Medtronic 530G with Enlite has been APPROVED! :)

   Hey guys! I haven't posted anything here in a long time but due to some new stuff I hope to start posting regularly. I just found out today that I was approved for the Medtronic 530G with Enlite system and I'm really excited (and nervous)! I have been a Medtronic Paradigm pumper for 4.5 years and have been very happy with my experience. This will, however, be my first experience with a CGM, aka, Continuous Glucose Monitor, and I'm excited about the possibilities of how it could help me. I'll readily admit that I am also rather nervous about the unknown of this new system!

    While making the decision to try this system, I was somewhat surprised by the lack of user stories I could find out there. I believe this is largely due to the fact that this is a pretty new pump/cgm, so I decided I want to share my experience as I start it. I hope to post about weekly (maybe more) about how its going so that I can hopefully share insightful information to those interested.

   Final thoughts, my pump should be shipping anytime now and I should be hearing from my local trainer in 5 to 10 days. March the 6th is my 6 year diabetes anniversary so this couldn't come at a more perfect time :)

Until later,

Leanna

Dealing with loss and my new a1c.

   Hi again! Lots has been going on in my life recently ans since I haven't posted anything for awhile I thought I'd do a big post to bring everyone up to date.

   First of all, I think if you had asked me a year ago how hard it would be to make it through 3 family deaths in 7 months time I would have said I don't even want to think about it. October 2012 to May 2013 has forced my family to do more then think about. In October my aunt (uncles wife) lost a 6 year battle to cancer. While I wasn't really that close to her the funeral and the time around the funeral was very hard because her family has daughters nearly exactly the same ages as my sisters and I and it was REALLY hard to watch them have to say good bye to their mom.
   Then, come December, we had to face something that we had been preparing somewhat for since earlier in the year and that is say hello and goodbye to my beautiful nephew Bryson Paul. Even though we knew for quite awhile, there is really no way to prepare for something like this. Bryson died due to Potter's Syndrome which is a condition where the mother lack amniotic fluids during pregnancy and the baby never develops lungs or kidneys. Bryson lived for about 40 mins before God gave him his angels wings. I think I cried more through that whole process then I ever thought possible and just writing this as my eyes full of tears again. The 7th of this month would have been his 6 month birthday. I spent the evening of the 7th babysitting for a friend who has a little boy who is 7 months old and that made me miss him VERY much. Right now he would be sitting up, laughing with us, smiling, being able to play with his 2 big brothers and SO much more. Make no mistake, I fully believe that God makes no mistakes and that Bryson is in a much better place but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
   The 3rd death in the family was more recent and was my Grandpa who just passed away on May 17th. He had spent years now in poor health and his body was worn out. My Grandma has been amazingly strong but after being married to someone for 54 years, there is no way that it is not extremely hard and painful for her. My mom was able to travel out and spend sometime there over the time of his death and most of the family was able to go and be together over the funeral. He is now is a MUCH better place and no longer has to struggle to do the things in daily life that were so hard for him.
   Having gone through this much loss recently I have to say this about it: you are only given the strength to make it through things like that once you need it. The important things to remember and hold tight to are God and your family. God will never leave you or forsake you during those times so draw close to him for strength and comfort.

   Moving on to my current health, my recent a1c and my eyes re-check brought GREAT news. My eyes look awesome with NO sign of problems from diabetes :) that makes me really, really happy cause I know that eyes can easily be affected by diabetes and my eyesight is really important to me. My newest a1c made me terribly happy too. It is now down to being a 6.8!! This is a big deal to me because it is the first time in my 5+ years of being diabetic that my a1c has been under 7. Last May I had my second straight 8.3 and then by October I had gotten it down to a 7.4 and by January is was a 7.1. I working at wrapping my mind around the fact that I have now gotten to where I wanna be and am facing a new challenge. Instead of getting my control to where I want it to be I now I have to keep it where it is and I think that may prove to be harder! I am seeing my endo on the 26th and I want to talk to her about possibly starting a CGM. I have in the last months had some overnight lows that plain old scare me and I think I would really benefit from using a CGM.

   Well I hope you guys have an awesome day! We, here on the east coast, are bracing for storms today.

Love and hugs, Leanna

 

Hair Donation!!!

   So it's official. For my 21st birthday I did something I've never done before. I cut my hair to donate them! For me this is a pretty big deal cause I have always had long hair. I've had lots of hair trimmings but have never actually cut them like this. My sister and I did it together and we are sending them to Pantene for their program where they make wigs and give them to cancer patients for free. The stylist I had took mine pretty short partly cause of the way she did them and partly cause since I had some layers she had to take more off too have the usable donation long enough. Its very different! Anyway, here are some pictures!!

So there are the pictures :) I think donating them is a great thing to do, now lets see if they grow back!!

Tip to save a pump site

   Wow its been over a month since I posted! School is keeping me busy, but I'm doing great! :) I'm doing even better cause there are only a few weeks of school left!
 
   This post is to share a tip I used today to save my pump site. I just put a new one in last night so as all you fellow diabetics understand, I wanted to save it after it came off halfway this morning! This site is on the side of my upper leg. I was at work this morning and I bumped my leg on the corner of a couch. I could have bumped ANYWHERE on my leg but did I just bump a random spot? Nope! I hit it smack on my site! I checked it right away to see that the bigger sticky area (I use Silhouettes) was not on anymore and it had even un-clipped. The cannula was obviously still fine and since it was less then a day old I wasn't fond of the idea of pulling it and using the extra from my bag. The sticky area was still sticky and seemed willing to stick somewhat but I'm not sure it would have stayed on its own. I got a band-aid out of the lady I was working for's bathroom and put it over top and that made it nice and tight! I take medical tape along if I'm going to the beach but I don't carry it with me regularly. Tonight, the band-aid is still sticking great even after my hot shower and the really cool thing is that because of the non-sticky part, I can unclip the tubing and reconnect easily :) Since band-aids are easy to stick in my case with everything else I already carry, I'm now gonna start keeping one in my D bag for this purpose! I thought I'd share in case it would help anyone else :)

Here's a picture. Its just from my phone so its not good but gives you the idea!

My Headboard

   Most people will have normal things on their bed's headboard. They'll have tissues, books, lotion and a clock. If your crazy like me, you might even have 3 lotion bottles on yours! While I have all these things, I have much more and if your a diabetic, you probably do too.
   My headboard always has things on it to treat a low blood sugar. I used to have them there and they would just be there "in case". I had never gone lower then 50's and usually 60's in bed and then sometimes I would choose to just get up and treat it. Recently though, I've dropped to 30 and 31 and 2:30 am so I am now a firm believer in keeping these things on my headboard. Both of the nights that I went so low I had a juice box and a granola bar on my headboard and I used them both. Right now I'm out of juice boxes so I have a Quick stick, a glucose drink and a granola bar there. Here's a pic of what my headboard looks like at night:

 
   So there you see it all! from left to right: My diabetes bag is on top of my tissues box, my phone is there, and an empty candle where I've been throwing all my used test strip and lancets in in an attempt to keep them from missing the trash can and covering my floor :) In the next section is all the important stuff! My alarm clock (which I don't used for my alarm, only for the time), my testing supplies, all my low supplies and my 3 fabulous bottles of lotion! if its actually night time my glasses would be there too. In the last section are my books.
   Maybe the amount of low things I keep right there is overkill but I hate night time lows and want to be ready for them. I also want to know what all you guys keep right by your bed? are you as overly prepared as I am or are you more relaxed about it?

Love and hugs, Leanna

Struggling with food journaling

   Hey people! so this post comes at you this morning cause I thought maybe writing about something that I'm struggling with would help.
 
   So today is day 5 of keeping a food journal. My goal is to see it not only affect my blood sugars in a great way but also to help me lose weight. By writing everything down I am also only eating at meals, except for low bg's and my meals will be eating a few, specific foods rather then eating whatever I feel like. I think this will help me lose weight for two reasons. Because of writing everything down I'm eating less and since doing this give me great blood sugars, along with eating less, I'm using less insulin. So far I've been doing pretty good. Blood sugars are a lot better when you know exactly how much food is going into you rather then allowing yourself that half of a cookie or handful of chips.

   This morning is the first that I'm really struggling to stick with it. I woke up with a bg (blood glucose) of 125 so I'm at the perfect spot to bolus for breakfast and be ready for more great numbers. But this morning the cookies my sister baked the other day are soooo temping. The bag of chips on the table are begging me to eat just a few. I've made it almost 2 hours into my awake time this morning having eaten nothing but my breakfast and I'm determined to be stronger then by urges to eat the food that is teasing me!!

Wordless Wednesday

This speaks for itself. My meter at 2:30 am.