Love,Hate

Dec 4,2008--I have many love hate relationships, the bike being one of them. I hate getting ready to get on it, I hate riding in bad weather, I hate all the preparation to get on it, but once you've started and it's a nice day out and you're with good friends, well then, of course it's easy to love.

Most recently, since September, I have a new love/hate item. My CGM- I've never been a numbers person, probably why I've never been as disciplined as I should be with checking my sugar. Until recently, that is. When I first started reading the triabetes blogs and realized that people actually do workout with "normal" sugars, I realized I had a awful lot to figure out. I've been at this endurance stuff for about 10 years now and always have exercised with sugars in the 200's. I know, I know-some of you are gasping, but I'm more afraid of going low then being high. Well until recently it was normal for me to start out with a sugar of 250'ish then sometimes end much higher than that. Now since my CGM, I'm learning that I perform and feel better around 130-150! Here's the love/hate part-I hate the size of the needle, I hate that when working out indoors I can't get it to stay on much longer than an hour, I hate that my insurance company will allow me to only have 10 per month, I hate wearing another attatchment, I hate that insurance companies won't pay for all type 1's to have one, I hate when it wakes me up in the middle of the night to calibrate it, I hate to calibrate it, I hate when it tells me I have a 136 sugar and my accucheck tells me my sugar is 408! Yes that happened this morning. So here is how my morning played out-wake up my cgm says 136, my accucheck says 408-technology sure is not perfect- I bolus 7 units because my bolus wizard tells me to bolus 11 but I'm getting ready for a 8.5 mile trail run. I eat 4 tootsie rolls and a Halloween sized package of dots, down a cup of coffee made with skim milk(hey gotta cut back somewhere) and head to the trail to meet my friend. I check my sugar on the way with my accucheck, losing faith in the cgm, and I get 456-I bolus 4 more units. I keep my basal rate of 0.7u/hr on until mile 3 when i start to feel low, my cgm says 296 and i don't have a accucheck with me-I turn my basal rate off and continue on. I get to mile 4 and I'm definitely low my cgm says 196, I eat a package of shot blocks anyway. My friend says to me," Boy you sure are having alot of problems with your sugars lately, you never used to go low last year." She's right, trying to exercise with a normal sugar has been a challenge, and I'm sure it will continue to be until I lay off the candy that makes my sugar go to 400, and I try to figure this game out. So anyway by mile 5, still feeling low my cgm says 117-all I know is sugar is dropping quick-I eat my 2 packs of sport beans and hope for the best. Mile six feeling good cgm says 130 and stays pretty consistent until 8.5miles.

So here is the love part, I get to my car and accucheck says 145 cgm says 140-I love it when it works like that, I love when it wakes me from sleep with either a high or low reading, I love that my insurance company will pay for any of it, I love that it is helping me to take better care of my diabetes, I love knowing that someday they might actually perfect it!

The first picture is obviously my fat gut with my cgm on which wirelessly transmits my sugar readings to my minimed pump, the second picture is the needle and charging device.