I found this video and thought it was hysterical. Made me laugh out loud. If you watch it, take just a few notes on what NOT to say to a diabetic -pretty much everything in this video.

Apologies about the title -I don’t use that word and think it is awful. We’ll just pretend it says “Stuff people say to Diabetics”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am ALL about educating people about the disease that I live with -but I couldn’t pass this video up.

So, I got SUPER excited when I saw this package arrive at my door. I have been waiting for this for a LONG time now and my insurance finally approved it!

I just received my first continuous glucose monitor!!!

And I’ll just apologize now because I am so excited you might see an obscene amount of CAPS LOCK and exclamation points.

You might say, what in the WORLD are you talking about?
This lovely box below holds my CGM -$1000 worth of technology tucked away in there.

As a diabetic, I should be testing my blood sugars 4-6 times a day. Yes, that is when I prick my finger and put the blood on the little strip. You all probably had to do it ONCE in your life in 8th grade. Well, the continuous glucose monitor automatically checks my blood sugars for me 288 times a day. So, I go from 4-6 times a day to 288 times a day. 288 TIMES! THAT IS AMAZING.

Tangent
Do you see the little dude eating an ice cream cone in the top right corner? Seriously? They couldn’t pick something other than ice cream? Maybe an apple or drinking a refreshing cup of water. They might as well have put a kid eating cotton candy on there. Now, I don’t want to encourage you to be one of those people who say “you’re diabetic, you shouldn’t be eating that” or seem uneducated by saying diabetics shouldn’t eat ice cream. That is ridiculous. BUT, we do need to make sure we are eating in a healthy way -JUST LIKE anybody else in the world. If we all just ate more fruits, veggies, whole grains….we’d all be healthier. Ok. I’m getting off my soapbox.

How does it work you ask?
A tiny device called a “sensor” is inserted just under the skin of my abdomen. The sensor measures the glucose in the interstitial fluid producing data. I calibrate my monitor a few times a day to make sure when I test my blood sugars manually, the results match up with what my CGM is showing. This data is sent via a transmitter to my insulin pump and I can actually get a *REAL-TIME glucose result! How cool is that?! It shows graphs on my pump -whether my blood sugars are rising or getting dangerously low. It alerts me for both. It is a super super cool piece of medical technology.

The above picture shows the sensor on the left and the insulin pump on the right. No, that is not MY air-brushed body. My belly has kind of HAD IT with all these sensors and ports stuck in it. I’m going to need to get creative with port sites. Now, I’ll have 2 injection sites instead of one.

This is a picture of an insulin pump that is receiving data from a CGM. You can see the 114 number -that is the current glucose. Then on the left is a graph and it reveals trends. IT IS SO COOL. I’ve had mine in for 4 hours now.

I.can’t.stop.looking.at.my.results. It is so cool to read them immediately and not have to test 288 times to get the results. Then, I can upload all of my data into some software and it’ll show me graphs and pie charts and so much data that you will get bored with me just talking about it now.

*real-time is a bit of a misnomer. It is actually delayed anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.

So, I had to share the new device in my life. The goal is to keep my A1c low. As far as I can remember, I had NEVER in my 8 years of being a diabetic had an A1c over 7 (until this past month. ugh.). Except for when I was first diagnosed, obviously. So, I am happy with how I control my diabetes but I want to start seeing my A1c numbers drop into the 5s.

Let me know if you have any questions!!

I am not a doctor. I am not getting paid by Medtronic to do a review on their product. Just wanted to share all the wonderful stuff that I am learning. If you have questions about your own diabetic welfare…talk to YOUR doctor.

Biggest frustration this week was seeing my endocrinologist today and finding my blood results a bit higher than I wanted. Luckily, I have a “guilt-free” doctor who doesn’t seem concerned at all. He keeps saying “You do realize that is normal and supposed to happen right?” Yes, I know that towards the end here, insulin resistance is the game to play but it can be so frustrating when there is no rhyme or reason. I am up to 100+ units of insulin a day when I was just at 60 units 2 months ago. THAT IS A LOT OF resistance!! Good thing, my doctor has always got a plan. We are throwing out the carb counting and just jumping to a sliding scale. The numbers he gave me to use are drastic -my pump doesn’t even allow me to take that much insulin in one setting; BUT IT WORKED tonight for dinner. Within an hour of eating, I was right where I should be. Hallelujah.

Week 32

How Far Along: 32 weeks today!
Anticipated Arrival Date: Who knows! The week of July 18th is week 36. I foresee last week in July if there are no complications; but week 36 has always brought about something in the past…so we are just being realistic.
Name Yet?: Thought we had a name…now we don’t. This one is HARD!
Size of Baby: Roughly 3.75 pounds.
Weight Gain: Now I can’t remember my starting weight…I think I might be up to 16 pounds. Gotta ask my OB/GYN tomorrow.
Sleep: So, I know I can sleep anytime anywhere, but just this week, I noticed my pattern of waking up every two hours. Literally. It was either the dog, the cat, Lindy or Dale or having to pee. So, I eliminated 2 of the distractions, the animals have been banished to the first floor so that I don’t hear or see them on the second floor. I usually wake up to the kitty bell or the dog’s nails clacking along the floor. Dale usually comes to bed later and every once in a while, Lindy will wake up for some reason. The first night I tried it out…I slept 5 HOURS straight and then…well, Lindy fell out of bed. BUT it was a good five hours. I felt completely different. So, now down to peeing 3 times a night. Not too bad!
Movement:I LOVE this feeling. Love love love it. She is squirming and moving around a lot. I’m going to start officially kick counting. Gotta find a good system to do so. Today, I think I started to feel some Braxton Hicks, a good sign of things to come.
Emotions: I feel the strong urge to start preparing for this baby. Dale and I are not quite on the same page and he is crazy busy with all kinds of other stuff. I just don’t want to have reason for my blood pressure to go up, I’m a planner. If I feel that things are not ready, who knows what that could do to my pressure. We have come to sort of a compromise, so we’ll get a few things done before she arrives. We know SO many people who don’t do a thing until their rainbow baby comes home breathing…I just have to get a few things put together in HOPES that all goes smoothly.
Swelling:This week, started to see and feel the phalanges swelling a tad bit. I’ve been keeping a close eye on my ankles and face -I think I’ll start to show there more if I start developing pre-eclampsia, but so far, so good! Blood Pressure is ideal and very consistent between all 4 doctors. Had to take my rings off due to the swelling.
Symptoms:Probably too much information, but I’m sure someone out there has had something similar…I got this rash on my leg…I thought it started out as a bug bite but then it spread. It itches like NONE other and it will NOT go away. So weird. Went to my PCP and she said it was more than likely an allergy but decided to treat it as a bacterial infection with some meds. I walked away feeling not as assured about her diagnosis. Called my Dermatologist and they couldn’t see me until second week in July. Went to my endocrinologist today and he said, “oh, that is a pregnancy thing, right on your shin too, textbook.” Apparently it is Arythema Nodosum? Never heard of it but glad to know it won’t affect this pregnancy in any way.

Sometimes I feel like I am complaining a lot this pregnancy…but I think I am just making note of absolutely everything that is going on this time and I won’t let any anomaly go undocumented. I promise…I am SO GLAD we are on this road to grow our family, even if it means my body goes a little wacko.

Well, next post, will be my 200th official post -Giving away something fabulous to help you stay organized! Stay tuned!

So, my fabulous 2 weeks of eating only amazing, healthy, lower carb things only lasted just that…2 weeks. ugh. I got so bored with it. BUT I did lose 2 pounds in those 2 weeks. I KNEW that was my weight problem -stupid insulin. No, my goal is not to lose weight, but it sure was nice to hear.

Well, weeks 25 and 26 have been a doozy. BIG doozy and I’m 100% sure that with Lindy and Everett, at 25 weeks, my body went wacko as well. You see, as a diabetic, my insulin requirements will slowly creep up throughout the pregnancy to account for the big ball of sugar in my belly, aka the baby. Well, it seems that at week 25, my body decides it needs WAY more than I think. I’m having a VERY hard time accounting for it. My OB/GYN wasn’t concerned…he said. GOOD. That is the way it is supposed to be. Insulin requirements should be going up. So, one hour after I eat, my levels should be normal (my goal is 90). When I was testing this week and last, I was sitting at 250 after having taken insulin an hour earlier. CRAZY. So, I’d take a double amount of insulin to bring it down. Today I took a double amount and it was 350 an hour later. wow.

Good news, I am bringing those numbers down within 2 hours at least…but the goal is one hour. Bad news is my endocrinologist retired in the fall, so I am out my doctor who knows me really well. All they could do for me was get me in with a PA at the end of the month. NOT good enough for me. I am good at my own sugar/insulin regiment, but this time, I’m kind of being thrown for a loop! Only way to fix this is to monitor every single carb into my mouth and come up with a new sugar/insulin ratio for my pump.

Week 25

Baby girl Tres is looking good. Had an ultrasound on Tuesday and was able to see her little features more. She was basically bent in half with her legs ALL the way up over her head. You can see it in the 3D photo below…can you see her face and 2 feet all scrunched up and possibly her hand holding onto one of the legs? The second one, you can see her peaking through her feet.

Good news is she is looking perfectly on size. Always a big deal for diabetic mothers. If she was measuring larger, that’d be a sign of bad glycemic control. Met with the head doctor of the department for my appointment and he asked what the plan was with the other doctors for an amnio…I told him week 35. He shook his head no and said that was not going to work…we wouldn’t get the results we would want. He says week 37. I interrupted him and said, let’s just wait until week 35 and see what is going on. GOOD NEWS is that as long as everything is okay, there is room for me to keep this baby inside a little bit longer to avoid any health risks on HER part. Only scary thing for me is mentally making it past the 36 week mark when Everett died. Let’s just see how everything goes…I am trying not to make any plans.

I thought I’d answer a few questions about this pregnancy, since a lot of you (IRL) have been asking.

How Far Along: 26 weeks 3 days
Due Date: It’s complicated. Due date is August 15th.
Anticipated Arrival Date: Doctors are talking about c-section at week 36 which is the week of July 18th.
If I had my way:The baby will come naturally on July 26th. If Dale had his way, July 29th.
Name Yet?: She MIGHT have a name as of this week.
Size of Baby: She is measuring roughly 2lbs.
Weight Gain: I’ve gained ONLY 9 pounds thus far!
Sleep: I can sleep well anywhere, at anytime, in any place. I don’t complain much about sleep. The only thing keeping me awake these days is when the dog wakes me up at 4:30 to go out!
Movement: She is pretty mild in movements but when she does kick it is usually REAL early in the morning or REAL late at night. She kicks very very low.
Symptoms: Had some heartburn this week, I think it has to do with my diet and my sugars are of course wonky. Mix those two and I am tired all the time and my stomach is upset.
Food Cravings: Pickles for those 2 days. that’s it.
What I’m Looking Forward to: My mom coming to visit in 3 weeks. Only because I called her crying that I wanted her to come up here and help me with projects.
Emotions: Not as anxious this week about her health. Taking it one day at a time.

My pastor had a very good sermon on prayer a few weeks back and it keeps coming to mind. You can listen or watch it here, look in the month of April, 2011, the sermon entitled “Praying During Civil War”. I really took away when he said something to the affect of “one-off prayers” are not the most effective. To be honest, I can get in that habit of praying for a friend every now and then and then forgetting. Daily, continuous prayers -those are necessary. If I don’t pray, things will not occur. Miracles will not happen. It is not all scripted. Prayers MATTER! Prayer is an act of war against the principalities or darkness.

Seems like a no-brainer.

I am thankful for those of you close friends and family that are praying continuously for us -please keep at it! We are praying for a safe arrival of this baby and I am specifically praying for a non-traumatic, NATURAL birth.

So, I wrote this post a week ago, I made it post-dated so it would automatically post last Thursday and for some reason I’ve lost it AGAIN. This has happened more than once. Gotta get it figured out. @Jessica, you are the only person who mentioned seeing the LAST diabetic post that I lost…did you see this one too somewhere?

I would consider myself a cheater diabetic. Cheater meaning, I eat whatever I want to eat and just take more insulin to account for it. That way, my numbers are always good, not too high after I eat, but it is because I’m taking amazing amounts of insulin. My endocrinologist doesn’t seem to think it is a problem. Every time I mention it, they just say “go see the nutritionist.” Insulin requirements for any diabetic will be different depending on their needs. I was taking roughly 60 units of insulin a day to cover the amount of carbohydrates I was eating and that was eating any carbs I wanted with no discretion. I have decided to switch some things up this pregnancy and change some variables.

Did you know that insulin stores fat when not in use? I’m 110% sure that is the reason I never lost any weight in 2010. Even after going from a sedentary lifestyle to exercising 3 days a week for 9 months. I lost inches but not one single pound. All my doctors were dumbfounded. I think it is the amounts of insulin I was pumping into my body.

So, over a week ago, I started cutting my insulin requirements in half. I am happy to say that I have successfully cut it down 35ish units of insulin a day. The goal: eat more fruits and veggies and not so many carbs in my meals. I made a point to go to the NICE big, grocery store that had millions of options. All I wanted to was sugar snap peas and honeycrisp apples. Of course, couldn’t find EITHER. I was slightly disappointed. I did walk away with the below items though. I spent an hour chopping and dicing -I think that preparing the food is the hardest part because it takes time.

There were a few days where I had a hard time keeping my sugars low based on something I ate which might have had more carbs than I thought. I can’t be legalistic about this…if my sugars are high for some reason, I HAVE to take more insulin. It would be stupid of me to have high sugars just because I don’t want to go over my 35 unit limit. A few days this week I was disappointed that I had to take more insulin but at least I enjoyed the small piece of cake at a friend’s baby shower and some extra chips at a party!

In baby news, we are at 23 weeks now. I’m feeling her move on a daily basis now which is a great feeling. She seems to be a night owl. As my doctor was checking for her heartbeat last week, she mentioned that diabetic mother’s babies tend to navigate towards the port in the mother’s belly. My baby girl, the exact opposite!

Thursday, this week, Dale and I will be headed towards the pediatric cardiologist to check out her heart. If the baby cooperates, we will more than likely have a definitive answer about her heart and possible things to anticipate in the future OR not.