Taking a Break

Taking a break....and I don't mean from Diabetes.  Although somedays I wish it were possible.

I want to start by saying I love the idea of a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM).  I love the information that it can give you.  I love that it can predict lows before they happen, and I love that if Amy were to go low overnight that the pump would shut off for two hours.

What I don't love is the lows that are predicted in the nighttime that aren't really lows.

We have found the Enlite sensors to be very pressure sensitive.  It doesn't seem to matter where we put the sensor, any amount of lying on it will cause alarms to right sometime throughout the week, that aren't low or trending towards low.

I don't know if we have a crappy lot of sensors, or if its something we're doing wrong lately, but we didn't seem to have this problem in the beginning.

Last week at school, Amy had a calibration error with her pump/CGM, they didn't match up closely enough and this caused an error.  She washed her hands and retested.  15 mins later another Cal Error.  What happens next is it nulls the sensor.  If you have two cal errors in a row, it tells you to change the sensor.  and that the end of it.  no bringing it back to life.  We've talked now that if she gets a Cal Error at school to just shut the sensor off.  We don't want to be wasting the expensive little buggers.

Anyway, she wasn't due for a sensor or site change for another two days.  She asked if we could just leave it off for those few days, and she would go back to testing at school for all snacks and maybe before the bus ride depending on how she felt.

We went those two days, then she asked if she could go a few more.

and you know what, I didn't argue with her.

I like the security, but you know what......I'm sleeping better.

I get up at 2/3 am and test her.  Make any necessary adjustments then go back to sleep.  No jumping out of bed every so often responding to bogus alarms.

I think I will let her take the break for awhile, then we will add it back again and see how it goes.

Have you taken a CGM break before?

CBC Interview on WDD

Yesterday was the first time I've spoken to the media about diabetes and diabetes awareness.

I think it went okay, other than the fact that I said "Oh Crap" on live radio. I meant to continue on with how diabetes has changed our lives but he didn't give me a chance.  After I said it my first thought was "Oh Crap!  I said Crap on live radio!"  I guess I'd better work on sensoring myself if I do it again in the future. 

You can listen to the interview here, that the Labrador Morning Radio show has posted.

I also spoke at a diabetes luncheon for Nunatsiavut on Tuesday regarding SMBG.

World Diabetes Day

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month (NDAM), an international celebration focused on raising awareness for all forms of diabetes, its signs and symptoms, and gain support for critical research toward preventing, better treating and curing all forms of the disease (JDRF)

Tomorrow, November 14, is World Diabetes Day, which is celebrated on November 14 each year, during National Diabetes Awareness Month, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922 (IDF)

There are many ways that people around the world celebrate this day. To be honest I didn't really know much about it until last year.  I then made it my mission to have the schools in our area mark the occasion somehow.  They ended up wearing blue, I had information sheets sent home and the announcements  included diabetes facts.  I felt that I had to do something as the rate of diabetes in children in newfoundland is one of the highest globally.

This afternoon, I received a call from a reporter from our local morning radio show.  They asked that Amy and I come into the studio tomorrow morning to do an interview.  Although I'm quite shy I agreed to.  If you want to tune in and listen live or to the recording you can do so at the following link.

I have the girls ready to wear blue tomorrow and am a little anxious, but excited too!

Happy World Diabetes Day!
Hopefully sometime in the near future we will be celebrating the day that the CURE was found.  Until then....I have HOPE!

Not much change

Amy's CDE emailed me the other Day.

Her A1C is down by 0.2%.

So why was I is disappointed?

I was expecting a more dramatic decrease, it had been since April, she'd been on the pump for 6 months, surely we would see a difference.  We Should see a difference.

I know one of our big issues is the post-breakfast spike.  I'm having trouble keeping that down.  And it's not like she eats an unbalanced breakfast, she eats really well.

That balance between carb ratio and basal then has been tricky.  

I find bedtime sometime troublesome as well.   If she's below 6.0, do I put in full carbs?  If I don't, will she go too high, if Ido, will she go low while she's sleeping.  And it's never the same, right?

Anyway, the important thing is she's happy and feeling good.

With some patience she will achieve target!