Diabetes-free shower

I managed to time things yesterday such that I did an infusion site change and a sensor change right at the time I was taking a shower.  I ripped out my sensor, disconnected from my pump, tore off my infusion site, and hopped in the shower.

It was glorious!

I twirled around and around without worrying about being caught in tubing.  I used my loofah without worrying about catching it on my sensor.  I scrubbed, I moved, I danced.  For that short little 15 minutes, I forgot about diabetes and just let myself be me.

It was probably a little ridiculous to be so excited about such a thing, but I’ll take what I can get.

Anyone want some IV-3000?

After my horrible experience with IV-3000, I decided to give it another try, in case the first case was a fluke.

It wasn’t.

As a result, I have 48 IV-3000 thingies that I no longer need.  If you would like some (2, 10, all of them), just let me know.  I’d like to get some of my money back on it, but I am not opposed to giving them away either.  You can email me at amalasblog[AT]gmail[DOT]com.

Another joins our ranks

I wasn’t sure what to write about for D-blog day, but then I heard from my dad that there is another brand new diabetic in the world.

Her name is Katie (I’ll have to check on the spelling) and she’s my sister’s ice skating coach.  All I know so far is that her blood sugar was over 600 and went to the emergency room and had to stay overnight.

I imagine she will be contacting me soon and I will definitely be pointing her to the awesome Diabetes OC!  I know you all have helped me so much through the years, and I can’t wait to pass on all the wonderful wisdom.

Other D words

Detroit

After being bounced around as to what process to follow, I finally called our disability services number regarding the strike situation.  The lady was really nice and took down all the information that I wanted.  I got a claim number and squeezed in an appointment with my endo at the last minute.

My endo does not seem worried about getting the accommodations that I request.  And he didn’t seem to agree with me that being in Detroit would be bad.  From his perspective, I handle everything pretty well and don’t really need to be close to them.  From my perspective, this makes me nervous.  Although, my endo did mention the name of an endo he knows in Detroit that’s pretty good, so at least I would have that.

I’m really scared about the whole situation and I hope it gets resolved to my satisfaction.  Things are in motion, so all I can do now is wait.

Disappointment

While I was at my endo’s office for the strike stuff, they also did an A1c.  I wasn’t really due for one, but I was curious since I’ve been on the Dexcom for a few months now.  It came back a disappointing 6.1%.  Now, I know that is still a great number, but it broke my sub-6 streak.  My endo thinks that this is a “better” A1c because with Charlie, I have fewer lows.  So my overall control is better (less swings), but it results in a slightly higher A1c.  I know I should be happy, but after a 5.5 just 2 months ago, I still feel like a failure.

Depression

There are a lot of things going on in my world right now (as somewhat indicated by the above 2 sections) and it’s getting really hard to manage.  Too much stuff, not enough support.  Too many unknowns and no good solutions.

My mom had/has depression, and diabetics are more likely to have depression, so I’ve got 2 things going against me.  I refuse to take medication, and I already see a therapist, so I’m not sure what else I can do to get out of this funk.  How do I, as a perfectionist, let things go and allow it to be okay?

Crazy weekend

A couple big things happened in the past few days.  And rather than write about it, I decided to talk about it.  Enjoy my first vlog!

Click to watch the video. Big thanks to my husband for being my cameraman!

Closeup pic:

IV-3000 SUCKS!

I am having a pretty good time with the Dexcom sensors, but I can only get 7 days out of them before the adhesive peels off and I have to get rid of it.  I was looking for a way to increase the life of my sensors, so I bought some IV-3000.

I figured that if I put the IV-3000 down first (cutting a hole in it for the needle of course), then that would stick to my skin, then the sensor would stick to the IV-3000 and it wouldn’t peel off.  We had our first trial run today and it sucks monkey balls.

Not long after I put the IV-3000 down, I already saw it peeling off near the edges.  Then I took a shower and all hell broke loose.  The whole sides were coming off and I had to stick it down with some heavy duty medical tape (which I loathe to use because it’s really stiff) so I didn’t lose the sensor.

What went wrong?!?!?  I read all the instructions and I couldn’t really tell if it was something I did.  Am I not supposed to use IV Prep wipes in conjuction with the IV-3000?  Am I not supposed to get it soapy?  It says it’s waterproof, but that does not seem to be the case.  I thought this IV-3000 was the best adhesive money could buy, and now I feel duped.  What a waste of $50.