My First MBA A1c

For the first time since my diagnosis I was legitimately freaking out about my A1c. From August to October I had so many changes in my life that I just didn't know how my average blood sugar was going to react. After the Ironman I had blood sugars sky rocket into the 200 and 300 range. When I first arrived at Darden the schedule, free food and stress had my blood sugars close in on 350 from time to time. But thankfully my A1c was just 6.6 from August to October.

6.6 is higher than it has been over the past year - but I'll take it. With all the variables introduced over those 3 months I'm not going to complain about an A1c that slightly creeped up. In looking at my meter this morning my last 341 results over the past 30 days has slid back down to 125; hopefully that next A1c is under 6.4. Regardless I'm proud of my management over my first quarter at Darden.

Here We Go Again!

Last week I signed up for the Charlottesville Marathon which will be held the same weekend as my 30th birthday in April. With Darden's first quarter under my belt I couldn't help but scratch that athletic itch again. Having gained about 9 lbs since Ironman Lake Placid it was time to lace up the sneakers, place an order with PBN and get my butt back into shape. To make it even better my amazing girlfriend and some of my Darden classmates will be running the race with me.

One of my biggest disappointments from the 2008 season was having to pull out of the Shamrock Marathon. I have yet to run a stand alone Marathon and really want to push myself to run my best in it. With my Abbott Freestyle Navigator in hand (if I ever get it), solid nutrition plan and dedication to training I think a sub 4 hour marathon is very possible. Plus with all my training buddies here at Darden - the training should be fun!

I unfortunately had to tell Triabetes I will not be able to compete at IMAZ with them in 2009. The Darden schedule is just too demanding to train for 20 hours a week and I did not want to race an IM unprepared. I hope that my schedule will allow for about 10 hours a week of marathon training - I'm energized and ready to go!

Abbot Is Incredible

The good news is, I'm still getting my constant glucose monitor; the bad news is, I have no idea when. At first Abbot had given my supplier the wrong insurance information which delayed the process a week. Today I received a call from my supplier letting me know that all orders to Abbot for the Freestyle Navigator are on back order!!! For a company that is trying to introduce a new and I'm assuming highly profitable technology they may have the worst sales and marketing force in history. If there is one thing that my marketing course at Darden has taught me it is - to know your customer! At each step of the way Abbot has failed on general customer service, I would receive calls from multiple people asking the same information, they would not meet self mandated deadlines to keep me in the loop, they had asked my doctor for the wrong information and they seemingly never wrote down anything I told them. It would be nice if the companies that make the products that allow us to better manage our disease actually knew how to manage their workforce.