Month: November 2010

My Lantus experiment

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I’ve written about this before but it’s driving me mad. I can’t seem to stop my blood sugar from skyrocketing early in the morning. Yes, I know about the “dawn phenomenon” and growth hormones being released in my body between 5 and 7 AM to get me ready for the day shooting glucose into my blood. 

It’s all well and good to tell me I’ve got a sound growth hormone system. But it’s not good that I have to jump out of bed by 6:30 AM, weekday and weekend, to blunt the BS rise with  rapid-acting insulin.

So, going on the theory that my Lantus isn’t giving me a full 24 hours coverage, as is true for many people, I have been experimenting:

1. first I switched from taking my dose in the morning to before bed. Beside the fact that I hate the thought of having to take one more shot before going to sleep, especially those nights when I fall asleep by 10 PM on the couch, it didn’t seem to help.

2. it was recommended to me that I split my dose and take one injection in the morning and one in the evening. That put me on such an unpredictable curve of highs and lows and not knowing how and what to prepare for that this idea didn’t last long. 

3. My last attempt, recommended by an endo who’s ear I caught while in Bangor, Maine giving a presentation, told me to take most of my dose in the morning and 1/4 of it after dinner to give an extra flood of Lantus to stand up to those pesky growth hormones. Obviously, 3 units of Lantus didn’t consider themselves a flood and once again were overwhelmed by sneaky glucose combat fighters. Or that’s how I visualize it.

I’m up to my last experiment. I’m taking one injection of Lantus around lunchtime. If my Lantus really is petering out in 21 or so hours, if I take it around noon or 1 PM, I should think I’d at least get enough efficiacy out of it so I wouldn’t have to blunt a rise until perhaps 8 AM. And finally get some sleep.

I don’t know yet if this is working. I just started and I’m giving it a week as my endo told me to give most changes. What a pain. 

This is the single reason I would switch to a pump, but then with all the furor over pat downs at the airport pumps are looking less convenient than more.

Be part of the cure with DRI

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UnknownAdd yourself to the cure

Ever since I met Tom Karlya several years ago interviewing him in his living room, I knew he would be part of the cure for diabetes. Father of a daughter with type 1 from the age of two, his passion knows no bounds. 

He is now Vice President of Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) – along with the columnist of “Diabetes Dad” on dLife – and pouring his passion into national fundraising programs for the DRI – perhaps our most bright beacon lighting the way toward a cure. 

This month DRI has launched a campaign called “Be Part of The Cure.” All you need do to be part of the cure is visit the site, upload a photo and a few sentences about yourself and make a donation (as little as $10). 

Your photo will become part of the CURE mosaic -and two corporations are matching up to the first $25,000 of donations. Each day the CURE mosaic swells with photos. To look at them reminds me that work towards a cure is ongoing while I go through another day, and that the cure is within reach. To upload my photo and story was a little slice of healing, feeling I am part of the engine getting us all to a cure.

The final CURE image – with your photo – will be printed on a colossal banner that will hang at the Diabetes Research Institute, and those who make a minimum donation of $50 will receive a mouse pad with the final CURE image. A prize you certainly won’t want to be without since my photo may be right next to yours! 😉

You have ’til the end of the year to upload your photo and make your donation, but really there’s no better time than now, particularly as we think about what we’re grateful for this week.

Pushing out a video and what it caught

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Like any performer, writers – even bloggers – crave knowing someone’s reading what they’re writing, and benefiting. And we’re always wondering. Several months ago a very well known blogger said to me, “Do you think people are really reading what I’m writing?”

So it’s sweet music when you actually hear from people whether they post a comment or write you directly. Don’t underestimate your effect. 

It’s also great when you know what you’re writing made a difference. 

Manny Hernandez, who spearheaded the big blue test video I helped work on sent this email he received from a viewer yesterday to the team. 

“Last week, I shared the Big Blue Video on Facebook.  One of my brothers reposted the link and shared it as well.  Last night, that brother lay awake in the middle of the night after changing his 5 year olds wet sheets (not unusual to have problems, but thought they finally had the bedwetting under control) 

As he lay there, his mind was working.  The 5 year old has been tired because of the adjustment to all day kindergarten.  Growing too fast and his bladder can’t keep up.  Has been buying extra juice at school, he must not like the food and is hungry.   DING – The pieces all fell into place.  Diabetes.  

Tonight, my brother is in the hospital with a newly diagnosed Type 1 5 year old.  No ketones, bs 230.  So not “full blown” in the words of the hospital staff.  What made my brother’s brain process the information and link on to the signs of diabetes right away?  We can’t know for sure, but I really feel like the video being out there had Diabetes in the front of his mind.  Being able to catch the Diabetes before a ketoacidosis episode – PRICELESS.  

Please share with the people responsible for the awareness caused by the video!  And Thanks!”

Now, for me, that’s priceless. 

My results of the Big Blue Test in numbers, and not

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Saturday night at 5:46 PM Eastern Time we crossed the finish line to 100,396 views of the Big Blue Test video! It was really exciting to watch the tally rise all day knowing victory was in sight – and trying to figure out just the moment we’d cross the finish line.

Thank you for watching the video and passing it on. Roche’s donation of $75,000 to children in need will save thousands of children’s lives.

I hope you also participated in the bigbluetest yesterday and uploaded your results at bigbluetest.org. You can see the mean average results there. And you can still upload your results this week.

I was so eager to see the effect of 14 minutes of brisk walking on my blood sugar that I did the test twice. To be honest I did it on Saturday as I knew Sunday I wouldn’t be able to.

I did my usual brisk walk but instead of walking around my local park I walked through a nearby Orthodox neighborhood. 

I did my first test at 10 AM. My blood sugar was 90 mg/dl (yes, I know, a little low for the test, but I had my glucose tabs with me…). After 14 minutes of walking I was at 72. Then came the glucose tablets. I did the test again at the bona fide time, 2 PM, and my blood sugar went from 149 mg/dl to 129. Even I was surprised how just that small amount of brisk walking, both times lowered me 18-20 points. 

I got another benefit, as I always do, from my hour-long power walks. In addition to lowering my blood sugar and keeping me insulin-sensitive, my walks are a time for me to get quiet, to hear my thoughts and just be still while being outside. Saturday, when I did my tests, it was the Sabbath and so the neighborhood I walked through was quiet. The shops were all closed, men and boys were strolling on the streets headed to synogogue. No one spoke loudly. Families gathered. There was a reverence for family, for the day, for our surroundings and it brought back quiet Sundays of my youth growing up in the Bronx and taking walks with my father. I found the quiet joy of the stillness as impactful as my lowered blood sugar.

If you didn’t take the test yesterday, take it today, or sometime this week. See for yourself the effect of 14 minutes of activity on your blood sugar. And, see if it isn’t also a time to be still in a crazy world.

Just remember while 14 minutes of activity lowers blood sugar, if you’re low before you go, like under 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/l) you’ll probably want to bring it up before you walk, run, swim or prune the rose bushes. 

My first 6 thoughts about diabetes

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6th annual blog day

I’m taking today away from my main message till November 14, World Diabetes Day – watch the Big Blue Test to learn about the importance of exercise managing diabetes, and to get life-saving supplies to children with diabetes in need – in order to participate in Gina Capone’s 6th Annual D-Blog Day. 

Our blogging mission – Write the 6 things I want people to know about diabetes. There are so many but these came to mind and they’re in no particular order:

1.Diabetes is a second job, one I’ve had for almost 40 years and much as I’d like to, I don’t plan to ever retire

2.Diabetes requires I do something every day, almost every hour, that’s invisible. 

   Spend an inordinate amount of time examining and dissecting food

   Calculate carbs

   Run carb:insulin algorithms in my head

   Wonder where to fit my walk into the day 

   Conceptualize my next meal

An endo said “ordinary” people think about food 9 times a day. Diabetics, 250 times a day. That sounds about right.

3.Diabetes has made me better – healthier, more purposeful and given me a ton of great friends and acquaintances 

4.Diabetes affects my husband who very privately worries about me. After all, he’s sitting in the passenger seat while I’m driving. And while I’m a good driver, there are other cars on the road I can’t control.

5.Tons more people will get diabetes before we ever cure it

6.It’s preventable. If type 2 is in your family, get tested. You don’t have to be overweight to get type 2 diabetes. If type 1 is in your family get your kids screened. 

More “6 things” from my fellow bloggers here.

Right now get life-saving insulin to children in need

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Save Thousands of Lives – Watch and Pass It On

All it takes to get 1 child 1 week of insulin is for you to watch this video. Pass it on and thousands of children will outlive their childhood.

(If you’re seeing this post w/o the video, click here.)

We’re attempting a rescue mission – to save as many lives as possible for kids with diabetes around the world who have no medicine. 

For every view, Roche Diabetes Care is making a donation (through the Diabetes Hands Foundation) to two diabetes rescue organizations:  “Insulin for Life” and “Life for a Child.”

With 100,000 views, Roche will make its top donation – $75,000. That’s where you come in. Watch, and pass it on to EVERYONE you know. Don’t stop when you’ve gone through your friends with diabetes and best friends. Almost everyone is touched by diabetes in some way. It will mean something to others and you don’t know who – so fire away!
  • Just $50 keeps a child alive in Ecuador for a year
  • 1 video hit will pay to transport medicine and supplies to 1 child for 1 week
  • Funds will educate children and their parents how to treat diabetes. It’s the only education most will get
My fellow video creators, Manny Hernandez of dhf and tudiabetes, and David Edelman of Diabetes Daily, and our producer, Sean Ross, and I and all these kids whose lives you’re about to save, thank you from the bottom of our d-hearts.