Do any of your doctors use the patient information network, and if so, do you keep the same patient number from visit to visit?
I went and had my blood drawn for the hemoglobin A1c last week. In January, I'd gotten a Patient Information Network number, had called it, and listened to the endo tell me how I was doing.
At this visit, he asked me if I still had the card with the number, I said yes, so he didn't give me a new number.
I tried calling the number, but no message is there for me.
My numbers some weeks have held stable all week long, staying between 45 and 150 for all of that week's testing. Other weeks, I've yo yoed all day everyday, and the week's range goes from 30- 300.
On Monday in class I tested my blood sugar and a classmate sitting next to me asked me if I had diabetes. When I said yes, she said that it runs in her family and she's really scared. It's type 2 diabetes that runs in her family, so I told her she could just inhale insulin if she ever needs to.
Today and yesterday ran towards lows. Today's numbers were: 90 (heading to bed past midnight), 72 (getting up in the morning), 61 (between classes, too tired to climb stairs), 85 (forty minutes later, PE class), 54 (too dizzy to stand on the moving bus), 60 (late afternoon), 59 (suppertime), 87(right now- bedtime maybe). I ate two meals, breakfast and supper, but did a lot of snacking during the day. Perhaps tommorow I will take less Lantus.
A few months ago I wrote here that I couldn't imagine joining the 5% club, getting my A1c below 6%. With the numbers I run these days, I think that the 5% club is in reach.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Yo-Yo
My hebrew first and middle name both start with the Yo sound and when I told my father about my latest crazy insulin needs, he said we should just call me Yo-Yo.
60 units of insulin one day, 10 the next. :-)
60 units of insulin one day, 10 the next. :-)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Hypoman's art project
Yesterday's readings were 58, 71, 69, 74, 72, 109, 77, 63. Too much insulin, me thinks.
This morning I woke up with a 56, my third time ever waking up in the morning as normal below a 60; my lantus time pie chart now gives the slice labeled 31-60 three slices, one and a half percent of the whole. I lowered my Lantus dose by four units this morning, from 17 down to 13. The previous morning I'd lowered it from 20 to 17.
My sharps container is close to full and I am decorating it. Test strip sticks make designs; a smiley face on the front; ASK on the side; a picture of a syringe on the back, with a cut up syringe cup to make the point. I've attached a NovoLog PenFill label, a Lantus label, an accu chek aviva test strip lable, my prescription for pen needles, my prescription for test strips, and an empty bag that contained syringes. I am going to walk all five miles to the hospital to turn in the container, and I hope that people will see and look and wonder and maybe even ask me about it. My sharps container has syringes, pen needles, lancets, and one razor. I'm planning to attach the prescription for lancets and the prescription for syringes.
Pesach blood sugars mostly went well, but the first Pesach breakfast shot my blood sugar above 300. :-( It came back down smoothly.
This morning I woke up with a 56, my third time ever waking up in the morning as normal below a 60; my lantus time pie chart now gives the slice labeled 31-60 three slices, one and a half percent of the whole. I lowered my Lantus dose by four units this morning, from 17 down to 13. The previous morning I'd lowered it from 20 to 17.
My sharps container is close to full and I am decorating it. Test strip sticks make designs; a smiley face on the front; ASK on the side; a picture of a syringe on the back, with a cut up syringe cup to make the point. I've attached a NovoLog PenFill label, a Lantus label, an accu chek aviva test strip lable, my prescription for pen needles, my prescription for test strips, and an empty bag that contained syringes. I am going to walk all five miles to the hospital to turn in the container, and I hope that people will see and look and wonder and maybe even ask me about it. My sharps container has syringes, pen needles, lancets, and one razor. I'm planning to attach the prescription for lancets and the prescription for syringes.
Pesach blood sugars mostly went well, but the first Pesach breakfast shot my blood sugar above 300. :-( It came back down smoothly.
Monday, March 26, 2007
This morning I woke up and said boy, I can hear summer on the wind. My blood sugar was 86. Yeah!
After breakfast the heat was stultifying. I thought the heat was a little strange for March. Three hours later, my blood sugar was 247. Bleah! That explains the heat, I guess.
The frontpage of the children with diabetes website talks about this study. Kind of interesting; says that kids who watch more TV tend to have higher glycosated hemoglobin levels. The HbA1cs tend to look higher than they are because the study uses a normal lab value that goes 4.1%-6.4%. My lab only considers normal to go up to 5.8%. So I guess with the lab used in the study, instead of having a 6.5%, I'd have a 7.0%.
Anyways, in the study, children who watched more TV had higher A1cs. This could be evidence that watching TV does bad things to your brain, or it could be that among parents and teens who are interested in diabetes and tight control and stuff like that, they are also more interested to be in the whole health nut category in which they think TV is bad for you, and therefore either watch less TV or are willing to report less TV than they actually watch.
After breakfast the heat was stultifying. I thought the heat was a little strange for March. Three hours later, my blood sugar was 247. Bleah! That explains the heat, I guess.
The frontpage of the children with diabetes website talks about this study. Kind of interesting; says that kids who watch more TV tend to have higher glycosated hemoglobin levels. The HbA1cs tend to look higher than they are because the study uses a normal lab value that goes 4.1%-6.4%. My lab only considers normal to go up to 5.8%. So I guess with the lab used in the study, instead of having a 6.5%, I'd have a 7.0%.
Anyways, in the study, children who watched more TV had higher A1cs. This could be evidence that watching TV does bad things to your brain, or it could be that among parents and teens who are interested in diabetes and tight control and stuff like that, they are also more interested to be in the whole health nut category in which they think TV is bad for you, and therefore either watch less TV or are willing to report less TV than they actually watch.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Foods
I've been a picky eater all my life. In the year preceding my diagnosis, I became even more picky. Everything tasted bitter to me.
Not even watermelon was sweet.
In the hosptial, drinking water, I waited and waited for the bitterness to fade, but it took longer than my hospital stay did.
After leaving the hospital, I began to eat foods that I had never been willing to eat before. Foods that had never tasted ok to me were tasting a whole lot better.
Today I ate my fourth avocado. The fourth avocado I've eaten in my entire life; I used to hate avocado.
I've also been eating eggplant. Before, I would eat it fried, in small amounts, only. I didn't much like eggplant. Now I love it.
Not even watermelon was sweet.
In the hosptial, drinking water, I waited and waited for the bitterness to fade, but it took longer than my hospital stay did.
After leaving the hospital, I began to eat foods that I had never been willing to eat before. Foods that had never tasted ok to me were tasting a whole lot better.
Today I ate my fourth avocado. The fourth avocado I've eaten in my entire life; I used to hate avocado.
I've also been eating eggplant. Before, I would eat it fried, in small amounts, only. I didn't much like eggplant. Now I love it.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Stress Relief
I asked my brother Danny (who is ten years old) to tell a story.
He said OK.
He said, Pick a box, a cage, a bar, um or diabetes. Which one do you want?
I say, diabetes.
He said, pick a number from one to ten.
Okay, I say, eight.
Danny begins; Eight men walk into diabetes.
The first one says, oh no I have diabetes.
The second one says, oh no, my friend has diabetes.
The third one says, oh no, two of my friends have diabetes.
The fourth one says, oh no, three of my friends have diabetes.
At this point my mother walks in and wants to know how these new people got diabetes.
Shhhhh, I tell her, it's a joke. Off of the three men walked into a bar ouch, joke.
So Danny continued:
The fifth one says, oh no, four of my friends have diabetes.
The sixth one says, oh no, five of my friends have diabetes.
The seventh one, oh the seventh one says, oh no, six of my friends have diabetes.
The eighth one says, oh no, we all have diabetes!
I say, what, that was the punch line?!
Myself, Danny, and our four year old brother Benjy were in hysterics through most of this story, despite its lack of humor. I think maybe for us diabetes has been such a serious word that putting it in an absurd setting was a real stress reliever. I also think that Danny and Benjy wanted to say OH NO about diabetes a bit without offending me. None of the three of us generally has a sophisticated sense of humor.
The bar joke, by the way, is a pun. It goes like this:
Three men walk into a bar.
Bang.
Today my brother Koby tested his blood sugar. 132.
He said OK.
He said, Pick a box, a cage, a bar, um or diabetes. Which one do you want?
I say, diabetes.
He said, pick a number from one to ten.
Okay, I say, eight.
Danny begins; Eight men walk into diabetes.
The first one says, oh no I have diabetes.
The second one says, oh no, my friend has diabetes.
The third one says, oh no, two of my friends have diabetes.
The fourth one says, oh no, three of my friends have diabetes.
At this point my mother walks in and wants to know how these new people got diabetes.
Shhhhh, I tell her, it's a joke. Off of the three men walked into a bar ouch, joke.
So Danny continued:
The fifth one says, oh no, four of my friends have diabetes.
The sixth one says, oh no, five of my friends have diabetes.
The seventh one, oh the seventh one says, oh no, six of my friends have diabetes.
The eighth one says, oh no, we all have diabetes!
I say, what, that was the punch line?!
Myself, Danny, and our four year old brother Benjy were in hysterics through most of this story, despite its lack of humor. I think maybe for us diabetes has been such a serious word that putting it in an absurd setting was a real stress reliever. I also think that Danny and Benjy wanted to say OH NO about diabetes a bit without offending me. None of the three of us generally has a sophisticated sense of humor.
The bar joke, by the way, is a pun. It goes like this:
Three men walk into a bar.
Bang.
Today my brother Koby tested his blood sugar. 132.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Meters
Today I left my meter at home by accident. Thought about going back home to get it, and/or curtailing my usual activities, decided not to.
I was talking about this to another diabetic and she says she doesn't let other people use her meter because it messes up her averages and confuses the doctors.
I let everybody and anybody use my meter. Mine is an Accu-Chek aviva, and I can press a little button to star any results that aren't mine, although they still come up in the averages. However, since I check frequently and a normal blood sugar is not an outlier for me, I don't think that having somebody else's number on there every other week matters.
Her meter doesn't have a button for marking special numbers.
My 7 day average at the moment is 108, representing 34 of my numbers above 65 and 5 of my numbers below 65, and a nondiabetic classmate's 100.
I was talking about this to another diabetic and she says she doesn't let other people use her meter because it messes up her averages and confuses the doctors.
I let everybody and anybody use my meter. Mine is an Accu-Chek aviva, and I can press a little button to star any results that aren't mine, although they still come up in the averages. However, since I check frequently and a normal blood sugar is not an outlier for me, I don't think that having somebody else's number on there every other week matters.
Her meter doesn't have a button for marking special numbers.
My 7 day average at the moment is 108, representing 34 of my numbers above 65 and 5 of my numbers below 65, and a nondiabetic classmate's 100.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Picture of ICA 512 consuming an Islet
ICA 512 cells don't really consume entire isles of Langerhas like this. For one thing, they're too small.
Half Anniversary of Diagnosis Today
Nuts.
Deciding to go to bed at quarter to three, I checked my blood sugar expecting it to be over 100- it was 45. Treated, went to bed and overslept (woke up with a 119 at 1040). It's a fast day today, so having the Lantus peak later may be helpful in allowing me to fast. I had planned on taking a lowered Lantus since I won't be eating, but because of the late hour, took my normal doasage. I'll need to be careful to avoid hypos tomorrow morning.
Deciding to go to bed at quarter to three, I checked my blood sugar expecting it to be over 100- it was 45. Treated, went to bed and overslept (woke up with a 119 at 1040). It's a fast day today, so having the Lantus peak later may be helpful in allowing me to fast. I had planned on taking a lowered Lantus since I won't be eating, but because of the late hour, took my normal doasage. I'll need to be careful to avoid hypos tomorrow morning.
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