The Bunni has no job so why not see if she can keep at it this time post

A little over a year from the last time I actually made a blog entry I have a newer and more awesome a1c! It's almost a personal record. I probably beat it once when I was like 10 and my mom was handling things but since it's definitely a "Bunni does this all herself" record, I'm going with it! Are you ready? Alright, here it is:

6.6! Six point frickin' six!

I teared up at the doctor when he showed me. I am awesome! Or at least getting there. I wrote the number on a little chalk board with my new goal of >6.3 to put in the kitchen of my new house next month.

So how did I manage this amazing feat of diabetic awesomeness? Well, I got my shit together, that's how!

Ok, so it's story time: A little over a month ago I had ketones. It was only the second time ever but wow did it suck. If you've never experienced heavy ketones I don't recommend you try it. It's like having the flu plus dehydration plus "Oh crap am I gonna die?" I scared myself pretty good at that point.

As a result I was unable to sleep partially because I was miserable and partially because I was scared and I thought: I bet there's a diabetes sub reddit! I wandered myself over there and found a lovely little link for the irc and found awesomeness! Everyone there was wonderful and helpful and encouraging and nice! I could gush about them for hours, really. They've really helped me to stop screwing around and do things the right way. The right way also being known as "pay attention instead of just eating and hoping for the best." In case anyone is wondering, I was doing it the wrong way before.

So dexter is happily keeping track of my way more awesome blood sugars than ever before and my pump is doing it's pumping thing and all in all things are going well.

The conclusion? I AM AWESOME! No really, the reddit diabetics are the awesome ones. I'm just happy to have them. They're a huge part of my life now and I don't know what I'd do without their collective knowledge, encouragement and entertainment.

Sorry I Suck at Updating things

I haven't updated in basically forever...

BUT MY A1C IS DOWN TO 7.3!!!!!

I know this is still high but it's better than 9.3!  Now I just need to figure out how to lose weight...but hey, there's an app for that.

Medical Tape Blows: Experiments in duct tape and super glue

I have been wearing things affixed with medical tape for over a decade. It sucks. I notice around day 5 with my pump site that the edges are peeling up and I am fundamentally both cheap and lazy so it is in my best interest to keep my pump site affixed for as long as there's still insulin in the cartridge. No, I don't encourage this, it's the fastest way to get pump site scars but I don't want to change it every 3 days, damn it!

I noticed that my dexcom site starts peeling up around day 4 and by day 6 (it's a 7 day site) it's almost completely off and is hanging on by the magic of the metal sensor parts embedded in my skin. It was almost completely off this evening and I needed the site to last a few days longer because I get the best accuracy later on and these sensors cost a fortune.  Tegaderm has started irritating my skin, much to my dismay, so today was an experiment in adhesive!

I started with new medical tape (the generic cloth tape from the drug store). I was super unimpressed...Monumentally unimpressed, even. As soon as I was in the shower it decided that it was no longer tape but rather slightly sticky cloth strips. Medical tape is a fail (at least that kind). If anyone knows where I can find medical tape made of the same material as the tape on my pump and dexcom site that I can layer with, please tell me because that's my preference.

On to experiment 2. Newskin "bandaids"...if you can call them that...are basically made of super glue. I decided after the tape failed that since I had none of that, super glue would make an excellent adhesive for the rest of the sensor's life and I could remove it with acetone later. I found super glue! I went to apply said super glue! Super glue was all dried up. I am not convinced that this wouldn't work...but the Fiancée didn't want to leave the house to go buy some super glue or newskin and I didn't want to go alone because I'm lazy so this experiment is now being categorized as "still a possibility." I'll let you know how that goes.

Experiment 3! Everyone knows that when you have a problem, duct tape is the answer! My mother is probably not particularly happy that this is what I concluded was the answer to my problem today because I got her out of bed to help me find it (she should put duct tape in the kitchen office supply drawers...the garage is far too inconvenient of a place for duct tape). This is what happens when you have me as a daughter and you let me come home for holidays. I wake up you to find duct tape. Currently the duct tape is affixed quite nicely to my skin but the tape on the sensor was still wet from the shower so it's failing to stick to that. I also have some clear tape holding another portion of it on. Again, sticking well to the skin and not so much to the still damp dexcom sensor tape. I'm thinking the duct tape will be a fail in the long run.

Conclusion! (I am totally not following the proper scientific method here. I'm sure some teacher who actually gives a shit is very sad right now...)
-Medical tape - this stuff blows, don't use drug store medical tape
-Super glue - jury is still out as experiment was thwarted by dried glue and my personal fear of gorilla glue
-Duct tape/clear packing tape - Might work if the existing tape hadn't been wet but it's kinda itchy.

I think the super glue/new skin is my best bet but I wont get to find out until tomorrow...or maybe sunday. Whenever I can make it to the store. The point is: medical tape blows and they should sell the adhesive tape part of bandaids in stores by the roll.

Unrelated: I am being masticated

My thesis ate me. Be back soon!

Dexter is usable again!

I just wanted to note that I have changed out my sensor since I'm no longer on the pyridium and Dexter is back to beeping and vibrating at me. I missed him.

Annoying thing: During nap time, blood sugar went up to 300. How does it DO that in 3 hours? It was fine BEFORE nap time!

Dexter is usable again!

I just wanted to note that I have changed out my sensor since I'm no longer on the pyridium and Dexter is back to beeping and vibrating at me. I missed him.

Annoying thing: During nap time, blood sugar went up to 300. How does it DO that in 3 hours? It was fine BEFORE nap time!

Warning: This post is about pee...again.

Being diabetic and girl usually means you get UTIs. This just seems to come with the territory because diabetics are prone to infection and girls are more likely to get UTIs than guys. I seem to get them a couple times a year where I notice I'm getting one, call the doctor immediately, treat with antibiotics, and end in happy. There's only one day of absolute misery and then I'm fine. The most recent occurrence did not happen that way.

Last Monday it started, I was miserable, I went to the doctor, I got cipro (which is the usual antibiotic of choice for UTIs) and Tuesday I was a much happier Bunni.  Wednesday I was no longer a happier Bunni. I was an in-pain Bunni with lower back pain in the kidney area and a doctor whose nurse did not check voicemail because she left early. I had to call the on call doctor who was, luckily, my normal doctor. She found my symptoms to be very strange and gave me stronger antibiotics and told me if I started throwing up to go to the emergency room. Yay! New drugs! I figured I'd be fine.

The next morning she called me back to tell me that none of the organisms in my urine had colonized when they cultured it. I thought of tiny bacteria cities but then she said that because of that, it didn't look like an infection and instead looked my like kidney stones. GREAT.

I called back later because it was getting worse and instead of relying on the "if it gets worse, go to the hospital" plan I decided I should go with the "it hurts lets go to a specialist" plan. It seemed cheaper that way. The doctor's office make me an appointment so I could see a urologist and I figured he'd say "oh! Stones!" and then tell me he could break them apart with magic kidney pills or something.

He did not tell me that. Instead, he told me that it seemed like I might have vesicoureteral reflux. That is basically where instead of all the pee escaping out your urethra from your bladder like a normal human, it actually leaks back up into your kidneys and causes stupid infections and swelling of the kidneys.

Signs of Vesicouretal Reflux
Childhood UTIs - check
Frequent UTIs - check
High blood pressure - used to have that so we'll call it a check
Protein in the urine - had that in the past...check
Pain in the lower back/kidney area - check

FUCK.

So it seems that I have malfunctioning ureter valves and my kidneys are swollen. HOWEVER...they can't run the tests to find out if that is the case because I was on cipro. You have to wait 10 days after taking cipro to run the tests. I stopped taking the cipro wendesday which means they wont be shoving tools up my urethra to run tests for a little while so I have to wait with painful kidneys and KNOW that they will soon be shoving tools up my urethra, filling my bladder with contrast fluid, and then seeing where that fluid goes. OH JOY.

Why can't I have normal people problems?

Azo Standard and The Dexcom Error: Why tech support should really listen to me.

As a diabetic (and a crappy one at that) I tend to get a lot of infections. The latest one is an exciting (and by that I mean miserable) urinary tract infection that made it basically impossible for me to make it through an entire hour lecture without leaving to pee twice. I'm sure my class didn't really mind getting to go home five minutes early because of it but they are not the point of this post. The drugs I'm on are.

So after ending class five minutes early I make my way across campus (stopping roughly every other building to pee) and eventually make my way to Sutton's on franklin st. There's also a Walgreen around but I like Sutton's drug store because there's a little diner in there and they're local and it's closer to my car anyway. I go to the pharmacist and beg him to show me where the "Azo UTI pain killy thingy" is and he gives me a box of generic Azo Standard Maximum strength which I promptly pay for and take with some cran-grape juice that probably has a total of a table spoon of actual cranberry juice in it but whatever (and then run to pee again.)

On my way to the car from the drug store I notice my blood sugar is over 200 and correct for it (this I did while stopped at yet another bathroom to pee at.) I swear this is important later. I get to my car. I race to the doctor. I wait for the doctor in the bathroom because I still have to pee roughly every five seconds and the azo hasn't kicked in completely. I look down at Dexter. I see ??? in the reading box. This means that Dexter is receiving things from the transmitter, he just doesn't know what those things mean. This is odd but whatever, it's happened before and usually clears up in a half hour. The doctor gives me a prescription and now that the Azo has kicked in, I manage to make it to the pharmacy without having to stop on the way.

I get home and notice that Dexter is still very confused. I call the tech support and they ask if I've taken any tylenol. Acetaminophen is not a drug in Azo so I say no, but I took Azo Standard. They told me that's not a drug that is known to interfere with the sensor but when did I take it. I look at the clock and at dexter and say "about 15 minutes before I got the triple question marks." The woman tells me to call back if it's still doing it in another hour but it may just be the drugs I took. I take a nap. Naps are good and are usually the solution to all my problems.

I wake up and Dexter is happy again and asking for a calibrating blood sugar so I oblige and think nothing of the whole event for the rest of the night.

Today I woke up and took my Azo so I could make it through the day. By the time I get to campus, Dexter is reading a lovely ??? again. Ok, now I'm sure it's the Azo. I call tech support again and tell the woman about yesterday and the Azo and that I wanted to call and tell them that it's definitely the cause of the sensor interference and they should let their customers know. The woman, not very politely, tells me that Acetaminophen is the only drug that can interfere with it. I tell her that clearly that is not the case as the Azo has none in it and is messing with my sensor. She un-politely thanks me for the information and we hang up.

I don't think she intends to report this to anyone.

I think I will be calling my doctor, my local Dexcom rep, and my Dexcom trainer. Other users should know that it causes a problem to avoid them needlessly wasting sensors, trying to figure out why they keep getting question marks when they haven't taken any tylenol.

And that is why tech support should listen to me. The end!

PS: These posts would be better with pictures. I should start adding pictures.

Symlin: Yes, I'm finally writing about it!

So I promised to write about the drug Symlin and now I'm actually gonna do it!

When I was diagnosed with diabetes no one told me "be careful about how much you eat because you don't know when you're full anymore." I was 9 and that was ok because my little 9 year old stomach wasn't big enough for the amount of food I had to eat anyway and I was underweight from that whole being an untreated diabetic up until that point. However, when I was 12 and got my insulin pump I was told "you can pretty much eat whatever you want now." That is the WRONG thing to say to someone who's had precisely prescribed meals for years.

For the next several years I proceeded to eat whatever I wanted in whatever AMOUNT that I wanted. No one told me about portion control and diets only ever talked about cutting fat, never caloric intake and I tried a lot of them. They certainly didn't say "Hey, Hey you...You know that hormone that tells your brain when your stomach is full? Yeah, you don't HAVE that!"

"Wait, what? I don't have that? Why don't I have that? Why in the hell didn't anyone TELL me that!"

That was my response in late 2007 when the wonderful endocrinologist at UNC Chapel Hill told me that diabetics do not make the hormone amylin. Amylin is a hormone that your pancreas secretes with insulin when you eat. Diabetics don't secrete insulin...so no amylin. Stupid immune system.

This was discovered LONG ago in the grand scheme of my life (and way before I became diabetic) so why in the world did no one tell me? Probably because there was nothing to be done about it and it wasn't actually a necessary hormone. I would have explained why I went from being reasonably thin to slightly chubby and struggling to stay just that after I got my pump, though.  In 2005 somebody started making Symlin (synthetic amylin) but I wasn't told about it then, either.

I think a lot of people don't know about Symlin because doctors don't think to inform their patients about yet another thing they have to stab themselves with. My doctor at home was actually surprised that I started taking it (it was prescribed by the school endocrinologist) because it was an injected medication and she thought I wouldn't want something like that. When I had asked Dr. Vimmerstedt about my weight loss efforts and how they always seem to be thwarted she told me about it, though. If there was anything I was willing to try, it was something to help me get thinner.

Sylim has to be taken with meals in shot form. When you first start it, you get really nauseated and you have to slowly step up your dose. Your body builds up a tolerance to it. All of that was worth having control over my eating.  I am now only hungry when I'm hungry and when I eat enough to be worth taking my Symlin (you have to eat a certain amount to take it) I don't feel like I could eat another 10 servings of whatever I'm eating if only my stomach would stretch that much.

I used to only know I was full when I had eaten so much it hurt. I'm very willing to be prodded with more things if it means I can be more normal. Now that makes very little sense: why would it be normal to have to stick needles in yourself all the time? The normality that I'm looking for is function normality. I don't want to feel sick. I don't want to leap over hurdles to control my eating. I want my body to function as close to a regular human's as possible.

I mean I'd rather I have the metabolism of a 15 year old boy so I could be skinny with no effort but I'll take what I can get. Super skinny is probably over-rated, anyway.

A week with my Dexcom

So I haven't posted in the last week because I've been super excited about my Dexcom and have been playing with it...and also I have a life that sometimes calls. But I'd like to tell you about my Dexcom. His name is Dexter and he enjoys taking blood readings. You figure out why he got named Dexter. It wasn't my idea.

So here are the awesomest things about Dexter:
He makes neat beeping noises and vibrates when he's angry about my blood sugar. (I can tell him when he should get angry)
Sometimes he PERFECTLY matches my glucometer...Usually he's pretty close, though.
I made a super awesome new pouch for him that attaches to my pump sling so I don't lose him and that's an upside to him because I'm proud of myself.
My blood sugar has been over 300 ONLY ONCE since I got him.
I've had the sensor in for over a week and he's still calibrating well.

Here are the less awesome things about Dexter:
He is an additional electronic thing to keep track of/explain to courthouse security/be extra bulky.
He sometimes doesn't calibrate correctly for the first day.
His sensors cost a fortune and that makes me cry.
He's not leashed to me via tubing so I'm a little scared of losing him.

Overall I'd say he's the best thing that's ever happened to me (except for the boyfriend and my dog...of course).  I have way better control and feel more comfortable taking insulin for food because I wont have to freak out and over correct later...I know when it's falling. I check my blood sugar more and that's good (although also a little more expensive but whatever).  I catch high blood sugar AS IT HAPPENS. My a1c is going to kick some serious ass next time I'm at the doctor. I frickin' love this thing and based on reviews of the one that goes with my insulin pump, Dexcom is much better accuracy and ease of use wise.

I'm really happy with my decision even though I have to have an extra device to keep track of. I stuck a business card in his case so if I ever do lose him, someone might find him and call me to return him. He's also pinned and snapped 3 different ways to my pump case. I don't think he's going anywhere. I just need to figure out how to wear a dress with him now.

PS: My sister said I should have named him Edward and glittered him. Maybe in a few years when I upgrade to a new model and do that.