My Review of Dexcom Seven Plus System

Yesterday morning the FedEx man knocked on the door with my brand new Dexcom Seven Plus Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. I almost kissed him. And no, I don't know if he was handsome... I was too busy lusting after the shiny box he was holding for me. I've been researching and reading lots of other reviews of the Seven Plus model, (Bernard's and Kerri's are helpful!) and had high hopes that it would be better than the original Seven model.

I've been wearing my Dexcom Seven Plus for 24 hours now and these are my first impressions:

1. The reception between the sensor and the receiver is WAY better. With the original model I lost reception OFTEN at night when my body was nestled under the covers. With the receiver on my night stand I had a constant connection all night long.

2. The screen is better lit, clearer, and much easier to read.

3. There are more added features such as adding health levels, food, exercise, alcohol, etc to the data system.

4. The alarms are LOUD. Last night at 3 am I was awoken with a beep letting me know I was 64 mg/dl and dropping.... which is EXACTLY why I need to be wearing this machine. I was sound asleep with no symptoms, and the Dexcom woke me up way before I was unable to help myself. My husband especially likes this. I think he prefers hearing obnoxious beeps, to passed out on the floor wife.

5. I noticed in the shower this morning that the adhesive was already starting to come up a little bit around the edges... so I grabbed some leftover Tegaderm covers I had from the last time I wore the Dexcom and plastered it securely over the site. This usually helps me get a few extra days out of each sensor. With the old model, I thought it might have gotten in the way of the reception, but it is unclear. It is definitely not interfering with the new model.

Overall, I LOOOOOOOVE it. I think it is an improvement. I hope they continue to design the newer models to have a smaller receiver. And some type of quick set insertion device would be nice too. The manual needle stuff still wigs me out, even after 23 years! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Cha Cha Cha Changes!!

I need an outlet. I'll be honest. Sometimes I just need to let out my diabetic frustrations, or share some thing neat I experienced dealing with it. But other times I get things on my heart that have absolutely nothing to do with diabetes.

So... I am going to makeover this blog, but keep the name. Because after all... I have Type 1 diabetes, I experience quite the domestication-ee-ism-nist at this current season of life, and I have always been a little bit (or a lot) diva-ish.

Sometimes I may talk about living with diabetes.

Sometimes I might talk about being a Mom.

Sometimes I might just share something God's put on my heart.

And sometimes I might just tell a knock knock joke. Who knows?

But I thank you for being a friend, and thanks for reading!!

6 Things I Want People To Know About Diabetes

Happy D-blog day everyone! If you are a person without diabetes, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this! I hope you learn something useful!

6. Do not under any circumstance ask the question, "Should you be eating that?" If I'm being completely honest with you, when people ask me that question, every ounce of me wants to round house kick them to the throat. Even with good intentions, what it communicates to us is a narcissistic view that you think you know more about managing a disease that we live with day in and day out, with no weekend vacations. Trust me, if I have a muffin hanging out of my mouth on a Sunday morning at church, I've probably already done a math equation involving carb counts, blood sugar levels, fiber, stress and exercise. So in a nut shell, shut it.

5. With that being said, don't be afraid to ask diabetics honest questions about diabetes. Though it bothers me when the "diabetes police" come out to try and arrest me for my food choices, I do love it when people ask me honest questions about my diabetes or my insulin pump. I am ALL about explaining the differences in Type 1 and Type 2, explaining how my pump or glucose monitor works, helping new diabetics with recipes and giving encouragement! Advocacy is actually something that brings some peace and gratitude to the situation of dealing with a broken pancreas each day!

4. Speaking of differences, I really want the world to know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes! So here it is cut and dry......

3. Type 1 Diabetes: It was formerly called juvenile diabetes and typically (but not always) occurs before the age of 20. People with type 1 diabetes are usually thin, and the cause of type 1 diabetes is that the pancreas, the organ that secretes insulin, is destroyed by autoantibodies, that's why people with type 1 diabetes always need insulin, either injected or through an insulin pump. Type 1 diabetes occurs in about 10-15 percent of all the diabetics in the country. It can not be reversed. There is no cure.

2. Type 2 Diabetes: Is the most common type making up 85%-90% of all diabetics. Type 2 diabetics are usually heavy, usually diagnosed after the age of 35. The cause of type 2 diabete is primarily a complicated medical condition called 'insulin resistance.' In fact, in the early stages of type 2 diabetes, there's plenty of insulin around, it just doesn't work well. To treat type 2 diabetes, doctors typically use lifestyle (diet and exercise), oral medications, and/or insulin with oral meds. (Excerpts taken from Dr. Steve Edelmen's interview on Abc.com)

5. But wait! There is one more! Type 1.5 LADA: Latent Autoimmune Disorder in Adults: A genetically-linked, hereditary autoimmune disorder that results in the body mistaking the pancreas as foreign and responds by attacking and destroying the insulin-producing beta islet cells of the pancreas. Simply stated, LADA, is an "allergy to self." In its early stages it typically presents as type 2 diabetes and is often misdiagnosed as such. However, it more closely resembles the juvenile form of type 1 diabetes, although it is not classified as the same disease.

I'm seriously proud of you if you've made it this far! Consider yourself a smart, well informed person who cares about diabetics! Seriously, go hug the nearest pancreas to you right now! Or eat a salad in celebration!

6. Lastly, INSULIN IS NOT A CURE. It is a dang good treatment, but it is far from a cure. Please contribute to worthy causes like the DRI or the JDRF who are working hard on a cure. If you can't donate, watch this video! For each view in November 2010, money will be donated to help children get lifesaving children in underprivileged countries. (Plus you get to see my friend Manny bite it on the ice, and my favorite Ninja make an awesome swoosh on the court!)

P.S. Yes, I know my numbers don't make any sense on this post, kinda like my life with diabetes!!

Thankfulness

I thought it was a good time to remind myself some things that I am VERY thankful for despite having Type 1 diabetes. After reading about a 13 year old child who lost her life to Type 1 diabetes from the "dead in bed" syndrome, my heart sank and I was reminded, once again, how blessed I am to LIVE each day. My heart and prayers go out to this family. It says in the description that this affects 20-60 people each year, which doesn't seem like a lot, but to this family, one of those 60 was their baby. And that just destroys my heart every time I think about it.

November is the month of both Thanksgiving AND also World Diabetes Day. I would love to challenge you to write a post about thankfulness and diabetes. Those are the only parameters! I think we could ALL benefit from reading each other's positive perspectives on the hard days that we sometimes have! I am not TOTALLY super blog savvy lady. I'd love to make a little "button thingy" (that's the technical term I'm sure pffft.) for us all to use and link up somewhere. Anyone wanna partner with me on spreading the word and hosting??

Here's a few of the things, at age 29, after having Type 1 for 22 years that I am thankful for.

* I am so thankful, that despite how freaked out my parents must have been at times, that they let me go to summer camps and foreign mission trips and school overnight field trips and experience a semi-normal adolescence full of travel and life lessons!

* I am so thankful that I am blessed to live in the United States, where insulin,technology, and information is so accessible.

* I am thankful that diabetes motivates me all the more to eat healthy foods and be an active mom with my kids.

* I am thankful that I have diabetes and my children do not.

So there's just a few! What are you thankful for?

Spa Day!

I know I'm late on this! But better late than never, eh?

I had the most amazing night at the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa last night. It was a welcome break from the kids and responsibilities of life, and I was reminded of what an awesome rich person I would make. Really, I'd be great at it.

My friend, Julie, had bought some bargain passes from Groupon and we grabbed our robes and towels and stepped into the Turkish Steam Bath room....aka....Heaven.

Ahhhhh... relaxation, peace, not a hint of screaming children. A few minutes into our zen-like experience, a buck naked 70 year old woman walked into the room which pretty much made the experience even more memorable. She, thankfully, was a professional on Turkish Steam Baths and knew how to manipulate the thermostat into creating more steam so we couldn't see her across the room. We had a nice conversation about the health benefits of steam baths and how we should jump into the freezing mineral springs plunge pool naked as soon as we walk out of the steam room. It would tighten our skin or something.

So we did it.

And this morning I'm wondering if she was just messing with us... maybe the veteran spa members like to mess with the naive younger ladies.

Whatever the case, it was totally awesome. And I've got to figure out how I can get a membership there! :)

The Bullet Post To Procrastinate The Big Post

A lot of things are going on and I barely have time to sit and write, but I need to get them out. So here's a quick update.

* I was diagnosed with Stage 1 chronic kidney disease two weeks ago after failing multiple urine tests. Suck.

* I've been encouraged by lots of people online who have lived with it for YEARS without it progressing past stage 2. I have an appointment with my endo on the 12th to get further testing and information.

* I became a vegetarian on Friday. So far so good.

* I have so much energy I don't know what to do with myself.

* My basil rate has been decreased by 9 units so far.

* I was expecting the energy, but didn't realize what mental clarity would come along with it.

* I still lost my keys this morning and they were in my purse even though I swore I had left them at Beef O Brady's last night.

*So much for mental clarity.

* I committed to train for a half marathon on December 12th.

*My ultimate goal is to run a full marathon in the Spring of 2011.

* Have I mentioned I've never even run a 5k before?

* Running is a frigging expensive sport.

* My husband and some of the kids in our youth group committed to go to Zambia, Africa to install bio sand filters with activewater.org in May of 2011. Thus the reasoning behind running 26.2 miles.

* It gives me a mild anxiety attack every time I think about running 26.2 miles. Help me Jesus.

* The online running community is like a wicked awesome cult. I got sucked in hard and fast.

* We started a ragamuffin running club. I love the people who show up. Even if they walk half the time like me. Cheers to trying.

If you'd like to help us in our efforts to buy as many sand filters as possible for these amazing people please click the button below. 100% of your donations will go directly to ActvieWater!

My List of Diabetic Friendly Snacks!

My husband is a youth pastor at a local church and I constantly have people who are newly diagnosed come up to me on Sundays and ask, "What can I eat? What can I snack on?"

I've made a list of snacks that I like... (keyword "I") printed them on index cards so I can hand them out and hopefully people can find a few things to springboard their own snack ideas off of. I also found some of these ideas from a social network for people with diabetes that I belong to called TuDiabetes. It's a REALLY helpful resource. :)

Celery dipped in hummus, cream cheese, or peanut butter

Any type of veggie dipped in ranch dressing

Blueberries

Apples with peanut butter

Cooked, cut up chicken, wrapped in a big fat Romaine lettuce leaf with a little dressing

Low Carb yogurt (plain with a little sweetener or fruit, or a dab of honey, Greek Yogurt)

Cottage cheese (THE MOST DIABETIC FRIENDLY FOOD EVER!)

Low Carb: Mini cucumber sandwiches (cream cheese in between two cucumber slices)

Higher Carb Variation: Cucumber cut up on whole wheat bread with cream cheese

Turkey Pepperoni

Trail Mix (peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins, M&Ms)

(Watch out for those carbs, but a good mix of carbs and protein before a workout!)

I would love to add to this list! Leave your favorite snacks in a comment!

Hypo-Unawareness The Vent

I live an amazing life. I really do. I get to mentor some really amazing teenagers and children and I get to travel a large part of the summer. I do most all of this with my husband (who also happens to be my best friend!) and my kids. But sometimes the fear of some of my complications with diabetes really holds me back and ruins some of my passion.

I was invited to be a part of an elementary school camp in a few weeks and I excitedly accepted, thinking as I always do, that I could handle all the travel and diabetes stuff that comes along with every decision I make. This camp would be smack dab in the middle of 3 straight weeks of travel.

Now it's getting closer and I'm realizing that I'll be in charge of several little girls lives and sleeping in a room with no one next to me who is familiar with what to do if I wake up crazy low like I have been more often than not over the last few weeks. Lately, I haven't been waking up at all. The other night I woke up at 31 and the only reason I awoke is because my husband got up to go to the bathroom and I somehow heard him. He heard my mumbling and ran for juice. He saves me. Every time. It really freaks me out how much I depend on him at night to help me.

I don't remember this being a problem when I was younger. I just somehow balanced it and everything worked out. I did a ton of camp counseling and traveling for my college and never had any scary issues. I lived with female roommates in college and rarely remember asking them for assistance with treating diabetes issues. But I've noticed over the last three years, it's getting harder. When I get out of my routine and how much exercise I get and food options are somewhat out of my control... I have a hard time getting it right. And when I don't get it right, the consequences hit my body much harder.

It's really frustrating. And it's making me cry right now.

Sometimes diabetes makes me let people down. My friends. My kids. My husband. My passion for ministry to young people. Myself.

On the upside, I am currently going through a new insurance process to try and get my CGM approved and upgraded (Dexcom 7 to Dexcom 7 Plus). I think I will have success, but who knows how long it will ultimately take to process. I also got a ton of covered test strips and finally got my insurance to cover almost all of them so I am testing like crazy now and not having to worry about out of pocket costs.

How do you cope with the frustration of diabetes getting in the way of things you love to do? Does it? Am I the only one? :) I have a feeling I'm not!

Summertime... and the numbers are eaaasy.....

Hello Six Until Me readers! Welcome to my little blog that is never updated regularly. ;-)

Yippee! Pre school is over! No more planning my days around not doing anything from 9am-noon!!

Little Gabe graduated from Pre K and we are so excited to have the whole summer to do tons of fun things before the hardcore schooling world of Kindergarten begins in the Fall! ( I can't even believe he's in Kindergarten!!!)

We are finally all settled here in our new hometown and I've established a new endocrinologist, dentist, general doctor and retina specialist thanks to Justin's new insurance plan! (Can you believe ALLLLL of my doctors were out of network with this new plan? STINK!)

Since I am a "new patient" with this endocrinologist, I had to wait AN ETERNITY to get an appointment with her. I made the appointment in March and could not get in until JULY 1st!!! Well, kiss a pig! I would have looked elsewhere, but my previous endocrinologist (of 15 years) who I really loved HIGHLY recommended HER. Also, I'm kinda excited that SHE is a HER. (Well, that was a fun sentence! )

So needless to say, I am extremely overdue for an A1c, blood work, etc. But thankfully my numbers have been really good, and with trying to keep coverage for pump and Dexcom supplies I've been keeping excellent logs. (Yeah, well yes, some of the numbers are fake, but you all know you do it too so shhhhh! ) I've been feeling great! And am excited to start my running program called "Couch 2 5k" next week with my sister!

Hope everyone out there is doing well! Please leave a comment so we can keep up with one another!

Updates Bo Bupdates

Today I made mini apple pies with my kids, then I delivered some to various neighbors, organized clothes, made meatloaf and spinach salad and since I am feeling so friggin domesticated today, I figured it was time I updated the good ole blog!

On the diabetes front things are going ok. I have a retinologist appointment that I'm really excited about on Thursday. I've been having some changes in my vision and I'm anxious to see what's going on. Our insurance has changed so I have to find a new endocrinologist which I've been putting off, since I've been going to my current endo for about 16 years.

Also, today I got an email from a friend who had a coworker who's Type 1 son (15 years old) was found dead on his couch this morning. This terrified me and broke my heart. I'm going to assume it was a hypo episode that caused it, but I have no idea. I'm thinking if it was high blood sugar he would have fallen into a coma first, and it wouldn't have been so sudden? My heart just breaks for this family, and it's so scary knowing that it has come so close to happening to me a few times. I am so looking forward to the integrated pump/CGM models that should be coming out soon. Also, the artificial pancreas that the JDRF is working on.... I daydream about this stuff. haha. I know. Geek. :)

On a lighter note, I totally love daylight savings time! It's 6:20 and the sun is shining! Time for dinner and a walk! :) Have a good one!

Walking Pneumonia And Type 1 Diabetes

Hey party people. It's been a while. Apparently we moved twice in one year and I decided blogging wasn't a priority. My amazing husband is now back in youth ministry full time and life has been so much more fun living with a man who gets to live out his passion. :) We are settling in and establishing doctors, schools, hairdressers.......... and making new roots. I'm pretty excited!!! Our new church is pretty awesome and seriously knows what it means to help the community and not just sit in a pew. Exhibit 1- we bought a homeless man who has been attending church for a while now a home. His name is Victor and he's super cool and just needed someone to give him a second chance.

Now.... on the diabetes front.

I'm sick.

I've been sick for 3 weeks and have been trying to just DayQuil/NyQuil my way through it (which actually usually works for me with colds) and hope it went away. My kids have been sick, it's been freezing cold, then hot the next day, and really the Cobourne's are exhausted and grumpy and the junk hit the fan this week.

On Tuesday we took our daughter to the ENT to schedule some surgery for her ear tubes and her doctor told me I should see a doctor for my cough. So I caved and went. Apparently I have walking pneumonia and was sent for chest x rays and put an entire CVS pharmacy in my SUV.

I've never had to use a nebulizer in my life, but my little ones have. My PCP doctor is AWESOME and not your typical "I'm a family doctor and know nothing about Type 1 diabetes and how it is different from Type 2" Hallelujah. She let me know the Albuterol was a steroid and would probably raise my blood sugar. Holy Mother of Jelly Beans, she wasn't kidding. 341 after my first treatment..... also, I kinda felt like the Hulk..... like I turned into a crazy little anger ball of steroids who wanted to pull a Mia Hamm and rip my shirt off and go, "AHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!" then run out into my driveway and throw my SUV down the street. But I didn't...... but man, steroids suck. I'm trying to stay mindful of my mood and just stay relaxed..... but when your heart is racing like a Kentucky Derby champion, it's hard not to go nuts. Anyone else use this drug before for a breathing illness? Tips welcome!!

So this week I am trying to balance this stupid Alaskan Barking Seal* cough and my stupid broken pancreas disorder with chasing around two preschoolers.

My goal right now is to not die and to try and rest. Which if you have small demanding little people in your home, you know is difficult. I'm sooo overdue for an A1c, but because of this sickness my sugars have been NUTZO and I refuse to have a "sick" A1c and want to wait till a few weeks after the magical CVS drugs have worked and I get back to some degree of normalcy in my readings.

*Note: There is not really an Alaskan Barking Seal but it just sounded good, alright?