Feelin' good, even with this cold!!

Ohh welcome fall, and welcome a wonderful COLD (yes Sandra, I fell weak to the cold virus....argh....) but dang it, I am feelin' good.....(other then the head congestion)

I have honestly given up sugar and processed foods for awhile. It was not hard. One day I decided to stop eating refined sugar and processed. I was tired to feeling gross after salty high carb foods. I was tired of the glucose swings after eating something sweet. I was tired of the rollercoaster of glucose values!

It has been a week, and I feel good.

I have gone through phases like this in the past. My longest was a full year with minimal refined sugars and processed foods, but slowly they sneaked back into my life. I am not saying they are bad, but for my well being I need to keep them to a minimum!

This means more food prep.....finding time, but it seems to be going well :) I'll borrow some of my precious sleep time and trade it in for the good feeling ....

Good News.....or is it?

Do you ever find it frustrating going to the doctor? I think sometimes I want my doctor to have diabetes, so they would understand what they ask of their patients. I think it is truly hard to understand if you are not experiencing. 

Today I was in for a renal checkup. I do like my doctor, he tells it like it is. I like that! I did the ever-so-exciting 24hr urine collection and was told it was protein free. Excellent news! 

BUT, I was then told that my HA1C could stand to be lower. I was proud of my 6.8% HA1C, but was told it needs to be lower. I was proud of my 113/68 blood pressure, but was told it was not consistently that low and needed to be closely monitored. 

I will take all this advice and create positive changes in my lifestyle, but it was a lot of information to digest in one visit! 

Bottom line, no protein in my urine :)

Finally I have internet back...

Wow, I really feel disconnected from the world. I have been without internet for the past month but finally today I have been plugged back in. It is a nice feeling. I missed reading all my blogs, keeping up with info and chatting with friends. 

I found when I was cut off from the internet world, I picked up the phone more often and actually PHONED people! I must say that was not a bad thing at all. 

Today a hole was drilled through the wall of the room that will host my office area.....eel grass came out of the wall (insulation from 60 years ago)....and through that hole came this weeee internet cable from the outside world into mine. Why hello little cord, what knowledge do you have to share with me!!!

My friend is still in the hospital, but he is surrounded by a strong medical team....and it was that medical team who gathered around his bedside this afternoon and watched him do his pump site change, and asked 15 minutes worth of questions! More impressively, the nurse that came on duty in the evening knew all the pump lingo :) 

I said we were pump buddies, as I pulled my pump into view of the staff. We stick together!

The New Girl in Town

Well the new girl in town is settling in nicely. 

No pump skin as of yet. First I have to learn her personality and then find a suitable match! We are getting along well, keeping things in line.....all and all the change from my old pump with the weird error circle to this new pump went smoothly.

I had to take one of my best friends to the ER by ambulance tonight. Time like these make me cherish my loved ones, seeing the sadness of people in the hospital. I work with these people day in and day out, but to step back and see them from an onlookers view, it is a gentle reminder to be grateful. 

The Error Circle That Would Not Go Away!

So last night I worked a night shift. Tiring......I got home in the morning and crawled right into bed......but first, a sensor calibration so I would be woken during my precious sleep!!

6:05 my pump alarmed that I needed to do a calibration soon.

7:05 I was not fast enough, I received a "calibrate now" alarm. The open circle showed on the pump face.

7:06 calibration entered, no problemo. Fell asleep, slept well until 13:00 when I woke.

13:00 totally missed thanksgiving dinner (canada) with my family. Slept right through. Whoops!! Got up hit the road. 

14:00 figured I should at least look at my pump, see where I am at for BGL. All fine, but there is an open alarm circle. Strange, I had no recent alarms. Flipped through all the pump screens, no alarms showing active. Lots of units of insulin left. Hmmm....strange.

Changed the battery (I was at 1 line). Checked the alarm history, last alarm 7:05 with the calibration alarm. No temp basal, no pattern basal, no square or duel wave bolus on the go....NOTHING. Blood sugar 5.6, isig value is fine, sensor is fine. WHAT THE HECK? The open alarm circle is still there!!

I called the minimed hotline. I went through everything with the rep, neither of us could find why this was happening!! I was asking if there was some way to reset the pump.....reboot, but no. Not an option.

So, the US rep transferred me to the Canadian site and they processed an order for a replacement pump. I was told I could have a pump to me in 2 hours. WHAT! 2 hours...I need time to say goodbye to this one, 2 hours is not long enough! HA. I was shocked in the service, considering today is Thanksgiving in Canada. Someone's turkey dinner was being interrupted for my open alarm that would not go away. My pump was working fine.....I did not think this was URGENT!!

I told the rep the replacement could wait until tomorrow, let people have their family time!! He laughed....I laughed..

...then I had a brilliant idea. I entered a calibration that was WAYYYYY off. My isig was 5.7 and I entered a BGL reading of 14.0. There sensor, take that!! Lets see you alarm again ..... sure enough, within 10 minutes CAL ERROR. HA, I knew I could get an alarm out of ya!!

I cleared the CAL ERROR and as I thought may happen....the open mystery alarm circle disappeared.

Strange. 

I entered the REAL BGL, and the sensor is happily back online, and the mystery circle is gone.

I told Minimed, and they still want to replace me pump. "Sure, that is ok.....but please do not replace until tomorrow....let people have their turkey and naps". They laughed, and said ok.

Tomorrow 9am a new pump......this is my last night with my faithful buddy who has been with my since aug/06. I had her serial number memorized, her pump skin in place.......we get along great. I have had many different Minimed pumps since I started 6.5 years ago, and each pump change is hard emotionally. She (the pump) is confused, the open alarm circle is gone - why must she go away? Oh it will be a sad night, but it is more then the initial 2 hours we thought we had left together. Why do I feel this emotion towards a piece of plastic with a motor? My sidekick for the past year......wow.......if this is how I feel towards a pump, I would hate to see my emotion if I were to have a kid and something happened......

Fast Delivery

I certainly can not complain about the customer service with Medtronic Minimed.

Yesterday morning I went online, and placed an order for 4 sensors.

Less then 24 hours later, the sensors arrived to my door. Amazing! 

Another cooler and freezer pack to add to the collection...the perks of CGMS. I always have lots of freezer packs and cool lunches at work!