Just when you needed your dexcom most… November 5, 2009

My husband left for a business trip today.  I worry about being by myself for a few nights, especially since hypoglycemia unawareness is an issue for me.  No problem, though – I have my trusted dexcom to keep me safe!  Or so I thought until I got home from work and checked out my receiver.

#'s are MIA

 Of course this happens on the day I need you the most!  The thing is spitting out the dreaded ???’s.  And this one has been in for 24 hours, so I really expected more from it and this point.  So I’ve shut it down restarted it, and am awaiting the night time calibration wake up call that is coming my way. 

 I have heard others chatting about the series of bad sensors they’ve gotten from dexcom recently.  I seem to be in a similar pattern.  Mine have been stubborn, usually a few restarts and I can get them to start throwing out accurate #’s, but why the frustration with the first few days?  I am looking forward to exhausting this supply and getting a new 3 month shipment. 

Here’s hoping for a good night’s sleep…

persistent highs… November 4, 2009

The past week my CGMS has been alarming non-stop.  I haven’t slept more than 3 hours at a time.  For the past three days, I wake up feeling like I haven’t slept.  I am in the throws of a THREE DAY long persistent high. 

For example, two days ago - I woke up to a lovely 273.  After bolusing 4 units, I’m only down to 180 two hours later.  I see double down arrows on my CGMS and figure maybe I could get by with eating some breakfast.  I find a BG friendly granola bar, punch in the carbs into the handy-dandy bolus wizard, and hope for the best.  Only to be foiled by another screech putting me on notice I’ve spiked over 200 AGAIN. 

Today I started to feel a scratchy feeling in my throat, and an achey malaise.  I suppose this may just be my body telling me I am about to be sick.  I gave in yesterday and started cranking up my basals.  Yesterday, I was down to running in the 140′s all the time.  Another increase and I’m back down to the 100′s for most of today.   So, crisis averted for now, but how long would you have waited until you fixed the problem?  I tend to sit on these things for a while to be sure the pattern that has emerged really is a pattern.  Sometimes life likes to throw me a diabetes curve ball and change the pattern just when I think I’ve figured it out.  

And then, once I get enough nerve to make the basal change…it’ll reverse itself and it’s a mad dash to undo all of my work I agonized over.  Why do we have to ride these roller coasters all of the time?

Daylight Savings November 3, 2009

Daylights savings…I think this meant little to me up until a few years ago when my eye issues started.  You see, one of the side effects of laser treatment is loss of night vision and glare from lights.  Having about 3,000 laser spots burned into the peripheral of both retinas means that I suffer both issues in the dark.  

And so, life is grand during the summer.  Sometimes it stays light out until 8:30!  I still have really good vision in one eye, and have been able to retain my drivers license.  I am a free person in the summer, being able to drive wherever I want.  I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  Heck, at times it feels like things are almost back to normal. 

It is the winter months I am reminded of how much my vision sucks and how permanent what happened really is.  I can get from my metro stop to my house, but that is only because I drive it every day, know the streets are well enough lit, and do not have to be able to see the lines of the lanes because I drive it so often.  My car just knows where it is supposed to go.  I am thankful every day that I live near a city with a subway system because working in the city, I can retain that bit of freedom.  But I do not live inside the city, in a suburb about 15 miles away.  It is a perfect, quiet place to raise a family.  But it is dark. 

Today marks the start of this dark season.  I am lucky that my daughter requires nothing more of me right now than my attention when I get home.  But what about when she is older and has extra curricular activities?  I found myself looking for religious school programs online the other day, and one consideration is street lighting.  I didn’t want my husband to be the sole person capable of picking her up and dropping her off, so I need to find a place that has well-lit streets between our home and the school.  I felt bad for my daughter, that I had to put myself ahead of her needs.

NaBloPoMo, taking the plunge… November 2, 2009

With NaBloPoMo starting today, I thought it may be a great way to get back into the daily grind of blogging.  A lot has happened this past year, and a lot has stayed the same.  Over the course of this coming month, I’d like to catch up on what’s going on in my corner of the DOC:

• Got a new pump!  After a unintended pump vacation (aka – my Minimed Paradigm 722 beeped the fatal button failure error while I was on vacation, hence having to use a pen for the July 5th weekend), I decided to take Animas up on their offer of a Ping for the low price of $900.  I exchanged my Minimed for a $700 credit, hence my relationship with a new (waterproof) pump began.  I’ve been on it since August, and while I do miss the simplicity of the Minimed menu and bolus wizard, I really enjoy being able to stash the pump and bolus from the meter.  Oh, and the most important question – I got a green one! 
• Got a new CGM!  After kicking my Paradigm 722 to the curb, it was time to evaluate the CGM issue.  I fear living without this technology, and honestly I had been losing my patience with my Minimed CGM.  More often than not, it was spitting out numbers way too far off from my meter.  When I calibrated to try to reconcile the two, it would send out CAL ERROR, followed by BAD SENSOR.  It would be so far off, that it would screech all night saying I am low, and upon checking my meter I never was under 90.  I ended up not wearing it for weeks at a time, and that is not acceptable!  I made the decision to switch to Dexcom, and have been amazed at the accuracy and length of time I can make a sensor last.  The one I am wearing now is on day 10, and still spitting out numbers within 20 points of my meter!  
• Baby #2…While the decision to try for baby #2 via a gestational carrier was made, the process of making it all happen has proven to not be as easy as I thought it would be.  We discovered some fertility issues on my end, went through a successful cycle in August, and I had 3 eggs that fertilized and made it to blastocyst.  Our amazing carrier went through her portion of the cycle as well, and the first attempt did not work.  We are looking forward to the next round, and I am trying to stay positive and keep myself busy so as not to obsess over things I cannot control.  
• Speaking of things I cannot control:  Our daughter is now 3 and a half, she is amazing and learning so much each day.  For only being 3, she has started showing a lot of interest in my diabetes.  She will often ask me if I am low if she sees me drinking juice, and will offer to help change my infusion sets for my pump.  I let her do the swabbing of the IV prep wipes.  She is so kind and thoughtful, I really don’t know how we got so lucky.  When I think of all the horrible things that have happened these past three years, she is certainly the one thing that I have in my life that makes all of this worth it.  

   Here’s to this coming month, good things to come, and catching up…