It truly is a good thing my infusion set died yesterday. ‘Cause it was not a wordless Tuesday when I pulled site out and was bleeding so nicely and fine in the shower.

Before Removal

The site after. Doesn’t look to bad, but owww.

Good thing the blood only get my t-shirt.

With a title like this, you would think that there is a big emergency going on in my life. IT’S TRUE!!! My car, emergency driving supplies melted on me. I mean I did have a back up and all, but my emergency became an emergency. Imagine having a top secret stash of gummy peach rings, oh so good covered in sugar and well yumminess.

This is how it is supposed to look.

Yeah, they all look so yummy. But I went into my glove box today and well, this is what I found.

All melted together and gooey

No more rings. Sadness

But well I want them

Even if they are all one unit.

 I was talking to a bunch of DOCers tonight. I don’t even know how to conjugate or blah that one right, so yeah. I showed them all the bag and told them I was still going to eat them.

My original thought was knife and fork. FAIL.

So I ripped off a chunk and dove in. I so need a tripod.

I may have taken a bite out of it too.

Doesn’t matter, it was all good and yummy. Even my sugar allowed me to have fun. It was 61 at that point, so well it was a bonus low fix instead of a need to figure out the complexcrabs in those. Complexcrabs is an entirely different story for another day. Just ask some of the other DOC people. That works. Yes, I got DOC conjugated or sorted out.

My lesson for the day is in the summer melty stuff not good in a hot car. i.e. kit kats, snickers, peanut butter cups, starbursts, gummy peaches. All have failed on me!!! In the winter I have frozen emergency stuff as well. Glucose tabs are in the car, but just not as much fun. It is a joke. What do you all keep in your car??

(Sorry been really busy, I think, I don’t remember, I’m old.)

Bliss or Zen. I have my Pepsi, my Bamboo, and my penguins to protect everything and keep my soda cold.

A look at my meter, (well you aren’t going to get a look at my current meter, ’cause well it is at home and well it currently drowning in a see of used test strips. I really need a trash can near where I test).

I may have mentioned in the past in fact I am sure I have mentioned the fact that I am using the Animas Ping Pump. Newest version of pump, is named Blue. Was Murph though. That being said one might assume that I have been using the Ping Meter Remote. However, to be honest with you after much thought and such I stopped using the meter. Reason #1 I was blowing through batteries way to often, like every month I needed new batteries. I don’t think I have tested that MUCH. #2 The meter and case did not fit into my travels easily and I had yet to get my murse. (The Murse may show up in the next few days in someone else’s blog as well. If that is the case I will add a comment here.) #3 It really was a big thing, I wanted smaller profile and I did not use the meter remote hardly nor did I use the food database often either, so Good Bye.

I wandered into the Bayer Contour USB about a year ago and have been using it since. Last month I was a Children With Diabetes’ Friends for Life Conference in Florida and while doing some swag shopping, I was given a coupon for $30 off a new Contour USB. I figured bonus, free meter and I know I like it. Plus now I can have a second meter and not have to drag it with me everywhere I went.

So after a year, I figured I might have some insightful things to say. And I do. I love it. The meter is great. First of all it is small and compact, granted the case for holding the meter was not one that I would ever us. It did not really accommodate the meter and other all that well. This is my one complaint to be honest with you. I keep my back up insulin in my meter case, this case just did not have the ability to hold two bottles of insulin and a syringe or two. So I moved the meter into my old one touch mini case and all is kosher.

Inside the case. It is really tight and the lancer + strip case are as big as the meter = fail

What am I supposed to keep in that sleeve?? My dentist’s bill?? No that I leave on my desk to get into pictures

Otherwise, the meter has been nice. It is a very simple device to setup and you can turn alarms on and off as to what you are looking for. i.e. retest alarms and the likes. You can do basic logs of why your sugar is the way it is. Pre/post meal, exercise, stuff like that. You can’t type in what caused each sugar, but that is okay with me.

The screen is color and nicely done, so you can see it in the dark, which is a bonus along with a light up spot where the strip goes in. This way you can actually have an idea of where you need to send the blood. The sample size is small enough, however I have probably lost about 40 strips to the trash can Gods as I did not have enough blood. But hey, nobody/no meter is perfect.

The meter is accurate on most things. I mean as far as I can tell it has been good, usually within 5 – 10 points of my Dexcom. I think that is key. Oh and being a USB meter you can recharge it, no battery necessary. Also, there is the ability to upload your results to a Bayer software program and download or print all of you sugars, pretty sweet (yes, I went there).

The graph’s are nice and easy to read and can be customized for any use. Sugars from the week, month, 3 month’s and so on. It is good to have something easy to hand into the doctor. Here is a sample of my results.

This is only a small sampling of readings and numbers and what the program can do, but still awesome.

It’s good. This morning I was entertained by the results I got with my test. I know I was a little low, but this is the screen shot I got….

I am curious about what the medical advice is that I should be following, but I digress. I retested and got a 49, which is better, but ehhh…. (if you look closely you can see the used strip grave yard under my lancer).

I am happy with my Contour USB meter, it is nice and easy to use and all that jazz. The software is both PC and Mac friendly and again easy to work with. No complaints from me in the least. Thank you Bayer for the coupon and stuff.

~Disclaimer: I paid for all expenses involved in attending FFL, including airfare, hotel, food, and conference fees.  I was not asked to blog about the experiences, and crazy as they are all of the thoughts are my own. Bayer did not ask me to talk about their meter or any of their products. Yet I am happy too, help if they see this and want help with a practical meter case design, please let me know (we all need to plug something from time to time. I choose my brilliant mind… haha!)~

I had no creative title for this post as of yet. So I figured this is where to start.

8 month’s I could not have imagined so many different things happening in my life. Mind you the 8 month’s is a fictitious number, I don’t know how long ago this all started.

8 month’s ago, I did not see myself creating a d-blog and joining an interesting online community, but I have.
8 month’s  ago, I couldn’t imagine participating in an awesome d-blog week, but I have, 
8 month’s ago, my interest and involvement over at Juvenation had sputtered for lack of a better word, but I have.
8 month’s ago, I could never imagine myself going off to Florida to meet a bunch of people I had never met before, in this case Kimmy and C and now so many others, but I have.
8 month’s ago, I did no see myself spitefully gorging myself on a Baskin Robbins Peanut Butter cup Sundae at an online Ice Cream Social, but I have.

(In case you ever wanted to know what a 90 day or year supply of lancets looks like. Yeah it is 8 boxes)

I preface this comment with my saying, this is not a less than subtle attempt to get added adoration and birthday wishes from all of my fan out there. Because, well it isn’t.

30 is a number just like any number. Until you actually hit it. I mean, it’s nothing to big, but people seemed to make a big deal of it. So I was all weirded, worried, crazed about the fact that I was turning 30 yesterday. And you know what. Nothing happened. I didn’t turn into a piece of bacon. I didn’t see any unicorns. I didn’t turn “old”. Nothing. Why??

Well, 30 is just that a number. It is between 29 and 31. It is small, infinitesimal. It is just a number. Yet people get worked up about it. Same as those who get worked up about turning 40, 50, 60. Just numbers. And you can deal with it. (Almost said you can do this, but that is someone else’s schtick.) I mean, yes some mornings I wake up feeling older than a 16 year old. But you know what I am. THIRTY is just a number.

One of the kids in my Youth Group made a comment to me yesterday on Facebook, Happy Birthday…. Since you have seen so many of them. To which I responded. “Yes, yes I have. But I also can drive past 11:00.” There are so many things I can do, that in the past I wasn’t much able to do. Drive, drink, buy cigarettes (not that I ever smoked.), buy adult movies(not that I ever would.), vote, make my own decisions. All fun things, all great stuff. And you know what 30 is only a number.

But that got me thinking, since it is only a number. Why worry? Why sweat the small stuff. In a birthday wish from Jess, she said “Wishing you happy bgs all day long! :)” That was an awesome wish from her. And the numbers were pretty sweet… I mean awesome. Shouldn’t say sweet ’cause that might make me forget about moderation or turn me into a sugarholic or something…. Wait where was I? Oh yes, a different type of number. The sugar numbers, the blood glucose numbers. The numbers that actually are important.

Well I mean yes they are important, but no they truly aren’t. Yesterday I ate a cupcake my sugar spiked, but I also bolused so my sugar evened out. I had some chips, so my reading went up, but I also bolused so my number went down. I over swagged, so my number went down. So I ate a cookie (OMG yummy). Yet each time I saw a different number. I didn’t sweat it as it was only a number. I mean I like my numbers to stay somewhere between 80 and 125. But if they are not there I can fix it. I can balance it out. All is good.

It is only a number, an important number for us. But again only a number. If you end up getting a 210 on your meter. You know what to do. Bolus based upon what you know you need or your pump tells you. Check your infusion site if you have a pump. You know what to do. If you are low, you drink OJ, eat a glucose tab. Ingest a cupcake. It doesn’t matter. You know what you need to do. I am not perfect, my numbers are not perfect. I swag and fail. I count my carbs and fail. I get attacked by #complexcrabs. It happens. But I move on. I need to.

I know I can’t dwell on the number. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. But I can try again. Numbers are important at times, but again they are only a number. What you do with them does matter. How you live your life and not let them rule your life is what matters. You Can Do This. Damn, I did it anyway!!

Today’s post is really short. I mean like Sara short…. I mean, uhhh crap.

I went to the Endocrinologist for my 4 month check up. It still cracks me up, that unless I really have any major concerns, my average appointment length is more than half as long as it takes me to get to see my doctor. But I am not complaining, Dr. Kissin is a really great lady and very easy to talk to when needed.

Here’s the run down.

Standard Greeting/ Response
Any blood work?? Oh, here’s the file.
Everything looks good.
Here’s the stuff from Beepy and my meter.
Wow…
Any changes to your pump/basal settings?
Okay, lets hop on the scale…..
(They always set the starting weight so low, apparently I truly don’t look my weight).
Hmm… You’ve gained about 10 pounds. (Crap!)
Alright, lets check your breathing, pulse, blood pressure.
All’s good! (Woot.)
Let me see your feet.
Did you know your ankles swollen?? (What?!?! Well I’ll be damned, I mean it was sore and all.)
You should probably ice that. (I guess I shouldn’t play basketball tonight?)

Well you really need to get your eyes looked at… I will I just need to find someone in Clifton, who does that. I am not going to drive back to my other person. Fine, fine.

Any prescription refills? One Touch Delica, okay no problem. Your all set. Have a good day.

15 minutes tops. I love it. I mean, I know that when/if I have issues she will talk to me more. We spoke about the Ketone Meter and everything, so it was all good.

Now I am going to post a picture of what my a1c was. If you want to look at it scroll further. If you don’t, stop here. Today was a decent day, other than the 10lbs. Need to get back on a routine. Only 25 more days to the Outer Banks.

Recently I have hit a wall. Actually, figuratively, hypothetically. I don’t know. The wall is just hanging out there tormenting me. I hate the wall.

Stupid wall. Maybe it is burn out. Not the normal run of the mill diabetes burn out. I mean, do I have days where it is a pain in the ass to test, change, bolus, basal, whatever? Yes. But I am fine with that. I mean we all have things we hate. I mean getting up at the crack ass of dawn drives me nutso, I think I don’t like that more than I don’t like my diabetes (weird). But such is life.

It is the other things about life that I am tired of. While people tell me I am thin and all, I am not thin nor am I fat. But my goal was before my next doctor’s appointment (tomorrow), that I was going to drop 15 pounds. I’ll be lucky if I only gained 5 or so pounds. My goal was to run more but also work on my sprinting and training for sports such as Frisbee and the like. That failed. I am just so annoyed with myself. I mean there is so much that I could have been doing and have done not one thing. I had a routine, that’s shot. It’s all gone, the motivation everything. The frikin brick wall is out to get me.

It is just a pain. We set these goals, and yet never finish them. But where do I go? I know I can start from scratch, but why? I had a great routine going until the ankle incident in the fall. That set me back. There were other incidents as well. I feel stronger, my ankle is great. I should be out there, yet the excuses are there time and time again. I am just annoyed. Tomorrow’s appointment with my endo will be interesting. I mean, my control has been pretty good. Not to many High’s and my Low’s are in better control. I am hoping for a good number, but we shall see. I just need to get over this hump.

Who knows maybe the hump is the inevitable mid, midlife crisis. I turn 30 on Sunday so that also has me in a funk. Not the age or number. No, not at all. The “old man” aches and pains that I have. The loss of energy. Who knows. I am tired and beat up. Not motivated at all. What a joke, what a waste. I need to turn it around, but every time I try or start, that bloody wall is there.

Today is a fail in my eyes.
I have no song and I can hear the cries.
I am so tired, since I couldn’t sleep.
The song part of my brain is not making a peep.

Yeah, sorry that is all I have as of right now. I have the music in my head, I just can’t think of anything. Well, truthfully I am just really busy. My boss has been away the past two weeks and I am now the “responsible” one in charge of things. Can I handle it? Well the normal stuff yes. Not the maintenance man jumping from shifting scaffolding and breaking his femur. The multiple funerals and other things that seem to only come in when the boss is away. The list of things keeps going on. Yet all is good. I just need sleep and when the boss comes back on Sunday I am all about laziness.

I mean there are some positives out there and I am not speaking about the 100+ heat outside right now. I have had a chance to think about things. Like last night, when I was trying to sleep. It finally happened around 3:00 AM. I thought about changes in life, in what I should be blogging about things like that. I decided to blog about some FFL Swag next week. I just need to speak to the proper people about certain things. I thought about maybe, what I can do to tweak my blog in general. Pictures, maybe a new look, who knows.

But truthfully last night, I thought about how lucky I am and how lucky so many of us are. To have some many friends out in the DOC is amazing. To have met them just a few weeks ago, was awesome. I mean before meeting them my involvement was in the inner/outer fringes of things. Twitter was the sound that birds made. Tweet was the same. I mean I have had twitter but never the need to deal with it or really use it. That changed.

I have names, I have faces, I have friends who understand. I know they can be forgiving, yet mocking of auto-correct typos. Yes, I am talking to you #complexcrabs. They make me laugh when I need it. I am so glad to have my own office and desk. Because some days the stuff these people say kill me. I mean, in tears laughing my ass off. I have support that I never knew of. Yes, I have a great endo. I have a really good friend who is a PWD, but never anyone to really, really talk to. I have the inspiration to get more involved. Granted, the “Great Poison Ice Cream Scandal” is something I am yet willing to wade into. That is more because the nicest thing in my vocabulary at this point is asshat. So I think I will let coolerish heads prevail.

I have the support I need when I need it, which is something that has been lacking in my life. All of this is stuff I thought about last night, while trying to sleep. And while yes I told Kimpants (auto-correct renames her Implants) I tried to read her blog to fall asleep last night. That is not true. I have people who I can just say words to and know they understand. I have a knowledge base about certain things and ideals out there. I mean thanks to Sara, I now know how to make my Dexcom last longer than it ever could. Thanks to people like Kim, C, Jess, Jacquie, Scott, Scott, Martin, Heather, Karen, George, Kerri, I have a way to laugh all the time. I mean this is only the beginning. There are others out there I may have forgotten. Lorraine and Shay. The coolest Type Awesome Josh and Becca the T9. OMG so many. This is so great and wonderful. I am so blessed and lucky right now.

It’s a wonder with all of these thoughts racing through my head, why I couldn’t sleep last night. Thank you guys, you rock. And yeah Halloween with real candy is so on.

Again, thank you all. You have passed on more than you know and I hope I too can emulate you on some levels. Just not the in love with Sam Talbot that C and Jacquie and Sara were toting. That is all you girls… :-p