Second visit for the Bayhill BHT-3021-01 trial.
Simple, they drew a smaller quantity of blood this time and checked my vitals. Then gave me the drug shot and fed me as I had to be fasting for today's blood samples.
My son Julien also participated in the "trialNet" study, which he can do once per year as a family member of a type 1 person. All they do is take a blood sample from him, and try to identify if something, any pattern may link my son's genetic predisposition to type 1...or not.
Julien had to sign for the first time. He gave me a fit for it as he didn't want to sign, wasn't comfortable doing it or didn't know how to do it. I told him to simply try with a big long J letter and put a D on its tail. He finally did after a few tears but was more interested and NO tears to get on with the blood draw...funny little guy...
I dropped him at day camp after that and went to work.
Feeling fine.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Baker training ride #2
Sunday, we decided to drive up to Mt. Baker and do one last drill from Glacier to the top before the official Baker race on Sept 13th (which is now open, last 2 miles was closed on our training ride #1 June 29th).
Gina was going to watch my son Julien somewhere up the mountain and join us all at the end.
Things started well for me at 6am (wake-up) with a BG at 83 (nice, my targets are 85-95) and a low reservoir alert all freaking night. Ate 104g of carbs for breakfast (eggs, 4 slices of chicken, tomatoes, 3 slices of whole bread with butter and nutella).
Gina, Julien and I took the road to Woodinville where we met up with the boys (and now girl...), arrived at Glacier at around 10am and started the competitive ride up Mt. Baker (24 miles, 4,800ft elevation gain). Checked my BG one last time at the start, I was at 109, my CGM (yeah I am back on it) was reading 94. Right off the bat you start to climb on the rollers when at about 6 miles into comes the one that always kicks my ass. It's about a 2 miles steep roll that brought my heart rate up to 178 which I guess I never recovered from (I usually have no problem recovering from that on our grueling Wednesday rides...). Mike was kind enough (as always) to wait for me and "coach" me on my breathing, and to also tell me to eat and drink more. I let him go at his pace so that he could catch the rest of the group up the road even though Chris was now nice enough to pace me back almost into the entire group. But knowing what was up ahead (12 miles of non stop 7% grade uphill, I let them jump up and decided to conserve whatever left over energy I had (or was lacking) to finish up at my own pace.
And what a crappy pace this was. I could not get my speed higher than 7.4 miles per hour for the most part and my heart rate higher than 155. Not sure why still but it was painful, and very lonely up the side of the mountain. For the first time since I have been riding up baker (about 8 times now?) I did not enjoy this moment.
I finished in pain and little air in my longs in about 2h05min, BG at 137, CGM at 98.
I opted to drive down with Gina and Julien in my car as I was very sad of my "performance" .
Overall on the ride I ate: 4 vanilla GU, about 10 sharkies, 1 and 1/2 bottle of 2 scups each accelerate sports drink, 1 Milky Way. A chocolate/peanut butter bar and banana before the ride.
Jana (Mike's mother) as always was very much motherly and prepared us all an egg salad on bread (no insulin for it). I checked my BG at 148 at 3:13pm and 126 at the "Beer Shrine" at 4:01 (remember no insulin) where we all decided to have a late lunch at 3pm or so. Good thing I didn't inject insulin at time of order because it took them a good 40 minutes to serve our big table.
Spend some time in Bellingham with my Chérie and Julien where I had a cold coffee with milk (I shot .4u for it which I found to be pretty devastating later in the evening).
Drove back home talking about politics with my honey and arrived at home where a Hypo hit me like a bus in the face, testing at 50! CGM reporting a safe 88 trending down (no arrows) to 80 at 8:36.
Decided to go eat something in a hurry! at a Thai place where I shot 4.1u for 92 guestimated gramms of carbs with a BG at now 52.
Went to bed at 66, took a muscle milk to test again before closing my eyes at 64 (do not try this at home) but I had my personal nurse laying next to me for the entire night as well as my CGM alarming me every 20 minutes of a low from 4:22am until 6:42am with the lowest at 47 at 5:22am.
I didn't do anything about them because I wasn't feeling it much. Finally tested when I woke up at 6:48 with a BG at 91 CGM still reporting 58. (trust your body...)
Anyways, I think what screwed me up with the TRUE low at 50 at around 8pm was the stupid non calculated bolus 0f 0.4u I took with the coffee (forgetting how strong they make them with very little milk) and of course still trending down since my body was still on the mountain burning about 2000 calorie.
Gina was going to watch my son Julien somewhere up the mountain and join us all at the end.
Things started well for me at 6am (wake-up) with a BG at 83 (nice, my targets are 85-95) and a low reservoir alert all freaking night. Ate 104g of carbs for breakfast (eggs, 4 slices of chicken, tomatoes, 3 slices of whole bread with butter and nutella).
Gina, Julien and I took the road to Woodinville where we met up with the boys (and now girl...), arrived at Glacier at around 10am and started the competitive ride up Mt. Baker (24 miles, 4,800ft elevation gain). Checked my BG one last time at the start, I was at 109, my CGM (yeah I am back on it) was reading 94. Right off the bat you start to climb on the rollers when at about 6 miles into comes the one that always kicks my ass. It's about a 2 miles steep roll that brought my heart rate up to 178 which I guess I never recovered from (I usually have no problem recovering from that on our grueling Wednesday rides...). Mike was kind enough (as always) to wait for me and "coach" me on my breathing, and to also tell me to eat and drink more. I let him go at his pace so that he could catch the rest of the group up the road even though Chris was now nice enough to pace me back almost into the entire group. But knowing what was up ahead (12 miles of non stop 7% grade uphill, I let them jump up and decided to conserve whatever left over energy I had (or was lacking) to finish up at my own pace.
And what a crappy pace this was. I could not get my speed higher than 7.4 miles per hour for the most part and my heart rate higher than 155. Not sure why still but it was painful, and very lonely up the side of the mountain. For the first time since I have been riding up baker (about 8 times now?) I did not enjoy this moment.
I finished in pain and little air in my longs in about 2h05min, BG at 137, CGM at 98.
I opted to drive down with Gina and Julien in my car as I was very sad of my "performance" .
Overall on the ride I ate: 4 vanilla GU, about 10 sharkies, 1 and 1/2 bottle of 2 scups each accelerate sports drink, 1 Milky Way. A chocolate/peanut butter bar and banana before the ride.
Jana (Mike's mother) as always was very much motherly and prepared us all an egg salad on bread (no insulin for it). I checked my BG at 148 at 3:13pm and 126 at the "Beer Shrine" at 4:01 (remember no insulin) where we all decided to have a late lunch at 3pm or so. Good thing I didn't inject insulin at time of order because it took them a good 40 minutes to serve our big table.
Spend some time in Bellingham with my Chérie and Julien where I had a cold coffee with milk (I shot .4u for it which I found to be pretty devastating later in the evening).
Drove back home talking about politics with my honey and arrived at home where a Hypo hit me like a bus in the face, testing at 50! CGM reporting a safe 88 trending down (no arrows) to 80 at 8:36.
Decided to go eat something in a hurry! at a Thai place where I shot 4.1u for 92 guestimated gramms of carbs with a BG at now 52.
Went to bed at 66, took a muscle milk to test again before closing my eyes at 64 (do not try this at home) but I had my personal nurse laying next to me for the entire night as well as my CGM alarming me every 20 minutes of a low from 4:22am until 6:42am with the lowest at 47 at 5:22am.
I didn't do anything about them because I wasn't feeling it much. Finally tested when I woke up at 6:48 with a BG at 91 CGM still reporting 58. (trust your body...)
Anyways, I think what screwed me up with the TRUE low at 50 at around 8pm was the stupid non calculated bolus 0f 0.4u I took with the coffee (forgetting how strong they make them with very little milk) and of course still trending down since my body was still on the mountain burning about 2000 calorie.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Letter to Senators and representatives
Diabetes has changed my life in many ways and here are a few examples why:
How many times do you use your hands and fingers in one day to bring something into your mouth. I bet you don't even realize. But please, after you have read this, try for just one day to count.
Now every time I bring something into my mouth, I need to check what my current blood glucose levels are, count or/and estimate what it is I am taking to my mouth contains, how much fat, how much protein, how much glucose. Because depending on all the other ingredients that make that food, the glucose will react differently in my, not to mention my mood, current health of the day, stress.
Every time, I ask myself, "is it worth the $1 test strip I need in order to test my current blood glucose", and if I do eat that, “is it worth the +$10 of insulin my +$6,000.00 insulin pump and over $400 of insulin pump supplies per months it costs me?”
I have been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on Tuesday, May 6th 2008 at the age of 36.
Type 1 is a genetic disease even though since I have been diagnosed, I keep asking myself; "running 6 miles every other days at lunch time every week, riding 130+ miles per week on my road bike competitively, and eating healthy food with low fats, low cholesterol, low glycemic index and less salt wasn't enough?"
The answer is, I did not do ANYTHING wrong. In fact I did it all right, and have been doing it all right for the past 37 years now, but type 1 diabetes finally got the best of me and decided to tell my pancreas to stop working.
Think about it, feel bad for the millions of us who struggle each day, each time we bring something up to our mouth. Feel bad that the number 1 military power in the entire world can NOT provide a cost efficient way to its citizens to treat our decease, that I need to put the LEGO present for my son on hold in order to make sure I can pay for my diabetes supply my insurance doesn't pay for, some go bankrupt, lose their home, and so many can’t care because they can't purchase any of the supplies to survive.
Diabetes is a survival game, if you have ALL the tools available, you can live with it. If you are missing one tool, you will struggle with consequences and die sooner than later.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
I got the "Juice"!
Well here we go, I am officially a guinea pig. On Tuesday August 18th, Benaroya Research Institute finally injected me with “The Juice” in my left shoulder muscle. I got yet another full medical exam, tones of questions. Had to go fasting because they draw quit a lot of blood this time and gave them a sample of my urine.
For the next 12 weeks, on every Tuesday, I will get another shot of the juice and they will keep testing me for the entire study. I will get another A1c out of this visit.
I also had an Endo appointment with Doctor DeSantis prior to the research meeting. He is such an awesome person, he listens to me and takes time. Understands my needs with cycling and exercise and support new things to try each time. He said I make him learn more about it than I learn from him. I like that coming from an educated person. I think I am doing something right!
For the next 12 weeks, on every Tuesday, I will get another shot of the juice and they will keep testing me for the entire study. I will get another A1c out of this visit.
I also had an Endo appointment with Doctor DeSantis prior to the research meeting. He is such an awesome person, he listens to me and takes time. Understands my needs with cycling and exercise and support new things to try each time. He said I make him learn more about it than I learn from him. I like that coming from an educated person. I think I am doing something right!
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