HOLD ON...HERE COMES 2007!!!

Had a good Christmas.....as good as it could be while working throughout the whole holidays!! The Ramada near where I work was overly kind and cooked us an entire Christmas Dinner for the whole team at work on Christmas day. That was very nice, very tasty and much apreciated!! Did manage to fit in a quick visit at my sister's house with all the family - and had a few others over the house. Busy times, but all great times!!

The picture is from the trek to Clam Harbor beach yesterday. I thought it wouuld be a great day to go to the beach and take pictures!! Well....seems the -10 degree temperature with the WINDS made for a very chilly visit! Still managed many good pics!

Made it through the holidays with good sugars....only thanks to the RT system. Did not overeat the sweets, so I feel like it was a sucessful holiday season HA! I'm all set for 2007. I don't usually make new years resolutions, but I am telling myself to take my multivitamin EVERY day...so we will see how that goes!!

Green Christmas?

Well Colorado has its share of snow now - but here....GREEN GREEN GREEN. I was out today for a long walk, +5 degrees (C) and no snow in the forcast! May be a green Christmas after all! Love the new camera, took hundreds of pics today, but now I want a snow storm just for the picture oppertunities!

RGMS/CGMS PROOF! Amazing Results

It has been 4 months since I started using the Minimed 522 CGMS pump with the glucose sensor.

I went a few weeks ago and had my first HA1c. I found out my results today - AMAZING! I know the value itself may not be amazing, but the CHANGE is what I find amazing!! Here is the outline:

Nov 2005 HA1c 8.0
Aug 2005 HA1c 7.7 (not much better!!!)
Aug 2006 Started Minimed Paradigm 522 sensor system
Nov 2006 HA1c 6.7

I went down a whole percent point, with no effort. The sensor did all the work - alarmed me when I was rising to high, and I would quickly correct. Simple as that! I find that I do not feel the slow creep - hyperglycemic unawareness. I will feel the high glucose feeling, but not until I hit arond 15 mmol/L. If I am sleeping, I will not wake up to feel the rise in glucose - and many many morning had terrible glucose values! This has been eliminated by the sensor system - it wakes me if my glucose goes outside of my desired range!

I work shift work, and have a very hectic lifestyle - so this 6.7 HA1c, with the 1% drop over 4 months - is the best Christmas present I could ever ask for! Enouch evidence for me!

Research is starting to show the same results. There have been multiple articles in the Diabetes Care Journal about the reduction in HA1c values - both published in November, 2006. I am gathering all this info to present to my insurance company soon! BUT not sure if the clinical guidelines for the use of the sensors is out and available for the insurance companies!?????

Murphy's Law!

Well Christmas is here!! This year's gift of choice, a new camera!! I am excited, but now the snow is no wheres to be found! We had one storm a few weeks ago, and I was out taking cool pics! Now....it is like fall again! Makes me wonder if we will have a white Christmas! I want to get out and take WINTER PICS!! I have the winter tires ready for action....bring on the snow!!

So update on my Pump Skin....still hanging on and doing great! Looks like the day it went on! I enjoy the little pick me ups...but I would really love to see Minimed come out with colored tubing, or colored infusion sets! I figure they can make the tubing and sets still translucent (so you can see bubbles etc)...a good marketing scheme! I sent my idea to Minimed, and got a standard letter back. That was about 2 years ago...makes me think I should send this idea again!!

Shall we hope!?

Diabetes Break-through?

I read about this in the National Post today, and as well on Kerry's Six Until Me site. By Human nature, I am impatient. I read this article, I want to see this in Human Trials right away - but I understand the process of research, and the time needed...

Either way, this is an amazing glimmer of hope - please have a read of the article! A nice Christmas present!

As for the gym visit yesterday it went well! Well sort of, Devin was actually booked to see me at a gym on the other side of town (whoops, a booking error)...so I was at one gym, and he was waiting for me at another gym across town. It all worked out ok, I rebooked for next week with him - and went solo and had a good workout at the gym. It was nice to get back at it. I have been averaging one gym visit every other week for the past month or two....I am going to up that to twice to three times a week (my week is an 8 day cycle),,,,writing it down is the first step...:)

Christmas must be near!

Finally I made the first step towards admitting Christmas is near!! I was out driving yesterday, and drove past my local Lion's club tree sale, and decided it was time to get going on the Christmas season!! The very nice folkes from the Lions Club helped me pick out a tree....as per my criteria.....

1. No higher then I can reach (As I stand with my hand high in the air)
2. Able to fit into my VW with nothing sticking out of the car as I drive....
3. Nothing living in it that I would take home....HA, as funny as that sounds, the man took the tree and gave it a good shake to accounce to any occupants it was time to vacate!

So there I was, with a tree in the car, Christmas music on the radio...all set! I got the cheapest of the cheapest tree stands, a few decorations and headed home!! All went well, as you can tell by the picture. No one injured, a lot of SAP on my hands - but it went up so easily! Sadly, none of the gifts under the tree are for me, they are all for my family :(

So now unrelated, I am heading to the gym today. I took a few months off (Go ahead, tell me I am lazy. I called it a vacation) but today I am back at it. Booked in with Devin, my favorite trainer - so today I am back at it.....we'll see how the sensor stands up, but it is going to be nice to know ahead of time when my glucose will be dropping during a workout, rather then hitting the wall in the middle of my cardio.....then stumbling to the locker....digging out some form of glucose, you know the drill!! I will let you know how it goes - if I make it out alive :)

Stormy Week

Well this week ended in a wild stormy way. SNOW STORMY!! Two stormy nights and here is the talley:

1. Bruised right hip....first step out, fell flat on my a**
2. Broken rear wipre on the VW. Maybe from the weight of the snow...maybe from my cleaning of the 15cm of snow off the car to prevent freezing...whoops!
3. Furnace broken x twice. OUCH.
4. 1 mouse in the house.......who really likes peanut butter, and is talented at eating it off the trap without setting the trap off....until this morning.....
5. Every morning the lovely E-2 error on my meter (I like to keep the room cool while I sleep!!!)
6. Many beautiful pictures!!!!!

Love winter! (???)