My Latest Endo Visit

I had an appointment with my endo (who I adore) today. I think this is the first time I've come away from an endo visit where I felt like she was happier about how I was doing than I was!

So, the last time I had a quarterly check-up with my endo, my A1C was 7.1. Not surprising to me. I wasn't pumping yet then and was really struggling with a nasty dawn phenomenon that was hard to deal with on MDI.

They give you these nifty cards with your A1C at my endo's office!

Since then I have gotten a pump and started CGM-ing too. While I was getting back on the pump and starting with the CGM I met with my endo's PA who does all the pump training and adjusting (and who is wonderful). Today, I had my official quarterly check-up with my actual endocrinologist for the first time since starting the pump. My A1C was 7.7!! Yikes Spikes!



I fully expected my A1C to be much higher, since the first month and a half of pumping was such a crap shoot of trying to figure out basal rates and stuff. Heck, let's be honest, I feel like it's still a crap shoot a lot of the time, but I have noticed marked improvements over the past month or so. I went to the office fully prepared to see a higher A1C, I just think seeing it on paper kind of made me realize I have a long way to go. I'm disappointed. My doctor was really positive, though. She took a look at my numbers, listened to my concerns, and we adjusted a few things. I know that my A1C will be better at my next visit, but I still feel a little deflated, because I feel like I've been working so stinking hard! I would really like to see my A1C below 6.5, and with a current A1C of 7.7 it just seems like a long way to go. Sigh.

Send some good, motivational thoughts my way, peeps. I need 'em today!

You know you're a diabetic when . . . .

. . . you have tiny dried blood stains all over your pillow cases from night time finger pricks. You can tell which pillow cases I've used and which my husband has used! Ha!

Proof

Just in case you were wondering what that CGM graph looked like on my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. That nice flat line at the top is when my CGM just read "HIGH" for several hours, whereas right before and after during those troughs, my CGM just read "LOW". :) Fun, fun, fun, fun!

Also, I have no idea why the picture posted sideways. I did not take the picture like that. Weird. I'm having too much of a crap day to try to fix it, so you'll just have to bend your head 90 degrees! :)

Worst Diabetes Day EVER!

Warning: This post is entirely negative and complain-y. Because that's just how awesome my day is.

The past 24 hours has literally been diabetes hell. You should see the graph on my CGM! Mountains and valleys, people! Mountains and valleys!

I've gone from 54 to 375 and back down again, over and over and over and over. I had recently made a few adjustments on my basal rates, but I didn't think it would affect me like this. I also have started taking a new kind of birth control, so maybe that's messing everything up too. I've dialed things down a little bit more on my basal rates and my correction factor to see if that will help. I think because I'm dropping so low I might be getting a liver dump in addition to what I'm treating my low with, and that is resulting in these SUPER high numbers! I have no other explanation!

I was up until 3am last night treating a low that would NOT FREAKING END! You know, one of those lows that you treat and wait 20 minutes and you just keep getting LOWER! And then you treat again, and it seems like you didn't even treat it?! And then I woke up this morning at 375. What the what?! And now, I'm low again. Awesome.

Sheesh. Sometimes this is just really hard. REALLY FREAKING HARD. Good thing I didn't have anything important I was planning on doing today, because I'm so exhausted, and feel so sick from these dramatic swings. It's almost all I can do to punch buttons on my pump to treat the highs and stuff glucose tabs in my mouth to treat the lows.

OK, sorry this is really negative. I'm usually much more up beat, but this is reality for me today, and it's just not that pretty.

But, I know that I can do this! And that gives me a little hope today.

My Particular Brand of Hypoglycemia

One of the great things about diabetes is how differently it can make people feel. One person will feel giddy when their blood sugar is high, while another will feel tired and lethargic. I had a friend who would get incredibly hungry when she had high BS.

Right now (as I'm writing this), I'm dealing with one of those interesting diabetes phenomenons. My blood sugar is dropping towards being low (hypoglycemia). I started watching my Dexcom about 20 minutes ago and suspecting something was up, because I started feeling SUPER nauseated. Like, get me to a bathroom, I'm going to throw up all over nauseated. After 18+ years of diabetes, I finally realized in the last 2-ish years, that when my BS is dropping quickly, it makes me feel like I need to throw up. And it gives me these really bad, painful air/gas bubbles in my stomach that run all the way through my intestines and end up coming out one end or the other (sorry if that was too graphic for you).Side note: Someone in the medical world please explain THAT to me! Through the diabetes OC I know I'm not the only one out there that has this happen when they're dropping fast. Awesome.

So, 20 minutes ago, when I tested and when I checked my Dex, it said I was 156. Not a great BS, not awful. But I felt sick, and I KNEW I was dropping, even though the Dex wasn't picking it up yet. Now, it says 108, with a nice downward pointing arrow, and I'm sitting here sipping juice trying to raise my BS, because if I don't, I WILL vomit. Because that's how awesome diabetes can be. It says "Oh, you need to eat to raise your blood sugar? OK, I'll make you feel sick to your stomach, because that will make it so much easier for you to eat!" (insert sarcasm)

It's like an extra sucker-punch to the gut.

And now my BS is 92, with a fatty downward trending arrow. I'm going to stop waisting glucose energy writing, and go start drinking more juice. Out of a juice box. Cuz that's how I roll.

5 minutes later: 84. Ugh. It might be a fun night.