Leg man

The last time I took insulin in my leg was in June of 2006. It was with my very last Novolog FlexPen.

Until now.

I’m hoping this experiment turns out well, because real-estate on my body is about as valuable – if not more – than land in Manhattan.  And this could open up more options for my CGM sensor, which seems to have a low tolerance for scar tissue.

That, and I can hide it beneath swim trunks. Summers are always hard for me when it comes to site selection.

It’s the end of the world as we know it

Suddenly, my diabetes – as I know it – has changed. I learned this when I saw what you see in this picture.

I am thankful that the CGM alerted me to several PREDICTED LOWs before the actual LOW (my low threshold is set to 80 mg/dl), and after those repeated nags (despite a manually suspended basal), that I finally pulled out the meter.

I learned that my blood sugar was not 79, but it was 48…

…and I feel fine.

And that scared the crap out of me.

I wasn’t too scared of the 48, but was scared that I didn’t feel a freakin’ thing. Previously, I’ve dipped into the 70s and even the 60s while being unaware of my hypoglycemia, but never the 40s.

I felt perfectly fine. As if I could have gotten behind the wheel and driven to the grocery store (thankfully I didn’t), or stopped what I was doing to change my son’s wet diaper (I did). I didn’t hesitate to snap the photo in real-time (notice its not going back in the meter history) just before popping five glucose tabs. Nothing could slow me down. Nothing but my own self-restraint, that is.

I felt absolutely NOTHING. Physically.

Mentally, I felt bad about not feeling bad. And that feeling is terrifying.

And I fear it could happen again.

Target

This new guideline first crossed my eyes in the form of  a **BREAKING NEWS** post on Facebook.

It was posted by the very organization that made the news. (Does anyone else find that just a little bit self-serving and disingenuous?)

But after getting over my disgust over the misrepresentation of (what should have been) a press-release as a groundbreaking, developing situation, my thoughts shifted from the presentation to the message.

And my reaction to the lowering of an A1C target to 7.5% (from something that, I could only guess was something more than that) was a hearty, passionate…

Breaking up is (not so) hard to do

Our relationship is over.

For thirty-three years, the only pieces of medical ID I owned was from Medic Alert. There were many.

They served me well (except for the few years that I refused to wear it, but that’s on me and not them), but I’ve become frustrated with them.  The split-links would separate, the clasps would break, and the bracelet would slide off my wrist –  at any moment, without warning. I’d spend too much time on my hands and knees looking for that tiny missing link, or pay a jeweler some astronomical amount of money to get a replacement.

Those split links (the tiny ones that clip to the medallion with the gap to allow for re-sizing, were too flexible and would always move or get caught on things. My sleeves and pockets have many a pulled thread because of that separated gap.

(When the split-link gets caught on a thread inside of the pocket and I try to manipulate my hand to break free – still hand-in-pocket – it can look like I’m engaged in something indecent. It’s embarrassing.)

So I went ahead and ordered a Stealth bracelet from Lauren’s Hope.

So far, I like it.  It’s a little awkward in that the engraved medallion doesn’t twist over and the bracelet has to be removed for it to be read -the clasp is in the back, towards the center, (and I may not have ordered it if I’d known about this), but it’s been on my wrist for a week so far, and not having jagged edges to get caught on things is a definite plus.

 

  

* * *

I know Lauren’s Hope gets a lot of publicity through blog posts and giveaways.  This isn’t among them. Nobody asked if I was interested in an LH bracelet, I simply ordered it with my very own Visa card, using a promotion that was in effect over Memorial Day weekend .

If you’re interested in a Lauren’s Hope bracelet (there are lots of styles to chose from!), I don’t have promtional codes, giveaways, or anything else to offer.  But if you look around the ‘net, you’re bound to find one. Or wait until 4th of July Weekend – I’m sure there will be some sort of promotion then.

Out with the old…

…in with the new.

After 33 years … the end of an era.

I’m right, and everyone else is wrong?

Sounds ridiculous, right?

I keep asking myself why I feel this way about the Enlite sensor.

I keep telling myself that – despite the experience of others – I can get it to work to my satisfaction. I want it to work, I really do. Really, really, really.

Lots of times, it does. When my diabetes is behaving well and my blood sugars stay in a comfortable range (say, between 70 and 200 mg/dl), Enlite’s performance is fantastic. Awesome. Impeccable. And I’m happy – very happy – and I tell myself that I’m going to stick with it after my trial (disclosure) is over.

But then something goes wrong.