Visit

Today I went to the hospital I stayed at in September, whose CDE I consulted through November. I wrote a letter to leave there for her, but she came down to the lobby and talked with me for a while instead.
It was a really nice conversation. She hi-fived me when I told her my A1c had been 6.5% in January, asked me if I was thinking about a pump. Knew what I was talking about when I said that this body of mine is just plain weird. Told me she'd just been wondering about me. Said she would consider me hypo unaware since I don't feel 60s, and that my insurance generally will cover the cgms as long as my endo signs a paper saying I'm hypo unaware. Told me to say hi to my parents.
She's going to be at one of the ADA camps this summer, and I'm thinking I might go too, as a counselor in training or something. It might be nice.
Looking at the forms for summer camps that ask about what the campers' ratios are, it makes me laugh to think about going three weeks with the same I:C ratio.
She asked me how long it's been and I realized anew that my half anniversary is Thursday.

Charted Lantus Time Blood Sugar Numbers

For the last five months, I've put my Lantus-time blood sugar numbers into a
pie chart. These are mostly the first reading after I wake up in the morning, although sometimes I am up hours earlier; then I do have the chance to correct before Lantus time. When I first started this pie chart, it was easy to see my numbers gettting better and better, but not anymore. I keep track of this number in particular because my numbers in the early morning tend to plateau- when I don't eat breakfast and I check two hours later, my bg is within 10 points, even if I've been running around. Then around 10 or 11 in the morning, it'll start fluxtuating, bouncing down and up, breakfast or no breakfast.
I chose to analyze my Lantus time numbers because I see them as somewhat representative of what happens overnight. I consistantly take a reading at that time of day everyday, whereas I don't consistantly test at any other time of day. This is a pre-breakfast number around 90% of the time. It is unlikely to changing much because it follows hours of not eating, with no excercise. The lowest number I've ever woken up with in the morning is 66. The highest during this period is 293, which followed a nightime low that I overcorrected by a long shot. I'm sure that, before I started taking Lantus, I woke up above 300 dozens of times.

Colds

I went to see my therapist on Thursday and she asked me how I was doing, and I answered that I had a cold. She said it was the third time in a row I'd answered that. I've been wondering about the way I seem to get frequent lingering colds.
Hyperglycemia is known to impede zinc absorption, and zinc is known to shorten the duration of cold symptoms, though it does not prevent them from showing up in the first place, nor does it generally mitigate symptoms during the first three days of the cold. I'm thinking maybe a zinc deficiency is responsible for the persistance of my colds. I've been wondering if having persistant colds has any long term repercussions. Having a cold is a minor nuisance. I think it also raises my insulin needs.

This week I woke up hypo twice, the third and fourth times (since leaving the hospital) that it has happened. The four values that I've tested at after waking hypo are 23, 38, 41, and 46.

Hypoglycemia, Post 1

Yesterday after a group, I walk to the train station with a fellow group member, ride the el, get off the el, see that the bus isn't there yet and walk two blocks, look for the bus and it's not in sight yet, think.
Hey, maybe I'm hypo.
Think, maybe I should wait until I get home to test, I've tested too many times today already (I have a scrip for 8 per day, but my endo wants me to do less).
A sob rises and I muffle it, think I must be hypo if I'm sobbing.
Think, can't put my backpack down in this snow.
So I turn and wear it on my tummy, pull out my kit. Insert test strip, cock tester, poke finger, blood on strip. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
30
Oh, snap. 30!
How many rolls should I eat?
I eat three rolls of imitation smarties, 6g each makes 18g.
Think, this will, if I'm not on my way down, bring me to about 130 (I go up between 5 and 6 mg/dl per gram of carb).
The bus comes and I board, still shaky.
I try to find someway that I would know. Some thing that 30 renders me unable to do. Count backwards from 200? Can do. See people? Can do. Hold still? Can do.
30 is the second lowest number I've ever had.

Science Fair Projects Related to Diabetes Management

A few months ago I found out that the University I attend has a science fair. It's an informal deal- no judging. No official program. Just a bunch of boards in the pit (informal dining area/study hall in a classroom building), with the names of one or more students and one or more professors. Some of the boards were really basic presentations of math ideas; some were over my head presentations of meteorologic ideas; one really cool board was about staph infections of a particular sort and had been done in conjunction with folks at the hospital I stayed at in September. The guy who presented that board was there and explained it to me- he was studying a less virulent strain of an infection that primarily kills hospital patients.
For next year, I want to do a science fair project. I'd like to test something that hasn't been tested but is fairly simple, and that has the potential to be useful. I got to thinking about what sort of things would be useful for me, diabetes wise.
One worry I often have is that my insulin has been spoiled; too hot, too cold, too old... whatever. I'd really like to be able to squirt a half unit or a unit of insulin onto some cheap thing (like something I could make myself) and see something that would allow me to know if the insulin was fresh or not.
So I've been thinking that perhaps I'd use the leftover Lantus from a way past month (like January's) and a few units of current insulin, over the summer, and try squirting them on things and see what happens. Maybe the preservatives break down, whatever. Before summer, I'd hopefully read up on some of the preservatives and their various reactions to stuff.
Anybody have a better science fair idea? Ideas for how I should get started on this one? Recommended reading related to this one?

Turns out last night I was on my way up... five hours later, no more food,259. Yuck yuck yuck.

I feel hot. Cheeks are stinging, palms are sweating. Usually that means that my blood sugar is high, but I just tested it at 151. A little high, but not enough that it should make me feel this way. Not even high enough that I'm going to correct for it unless it is still this high in a couple of hours.

Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I hadn't gotten insulin. If for some reason it had not been available. I wonder how long it would have taken for me to go into a coma, how long it would have taken to die. Would I have lived to turn 18?
Right after I was diagnosed I felt that the insulin was great for making me feel better, but I still would have been alive without it. Today, today I would be dead without it.