

On Friday evening, my father-in-law stopped over for a surprise visit – with the question “What’s for dinner?”

Actually, the part about the visit being a surprise was a lie, but the question was true. Not being in the mood to hear criticisms of a homemade meal, we elected to head out to a local Bar-and-Grill type place to eat.

I ordered a corned-beef reuben sandwich with a side of fries. And since the Happy Hour special, a 16 ounce (light) beer for $1.50, was too good to pass up, I got one of those too.

French fries will be the death of me. I don’t think I ever ate a fry that I didn’t later regret — at least not since I started keeping a close eye on my blood sugars. (But the sandwich, prepared on rye bread, should be better than a different type of sandwich on a bun, right?).

But this time, I thought I finally got it right:

From Medtronic Carelink Personal. Image carefully manipulated in MS Paint since I don’t have access to the superior presentation of Carelink Pro.

My blood sugar came up, peaked a bit, then started to come back down. Just like it should — but rarely does — after a meal like this.

Finally!! I got it right!! I was really, really proud of myself that night. I was in disbelief, but quietly congratulating myself for getting the bolus right.

I went to bed with a big smile on my face, just delighted over how well my D-management was.

But six hours later, I learned that – while I was sleeping like a baby – the shit had hit the fan…

Sigh.

Apparently I noticed a small climb in BG and had given a slight correction for them (I also, apparently, slept through a few alarms), but I wasn’t prepared to wake up at 3:32 am with a blood sugar of 297 mg/dl.

Next time, I’ll wait a full 24 hours before assessing my diabetes-related decisions…

The rocky reality of hypoglycemia

This vlog (video-log) could have just as easily been titled “A Consequence of Hypoglycemia”, but alas, that name was already taken. So I’ll just go with the “Rocky Reality…” name.
(subtitle: “Gonna Cry Now”)

Running time 3 minutes

My social media policy

Image credit: Jason A. Howe | Flickr
Used under Creative Commons license

I’ve gotten a few requests to be friends/connections/bonds/followers/what-have-you on various social media sites lately, so I figured now’s a good time to tell everyone how I use social media, when I let my real-life and diabetes-online presences collide, and when I keep them separate. If you’ve sent me a social media request and I haven’t responded, please don’t feel slighted – this post explains why.

Facebook: On my personal Facebook page, I’ve chosen to limit my “friends” to people who are either real-life friends or family. I don’t talk much about diabetes on there, and don’t use it as a pedestal for that type of discussion – it’s mostly for personal thoughts, experiences, and lots of pictures of my kids. Stuff that I’m not willing to share with the entire world.

Dear Carter

Last week, Moira wrote a post on Despite Diabetes which began with the following sentence:

DOC and others: A great young man named Carter is having a hard time and doubting he can rule the world with diabetes on board.

She asks for letters of encouragement in the comments, and as of this writing, there are thirty-six of them. In addition to my comment on her blog, I’d like to share my letter to Carter here, in the hopes that it might also inspire others who may be struggling with diabetes.

Hope, anxiety, and the search for Enlite-nment

I admit it. I’m one of the people that has put a big emotional investment on hope. I think everyone hopes for something, but the extent to which we rely on that hope, and and to which it makes us happy or sad, anxious or angry, motivated or despondent, varies.

In this particular case, my hope has led me to inclinations of the latter of each of the three pairings (sadness, anger, despondency).

Why? Because I’m not hoping for something that hasn’t been discovered yet (well, I am, but that’s not what upsets me). I’m hoping for something that is available to the most of the free world (you can even order it in Canada, apparently), but not in the United States.

I’m talking about the Medtronic Enlite Continuous Glucose Monitoring Sensor.

Why is it that those of us in the States are stuck using a primitive sensor with a needle that is terrifyingly large and readings that are (sometimes) terrifyingly inaccurate? (sometimes, this happens)

Even though I somehow forgot to bolus for Saturday’s breakfast, this should never have happened: