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I've been egged
And there's a bunch of people complaining about it...
*grin*
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Monday, 24 September 2007
Saturday, 22 September 2007
When hormones come to play
Ridiculous blood sugar highs for around 10 days, coupled with a fat & frumpy feeling and cravings for all the wrong foods... it can only mean one thing: I have a period coming. (Sorry to anyone not interested in gal talk. You can click out if you must.. or hang around and learn a little about what we go through).
Every period screws with me - For 7 - 10 days beforehand my Lantus is nowhere near enough, I suddenly need twice the normal dose of short acting insulin with my meals and yet still need corrections afterwards. I feel tired - oh so tired. My hair looks grotty just a few hours after I've cleaned it, my pain threshold is way wonky - everything hurts. PMT sucks.
Then wham... a run of low BGs starting with one sudden drop that always catches me unaware. This time it hit overnight, and I woke from a weird dream at around 3.30 am with a BG of 2.4 (43mg/dl). That was the beginning ... since then I've been working to avoid lows almost all day every day.
At the peak of all this I went for a birthday dinner at a friend's house. I tested at 5.1 before dinner, took my injection with really conservative insulin estimates for spaghetti bolognese. I cooked it, so I know exactly what's in it. I also know there's Apple pie and cream for dessert but I decide not to inject for that yet considering my lower numbers of late.
Only about an hour after eating I'm feeling weird. I test at 2.2 (39). I get half a glass of coke, a large square of Nestle's 'heaven' chocolate, and decide to have dessert without an injection. I'm expecting a ridiculous high from this, but I just can't stand the lows any more! So I eat pudding - a good chunk of apple pie - that's gooey apple centre (vaguely carby), Pastry (heavily carby) and sugar sprinkled heavily on top (super carby). NO insulin. 30 minutes later I test again, 2.6 (48). I curse diabetes under my breath and just keep munching.
The day before, also at dinner time, I'd eaten hungrily knowing my BG was dropping a little. Dosed conservatively to avoid lows. Yet only one hour after eating my eyes were having trouble making sense of the world and I couldn't quite stay focused on the story my son was telling me. I'd dropped to 1.6 (29) and still had over an hours worth of insulin working to drop me lower. Bring on the coke, jellybeans and chocolate - say goodbye to losing any weight this week.
These two lows are bad enough, but I haven't even started telling you the full story. I'm low after breakfast, I'm low after having lunch with no insulin, I'm low when I *think* about exercising, Im nibbling all day. I'm getting this actually rather nice looking average BG reading in the 4s... but not nice in this situation.
Hormones suck. I'm never ready for this roller coaster ride - how can anyone ever be ready for it? It's not following a routine, it's not checking in with me before playing with my BGs! It's screwing up my patterns and giving me trouble - which in turn leaves me tired and sometimes moody.
All in all, that's 2 weeks out of a typical month with roller coaster BGs, and I can only try to keep up - so far no success. Sure I know I have 7 - 10 days of oddly high BGs. Then I drop and have 2 - 3 days of stupidly low BGs. That much I'm aware of - but I can't sort out a good carb to insulin ratio for either of those times because they change daily - no, hourly! I can't increase / decrease the Lantus to suit, because it takes Lantus a couple of days to show any effects from a change so I'd always be a few days behind. I have tried, but I end up with a bouncier ride. Easier to stick with my current dose of long acting and just play with the short acting insulin. Continually. You can imagine the number of test strips I go through!
I was much better off when I had no periods at all. Supposedly I'm going through early menopause, which started when I was 27 - but now I've had 6 months or so with a cycle - not regular, but nonetheless there, and no hot flushes. Perhaps it was never menopause to start with...? Or perhaps this is only a phase, my body's attempt at giving me normality before it finally takes my cycles away for good. If this is true, I'll never curse menopause again!! Diabetes is hard enough without hormones fiddling with the balance. I don't want early menopause, but I prefer it to this mess.
This is causing problems for my wish to lose one kilo before Sunday... with only one day to go, I think I'm out of luck! My week of high numbers brought on the munchies, my usual 1-2 kg weight gain from water retention (thankfully this drops off pretty fast too once it's all over), a couple of rebound lows from rage bolusing, and PMT cravings (read: home baked goodies and big blocks of chocolate disappearing without a trace!). My few days of repetitive lows have led to a lot of extra high carb munching, and a fear of exercise. This was a bad bad time to get serious about weight loss! No big deal, I'll try again once it's over.
I don't know if this is the norm for other diabetic women, or if I'm going through some weird menopausal phase, or if I'm allergic to trying to lose weight :P Whatever the case, it's been driving me nuts and I'm really glad it's nearly over!
Every period screws with me - For 7 - 10 days beforehand my Lantus is nowhere near enough, I suddenly need twice the normal dose of short acting insulin with my meals and yet still need corrections afterwards. I feel tired - oh so tired. My hair looks grotty just a few hours after I've cleaned it, my pain threshold is way wonky - everything hurts. PMT sucks.
Then wham... a run of low BGs starting with one sudden drop that always catches me unaware. This time it hit overnight, and I woke from a weird dream at around 3.30 am with a BG of 2.4 (43mg/dl). That was the beginning ... since then I've been working to avoid lows almost all day every day.
At the peak of all this I went for a birthday dinner at a friend's house. I tested at 5.1 before dinner, took my injection with really conservative insulin estimates for spaghetti bolognese. I cooked it, so I know exactly what's in it. I also know there's Apple pie and cream for dessert but I decide not to inject for that yet considering my lower numbers of late.
Only about an hour after eating I'm feeling weird. I test at 2.2 (39). I get half a glass of coke, a large square of Nestle's 'heaven' chocolate, and decide to have dessert without an injection. I'm expecting a ridiculous high from this, but I just can't stand the lows any more! So I eat pudding - a good chunk of apple pie - that's gooey apple centre (vaguely carby), Pastry (heavily carby) and sugar sprinkled heavily on top (super carby). NO insulin. 30 minutes later I test again, 2.6 (48). I curse diabetes under my breath and just keep munching.
The day before, also at dinner time, I'd eaten hungrily knowing my BG was dropping a little. Dosed conservatively to avoid lows. Yet only one hour after eating my eyes were having trouble making sense of the world and I couldn't quite stay focused on the story my son was telling me. I'd dropped to 1.6 (29) and still had over an hours worth of insulin working to drop me lower. Bring on the coke, jellybeans and chocolate - say goodbye to losing any weight this week.
These two lows are bad enough, but I haven't even started telling you the full story. I'm low after breakfast, I'm low after having lunch with no insulin, I'm low when I *think* about exercising, Im nibbling all day. I'm getting this actually rather nice looking average BG reading in the 4s... but not nice in this situation.
Hormones suck. I'm never ready for this roller coaster ride - how can anyone ever be ready for it? It's not following a routine, it's not checking in with me before playing with my BGs! It's screwing up my patterns and giving me trouble - which in turn leaves me tired and sometimes moody.
All in all, that's 2 weeks out of a typical month with roller coaster BGs, and I can only try to keep up - so far no success. Sure I know I have 7 - 10 days of oddly high BGs. Then I drop and have 2 - 3 days of stupidly low BGs. That much I'm aware of - but I can't sort out a good carb to insulin ratio for either of those times because they change daily - no, hourly! I can't increase / decrease the Lantus to suit, because it takes Lantus a couple of days to show any effects from a change so I'd always be a few days behind. I have tried, but I end up with a bouncier ride. Easier to stick with my current dose of long acting and just play with the short acting insulin. Continually. You can imagine the number of test strips I go through!
I was much better off when I had no periods at all. Supposedly I'm going through early menopause, which started when I was 27 - but now I've had 6 months or so with a cycle - not regular, but nonetheless there, and no hot flushes. Perhaps it was never menopause to start with...? Or perhaps this is only a phase, my body's attempt at giving me normality before it finally takes my cycles away for good. If this is true, I'll never curse menopause again!! Diabetes is hard enough without hormones fiddling with the balance. I don't want early menopause, but I prefer it to this mess.
This is causing problems for my wish to lose one kilo before Sunday... with only one day to go, I think I'm out of luck! My week of high numbers brought on the munchies, my usual 1-2 kg weight gain from water retention (thankfully this drops off pretty fast too once it's all over), a couple of rebound lows from rage bolusing, and PMT cravings (read: home baked goodies and big blocks of chocolate disappearing without a trace!). My few days of repetitive lows have led to a lot of extra high carb munching, and a fear of exercise. This was a bad bad time to get serious about weight loss! No big deal, I'll try again once it's over.
I don't know if this is the norm for other diabetic women, or if I'm going through some weird menopausal phase, or if I'm allergic to trying to lose weight :P Whatever the case, it's been driving me nuts and I'm really glad it's nearly over!
Thursday, 13 September 2007
I have wheels!
It's been a long few months without a car. We survived an entire winter without. YAY us! Of course, I was able to borrow a car at least once a week, so I wasn't entirely lost :D
It was a pain, but I didn't realise it had affected me that much until I got incredibly excited about my new car! I've been buzzing since I picked it up on Tuesday afternoon.
It's SEXY! Well, it is to me. You'll understand with a little background... I've never had a 'nice' car. I've never saved up and worked for my own car. I've had old bombs that I've picked up cheap, I've had someone else's old bomb given to me (I've been SO lucky! Spoiled even.) I've had a work vehicle - just a tatty old van. And I've had a bicycle that reallllllly hurts my butt lol. But to date I've never had a car I was proud of, one that had nice things - a working stereo. Electric windows. Central Locking. Tidy body. Basic stuff to you, right? But things I've never had.
I could have had those things if I was willing to give up more of my time to working, or if I chose not to homeschool my son and spend more of my money on myself, etc. But until now, other things have always been more important. Now, I have a nice car, and I haven't had to sacrifice anything for it (except my savings!). It does help that the car was really too cheap for what it is ;)
So I'm a really happy chappy. I have, parked outside right now, one nice looking Toyota Corona - a car that gets rave reviews on the net and has a great rep for reliability - and it's MINE!
*buzz*
It was a pain, but I didn't realise it had affected me that much until I got incredibly excited about my new car! I've been buzzing since I picked it up on Tuesday afternoon.
It's SEXY! Well, it is to me. You'll understand with a little background... I've never had a 'nice' car. I've never saved up and worked for my own car. I've had old bombs that I've picked up cheap, I've had someone else's old bomb given to me (I've been SO lucky! Spoiled even.) I've had a work vehicle - just a tatty old van. And I've had a bicycle that reallllllly hurts my butt lol. But to date I've never had a car I was proud of, one that had nice things - a working stereo. Electric windows. Central Locking. Tidy body. Basic stuff to you, right? But things I've never had.
I could have had those things if I was willing to give up more of my time to working, or if I chose not to homeschool my son and spend more of my money on myself, etc. But until now, other things have always been more important. Now, I have a nice car, and I haven't had to sacrifice anything for it (except my savings!). It does help that the car was really too cheap for what it is ;)
So I'm a really happy chappy. I have, parked outside right now, one nice looking Toyota Corona - a car that gets rave reviews on the net and has a great rep for reliability - and it's MINE!
*buzz*
My promise to you... and me.
OK, here it is, loud and clear, and published on the net for all to see.
I hereby promise to do my darndest to lose one kilogram by Sunday next week. That's Sunday the 23rd of September. 1kg, 10 days.
Doable... Easy in fact, 1kg is nothing... yet I don't do it. So I'm hoping that by telling the world about it, I'll be able to stick to it!
Following that kilo, maybe a few more. But for now, just the one to get me started. Small steps. One kilo at a time.
Here I go...
I hereby promise to do my darndest to lose one kilogram by Sunday next week. That's Sunday the 23rd of September. 1kg, 10 days.
Doable... Easy in fact, 1kg is nothing... yet I don't do it. So I'm hoping that by telling the world about it, I'll be able to stick to it!
Following that kilo, maybe a few more. But for now, just the one to get me started. Small steps. One kilo at a time.
Here I go...
Thursday, 30 August 2007
My New Polls
(polls now closed - for a while you can view them at the bottom of the right hand side of this page)A I mentioned in the previous post, It's a fiasco every time I call the doctor for a prescription for new meter strips.
First the phone call, which I hate every time. I deal with either the receptionist or the nurse, and I can hear both of them rolling their eyes as I once again ask for a script that allows for 8 - 12 tests a day.
Then I go in to pick up the script, which will without doubt allow for only 3 - 4 tests a day. I complain, ask for it to be re-written, and sometimes it will be, sometimes it wont. Even if I get a replacement script it will still only allow for up to 6 tests a day. I can live with 6 if I have to, but it leaves me guessing my BGs too often, and I feel SO much better (and more in control, and more free to live my life, and more free to do *anything*, etc) if I can test when I need to.
How can it be wrong to test more? Isn't it a good thing? Aren't I a good little patient for having a1cs under 7, testing at good times, keeping an eye on things and attempting to take over the roll of my pancreas?
The good news is that when I see my Endo she will write me out another script, which keeps me stocked up for when the doc wont give me enough. The bad news is that she only wants to see me once a year now because as we both know I'm controlling my own Diabetes and know what I'm doing, so one extra script a year doesn't fill up those gaps any more :(
Well this is yet another fiasco that may be coming to an end. I called the doctor to get strips a few days ago. I went in yesterday to pick up the script which yet again allowed for 3 - 4 tests a day. I left it there with the receptionist and requested an appointment. I would show the Dr the Pharmac Schedule which says a diabetic on insulin can have as many tests as they need. I would print bits out, explain my case, heck I was even willing to cry brittle diabetes if I needed too (which is bull crap... but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do).
FINALLY the good news: The receptionist called me this morning, cancelled my appointment and said that the Dr wrote me a new script for 800 strips following a letter he got from my Endo. I don't know what she said, but I love her now :D
SO - omg I've been a little verbal on this one haven't I? So.... I was wondering how many others have trouble with this. Are you free to test as you need to? Is it a bother, or are you happily testing less? Is your doctor writing out scripts willy nilly allowing you to test as you please? Tick some boxes, and tell me all about it. Especially you NZ'ers - I wonder how common this issue is in NZ.
BTW - it seems blogger's polls don't allow for any more than a word or three per option. If you can't read what's at the end of the line, just hover over it and all will be revealed. Thanks for your votes!
The Accu-Chek Performa Meter Fiasco
We were once excited about the free Performa meter Accu-Chek were sending out to all of us currently using an Advantage meter.
Then, we were a little worried as the meter didn't seem to work as we expected.
Then we discovered that the meter read in Plasma, not whole blood. All very good, but we were a little annoyed that we weren't clearly told about it. Small print isn't enough.
Then we discovered that the supposed 10 - 15% higher readings could be as far off as 10 - 60%, which is nowhere near accurate enough for a diabetic trying to survive day to day.
Roche eventually (but very casually) mentioned that the meters might not be reading as expected, and very quietly mumbled that maybe, if we wanted to, we could use our old meters for a while, only if we weren't happy, and just until they sorted out the strip / chip issue. Although these meters were often reading dangerously outside of range many people are still using them and Roche have barely tried to discourage us. Even the health professionals are confused - one person will tell you to keep using it, it's fine... the next will freak out and insist you keep well away from it until they've sorted it.
I for one was not pleased. I'm sure Roche aren't too pleased with how this turned out either! But I no longer play a part in this fiasco! YAY! I gave in to the competitors offers. I have now swapped my Performa meter for an Optium Xceed, and I'm pretty happy with that deal - At least the Xceed has a back-light! (Overseas readers may know it as the Xtra)
I'd encourage others to either do the same, or at least keep using your Advantage meter. The Performa is a recipe for trouble! Even if you're happy with the Performa, are you happy with the way Roche have dealt with the issue? I'm certainly not.
However I'd also like to note that the issue with the Performa seems to be only on some meters (which totally kills their theory of the problem being in the calibration of the strips, doesn't it?). My tests showed a variance of up to 60%, yet my friend's comparisons show a fairly well averaged 15% with only a couple of slightly 'off' readings.
Anyway, here's to my new meter and three cheers to Medica Pacifica for a brilliant deal, and what looks like a brilliant meter. I'm yet to find out, because getting a new prescription for more strips is yet another fiasco I have to go through repeatedly with my doctor, so at this point I have a lovely new meter and NO strips. How it sucks to have a new toy that you can't play with!
Then, we were a little worried as the meter didn't seem to work as we expected.
Then we discovered that the meter read in Plasma, not whole blood. All very good, but we were a little annoyed that we weren't clearly told about it. Small print isn't enough.
Then we discovered that the supposed 10 - 15% higher readings could be as far off as 10 - 60%, which is nowhere near accurate enough for a diabetic trying to survive day to day.
Roche eventually (but very casually) mentioned that the meters might not be reading as expected, and very quietly mumbled that maybe, if we wanted to, we could use our old meters for a while, only if we weren't happy, and just until they sorted out the strip / chip issue. Although these meters were often reading dangerously outside of range many people are still using them and Roche have barely tried to discourage us. Even the health professionals are confused - one person will tell you to keep using it, it's fine... the next will freak out and insist you keep well away from it until they've sorted it.
I for one was not pleased. I'm sure Roche aren't too pleased with how this turned out either! But I no longer play a part in this fiasco! YAY! I gave in to the competitors offers. I have now swapped my Performa meter for an Optium Xceed, and I'm pretty happy with that deal - At least the Xceed has a back-light! (Overseas readers may know it as the Xtra)
I'd encourage others to either do the same, or at least keep using your Advantage meter. The Performa is a recipe for trouble! Even if you're happy with the Performa, are you happy with the way Roche have dealt with the issue? I'm certainly not.
However I'd also like to note that the issue with the Performa seems to be only on some meters (which totally kills their theory of the problem being in the calibration of the strips, doesn't it?). My tests showed a variance of up to 60%, yet my friend's comparisons show a fairly well averaged 15% with only a couple of slightly 'off' readings.
Anyway, here's to my new meter and three cheers to Medica Pacifica for a brilliant deal, and what looks like a brilliant meter. I'm yet to find out, because getting a new prescription for more strips is yet another fiasco I have to go through repeatedly with my doctor, so at this point I have a lovely new meter and NO strips. How it sucks to have a new toy that you can't play with!
In memory
Ted (Draggie) Chapman, passed on August 13th 2007.
A man who helped bring me out of my shell. I'll always remember him and be thankful for the times we shared.
Cheers x x x
Dammit Draggie you still owe me a song!
Hello, world
Just poking my head in to say hi.I haven't been around much - life has been, well, y'know, life. It got busy... so busy that I... oh I'm fibbing, I just got addicted to other stuff :D Like tudiabetes... and Desktop Tower Defense, and Onslaught.
And then I thought about coming back and saying hello, but you know how it is when you haven't talked to an old friend for a while... where do you start? Do I have to worry about whether I've pissed you off and forgotten about it? Or do I owe you any money?
So lets start with a clean slate, eh?
I have so many things to say, so many posts in draft that need to see the world, so many stories to tell. It's all backed up in my brain and if I don't get it all out I'm going to pop.
However, first things first - I need sleep, it's 2:45am and I've had a very long day, which I shall be sure to tell you about, along with all the others, in due time.
Prepare your eyes - serious post-a-thon coming soon.
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