Saturday, 14 November 2009

WDD - In my little finger

World diabetes day... here in New Zealand we're already 3 hours in. What will it mean to me here? Not a lot, other than the little bit of noise I'll make about it I probably wont see or hear anything else here. I will see a lot of action on the net though (You guys rock!).

Anyway, it's always my diabetes day. Diabetes is a part of me, in my head space, in the bruises on my injection sites, in my handbag, in my routine, even in my little finger. The hard part is sharing any of that with other people, and even harder is finding someone who understands or wants to understand.

But I think WDD is a good thing - as is any moment that concentrates on doing something good for diabetics. Whether it's some major thing today, or some tiny thing you do any day - if it educates even just a few people; helps someone get diagnosed; helps someone understand their diabetic partner; or encourages someone to search for a cure, all those things make a big difference.

It's the butterfly effect, baby :D

So today's a good day to speak up a little! Light a spark of interest in someone and see where it goes :)

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Dear blogtastic blogerific blog-angels

Help!

I know I've been a blog snob - no posts for ages, almost a dead blog, blah blah.

Thing is, I have something going that I just don't understand. Maybe you can help?

I control my diabetes well, I have A1cs to be proud of - around the low 6s normally, without a single serious low or grossly crazy high, ever. (Serious = requiring hospital or anyone else's help). I mostly eat carefully but I allow myself whatever I want along with careful calculations and extra testing. This has always worked for me and led to pretty darned good control for someone with a crapped-out pancreas.

However... my last couple of A1cs have been higher; 6.7 and 6.6. No big deal, you might think, but it's a big difference when you consider than my 6.2 comes from sitting pretty between 3.5 and 8 90% of the time. My latest 6.6 comes from swinging randomly between 1 and 19. NOT nice.

Normally I can look at trends or think back on what I've done and see what's happening - right now I'm stumped. Nothing has changed to cause this weirdness. I have no lumps on my injection spots. I change my injection spots all the time and have a lot to choose from. I don't seem to need to change my Lantus dose (which I take evenly split at 12 hour intervals) - and if I did surely my BGs would either be high OR low, not a wild mix of both.

So people, what's going on? Cure me over the net, will ya?!

I suspect some sort of illness. In fact I was really sure I had thyroid problems - I can tick of just about every box in a list of symptoms (and my mother has hyperthyroidism just to add to my chances). However my TSH came back normal at 1.5. So I'm stuck with a fast heartbeat, endless thirst & hunger, crazy anxiety, insomnia, etc... and nothing to blame it all on.

I had an appointment with my endo today that wasn't exactly satisfying but I'm going back in a while, at which point I get to borrow a CGMS for a week, that almost makes it all worthwhile! I've said for years I'd almost be willing to kill for a CGMS ;) Such a tease to only get a week with it but at least I get to play :) Lets hope it can show me something I've missed.