Sometimes, I see things and I think they are a wonderful visual representation of diabetes, like the game Perfection. And this pot. My blood sugars are a heavy pot of boiling water. A rolling boil, the ones where you look at the water and see the bubbles coming up like predictable and methodical pewter poetry. Scary if I were to…
Making it Work
Blood Sugars, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Mental Health, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetesin awkward homage to The Great British Bake Off. “Good morning, Bolusers! It’s the semi-finals here at the Great Bolus Shake Down, so you know what that means. That means your endocrinologists will be requiring nothing short of perfection.” “Yes, and not just your endocrinologist. This week, we’re also adding in your family, friends, and your insurance company as judges….
At the TCOYD conference I attended this past weekend, the question of low treatment came up during a panel. Specifically, “What is your favorite thing to treat a low blood sugar with? Not what you should eat to treat, but what you want to eat.” My opinion is unpopular, but I’d sell my soul for candy corn. It’s soft and…
My parents made me check my blood sugar before getting behind the wheel when I was a teenager. If I wanted the keys, I had to be responsible without fail, and I had their trust unless I broke the rules. No exceptions. No excuses. I started driving in 1995, so my means for blood sugar checks were limited to a…
It took me years to use an insulin pump. Actual years. I was on multiple daily injections for 17 years before deciding to take the cyborg plunge, and honestly, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in terms of making sense of my diabetes. I use an insulin pump because it keeps me from having blood sugar bumps in…
“Could I please have a medium iced hazelnut coffee with extra ice and some half and half?” BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP The barista stopped keying in my coffee order and looked behind her. “I’ve never heard them make that noise before,” she said, tipping her head towards the wall of brewing coffee machines. Shrugging, she continues with my order. BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP “Okay,…
Every few years, my symptoms of low blood sugars morph a bit. When I was first diagnosed, numb lips and quick tears were my reflex symptom. The emotional uptick would hit first, and I knew things were going south quickly once my mouth and tongue would go numb. This caused a lot of slurred speech during hypoglycemic events, an immediate…
Earlier in the week, I wrote up my thoughts on the Freestyle Libre 14 Day system and also promised perspectives from a colleague who is using the system who has type 2 diabetes. Today is that day! Thanks to Barry Campbell for visiting SixUntilMe today, and I’m grateful for his generosity with his words and in sharing his graphs! *…
I opened my eyes slowly, taking a second at least to convince my lids to lift. Oh, home. I’m in my own bed. Moved my hand towards the cellphone on my bedside table, in pursuit of my continuous glucose monitor graph. My hand moved in slow motion, a trace of its movement in the air behind it. 53 mg/dL. “Not…
Sometimes my glucose meter feels like a random number generator. (And for people who read Friday’s post and thought this blog was immediately archived, it’s still live and will be updated until May 4th. Check back when you feel like it for new content, and then it’ll go Rip Van Winkletown in May. <3) You might also like: Five Random…
(a parody of the Saved by the Bell intro) When I wake up in the morning And my Dexcom wails out a warning, I don’t think I’ll grab the juice box in time. By the time I take a breath Having just there cheated death I’m at corner just between “It’s fine” and “What the BLEEP?!” It’s alright ’cause I’m…
I’m weirdly proud to have brought this term to the DOC back in 2005 or 2006. (My blog has fallen apart/reassembled a few different times since then, so the posts are wonkily formatted, and some are missing.) And every time I read the phrase on someone’s post or see it on a t-shirt or actually take a frigging rage bolus,…
I have these all the time – that feeling of being a little wonky or off and I suspect a low blood sugar, so I look at my CGM or check my blood sugar, and it’s seeing that actual low number that sets off all the symptomatic alarm bells in my body. I become shaky, sweaty, and immersed in a…
The Bright Side
Blood Sugars, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes and Family, Diabetes Complications, Diabetic MommyMy daughter, randomly, asked me what a seizure was. (Turns out someone had talked about it at school as a result of a student with epilepsy.) We talked about it, and then she asked if diabetes could cause seizures. She doesn’t ask me complicated questions about the longterm effects of diabetes very often (barring that one time she asked me, when…
Non-Billable Hours: The Diabetes Stuff That Doesn’t Have Copays
Blood Sugars, Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes Products, Diabetes Videos, Real Life Diabetes, Robot LifeAt first glance, I manage my diabetes using an insulin pump from Tandem Diabetes Care, a continuous glucose monitor from Dexcom, Humalog insulin, and either the mySugr meter kit or a Freestyle one. All of these items require prescriptions and $$$ and involvement from my clinicians. But there’s a number of items that are used regularly to manage my diabetes,…
Last night looked like this: And today I feel like this: Which translates into a low blood sugar that Basal IQ couldn’t fully pull me out of, most likely the result of … I have no idea because I didn’t exercise more than normal, didn’t eat anything that required a shit ton of insulin, wasn’t feeling extra stressed, wasn’t possessed…