In world in which social networking is king, Twitter and Facebook definitely are the ones people know about. In the world of people dealing with diabetes either type 1 or type 2 there are sites out there as well. One being Juvenation while there is another one out there called TUDiabetes. Both sites offering a place for people to chat, talk, find friends, you know all the stuff out there designed to find our own “community” so to speak.

The thing that gets me is the characters that are out there, those who join the sites for various reasons. Support, friendship, just to overcome depression, newly diagnosed, and just for all and all joy in talking to those who understand what it truly means to be a person with diabetes. Where if we use certain terms it is all good, where SWAG bolus’ is a normal phrase or when someone talks about how they have been high for two days straight no one looks at them funny. It’s great, it’s fun, and well it is normally a very welcoming community to all, even those who are just seeking attention (but that is a whole different issue).

Anyway as things come up in these conversations, one thing led to another and well it seemed like we had a small soap opera going on right in the middle of the forums. I for one was very entertained. As this continued though, it was mentioned that was a Soap Opera was forming and it needed a name. For me I really started to think about this, and concluded that the greatest name for a Diabetes themed Soap Opera would be “As the Test Strip Fills”. This led to other thoughts and ideas though. If someone were cast to play you in this new Soap Opera, who would you have do it?
The answer is not as simple as one would think if you were being honest with yourself. I mean you would want an actor to be able to portray you in the essence of who you truly are. I mean, how awesome would it be to try and get Christian Bale or Orlando Bloom to play me? Cool, but come on Depp is to old, Bloom is well yeah. I mean to get to the character that makes me who I am. I don’t know.

We are all complex characters, living with diabetes adds a whole new level to who is playing us. I mean anyway can imitate my sarcasm and sense of humor, well not anyone but many can nail that. But what about the rest of me? The other side of things to go through the sweats, shakes, black outs (thankfully none in the past year). To go through the annoyance at times of testing high and trying to figure out what the heck I just ate that did that to me. To show the vulnerability when I am just to tired to care, yet know I need to move forward with all things D, for my well being and the well being of those around me. It adds something. I don’t know about this. In the end I think I know who I think would do a great job at being me, well other than myself of course. I would have it be either Elijah Wood even though he is like 6 inches shorter than myself or maybe Tobey Maguire. They might just get me.

But “As the Test Strip Fills”, needs more actors. Who would be you and why?

So one of my constant quests for addressing the infamous lows we people with diabetes run into is the how and what to eat. Given a chance if my CGM tells me I am low, I get excited. I mean come on I can eat something without fear of having to bolus and just enjoy the sweetness of the yummy snack I have chosen.
The problem for me, is once I get started who wants to stop? Yes, I can always consume the chalky/tasteless glucose tabs in the various containers hidden throughout my room and office, yet they just don’t do it for me anymore. For a bit I was using peanut butter cups, which was awesome, I bought the post Halloween sale candy and hid that in places. The problem though was well for me, that combination would result in me devouring a butt load more than I should. So I decided to graduate to something else, again small to eat because otherwise I would just devour the entire thing and well yeah. So what to try next?
Well the next culprit was a mixed bag of pocket sized nerds, figuring what the hey, I devour two of these boxes and I am all set:
Meet culprit number one.

Him and his friend, Laffy Taffy came in a Halloween size bag (again do I ever love discount candy, I admit it I am cheap). I wish I was able to post pictures of the Laffy Taffy, but well I ate the last piece in my desk yesterday and my trash has been emptied. Well downing a few of these or Laffy Taffy seems to not do much. In looking at the happy little trend graph I get from Beepy McBeeperson (yeah my Dexcom has an awesome first and last name), I will spike above what I was at for about an hour and resume my normal course of hanging out nice and low.

Long story short my Nerds and Laffy Taffy do not seem to work as they are supposed to. If I consume 5 pieces of Laffy Taffy it claims to give me 30 grams of carbs, i can only assume 2 small boxes of nerds from my online research gives me about 24 grams of carbs.

For me, they are not a success, unless I go for massive intake of either of them. Not much luck for me. They appear to be a phantom free food for me. I only get spikes before i flatline at whatever the number I get from my Dexcom. It is very bizarre.

Maybe one day I will find what works for me both in raising my sugar and keeping me from over devouring and needing to bolus and start the whole process over again.

Well, I told myself one day I would get around to possibly doing something like this. I have seen the fun some of my friends in the real world have with their own blogs and figured hey, I am a pretty funny guy on paper. In real life my jokes tend to die awkwardly and painfully for me at times. However, I found the best way around it is to laugh at my own jokes, not in that awkward laugh way but in a real time laughing style. This way people are forced to laugh with me and not at me.
So, while I hope that most of this will be about my life as a person with Type 1 Diabetes, I cannot be certain as to the direction or path I will go. Things change on a daily basis, sometimes they take off and move fast and other times we hit bumps along the way. The first thing is that grammar wise I tend to avoid the word “diabetic”, unfortunately in society that word is used to classify people in many different ways. More often then not in a negative way. But this is not what I am here to complain or talk about. It can sometimes be the everyday challenges of dealing with being a person with diabetes, what I run into my own personal perspective on things, and well a hope to provide some entertainment as well.
A little more about me, I am 29 right now, I was diagnosed way back during my Freshman year in High School, January of 1996 to be precise. Roughly 15/16 years ago, I always mess that math up, and yet I was a banker before I decided to do something else with my life. (That will come up at a later point). So more than half my life I have lived through this disease and I have suffered and sucked and well had some major malfunctions over the years. Yet, I have survived through it all. Things have gotten better and now I am honestly trying hard to do what I need to live to be an old, old, grumpy man complaining about the good ol’ days.
Now I am just rambling and once I do that I know I should probably stop for the day. However, I figure I should at least explain the name for my Blog. This is a line I say a few times a week. Obviously not the (Buzz, Buzz), that would be Beepy my Dexcom Seven Plus CGM. We get along great other then when he decides to Buzz at some very inappropriate times. That’s when people look at me and say aren’t you going to get that. My response is usually to grab my pocket to silence Beepy and just go whoops, sorry. Not my cell phone and continue on as they try to figure out what I keep in my pockets. (which is tons of stuff: cell phone, gum, wallet, keys, Beepy, Murph (my pump), and other things as well). So yes, that is a little bit of who I am and why I am here right now.