Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Update: Yom Kippur, Graphic Design, Allergies

I haven't used another I-port yet. Maybe this week.
I fasted for Yom Kippur and was surprised to go high instead of low for the day. However, I did not get ketotic (or at least my urine didn't), and I didn't have to eat, I didn't go hypo, and I felt pretty good, so I'm counting the day a success.
I did a diabetes collage for my photoshop art class and then the professor said we'll be keeping the collages as part of our next project, which is to do a triptych. The piece I already did is called Application of Exogenous Insulin and is about insulin use since 1923, with 1923 newspaper articles on that topic as my background. It's in black and white. I'm thinking I'll make another black and white piece, this one on the treatment of complications, as another piece, and then do a color one in the middle. It's the topic of the middle one that I am thinking on.
I want the middle one to be less somber. That's important. I want it to be more about diabetics, while the other two are more about diabetes. I want it to be about culture; I'm thinking about making as a background a series of pictures of diabetics inside of glucose meters or pump interfaces or maybe other machines. I think I want to include all kinds of diabetics on insulin; 21st century humans, 21st century dogs and cats, 20th century people, old people and young people, visibly disabled people and nonvisibly disabled people. That might be the border of the piece. Then inside I want other stuff. Artwork on diabetes, comics on diabetes, I don't know. Ideas? If anybody wants to send me their artwork on diabetes or wants to be sent a finalized copy when its done, let me know.

Oh, and I just got diagnosed with allergies. I'm thinking about doing allergy shots. Do any of you have insulin dependent diabetes + allergies? How do the allergies and the medications or shots affect your blood sugar and insulin needs?

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

I-PORT, take 7

August 31: My mother put the Port into my thigh on Friday afternoon. It hurt a lot. I took Novolog through the port, which stung very slightly, as I noshed all afternoon.
I felt flushed as I read to my brother Friday afternoon, so I checked my blood sugar: 78. I got into a physical fight with another brother, and then I went back to reading a book. I felt hypo, but I didn't feel like checking my blood sugar. When I did, the meter read 41. OK. Not good. I went and ate a small something, don't remember what. I was really annoyed that my family wasn't stopping and paying attention, and my verbal skills went out the window. My folks wanted to start the Sabbath meal, but I was feeling bad. I told them that I was gonna go to sleep on the couch in the living room.
I went to the couch, lay down. My mother came in to check on me, asked me to check my blood sugar. I said no. She asked me to move to better lighting so's she could check my blood sugar. I said no. She asked me to eat something. I told her I was sad, and started crying. She tried to convince me to eat or test, and I kept telling her: I'm sad, I'm sad, food is ick, I'm sad, I'm sad, I don't want to live. My mother got light, and tested my blood sugar at 40. She brought me a cup of chocolate soy milk which she sad was 14 grams of carb, and asked me to drink. I winced and gulped, lay down, exhausted. About two hours later, I was up to 89. I ate a small snack, took a conservative amount of Novolog through the port, and went to sleep.

September 1, Diagnosis anniversary: In the morning, my blood sugar was 158. I kinda pull at the port as I pull my pants on in the morning. All day, my blood sugars ran high despite a lot of Novolog through the port: 230, 186, 218, 199.

In the wee hours of September 2, my blood sugar was 104. I woke up with a 118. Skipped breakfast and was at 92 by lunchtime. Following lunch, my blood sugar was 199. I started supper with a blood sugar of 79. I injected through the port for supper. By this time, the injections were entirely painless- I was wowwed. Following supper, I was ready to go to sleep but got a reading of 330! Washing and rechecking gave me a reading of 291. I corrected through the port with four units of Novolog, set my alarm clock, and went to sleep. I slept through the alarm.

On September 3, I was surprised to wake up with a beautiful 138. Following a Ported Novolog breakfast, I hit 225. Correction through the port had me at 184 two hours later; doing nothing had me down to 110 and then 61 four and seven hours later. Before supper, I was at 153, and afterwards I hit 338. Correcting with five units through the port had me at 304 two hours later. I took the port off. I had been wearing it for just over three hours, and had the least irritation so far, but I seemed to have been getting poor absorption towards the end. There was a hard bump right by the site that I suspected of being unabsorbed insulin. I corrected, not into the port, and set my alarm.

Three hours later, I was hypo.

Today, I did not go high after breakfast, lunch or supper. I think I was getting poor absorption from the site starting at least on Sunday and maybe on saturday. On the other hand, no site irritation! Yay!

Monday, September 03, 2007

As y'all know, I haven't been super duper happy about the accuracy of my last two Accu-Chek avivas. I got a phone call from Accu-Chek about three weeks ago wanting to know if I was totally satisfied with my Accu-Chek products. I told them no, my meter read 30% high compared to the lab! That's ridiculous! They send me ten sample test strips and two bottles of control solution; my meters passed the control solution test.
I went to the endo, and my meter tested 20% high.
I complained on here and elsewhere. Accu-chek commented and sent me messages telling me to call customer service.
I called customer service. I asked them if they had a more accurate meter. They said no.
Guess what? They're sending me a new aviva meter, plus some other type of meter, and an envelope for me to send my meter back. I'm not sure which meter they want back. I'm not sure if they're putting enough postage on for me to send both back. But anyways, I'm kinda hopeful about the new ones. I mean, that first accu-chek I had was pretty accurate. If only I hadn't left it on the bus...


Oh, and this post was gonna be titled I-Port, take 7, except that the port is still going strong.