Before day four even began, I could already imagine my answer to this blog topic. For those of us who deal with type 1 diabetes on any level, parent, patient, caregiver, or friend. Even those who deal with type 2 diabetes, my answer to this prompt would be the same.

Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary.  Tell us what your Fantasy Diabetes Device would be?  Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc. etc. etc.  The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?

So Brian, what exactly are you getting at here? Don’t get me wrong, I want to post about those amazing fantasy devices or cures out there. The tiny pumps. The accurate meters. The less SCAREY CGM’s. The lancers that do not hurt. Hell even the insulin that goes BAM and done. Yet, these are being covered all over the blogosphere today (Sara you are write (get it write cause you wrote it, haha, can you do parentheses in parentheses??), today I am not linking to the fantasy devices, so BLAH). Everyone on some level is seeking the cure. I WANT IT TOO. However today, I am going to do something different.

The fantasy device I want would be a little sticker/name badge that would instantly answer any diabetes related questions. Either the practical, “Brian you seem out of it are you low?” “YES.” to the practical “That cupcake has sugar in it, can you eat that?” (sidenote I had the most amazing cupcake with lunch today, covered in coconut and buttery cake batter…… crap where was I?) “Yes, yes I can. If you would like a sarcastic response keep reading, for the informed response say skip?” This would apply to all of us. The miracle cure, the if you diet and exercise, cinnamon, Halle Berry, Drew Carey…. I don’t really farting care.


Something that does a PowerPoint explanation without me having to address the issue over and over again. Plus the added hammer function. You know for the person who keeps saying the cynical or condemnatory comments when you eat and properly bolus for that lovely Ice Cream cone you have been dreaming about all day. It will recognize the voice and bonk them on the head. Yet instead of making a bonking noise it will say, “I can eat this butt munch.” Being called a butt munch by an inanimate object may be the only way to teach someone the answer to our desire.

This tech does not have to be all that flashy or amazing. Just enough to end the cycle of stupidity that we deal with on a daily basis.

I really want another cupcake now and that hammer function is so stuck in my head. I need help.


*Disclaimer – Haven’t written a real one of these in a while. Well today’s is not real either. Well the fact that it only has something to say, but not a real warning. I pick on Sara sometimes in my blog. Why? Because I know she can take it and is apparently a glutton for punishment. She is a really good friend though who I love dearly and if she ever asked me to seriously not pick on her in my blog I would seriously consider doing it. Yet I think she likes the mentions from me and gets my attempts at stupid humor and the like. So today’s disclaimer is that Sara = awesome. Just don’t tell her that or she will never let me forget it. 


** Disclaimer to the disclaimer – I realize in writing the above disclaimer I mentioned that Sara was awesome. That was weird, I think she possessed me. I change my warning to Sara is a good, understanding friend, that would never use lows as an excuse to pick on someone or exploit a nickname. Yeah, that works in my favor now. BAM!!!!

So today’s prompt: Yesterday we gave ourselves and our loved ones a big pat on the back for one thing we are great at.  Today let’s look at the flip-side.  We probably all have one thing we could try to do better.  Why not make today the day we start working on it.  No judgments, no scolding, just sharing one small thing we can improve so the DOC can cheer us on!

Is it weird that my first thought was does the improvement have to be diabetes related?? I guess it should be. I mean I could be much better at controlling my sarcasm. I tried that once during lent, I decided to give up sarcastic comments and every time I failed I had to put money in a jar for the poor. After the second day I owed my jar $4,000,000. Oh that was a bad lent.

I mean I have my failures and they are biggies. Ignoring lows. Ignoring the normal guides to what I can and cannot eat or should not eat. Rage bolusing, rage low treating. The list goes on. If one looks at certain things I am a big failure. Hence the #fail. Yet these are all things I know I just need to buckle down and deal with. So I will try, without the entire judging and condemning of me by me. Yet this is not my biggest “#fail”. 

So what can I as a person with type-1 diabetes do better? That is easy. I need to be a more positive presence and advocate. I guess I have to figure out where my local chapter is and see what I can do to get involved in some way. I think that is a biggie for me. I was active in Juvenation for a few years, but I just got bored and sadly ran out of time for that. I started my blog a year ago as part of that decision. I went to Friends for Life to try to meet people and dip my toes into the water, good thing Blue is waterproof as I fell in for a bit.


Yet that is where the advocacy I just kinda stopped. I think as long as I can get clearance from my boss, I will try to do some the Tour de Cure, can’t do better advocacy than that. It gives me a chance to talk and sucker people out of money at the same time. How sweet is that?? I don’t know, but I need to be more active. It is the only way I will feel better on some level with my own dedication or lack there of to try to be a bigger part of the cure.

Today’s prompt from K-Dawg. AKA Karen was interesting especially when I looked at other peoples blogs before I started to truly come up with an idea of my own. Now I have their stories in my head and I hope I don’t accidentally wander down that same train of thought. 

Living with diabetes (or caring for someone who lives with it) sure does take a lot of work, and it’s easy to be hard on ourselves if we aren’t “perfect”.  But today it’s time to give ourselves some much deserved credit.  Tell us about just one diabetes thing you (or your loved one) does spectacularly!  Fasting blood sugar checks, oral meds sorted and ready, something always on hand to treat a low, or anything that you do for diabetes.  Nothing is too big or too small to celebrate doing well!

So with my diabetes, what do I do well?? How about we start with what I so don’t do well. Movie theater popcorn with its fake buttery goodness. #Fail. I tank so often, even with the combo bolus. Brown/white rice?? #Fail. Exercise blood sugars! #Fail. Walking! #Fail. Treating lows. #Fail. Treating highs, well they become lows, so #kindafail.

I am not perfect. Hell I am not even close half of the time. However, if I were to look at what I do well. I sleep great. I eat relatively healthily. I always go to my Doctor’s appointments in the 4 month window I am asked. I could do it every 3 month’s but apparently my doctor does not love me enough to see me 4 times a year. (Oh good, my I’s stopped lining up.)

Taking Karen’s prompt to heart, the one thing I do well is my rotation of infusion sets and always changing my site every three days. It sounds silly and simple. Yet it is something that I do and I do it well. Following some of my crazy dweeps on the Twitter, it amazes me when I see the tweets of “ran out of insulin” or “need to change my infusion set at work #awkward” or “I have the tubing and infusion set, but where’s the reservoir” the list goes on. Mind you I am not judging or criticizing. I love you guys and your uniqueness.

This is just one bit of stress in my life that I am actually able to handle and eliminate. So like clock work/ religiously I will change my site every three days. What do I do with the extra insulin? Why waste it? I don’t. Again, this is not sound advice, hell it is stupid advice. I have an “old” vial of insulin that the extra 5 – 15 units sometimes more or less will go into. That is my emergency supply, my oh shit I am still high what am I going to do supply. Has the insulin skunked itself? No clue. Is is less effective? Possibly. Yet I have this vial which I tap into sometimes when needed. Heck if I am filling up a reservoir and the bottle I am using runs dry, I use the “overflow” bottle to fill it.

Maybe, it is not a good idea, but it works for me. I don’t suggest it as a way to just try or be cheap or anything like that. It is not a great idea on so many levels, but again it works for me. So this is what I do well. I am OCD enough to change my stuff every three days and avoid the running out of insulin’s. Maybe one day I will be brave and just be ready to keep pumping until I run out and than change my site, but I am not there. I am not ready. My quirkiness won’t allow it yet. However, I am sure some of the “bad” influences from my friends may eventually rub off on me.

Karen never makes life easier with her blog topics. Yet, knowing Karen as more than just a name, I get her and why she likes to challenge us. Maybe though she is just being a brat. I don’t know. Either way I love her.

So for the first day we have been given this enticing topic: Find A Friend – It seems the most popular thing about Diabetes Blog Week is that it helps us find blogs we weren’t reading yet and connect with some new blog friends.  With that in mind, let’s kick off Diabetes Blog Week by making some new connections.  Think about the d-blogs you read that you think we may not know about and introduce us to one that you love!!  Let’s all find a new friend today!

The funny thing about this blog topic is that I don’t have an answer or a real way to actually write something here. For those of you that do read me on some sort of regular basis, you may find it odd that I am speechless. It’s just that helping others find a friend or a blog that they have yet to read is hard. I am still new to this blogging thing just over a year old. Most of the people I read you all read. In fact Jess over at Me and D sums it up the best. Well she at least links you to all of the people I typically read and well I am just lazy. Sara who links people to me today calls me out for my blogging issues, yet those are issues of the past. There was a small part of me that didn’t want to link to Sara out of spite. Yet I am beyond that.

(New paragraph) <—– That is an old annoying joke at Sara’s expense. Yes at times my grammar is bad, however since she called me on it back in July/August much to her chagrin I have tried to fix some of her complaints. So I was a little put out that Sara mentioned my blog as having these issues still. In fact I commented on her blog today and this is the response I saw on the twitter. Yes on the twitter it makes me sounds like an old person when I do that.

I love Sara though and I know she of all people gets me and my sarcasm. If you are new to me. I am going to warn you now in my blogs sarcasm is who I am. And well deal with it! No but seriously, that is how I write and well yeah.

Happy dblog week. I look forward to reading you and hopefully your continued finding and reading of me. 

A while ago I had this bold endeavor to start taking songs and change the lyrics to fit living ones life as a person diabetes. They were entertaining and fun to do. However, they took way more time than I ever imagined they would so I stopped. That and trying to do it every week was tedious. Again because of my own BSOS (Bright Shiny Object Syndrome), I can’t be constrained even by myself. Whoops. So I stopped.

Every once in awhile a song comes along though that needs to be dealt with in a way to get it out of my head. For my friends who read this you may know where this is going especially if you were hanging out with us Wednesday night. Someone, had this video she showcased sometime ago to us. She RUINED a song for me. Well not really. I think the video is awesome. It just has lost some of its connotation as I watch the American Revolution playing out in my head now. Thanks Sara! I love you.

Butt seriously, (yes I know it should be but, but we all need some butts in our life) I just get this song stuck in my head from time to time. And well now, I am making it my own. I know what you are thinking! Is Brian really going to write us a new song? Is it going to be to the tune of Dare You to Move??? That would be awesome. Well here ya go. Maybe one day, I will sing it for you all, when I go all Ryan Beatty on you and post songs to Karaoke music. (I have no idea where that reference/idea come from. I need help.)

Anyway, here is the latest “new song” written by me to someone’s hard work and music.

If you have any issues or complaints tough patoots. I don’t really care. Enjoy my fun or curse me in the comments. Not my problem. 

If you follow my statuses on FB you may have noticed a trend of comments since Sunday. I will just say no longer a worry for me.

First had to buy mix. Had none.

No Griddle either. Sigh.

First batch never browns right.

No comment needed.

Nom, nom, nom, nom.

Today I have conceded defeat to the Wego Health Daily Blog challenge. This weekend kicked my butt all over the place, I was without internet most of Sunday and I just could not consign myself to following directions anymore. So I throw in the towel. (crumple, crumple, pleh,) That’s the sound towels make. HAHAHA, I know it’s the pleh that gets me too.

I enjoyed the prompts and hints. I liked having direction for my blog, but my other medical issue, BSOS can only be contained for so long. (Bright Shiny Object Syndrome). I did my best to stay on target, yet if you know me I can only do that for so long. So I am back to my aimless blogging/wandering at least until I find some other band wagon to jump on.

Recently, I have been making in roads on two things diabetes related. The first is the low blood sugars that attack me all the time. I have been a little more aware of things that seem to harass me, so I am handling them better. Plus the night time lows. I eat a Reese’s Egg before I go to sleep if I am sub 100. That seems to deal with any IOB issues that I have been facing as I drift off to sleep. Plus when I wake up in the morning, I can now go to the gym (another things I have started again) without needing to guzzle OJ or something else. This is good.  I am happy with this. Maybe my lows will stabilize and I can stop worrying about this junk.

Also other things that have been going through my head…. Well when I don’t have a brain fart. Speaking of “Brain Farts” I stumbled upon this article on Yahoo today, which helped me not feel so spacey when I do have the brain farts. Read them all, but especially number 1 on doors.

So I missed out on Day 24, so now I am a day behind. Yesterday was a busy and stressful day that I can’t talk about. Not that it is embargoed or anything. However, due to other reasons and I am not talking about it yet. Yesterday was a good day to “skip” though. How many people really need to get linked to Sprinkles the DOC Unicorn anyway??

Oh wait, Day 24 is now done. BONUS!!!

So Day 25 calls for a 3rd person perspective on a memory that Brian has. My philosophy is that well I can do that. In fact let me give you a look at yesterday.