Attack Of The Summer Cold

I have to thank all of you for such great advice for my canceled camping trip this past weekend. Unfortunately I came down with an awful cold on Thursday and had to cancel the trip; since I was going through a box of tissues an hour and my head felt as if it was going to explode in the a/c I couldn't imagine how I would have felt tramping through the woods. However, I'll hopefully be able to get in a camping trip at some point this summer and will be sure to report in when I do.

A cold with diabetes provides a whole host of new problems that I never knew about. I hadn't a clue that insulin would react in a completely different way because I was a bit sick. My normal bolus ratios seemed to work ok for some meals but for other meals I'd still go pretty high. I'm not sure if the insulin just takes longer to get through your system when sick or if it's less effective, I did go low after a few corrections - nothing to be too concerned about. My biggest disappointment was the Chinese food I ordered for the first time in 3 months! Normally when I have a cold I get the spiciest food possible to clear out my sinuses; it seems that my favorite local delivery places went out of business in the past month or so and I had to try a new place - it was awful; I wound up having to eat some bread to have enough carbs since I barely ate half of my meal.

Thankfully, I was feeling well enough by mid-day Sunday to go on a Bike Ride and prepare for the Tour de Cure. Unlike my ride a few weeks ago I really prepared for this one and took some advice from commentors. I reduced my bolus by one unit on Sunday morning, had a full Cliff Bar before my ride, had one water bottle with water and another with half water and half Gatorade and had Carb Booms throughout the ride. For all the effort I was rewarded with this view:

The ride was insane - I rode through 41 miles of hills in the Hudson Valley - for those of you familiar with the area I started at the intersection of route 100 and 35 in Somers, traveled south on 100 to 129, took a left on Quaker Ridge Rd. Then found Quaker Bridge Rd where that gorgeous view was snapped from an iron bridge in the middle of the woods - from there I found my way back to 134 and closed the loop with 100. I've never done a ride with that many hills before and man my quads were burning by the end - when I started on 100 I was averaging about 22 mph, on the same stretch back I could muster only enough energy for an average of 14 mph! The Carb Booms prevented any lows and for endurance sports I highly suggest them over the other energy gels - they taste better and seem to be much more effective - I was using bannana.

Have a great 4th of July! The next time you'll hear from me I'll be an official Insulin Pumper!!!

The Great Outdoors (Yikes)

This weekend I'm supposed to go on a camping trip and I think it's safe to say that I'm absolutely freaked out by the idea of it. Each time I've gone away since my diagnosis I've known exactly what type of food I'd be eating and at what time - a hotel or friend's house really helps with this. However, when you're out in the woods planning meals can be difficult and since I do not start my pump until July 5th, I'm stuck with lantus and novlog. Adding to my fears is the fact that I'm supposed to support Courtney in the Tinman Triathlon this weekend as well. Normally I'd eat a hearty breakfast for a day of running around cheering for someone on a triathlon course but I'm not sure the campfire is going to provide much more than a muffin. Because of all the increased activity I'm real worried that I'll be low and won't have a controlled environment to get back to healthy bs levels.

I'll be carrying a supply of clif bars, glucose tabs and apples; hopefully that does the trick. I'll also be using my trusty Frio wallet to keep my insulin cool. Does anyone have any suggestions to reduce my fears of going low?

Wedding Cake & Whiskey

Saturday presented one of the biggest challenges to blood sugar control I have faced. On June 23rd, my best friend got married - I had to brave the heat of an outdoor wedding in a tux (pictures coming soon), get buzzed enough to deliver a speech and have enough energy to dance the night away. 5 months ago none of those things would have given me a worry; however my life now is all about being prepared.

I arrived at the venue at about 3 pm with a full supply of cliff bars, power gels, glucose tabs, insulin and glucagon - I needed to be prepared for whatever I might face. Sitting in a cramped attic in a beautiful old mansion the groomsmen dressed, in the room we were treated to a few beers, some champagne and small sandwiches. I cut back on the bolus for the chicken salad wrap I had and checked my blood sugar right before we went downstairs for the big moment - holding steady at 120 and ready to go.

On a side note the bride's dressing room was WAY BETTER than the groom's room. However, when I delivered the bride her gift from the groom the intensity in her room was over the top - I felt like those girls were more amped up than I was for any of my college football games. I half expected to see them giving each other head butts and putting on eye black.

Thankfully there were no blood sugar lows when I delivered the rings and amazingly I didn't drop them or fumble them! After the ceremony I ate a bit of my cliff bar as I waited for the assistant manager to bring my man purse outside (my man purse is my diabetes survival bag). I wasn't sure if I was showing signs of going low or if it was just the heat. The rest of the night went amazingly well - I delivered my speech without a problem, continued to have bites of my cliff bar throughout the night and was able to drink and dance like everyone else. Throughout the evening I did the finger pricks and was never about 170 or below 110, which I'm more than happy with. I even remembered to check my blood sugar when I woke up with a pounding headache at 5 am! On Sunday I went for an hour and 1/2 bike ride to try and beat the hangover.

Congratulations again Steve and Merry!

Cliff Bar Crisis & Team Fat Bird

Yesterday Courtney and I had planned to go for a 2 hour bike ride from my apartment to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Courtney is preparing for an ironman and I'm getting ready for the Tour De Cure on July 8th (you can also use that link to donate for this great cause). I'll be captaining Team Fat Bird for the event and if any NY riders would like to ride with us please contact me.

Just some background; Team Fat Bird was inspiried by one of my favorite artists - Ed Heck. His paintings have always made Courtney and me smile and one in particular "Love Birds" made us realize how happy people can be just enjoying themselves. My goal with the team is to show people that even with this chronic disease you can still challenge yourself athletically and have a great time doing it; so the title seemed to fit perfectly.

Now back to the cliff bar crisis. I was expecting Courtney to arrive at my apartment around 5:30 pm so I gobbeled down my cliff bar at 5:20 to raise my bs enough for the ride. At 5:30 my phone rings and because of midtown traffic Courtney couldn't make it to my apartment safely (she was run off the road by one too many cabs!). I immediatley freak out knowing that I just had 40 grams of unbolused carbohydrates and am not yet comfortable going for a ride by myself. This really was the first time a plan to control my blood sugar went completly SNAFU.

After hanging up with Courtney I realized I needed to adapt to the situation. I took 2 units of insulin and did a 1/2 hour core workout in my sweltering apartment. Although I didn't burn as many calories as I would have liked I was able to control my carbs and adjust to the situation. This made me realize no matter how much I plan I'll still be confronted by mini-challenges. When that happens I just need to remember to take a deep breath and know that my workout doesn't have to be perfect to control my blood sguar; somewhere a Fat Bird is smiling.

It's Like Christmas

The day I've been waiting for has finally arrived - I received my Minimed Pump in the mail! The box arrived at 6 pm on Friday but since my company has the worst mail room in the history of offices, I didn't receive it until about noon Monday.

I could barely contain my excitement when our mail guy approached me with this box:

Never before has a cardboard box with a logo that is the bastard child of Cirque Du Soleil and Leondardi daVinci brought me so much joy.

Opening the box filled me with excitement and anticipation:


But it was still a tease as I had to dig through 5 lbs of popcorn and countless packages of reservoirs and infusion sets to find what I was truly searching for :


Which contained my brand new purple pancreas:



My excitement is tempered by the fact that I can't get into see my diabetic educator at the Berrie Center until the 28th. However, this will give me a chance to take the online "pump school" offered by minimed and read all the instruction manuals. Once I get used to the square wave bolus I may just have to break my no Chinatown in the summer rule to have the dim sum feast I've been craving.

Back on Track!

After a tough couple weeks my blood sugar finally leveled off yesterday. Instead of using the 12:1 ratio I had calculated with for the past month and 1/2 I'm now using a 15:1 ratio. My lowest blood sugar from yesterday and through the first half of today was 81 and that was after a great lift. Hopefully I'll be able to take inspiration from the guys playing at Oakmont this weekend to just keep grinding it out.

In other exciting news, I'm scheduled to get my Minimed 522 today! I absolutley cannot wait to start pump therapy and am really looking forward to it. Sometime next week I hope to post a full side by side comparison to illustrate why I went with Minimed over Animas. As soon as I have the pump in my hands I'll be calling Leigh over at the Berrie center to st up my first of two appointments to learn how to use the thing.

Have a great weekend everyone.

So This Is How You're Going To Be.....

So diabetes I see you don't like to fight fair. Unlucky for you that I say give me your toughest and I'm going to come back even stronger. I thought I had this whole carb ratio thing figured out and then over the past two weeks it seems to have completely changed. I spoke about my lows last week but this week they have become even worse. Although I haven't encountered any crazy sub 40 numbers the numbers this week have been that much more frustrating.

On Monday night Courtney finally joined me at the awesome Australian seafood restaurant, Bondi Road, that opened across the street from my apartment. We shared an appetizer of breaded shrimp and small crab cake balls (both delicious), for my entree I had a great grilled Red Snapper and sauteed spinach with pine nuts and 1 Cooper Pilsner (an Australian Beer). I estimated this meal to have maybe 20 carbs and gave myself 2 units of insulin. 2 hours later my blood sugar was down to 70. The next day I had my usual turkey sandwich for lunch with a bolus of 4 units of insulin; I have this lunch every day and my body reacts pretty much the same every day. However I dipped below 80 after my lunch - aggravating! Although this gave me the opportunity to have a full Cliff Bar before my Tuesday run (very exciting when you've had to calculate how much a cliff bar would raise your bs for a couple months). I had a great run and had normal blood sugars for the rest of the day - the fun really began Wednesday.



Wednesday morning I had egg whites on toast with 6 oz of orange juice, my normal cover for the oj is 2 units of insulin so I added 1 unit to cover the slice of bread; by the time I got into work my bs dipped into the 60s. For lunch I had my turkey sandwich and added 4 peanut butter crackers (about 15 g of carbs) but only covered with 4 units of novolog - I still went low! After a frustrating day and a hellacious GMAT tutoring session I needed some comfort food so I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and a baked potato from Dallas' BBQ. I covered with 4 units of insulin but 2 hours later my blood sugar was 360! I took 4 units of insulin to bring it down, unfortunately my bs refused to budge - so I went to sleep hoping it would drop overnight.



At 7:40 am my bs was down to 320, I had an egg white omelet and 6 oz of orange juice so I took 6 units of novolog, 2 to cover and 4 to correct. By the time I got to my office my blood sugar was down to 49. Playing with a yo-yo is fun but being one is not. I've e-mailed my endo and educator to see if they can provide any insight. I still say if this is the best you can do diabetes continue to bring it because I will control you, whether I have to run more, lift more, eat less or eat more I will do what it takes to prevent you from controlling my life.