Diabetes Blog Week - What They Should Know

Today's Diabetes Blog Week topic surrounds what is something I, as a diabetic, want non-diabetics to know about the condition.  Seeing as how diabetes, if left improperly treated or undetected, can be such a dangerous condition, responsible for about a million amputations a year, 5% of blindness worldwide, and kills a person every 10 seconds, I want people without diabetes to know when they may have it.

I want non-diabetics to know what the warning signs are.  If you have some these symptoms, it could be a sign of diabetes and should be checked out by a doctor.  Many of these symptoms can seem harmless enough, and often are ignored.  My thought is don't ignore them, get it checked out.  Some symptoms of diabetes (type one or two) include:
- frequent urination
- sticky urine
- excessive thirst
- excessive hunger
- unexplained weight loss
- often fatigued
- blurry vision
- cuts or sores that take longer than usual to heal
- dry mouth

While recognizing that you have diabetes is not going to heal you, you can at least be treated by a professional and get the help you need to live a normal life.  That is my wish for non-diabetics to know about diabetes.

Diabetes Blog Week - Fantasy Diabetes Device

This Diabetes Blog Week thing is fun.  I am enjoying writing about these different topics, I hope you are enjoying them, too.  Today's topic is creating a fantasy diabetes device.  As much as I'd love to say a cure, or an artificial pancreas, I think those go against the spirit of the topic.

There are so many things to wish for from prickless blood glucose meters, to an insulin pump that can automatically detect what insulin you need without any user interface.  However, what I would love to see is an affordable adhesive CGM, that "talks" via Bluetooth to your insulin pump, or any other Bluetooth device. 

The first part of this device is the adhesive CGM.  Building on the the concept of a prickless blood glucose test, I'd like to see something like a band-aid that can be applied to any part of the skin that continually reads your blood sugar, ideally your actual blood sugar levels and not the interstitial fluid that CGMs currently test.

The second part is that this is a Bluetooth device, and make insulin pumps Bluetooth capable.  By having your insulin pump able to read your glucose levels you can see what your sugars are and you could adjust insulin levels appropriately.  The Bluetooth capability would also make it easier to transmit your data to your computer or mobile device so that you are able to track trends and see how you are managing your diabetes.

Above all else, though, and this is where the "fantasy" part comes in....make it affordable.  Current CGMs on the market are not affordable for anyone unless you have insurance coverage.  Most insurance (at least that I have seen) do not cover it CGM supplies, despite their obvious benefits. 

We can all dream, right?

Diabetes Blog Week - One Thing to Improve

So after yesterday's post exalting the virtues of my wife and how she helps me through my sugar lows, I now get to look at something I can improve, as part of Diabetes Blog Week.  If you read yesterday's post you will see a plethora of things that I can improve on.  That was actually the condensed list!  :)

The one thing that I know I have to improve on is something that I have just recently started to do.  That is losing weight.  Growing up, weight had never been a problem for me, but as I age, I guess my ability to metabolize all I was used to eating went away.  I have known it to be an issue for a long time, and even tried to fix it up through a weight loss program, and that was going well, or so I thought.  I was shedding the pounds, but my sugars were out of control.  Given some recent doctor visits and blood pressure readings, I know I have to lose at least 60 pounds.  Given the health problems that diabetics are prone to with elevated weight issues, I have to look after that part of my health, if not for my sake, then for my family's sake.

I have started by doing a few things to really bring my weight down.  The first is exercise.  I am forcing myself to go out for a run or walk everyday.  It sure did hurt the first week or so!  Secondly, I am recording everything I eat and checking my caloric intake.  Just simply the act of recording my food makes me realize how much I had been eating and that I had to bring that down.  So far things are working.  Now the task is to keep it up!

Diabetes Blog Week - One Great Thing

Today's post for Diabetes Blog Week is to talk about something that I (or my loved one) do well with respect to my diabetes.  As much as I would love to talk about the stuff that I think I do well, I wouldn't be there to do it if I didn't have my wife. 

I know I am a diabetic, I know that I am SUPPOSED to carry my blood glucose meter with me all the time, I know that I am SUPPOSED to test my blood sugar before driving, I know that I am SUPPOSED to carry some sort of candy or other quick sugar with me all the time.

With everything that I "know", you would think I would know better!  My wife has lived with me a lot less time than I have lived with diabetes, but she does know better.  She knows that I do not carry fast acting sugar on me at all times.  So whenever I am in need of a quick sugar fix, I know that I can turn to her and get what I need. There have been so many times when we are out for a walk, grocery shopping, or on a long drive, when I have had to turn to her and ask if she has any candy in her purse, knowing full well that she does.  In fact, she recently cleaned out some old purses from our closet and in each purse she found a baggie of candy!  Love you, honey!

Diabetes Blog Week - Find a Friend

So, the point of today's post (as part of Diabetes Blog Week) is to let people know about other sources of information, other bloggers who are out there and have something good to contribute.  Kim (of TextingMyPancreas) has been one of the "finds" that I have really enjoyed following.  She is a really active blogger and tweeter (@txtngmypancreas).  However, with almost two thousand followers on her twitter profile, she isn't exactly unknown.

Kim has been a type one diabetic for over 25 years, and really seems to have a great outlook on diabetes and how to handle it.  She uses a CGM and an insulin pump, and works with the DSMA Advisory Board, Diabetes Advocates, and JDRF, among other things.  Her posts are varied and entertaining. 

Head on over and search her posts by the posted labels on the right side of her page. 

Diabetes Blog Week

I've decided to do something a little different for next week.  Coming up that week is something that was created by a lady in New England, Diabetes Blog Week.  Running from May 14th to the 20th, she has set up a range of topics for diabetes bloggers to write about.  They range from feel good topics like "One Great Thing" to the imaginative "Fantasy Diabetes Device". 

I will try to get a post done for each day of the blog week in accordance with Karen's topic list.  I encourage you to go and check it out and see what topics you will want to read up on.  Here is a list of what blogs are to be posted each day:
Find A Friend - Monday
One Great Thing - Tuesday
One Thing to Improve - Wednesday
Fantasy Diabetes Device - Thursday
What They Should Know – Friday
Saturday Snapshots - Saturday
Diabetes Hero - Sunday
Something Good To Eat - An extra posting topic for any day of the week
Diabetes Creativity  - An extra posting topic for any day of the week

There are some really great topics there and I can't wait to go around reading some of the various blogs by different people.  I hope you find something helpful, too!

Can I accidentally bolus without knowing?

One of the concerns I had when I was getting my pump was how I might inadvertently give myself a bolus without knowing that I was.  My fear stemmed from the fact that you can quite easily give yourself a bolus with a few clicks on the pump.  I feared rolling over on the buttons in the middle of the night and the proper sequence of buttons getting pushed, or when the pump was in my pocket that the buttons might be pressed in that order, too.  Something else that probably contributed to my fear was the fact I had received a "butt-dial" from my sister-in-law earlier that week from her cell phone. 

Well, in much the way that cell phones today have screen locks, your insulin pump has the same sort of blocking functionality.  This was a function I knew that my Medtronic insulin pump came with, and before using the pump I learned the menu navigation to turn the function on and off.  Incidentally, I have only ever used this function once.

There are other precautions against accidentally bolusing in this manner, as well.  I cannot speak for other pumps, as I do not have a wealth of experience with them.   However, with my Medtronic pump, while the the buttons are open and exposed, they are designed in such a fashion that you have to apply a certain amount of pressure on the right part of the button.  I definitely can't apply pressure to the whole face of the pump and depress buttons at random (I tried a few different ways, with various body parts, as if I was asleep). 

Finally, while my Medtronic pump comes with an "easy bolus" function that allows me to receive insulin in unit increments with very few button presses, you are able to turn this function on or off.  A reason some people use this function is, for example, if they are in a meeting and know that for the food they are eating there they need an amount of insulin, but do not want to pull the pump out of their pocket or belt (or wherever it is).  You can simply hit the easy bolus button and get a bolus done without even looking at the screen on your pump.  This function, however, can be easily enabled or disabled.

In the end I felt really safe in the understanding that there was very little chance of me giving myself an unexpected bolus, and you should feel just as safe.