Today, is just a day of things that truly annoy me. Not just d-related, because in the grand scheme of things sometimes people are just clueless about certain things. Just as I am clueless at times about other things.
(Back story, cause you need it)A few years back, like 10 I had ear surgery to fix a problem from an ear infection gone bad. The surgeon while nice, was a little arrogant and well after two failed attempts I gave up on the entire surgery to fix my hearing. The first attempt to replace the deteriorating inner ear bone was a big no go, because the doctor opted to use the “cheaper” prosthesis. This apparently fell over and did me no good. So we decided to go in for a second shot, this time though, while I don’t blame the surgeon, the doctor cut the prosthesis just a shy to short, so while it is not falling over the vibrating timpanic membrane was not hitting it enough to fully convey the sound. After the second consultation, where the surgeon was a bit rude in my opinion I said f-it and would just deal with things via hearing aid. This I have been doing for sometime now.
Now in the present day, my hearing aid is failing and frankly if I am going to be shelling out $3,000 for a new one since insurance doesn’t cover it, why not look into a different surgeon and see if maybe he can fix the problem permanently and not have to worry about this problem again. So my dad and I went to access my past medical records file he has of me and can’t seem to find anything about the ENT i had visited back in the day. We looked at the phone book for the town he was in and we have not been able to find any names that sound familiar. (sigh)
Yesterday, I had a brilliant idea, why not call the hospital and see if they have records from when I was in for my surgery, or even maybe a list of people who were affiliated with them at this time. While I can’t nail the date of the surgery exactly, I can come pretty close since I know I ended up missing my best friends grandfathers funeral because of the surgery.
My old co-worker when I had work study in school has a daughter who works in the hospital I was at so I asked her to ask her daughter to maybe give me a clue where to start. I got an e-mail this morning with the info I needed, but it also had the e-mail that my co-worker had sent to her daughter.
She basically gave the daughter a little back story about me, hearing aid, nice guy (I swear I am), and the last line mentioned that I was a diabetic. Okay, fine weird but fine, the thing that got me though was the phrase she used. “He has diabetes pretty bad for a young man.”
I don’t know even typing that statement again, really just rankles me. I have it pretty bad. I mean once you have diabetes you have it. It’s not like there are different levels. It is an illness that affects me yes, it is a pain in the ass and all, but still can someone have diabetes pretty good? Or maybe have it, kinda sorta bad??
I don’t know maybe I am over reacting, maybe I am being extra sensitive, but seriously sigh… So that was the thing that just annoyed me.
I had a list, but to be honest, I just got myself so frustrated that I think I am going to wander away before I say something really obnoxious. Maybe even pretty bad… Sigh.

So today is really not 100% d-related although it does bring up my own discussions and thoughts on a few things. The weather is getting nicer and nicer, which is awesome. This means I can go outside and play. The playing is awesome, the running and bike riding is even better. I love this weather. Granted I am certain that at some point there will be one more snow storm. Why?!?! Well to tell you the truth, snow wise even though we were happily pounded, we really did escape relatively well. It was just the amounts of the various storms that were painful. I guess I will have to pack my ski’s away now though.

With the change in weather though comes the joys of outdoor running and basals and biking and basals and playing outside(yes I still play outside) and basals. If you get my drift. There are some days in which I truly have yet to sort out a proper exercise routine and maintaining my BS and it drives me nuts. There are days pre-run, where I will be happily sitting at 150 intentionally, so I will drink some OJ, just as a precaution and run my little heart out. I go for about an hour and time depending on the route I take. It’s great, it’s awesome, and than I bottom out all of a sudden. (That’s why I now I have $5 stuck in my iPod case). This fall there is one time I can remember barely making home because I bottomed out faster than ever. Why though? Because running and me and my basal is not a good combo. I have tried the entire lower basal and hour before running or two hours before running. No luck, I have tried eating something, no luck. Yet there are other days where I will go for my run and end up with a BS of 150 + post run and there were no changes.

I love exercise, I love running, I need to drop my winter and hibernation weight and such. I go nuts though trying keep everything in check. Pizza I can more or less handle now. French Fries, normally no problem. Ice Cream, piece of cake…. Piece of cake, piece of cake…. Wait, see now I am distracted. Exercise… Screw it. Sigh.

One day it will work out. One day it will be awesome. But alas now, blah!

So in an unfortunate occurrence Murph chose the other day to have some serious issues with buttons and has decided now is the time for him to go into an early retirement. It is tragic really that he is gone. We have bonded over the past three years, but once your buttons start to go there is nothing you can about it. It all started on Monday night, well to be honest his buttons have been slowly failing the past few weeks, but I rarely use the up and down buttons (I am all about Swagging and Audio Bolusing) so the need to replace was minimal. Yet Monday night he locked up on me and no amount of poking and prodding would unstick the OK button for some time. It was sad.
Yesterday morning I called Animas and told the nice lady of my issue and she was very helpful. Good line of questioning, are there cracks in the case? No. The pad the buttons on are on, is there any hardening of cracking? Well, I mean the buttons are faded and rubbed, but all was fine otherwise. Has the pump been exposed to water recently? (aside from an accidental jump into a recently flushed toilet) No, he has been pretty much out of the water his whole life. He doesn’t like to swim, but I know he can. Where do you normally keep your pump? Well my belt, my pocket, attached to me in someway shape or form. That always seems to work the best.
Alrighty, well I will get a new pump out to you by tomorrow. And just send the old one back. No problem.
So I got the new pump, not sure if I will rename it or just go with Murph. I may cheap out and call him Blue though. That way I can follow, Blue’s Clues. I miss Blue’s Clues… Sorry, but yeah. It is amazing though to see how beat up a pump can get over the course of a few years. Now on to my favorite part, making sure I actually transfer all the data over. I guess I should sync my pump to EzManager or something…

Either way here be the old and new. Obviously the old is still attached to me.

So I went to the Endo today and had a lovely talk with my Doctor. She is a great lady and I truly appreciate her. We talked about any concerns I had, my numbers, and also the issues with my insurance and Dexcom.
She told me she has been in communication with the insurance and people on her office staff are still working on the getting a conversation all setup. So hopefully things will work out for the good. The funny thing is she laughed when I told her the reason for denial of claim… Again, if you missed that note, “your claim is being denied due to lack of hypoglycemic events/incidents.” Duh, ’cause the friking thing is doing its job. Oh well. Otherwise it is all good.
Now I could talk about my numbers and everything, but it is not my thing to talk about that. My a1c is good and we will leave it at that. I am happy, she is happy, the entire world is happy. On my way out, I booked my next appointment and paid my co-pay of $15.
I don’t mind that, but the thing is that my appointment was 15 minutes long. Again, not a complain. However, that means I just paid my endo’s office $1 a minute. Not to mention what they are taking in from my insurance. While yes we can argue that malpractice insurance, office staff, rent, and so on are why things cost so much. Yet, imagine if you got paid $1 for every minute you worked.
In my line of work, I figure that per week I week I work off and on about 70 hours or so a week. Which means, i would make $4,200 a week or $218,400 a year. How awesome would that be?

What would you do with that kind of salary??
Well I would be so happy, yet to tell you the truth I am not sure about what I would truly do with that money. I mean some of it would go to the JDRF and their research. After that I would hope it would go towards good causes and a sweet car as well. Maybe a gold plated pump or something like that as well. How about y’all????

Last night, I was utterly exhausted but after a meeting I was having, i was all set to hit the hay, even though it was only like 8:00. I know, I live a glorious life. I get a text from one of my co-workers that said, “Barb, Denise, and Doreen all going to diner. Join us.” So I did, I had fries and cheese. Oh so good, and I even managed to bolus right on this un’. Woke up at 75, which doesn’t happen when I deal with fries and crap normally.
As we were chatting the night away one of my Denise had commented on the bracelet I was wearing. She told me it was pretty nifty. So I looked at it and went oh… Yeah, that’s my ID bracelet. And the three of them were all like, “those things have come a long way.” And truly the Medic Alert, or emergency ID bracelet or whatever you want to call it has truly come a long way. I mean, back in the day I only had one option, the medic alert. I opted for the necklace, and it served its purpose over the years, but really it was not all that trendy or even nice. I actually, just tossed the sucker the other day… Anyway, now the options for bracelets or alerts are all over the place.
I recently bought a new ID and three corresponding bracelets to go with it. Up until the new ID came in I was playing with a different bracelet, just a plain blue rubber one, but after so long of being close to the hotness that is my body, it was kinda permaformed to me. So that is gone. Still held the old ID though. Now, I have three cool bracelets and two alerts ID’s for anyone to notice. And notice they shall, ’cause again they are so eye popping. Which is awesome.

I am currently sporting the top one, but they are all really sweet. The other side of the top one just says, “Type-1 Diabetes” the older middle one says “Insulin Dependent Diabetic See cell/wallet”. Yet with my new phone I have no emergency contact info and my wallet, well after taking an unplanned dip in a river that info is gone as well. So it is not as on top of things as I would like for it to be. But yeah, these and many other awesome Alert ID’s can be found at N-Style ID. This is just me saying they are awesome, I have no ties to them. If I did, I would still be doing this, but more often and shamelessly.

So I had all of these plans and ideas to talk about this week. Yet somehow the week got ahead or away from me or something like that. I mean it’s a good thing and all. This just means my grand plan is going to be delayed until I get more time to talk about things.
The bonus of the week for me is that I got to meet one of the members of the DOC who I met over at a little place called Juvenation. That was kinda cool. She is the same person in life as she is online. Which is awesome to know, cause well sometimes people just aren’t who they plan to be. I did warn her though that if some crazy person had jumped out of the elevator. I was so set to run and hide behind a ficus or something like that. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, I got a lovely letter from my insurance company denying the submission from Dexcom back in October to pay for a new unit and transmitter. Nothing like quick notice after approving the claim. The reason, well the reason for those on paper may make sense, is that there is no documented history of recent major hypoglycemic events…. Yeah, that’s right. As of late, maybe in the past year since having beepy, I have had what you may call a “major hypoglycemic event”. Well okay, your right the CGM can help those who are hypo unaware avoid the lows which can lead to blackouts, car accidents, the 8 different types of hypos out there. I stumbled upon this link today and it made me laugh. So I hope Alison, doesn’t mind that I am linking it. If she does, it will disappear one day.
But yes since starting with the Dexcom and even the MM Sensor before that, my major lows have more or less stopped. I mean, yes the freakish one has happened from time to time. I would think this is a huge success. But well, I will be fighting this one if my doctor ever calls me back. Sigh. Anyway, that was only two things for the week. I will catch up eventually. Next time, I discuss alert bracelets… I hope.

Those words are words that can strike fear and intimidation into the hearts of many. Myself, sometimes but not always. There is something that can be so refreshing when one goes for a nice walk on the treadmill, run on the elliptical, lifts some weights. I used to do it all the time, however with work, life, and well being out of school I stopped the gym, cause well it is bloody expensive. This winter though with all the snow has made it difficult to actually go outside and play.
So I made myself a deal. I want to trim up and be ready for when I eventually go away on vacation, nothing major because people keep telling me I am thin enough or skinny. I know better, plus this winter has killed me. So this weekend I manned up and spent some money and got a gym membership, some friends of mine go there already and I figure if I can get a routine and the motivation going, it would all be good.
Today, I had my complimentary personal training session. What the hell was I thinking? That thing killed me. All very basic moves, good to know, but way past what I was in shape to do. Lunges, stretches, all stuff my wii tried to get me to do. Needless to say, I am kicking myself now. The interesting thing was during the personal training session I had to fill out a questionnaire about myself. The last thing on the list stated, are there any medical or personal issues your trainer should be aware of? So me being me, I put down diabetic. With my own beliefs and such, I should have put down type-1 diabetes, but well I didn’t. The trainer looked everything over and surprised me with the question, “Type-1 or Type-2?” If nothing else he got a positive response in my book for that. At the end of the session he did make the blanket statement of the personal training would help me in general with my diabetes. I took it as just a comment, not based upon him not being educated about the two different types of diabetes. I mean at least I didn’t think so. So it was pretty good.
Granted, while the training would be beneficial, would kick my ass, and would motivate me, at the same time paying $99 for a registration fee plus $30 a session on top of the $45 I am paying for my membership would cripple me financially. I mean I do have to have money to feed C tomorrow night and stuff like that.
Why are gym’s so expensive??

I hate the winter. I really do. The dries me out and makes me grumpy too.

Haha, bad poetry aside, there is something about having bits and pieces of sticky stuff attached to my skin over the course of the winter that just drives me absolutely nuts. Normally, my infusion sites and I play well, same can be said for my CGM to a lesser extent. However as the winter progresses, my already dry skin starts to go the south side of itchy. In years past I have tried so many different things to solve this problem. There were the attempts to use baby oil or cocoa butter daily. Yet that only resulted in my sites deciding that they only wanted to live for about a few hours before taking a nose dive outta my skin.

Truth be told I am at wits end, my infusion sites will start to go crazy by day two, even worse because I dry out like a bloody prune, when i comes time detach my site, not only is it dry and itchy, but it is stuck to me worse than  a puppy with a ball.

Yumm.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, itchy dry skin. The winter and I are enemies. Even worse is trying to stretch the CGM out for longer than a week. After about 4 days, the adhesive starts to play with the dry skin and man do I ever just want to rip my body parts off to stop the itching.

I love to ski, I love playing Ultimate in the snow, I love every and everything about the winter. Except for my dry body and the itchy, bitchy, dryness that comes with the heaters and everything else.

My CGM is set to vibrate as it can be less awkward at times when it just buzzes in my pocket. I realize on some level there is much irony in the fact that I call my CGM Beepy, when it hardly ever really does that. But who is to say that I am normal, not me.
Over the past few month’s I have been thinking seriously about all of the times my CGM has decided now is a great time to make some type of noise when it really shouldn’t have. Either because I missed the first Buzz as I was walking or just happily buzzing away in the silence. This list is in no particular order.
1.) In the middle of a conversation with my boss.
2.) While talking with students at my school.
3.) While celebrating morning mass.
4.) In the confessional.
5.) During the movies.
6.) While sleeping (granted it is good that it does, it is still annoying).
7.) During a Doctor’s appointment with my Endo as I am telling her, oh things are pretty good, sure I get the occasional lows. (Buzz, Buzz), what’s that? Uhhh…….
8.) While driving with my mom in the car, she over reacts.
9.) Roller coasters, it’s really hard to do anything when the bloody CGM is beeping at me as I am holding on for dear life.
10.) When is the most annoying for you????

These past few days I have been having some pump related “issues”. Mind they are not malfunctions, but it seems I have had this unknown and undiagnosed desire to attach Muprh to any and everything I can get my hands on.
Many people out there I am sure have run into the random tubing issues, but apparently this week has been an epic fail for me in regards to who and what my tubing has become attached to. Mind you since my recent move of infusion sites I have had a little extra tubing to deal with but after a few years it’s not like I am new to tubing sticking out of my pocket.
In the past two weeks, lets look at what I have attached or misplaced my pump tubing in:

1.) There was the door knob incident, that was a little painful, but hey we all catch our tubing on that from time to time.
2.) There was the time I caught myself in Victor or more precisely tangled up in the hands of Victor one of the kids in my Youth Group.
3.) After a recent run, I had to detangle myself from my iPod as there was an apparent meeting of the wires, which I was not invited to.
4.) The other morning, I guess I was just having one of those tossing and turning nights, I woke up with my pump wrapped around my waist twice, instead of clipped to my clothing. And as many of us know at 6:00 in the morning we are not always the most alive/awake/alert/enthusiastic people this early in the morning.
5.) Seatbelt, yeah, I was all about doing a coffee/dunkin bolus and when I pulled Murph out of my pocket to bolus I did not put him back in the same way and was tangled in my seatbelt.
6.) Sticking with the car them, I did shut my tubing in the door. That was just more annoying than anything else when I realized I had done it.
7.) Lastly, the zipper to my pants… Yeah, yeah, you would thing I would have the entire pants button/zipper thing figured out. Apparently not so much and I can’t even count the number of times over the years that I have tangled my belt in my tubing.

The good news is that I just laughed about it. The bad news is well, really there is no bad news. We take things as they come and move forward. It could be worse, I could be talking about the places that I have misplaced my pump. (those are interesting, thankfully few and very uncommon)