Friday, October 29, 2010

I got a new box of sensors fifteen days ago, about a day after I had finished with my last sensor on the previous box. I put the sensor in my arm, and am so far having the best sensor experience since the first one. Yeps, I said so far. I am now on the third week with it - restarted it for a second time yesterday. It is being held on by band-aids, since the adhesive hasn't been cutting it for about a week now. I haven't seen ??? in about a week, which is way better than the leg or tummy sensor did. I'm still going to give the stomach and leg another go with my next two sensors, but it really seems like arm sites are superior. I am getting fairly frequent out of range blips, but not usually more than for one reading in a row, and maybe it's because of the band-aids. I don't know. I'm also having the problem that it goes from three bars on the battery sign to one flashing one in just over 24 hours. I haven't uploaded data since my last data post and am really impatient to find out how the month of October will have gone by the time I do upload (probably in six days).

My digestion has noticeably improved over the last two months. I haven't had a single meal in over a month in which I was unable to continue eating, and only a few meals in which I made food choices based on my stomach hurting. I'm hoping this heralds great things on the weight front.
My thyroid ultrasound came back with a uniform looking thyroid, which is excellent news. Unfortunately the ultrasound probe really pushed down on my thyroid and it is now even more painfully tender and visibly enlarged.

P.S. I was about to hit the "Publish Post" button when I noticed ??? DRAT!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Naked Pancreas Meme

1. What kind on insulin management mode do you use?
Shots, shots, lots and lots of shots. Syringes and NovoPen Jr.

2. How often do you inject/change pump sites? One Lantus shot per day, 2-10 Novolog shots per day. I guess I average about 6 shots per day.

3. What type (s) of insulin do you use? Novolog and Lantus. I was really tempted by Exubera but insurance wouldn't cover it and now it's off the market.

4. What are your basal settings ?
One shot of Lantus. I took 8 1/2 units a couple hours ago. I get about 25 free carbs out of it most afternoons.

5. What are your correction factors ?

Right now I'm using a 1:40 most of the time, but it should be more like 1:35 in the mornings, 1:60 in the evenings.

6. What are your meal ratios ?
I was just thinking about that. 1:7 for breakfast. 15 free carbs, then 1:8 for lunch. 1:8 for supper.

7. What do you do for activity and/or PE?
I play it by ear. Mostly I try to make sure my blood sugar is above 120 and/or rising if I'm not going to be able to deal with it for a while or if I'm about to do some exercise. But sometimes I just go and eat and hope.

8. How do you manage Pizza, Macaroni and Cheese, or any other "difficult to manage" foods?
I'm a vegan (since 6th grade) so those particular foods are not an issue. I try to avoid foods that take a long time to digest when it's near bedtime because otherwise I spend the night high. I have some difficulty with fat due to pancreatitis. But if I can, I try to eat high fat foods when high. If I'm not high, I prebolus about half and then wait at least an hour, 'til I see a new rise, to inject again, based on the slope. I may do a third or fourth shot if the slope is not to my satisfaction.
I try eating foods that make me spike when I've got other things tying up my digestion and know that there won't be any spike for a long time.

9. How do you prefer to manage your logs/data?
I always record Lantus dosage, 'cause I play with it a lot. I upload Dexcom data and enter into it what's what. Every now and then (maybe twice a month) I'll count my carbs very precisely for a few meals in a row (maybe two days' worth) and see how my ratios are looking. I also write about one sentence per day about if anything weird was happening.
I used to log a lot more but I just don't feel like it anymore.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Monday, October 11, 2010

Probelms with This Blog

As you may notice, this blog often displays posts overlayn with my profile or side links.
Do you know of any way to prevent that? The ones that change my blog appearance least will be most appreciated; otherwise I'll switch templates entirely.

Dexcom Data To Date

Target Chart

Date

% in Target

% in Low

% in High

# of Readings

Min

Mean

Max

Std. Dev.

25%

Median

75%

IQR

Est Std. Dev.

SE Mean

%CV

Wed, 9/1/2010

80 %

6 %

14 %

83

49

110

203

40

78

99

144

66

49

4

37 %

Thu, 9/2/2010

67 %

16 %

17 %

284

39

117

307

57

81

109

140

59

43

3

48 %

Fri, 9/3/2010

90 %

1 %

9 %

281

58

105

191

32

79

95

128

49

36

2

30 %

Sat, 9/4/2010

64 %

4 %

32 %

285

53

128

218

45

89

121

167

78

58

3

35 %

Sun, 9/5/2010

86 %

1 %

13 %

246

58

119

189

30

96

113

141

45

33

2

26 %

Mon, 9/6/2010

44 %

0 %

56 %

267

66

151

214

34

128

159

171

44

32

2

23 %

Tue, 9/7/2010

58 %

17 %

24 %

287

41

125

233

48

79

134

155

76

56

3

38 %

Wed, 9/8/2010

78 %

0 %

22 %

260

73

136

188

27

118

138

151

33

25

2

19 %

Thu, 9/9/2010

44 %

0 %

56 %

282

74

160

219

37

131

163

193

63

46

2

23 %

Fri, 9/10/2010

74 %

0 %

26 %

286

91

144

253

42

117

128

158

41

30

2

29 %

Sat, 9/11/2010

65 %

0 %

35 %

282

83

140

197

30

120

145

162

42

31

2

21 %

Sun, 9/12/2010

37 %

0 %

63 %

279

68

159

242

43

133

174

186

53

39

3

27 %

Mon, 9/13/2010

36 %

0 %

64 %

277

73

161

233

36

145

163

184

39

29

2

22 %

Tue, 9/14/2010

80 %

6 %

14 %

284

55

115

170

32

89

115

143

54

40

2

28 %

Wed, 9/15/2010

61 %

18 %

21 %

262

47

113

267

48

76

99

143

67

49

3

43 %

Thu, 9/16/2010

58 %

4 %

39 %

285

59

164

311

80

100

135

246

146

108

5

49 %

Fri, 9/17/2010

25 %

0 %

75 %

154

75

173

253

53

158

183

206

48

36

4

31 %

Sat, 9/18/2010

0 %

0 %

0 %

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0 %

Sun, 9/19/2010

39 %

5 %

56 %

140

39

150

260

54

100

165

189

89

66

5

36 %

Mon, 9/20/2010

75 %

0 %

24 %

274

64

137

261

40

114

135

155

41

30

2

29 %

Tue, 9/21/2010

54 %

0 %

46 %

279

65

149

258

43

117

148

182

66

49

3

29 %

Wed, 9/22/2010

51 %

0 %

49 %

284

72

156

240

39

121

155

188

67

50

2

25 %

Thu, 9/23/2010

74 %

4 %

22 %

280

56

129

257

40

103

127

147

44

33

2

31 %

Fri, 9/24/2010

65 %

0 %

35 %

281

82

159

275

45

132

143

176

44

33

3

28 %

Sat, 9/25/2010

75 %

9 %

16 %

280

39

125

255

42

94

131

141

47

35

3

34 %

Sun, 9/26/2010

74 %

0 %

25 %

220

63

128

215

38

98

120

157

59

43

3

30 %

Mon, 9/27/2010

91 %

7 %

1 %

272

56

104

186

26

84

103

122

38

28

2

25 %

Tue, 9/28/2010

62 %

2 %

35 %

218

60

135

209

44

89

139

167

78

58

3

32 %

Wed, 9/29/2010

41 %

15 %

43 %

198

39

139

245

63

80

139

199

118

88

4

45 %

Thu, 9/30/2010

78 %

8 %

15 %

185

50

114

200

37

87

106

148

61

45

3

32 %

Fri, 10/1/2010

99 %

0 %

1 %

268

72

111

166

19

96

108

123

27

20

1

18 %

Sat, 10/2/2010

30 %

4 %

66 %

171

48

182

296

65

139

178

239

101

75

5

36 %

Sun, 10/3/2010

62 %

6 %

32 %

191

52

134

233

40

108

134

161

53

39

3

30 %

Mon, 10/4/2010

73 %

0 %

27 %

15

92

135

251

50

100

113

150

51

37

13

37 %

Tue, 10/5/2010

70 %

1 %

29 %

168

62

139

310

54

102

132

161

59

44

4

39 %

Wed, 10/6/2010

81 %

0 %

19 %

253

66

126

193

32

101

126

148

47

35

2

26 %

Thu, 10/7/2010

83 %

0 %

17 %

228

85

133

220

25

115

128

148

33

24

2

19 %

Fri, 10/8/2010

81 %

0 %

19 %

201

65

123

217

41

93

117

139

46

34

3

33 %

Sat, 10/9/2010

53 %

1 %

45 %

280

60

156

256

49

121

149

196

75

56

3

31 %

Sun, 10/10/2010

86 %

2 %

12 %

282

57

116

192

31

91

115

140

49

36

2

27 %

Mon, 10/11/2010

75 %

0 %

25 %

124

67

135

217

39

101

129

155

54

40

4

29 %



The total number of readings for this period is 9476. My average glucose in that time is 136 (134 for just October). I've set the target range for this chart as 65-155. The green indicates the first sensor, blue is the second sensor, yellow is the third, orange is the fourth, and dark purple is days with overlap of sensors. The fourth sensor has had three or four nights where it was ??? for a while or even the whole night. Sensor 4 is still in use and I'm hopeful that the next box is on its way.