Thursday, October 23, 2008

HUGE NEWS!!!!!

Today I received a phone call that I've been awaiting for nearly a year. I checked my voice mail after class today and had a message from Angela of Abbott Pharmaceutical, normally the conversation with her would have me complaining about Abbott's lack of communication regarding the freestyle navigator with me - but today was different. Today when I called Abbot back I found out I've been APPROVED FOR A CONSTANT GLUCOSE MONITOR!!!!!!

I haven't had alot of diabetes related information to blog about recently, unless you would like to hear about bolusing during 9 case studies a day, there just isn't much to share. But now I have a new blood sugar management tool! Now, I don't have to worry about pouring rain during a workout! Now, I don't have to worry about it being too cold for my meter to work! Now I can feel like a normal person during exercise - I'll hopefully never fly blind again!!!!! Today was the best diabetic news I've ever received and I'm so freaking excited to figure out how to use a CGM and let you all know how it goes. Now I'll have real data to analyze, now I can compare my blood sugar movements with my heart rate, now I have the ability to see exactly how food affects my system!

Tomorrow I also meet my new endocrinologist, thanks to a classmate who was a doctor at UVA prior to coming to Darden - he pulled some string to get me in. In the coming weeks Ring The Bolus should be back and I invite you all along for the ride again. Q1 is over, I made it through the hardest part of my academic career at Darden and now it's time to return to my commitment of sharing my battle with diabetes with all of you.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Finals, Travel & Weddings

Wow - talk about getting triple teamed by bloods sugar demons! Last Friday began our finals for Q1 at Darden, right after I finished our hellish marketing exam I hoped on a plane to fly to Geneva, NY for one of my best friend's wedding. The lack of sleep, amount of travel and excess of wine has shot my blood sugars through the roof. Although the combination of those things had me looking like this:

So with that combination my blood sugar has hit 300 a couple times over the past few days, and all day Monday I was above 200. I'm playing with my basals and bolus rates to try and figure out what is going on. Each morning during my first class my blood sugar has spiked 100 to 150 points even though I'm only having 2 slices of whole wheat toast for breakfast - so I'm thinking it's more a basal issue than a bolus issue. Hopefully after a few workouts it will go back down - or after I'm done with finals hell.