It's Been a While...

So I haven't written in a while. Not really for a lack of ideas or thoughts (cause if you ask, I have exactly 10 or so rolling around my head at any given moment), but more so a lack of time at my laptop, energy, and organization. Because 2 or 3 sentences makes a tweet and not a blog. And while I love bullet points, they don't help my writing skills blossom. But alas, my mind just breaks down from all the clutter rolling around in there.

I managed to pull out not just ONE, but TWO infusion sets placed on my thighs within exactly 3 hours of each other last week. I think there was something wrong with the adhesive after they ventured into the great outdoors with me for a night. But considering I typically "accidentally" tear out a site once every 6 months, I was quite angry cause I despise changing my infusion sites. Plus, it screws up my rotation schedules for "landing zones".

Another first for me (today in fact) was the first time I misplaced my insulin. I'm on a pump. I change my site & reservoir every 3/4 days, but I always keep my medical bag packed especially when I'm travelling (read DRIVING everywhere). I was panicking after I noticed that my Novolog was missing for the bag when my reservoir was running on EMPTY just after eating a large dinner at 8pm at my parents. I guess that as I was hectically putting in extra infusion sets in the bag, it rolled out. Insulin 5 hours aways doesn't help me now. Absent-vial-syndrome hasn't EVER happened to me before. Thankfully, the CVS by my parents is open til 10pm and they had enough in stock to fill my prescriptions. Crisis averted.

I'm on the hunt for a cool diabetes shirt that says "Even though I don't look sick, I still deserve a cure for diabetes" preferably before the Non-Communincable Disease Summit in NYC (I'm going and you should too! More info here!). Anyone know someone who sells one already? Otherwise, I'm totally hitting up http://diabetees.spreadshirt.com/ to make me one (because I really want to order half their website already). Anyone else interested?

Diabetic Art Work!

So I was wandering around online (aka not apart from my laptop for hours) and I noticed that lot of the cool blogs out there have diabetes artwork (d-art from now on) as part of their website templates and designs.

I was a little bored and kind of sick of the layout of mine so I decided to try out my hand. Now please be patient while I get around to "transforming" my blog, but here's a preview of my diabetes supplies climber. I really want to come up with a name for him. Let you know when that part of my creativity starts spewing.

New Doctors!

Today was the first day towards feeling better about my health care team.

First, a little background: My last doctor (Dr. Not So Awesome) was a very nice endocrinologist who grated on my nerves. I had picked her randomly out of a insurance line up because she was the first on I found taking new patients near where my parents new locale. She was like a little diabetes machine...for older patients. While she was okay that I was on a pump and she wrote the prescription for my CGM, she didn't get it or like it AT ALL. She didn't understand the college thing and the crazy schedules. After 2 appointments, she decided to shrug me off and into the arms of her nurse practitioner (NP), who was better by all means but not anything spectacular. The NP ignored the numbness in my hands without even giving me a possible cause (carpal tunnel, anyone?), but she was otherwise bearable. So when I visited Dr. Not So Awesome in March and she proceeded to berate me and talk to me like I was a child, I ended up angry and crying in my car. At that moment I realized that with all the stress in my ridiculously busy and career-oriented life, my Diabetes doctor should not be stressing me out.

I drove home and decided that I needed to get back to someplace that accepted technology, understanding, and support. That's why I called up an outpatient Joslin Clinic. I went to one for 6 years in NJ and I knew that their attitudes were what I needed.

My new Endo is leaps and bounds better. I was a little wary because of her thick accent, but she was astounded by how well I take care of myself. Flattery is the key to good reviews (jk). She was actually sincere when she said I was one of the good patients. My HbA1c on their rapid test was 6.2, which is pretty much where I wanted it to be. She didn't want to change anything about my basal rates or bolus ratios. She told me to keep relaxing and exercising and to see her at the end of the summer.

The only kind of scary thing that we spent a few minutes discussing was the extra 15 or so pounds I've gained in the past 2 years of graduate school. She said that if the exercise doesn't help with loosing those pounds and increasing my insulin sensitivity, I may need to go on metaformin. Apparently, with my family history and my new luggage that I'm trying to lose, insulin resistance may be playing a role. She said not to worry about it just yet through. Still scares me a little bit. More meds? I have a hard time remembering to take my daily vitamins everyday. Bolusing is usually a little more memorable cause that blocky pancreas (MM pump) is attached to me and it happens at random times. Anyone have tips for sticking to schedules?