Well, I went a little overboard on the safety side....

I had a few oreos and a shot of orange juice before exercising. 15 minutes in, my sugars were exactly the same. I took this to mean that I should have more orange juice. I felt fine through the workout and then afterwards my sugars were 10.1.

Now I have a better idea of what I need so I won't go overboard next time.

In other news, I'm continually cleaning things out. I pulled out my box of knitting projects and realized that I don't need to keep them.

1) I have a lot of toques and I'm moving to a city that barely has winter, at least in comparison to Winnipeg

B) A lot of the toques don't even fit or look good. I was very experimental with my patterns; I quite liked them when I originally made them, but let's be honest... some of them are ... umm... not so hot.

Basically, I'm tossing out a bunch of things, and I feel good about it.

I have been functioning on the principle that my body just needs more insulin while I'm sick, so everything else should be the same.

I tried to exercise at home yesterday, doing things pretty much the same as usual. I disconnected while getting ready, after testing and mu sugars are happy in the 6.3 region. Long story short, 10 minutes into the workout, I was feeling sloppy and weak so I tested. 2.8! Spilling the remainder of my fridges juice on my face and not into my mouth, I took refuge with a honey packet before heading downstairs to buy more juice (and oreos and diet coke).

I'm not sure if it's just because I have extra insulin going around inside me, or maybe it was because I had eaten and bolused for lunch only an hour or so before, but this was not a good situation.

I hate the fact that, while I want to exercise and get in shape, I seem to have an endless supply of excuses not to.

Excuses aside, I'm going to try again right now.

Eerily, I just tested and my sugars are 6.3 again. I'm going to disconnect AND eat an oreo or two and see how that works.

I'll post a little later this afternoon, maybe.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I have an otherwise perfectly working infusion set that gets accidentally ripped off well before it was due to be changed!

Desk corners, door knobs, and shirts - I'm looking at you!

I got my blackberry and it's resulted in a few changes.

My old cell phone would last about a week because I barely used it for either talking or texting. The blackberry battery really doesn't last that long, mostly because I am using it a lot for applications and the internet. People tell me that the first battery charge goes the fastest, so I'll bank on that. I'm on the second charge now and it is going slower, but I'm already using it less.

The Telus network has been having technical issues lately and I think my internet is going slowly on the phone because of that. The website is also not letting me add the other 2 numbers onto "My 5 National" numbers.

With the blackberry, everything is so interconnected. Part of my internet routine is to open up a bunch of tabs with my multiple email accounts. I'm fast at it, but it is still a process I have to go through. I added my email accounts onto my blackberry and now I don't have to check them; I'm notified as soon as a new message is received.

I should qualify that - blackberry seems to not get along with hotmail at all. It does not properly communicate with my hotmail email - I knew this in advance, several people told me that they just check their hotmail from the website. I'm not sure if it is the network problem or not, but even the website won't work for me. I typed in my email and password, but it said I couldn't log on. Now, the website won't even load!

I had set up a new hotmail account with a more grown-up address and I've been in the process of switching between them, but now I'm thinking that I might as well just drop hotmail altogether. I have a gmail account that I could easily start doing all my business from.

Also, I now have a UBC account, so I'll have all of my academic business going through there.

In diabetes land, things are going well. For the last few days, I've been taking 120% of my basal doses - my sugars were elevated because of illness. I still take the same amount for meals and it seems to be working super well - my sugars are better controlled than they were before I was sick.

I'm starting to feel vaguely better, but I have a feeling this bronchitis or whatever will stick around for a while yet...

I'm sick.

I caught a cold in Vancouver. I don't think I've ever had just a cold that goes away after its course. It inevitably develops into something else, like a sinus infection or bronchitis. I don't know what it is this time, but I don't like it. I'm drinking lots of tea and resting today. Last night I stayed in and watched a movie. Today I've done the same and I'm going to watch another movie while I eat dinner.

I had long been thinking about getting a smartphone when I move to Vancouver. A few days ago, while checking my account activity online for my pay-as-you-go phone, I noticed that Telus had updated the 'my offer' section - incentives for you to upgrade your plan or whatnot. Previously, I had nothing there, but now there are loads of incentives.

Smartphone plans are rather pricey. The most important thing for me is caller id and voicemail, which always cost extra, so I wasn't exactly jumping on the bandwagon for a smartphone. One of my offers includes free voicemail and caller id for the length of my plan.

I also realized that there's no reason to wait for when I move; there will be enough new things in my life when I move to Vancouver that the phone would just be an added stress. Logically, I should get it sooner than later!

I'm going to be getting the blackberry storm - it has a big touch screen. Typing things will be slower than the other blackberry options, BUT still faster than freaking T9!

Anyway, I'll be ordering it into next week and then I'll update once I get the phone!

I really enjoyed my travels this summer.

Vancouver was great and it left me feeling excited to move there in a month!

Winnipeg was busy and filled with wonderful people, as usual. I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted, but there will be other times.

Thompson was super fun! My sister and brother-in-law are always lots of fun to spend time with and they're wonderful hosts. My puppy niece is getting older and starting to calm down...ish. Just like in Vancouver, I could not have asked for nicer weather in Thompson. The sun was shining and it was warm - much different than when I was last there in the dead of winter.

I'm now safe and sound in my London apartment feeling a little overwhelmed at what I have left to do this month. Packing is a little daunting because I don't know how much room I will have in Nancy's car, and I likely won't know that until the day we start our road trip.

Even though I still have a month more here, I'm already starting to box up as much stuff as I can.

Cleaning and packing... endlessly.

It just caught me off guard...

I just read the title of my last blog post and realized that I'm moving in a month's time....AHHH!

I'm still in Vancouver right now and it very much feels like a vacation. Really, this is going to be the last bit of calmness I will have in a long while. Once I get back to London, I'm packing up for good and working hard to make money. I also have to study hardcore for my entrance exams. The move itself will be intense and there's always that period of unrest when you move to a new place. PLUS, I'll be in a doctoral program almost as soon as I move here.

I know I said, AHHH, but I'm still excited and positive about all this change.

Ok, for now I have to get myself organized for some meetings with professors at UBC in an hour or so. I only have about 6 more hours to spend in Vancouver before I head off to Winnipeg for my last real visit before relocation.

Vancouver - my new home next month!

On Friday and Saturday, my new roommate Nancy and I were apartment hunting like mad people. Vancouver is a crazy place to be looking for rentals in - there are very few two-bedroom apartments and they're all ridiculously expensive compared to London, Ontario.

My thoughts are that the better the city - the higher the rent. I'm willing to pay more to live here because it has worlds more culture, beauty and opportunities than London. Vancouver is also one of the more beautiful places I've been. In how many cities can you touch the ocean while looking at the mountains?

The weather had also been beautiful the entire time we were searching. I'm still here for another few days, but Nancy headed back out East. We put in an application, but weren't going to hear back until after Nancy had gone home. We had resigned ourselves to that fate, but then we stumbled upon a marvelous basement-ish apartment in the Kitsilano area - halfway between the university and downtown. It's ridiculously close walking distance to everything that we could want to do - restaurants, coffee, hair dressers, groceries, clothes stores, and lots of trendy things.

The apartment is above ground, spacious and at the bottom end of our price range. Anyway, I'm super excited and we'll be moving at the end of the summer. Possibly driving... I LOVE ROAD TRIPS!

Ok, bye for now - time to go grocery shopping with my wonderful hosts.

Toronto was great!

I think it was exactly what I needed. Some of my favourite times here in Ontario have been when I escaped to Toronto to visit my friend Chris. Wow, that speaks volumes about my time here in London, haha!

There's also something about a big city that appeals to me - something that I will have in spades next year.

In just a few days I will be heading to that big city to find a place to live. I am planning on packing a bunch of my stuff and moving it out in advance, via my second suitcase. This plan means I need to figure out what I'm taking tomorrow - I'm running short on time. There's always so much to do when getting ready for a trip and I always seem to leave it until the very last moment.

I've only been in Toronto for 8 hours and I already feel refreshed!

I've been needing to get to Toronto to see some people this summer, and I couldn't do it during June because I was subbing at a church, so this is the first weekend I've had where I didn't need to be in town on Sunday.

I'm not sure if this is the first time I've bought greyhound tickets since getting my ISIC card, but DAMN! It only cost 35 dollars instead of the normal 50. Maybe they lowered prices in general due to some bad press they got earlier this year. Anyway, much more affordable.

A nice Greek dinner tonight was overfilling with food, but one can't go overboard with good times and good friends.

Not much else to report. It's good to be away from work for a little while. I will have a few days, and then I run away for another 2 weeks in Vancouver and Winnipeg. I thought I was taking time off by just not doing anything after my thesis, but apparently that wasn't a break - it was just a lack of productivity. I think the time away from London will do me a world of good!

metablogging

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging much lately. I'm just working and that's about it. It's amazing how you make make whatever you do take up all your time. I know you can fit a lot into a day, because I've done it, but lately I do not much, but it still takes up all my time.

I've been trying to work out every day, and I'm succeeding most days. I do a latin dance inspired core training workout video - I enjoy it and it's a challenge so it keeps me going. I don't want to have an elaborate workout plan, I just need to make sure that I'm getting my heart rate up for around 45 minutes a day. I aim for everyday because I'm aware that failure is imminent, so if I get used to failing on a regular basis, it won't be so bad!

The other lifestyle change I'm attempting is to eat better. Working my call centre job is not making it easy, but I'm trying. Basically, I just need to stop eating out. Things I make at home are better for me and cheaper.

In other news, I go to find a place to live in Vancouver next week. I'm very excited!

Travel is all booked and we will be staying with my second cousin who lives right in the middle of where we will be looking for a place.

I will post slightly more often.

Doctor's Appointment

After three months of being on the insulin pump, my A1C was 8.6 - higher than it had been, but that was expected with the shitty control that starting the pump had caused.

In theory, those months are behind me. I should have a substantially lower A1C because I've been on the pump for a while and those problems should have been ironed out.

Today's A1C was 8.4. This confirmed my feelings that things haven't actually improved. With my sugars shooting up every 2 or 3 days, it's still causing the overall situation to be bad.

What does my A1C mean?

I'm 1.4 higher than the standard target for diabetes management.

That means I'm 14% more likely to have diabetes complications than they would like me to be.

That means I'm 24% more likely to lose a limb or go blind or kidney damage than a non-diabetic.

It frustrates me, because I was moving towards that target range when I was on MDI, but now insulin pumping is putting me back in the wrong direction.

Anyway, the worst part of my appointment was the fact that my endo had absolutely no knowledge of why my infusion sets might not be working for a few hours after inserting them

His only suggestion was that most of his patients only use their abdomen and they never have those problems. I explained to him that it happens in my abdomen as well, but that didn't change is suggestion.

This is unforgivable! I can understand that he might not have come across that in his own practice, but he wasn't even willing to think diagnostically about it - he just told me that I should talk to my pump educator, and that I should ONLY use my abdomen. That is a blatant contradiction to what every diabetes educator and pump information source I've ever read has said.

Passing the buck - sucks!

Hello, my name is Michael and I'm a stupid idiot.

Actually, I shouldn't blame myself too much, but I should have double checked like I usually do.

And now, time to elaborate.

I was doing laundry last night. The laundry room is just 10 steps from my apartment. Because there is no-one else in the building, I have the laundry to myself and I just leave my door unlocked. Long story short, last night the door must have been swung open wide enough that it pushed in that little locking thingy. In conclusion, I locked myself out of my apartment nearing 1am.

At that time of night, there is nothing open in downtown London. I had no socks on - they were in the drier. I must have wandered the halls of the apartment for an hour, searching for a secret spare key or way to jimmy my way back in before giving up and resigning myself to sleeping on the floor in the hallway.

Once I started falling asleep (not really..) I noticed that my sugars were going low. Reminder that nothing is open downtown, my tester is inside the apartment, and I have no sugar.

I did something that I had never consciously done before, and never want to have to do again. I stopped my pump waited until my liver kicked in some sugar. I was confident that my body would do this - it's done it countless times overnight while I was sleeping.

It was pretty horrible. I just laid there on the hallway floor, drenched in a cold sweat, pressing my eyes closed until it had passed. I don't know how much time passed, but eventually I could tell I was no longer low. I turned my pump back on, wiped my forehead and tried to fall asleep.

The bookstore next door opened at 10am today, so I went there and used the phone to call my landlord and I was back in my apartment with nicely folded laundry at 11am. Because of my liver kicking out the sugar, I was 15.3 when I tested, so I've corrected and I'm hoping to salvage some goodness out of the rest of today.

In conclusion,

My advice to the world is to not lock yourself out of your apartment - and if you do.. find a way to not have to sleep on the ground!

Quick spurts of updates

Work is going well - for a few weeks, sales were incredible. Now it is calming down and likely won't be as awesome for the rest of the summer.

The pump is still less-than-awesome. My latest infusion change was smooth-ish, but I was using my insulin pen for 6 hours to cover the time when it would be pooling. I miss the days of only having to bring the pen out when I needed it - I didn't have to carry around the 24/7 reminder that weights down my pockets.

My appointment is on Tuesday, so I need to start recording sugars so I have something to show for what my sugars do.

I'm on the verge of actually going hardcore with a fitness program of some type. I'm ridiculously out-of-shape and I really need to do something about it. I've been using an exercise video that I downloaded, walking, and playing the Wii fit game, but I know I need to be more serious. I'm looking into a possibly ghetto gym that's just around the corner. It's possibly a pyramid gym scam, but I'm still trying to figure out when and how they get money from you.

I haven't written any music this summer and I feel so lazy because of it.

Maybe I'll just jump into hardcore mode of everything:

Wake up early and work out everyday, then write music for a few hours and then go to work - all while keeping track of my sugars and being super-awesome!

I know it shouldn't, but it seems like such a ridiculous fantasy world...

I just realized on my schedule that I have an endocrinologist appointment next week, meaning that I need to get my blood-work done in the next day or so.

I'm really not looking forward to seeing my A1C... I know things have gotten better than they were in that first month, but not much... This will help me decide if pumping is something that i want to continue. The highs every 2 or 3 days due to infusion changes are not good. I'm hoping my doctor will have some inspiring advice for that. Whether or not they are affecting my A1C doesn't matter too much, I'm not sure how much longer I can handle them.

My convocation is tomorrow.  I won't be going to the long, boring ceremony; rather, I will go to the short ceremony of only music people that has food afterwards.

I will get to talk to my roommate for next year about how we are going to hunt and find an apartment when both of us think it's too damned expensive to make a trip out there in advance.

This is going to be an expensive next few months.

I have money set aside for the rest of rent and whatnot in London.  Pretty much 80% of my paychecks are going straight onto my mastercard.  I want to pay it down completely - in theory to get out of consumer debt, but in reality, I will need to have room on my card for:

-a trip to Winnipeg fairly soon

-the flight to Vancouver

-moving my things to Vancouver

-buying new furniture when I get there, bed and desk should be enough to get me by

Oh ya, I should also make sure I have some fluid cash to pay for first month's rent and deposit and the sort.

Despite the fact that I've been bitchy about and at work, I've been having a good week and making lots of money, so I'm thinking this will be a good summer for money.

I had my first of this month's Sunday church services; I'm filling in for a friend who is out of town.  It went well, and the reverend commented that something clicked this morning - I sounded like a natural.  I thought I did a pretty good job last summer, but I'll still take it as a compliment.  

Infusion Site Review: Right Arm

I managed to find 5 infusion sites on my right arm which saw me through about 2 weeks.

Not completely related to diabetes... one day I became startlingly aware of how little upper body strength I have when I tried to do push-ups and failed miserably.  Since then, I've been doing them everyday before my shower, systematically increasing the number each time they seem easier.  I do them with my arms on the bathtub so they are easier because the angle is lesser (Yes, I realize that this means I'm doing girl-pushups, but I'm fine with that!).  Within a few weeks, starting at 5 pathetic ones, I can do 25, and still increasing.

I'm certainly not buff, but I'm realizing that my arms have more muscle mass in them than most other areas of my body.  Because a lot of the infusions sites hit muscle, a lot of them resulted in 'pooling' where it takes a few hours before the insulin is absorbed and works.  I only had one out of the 5 sites that did not have pooling, and that site was problematic for completely other reasons: adhesion!

The site that had no pooling and had really good absorption didn't even last 2 days.  It dislodged overnight and I woke up with ketones.  That site was on the back of my arm, close to the armpit.  I don't have problems with adhesives, so I'm thinking that this problem was because my antiperspirant was interfering - each time I applied, it would hit the plastic nub on the site.  Or, it could be due to sweat, which is also quite likely.

In general, comfort was ok.  The tubing has a way of creeping upwards, which can feel a little tickly when you have a bunch of tubing conglomerating at your armpit.  Because the tubing is so long, I have to wear an undershirt at night to keep it in place, otherwise arms and legs and other appendages might get caught in it .

In general, the arm went well.

I put in a new site last night in my right upper back.  I imagine I'll be able to get at least 6 sites out of my back, so here goes another few weeks or a month.

Hitchcock's Birds - in real life!

What words might you associate with this picture?

Pretty, stoic, birdly, feathery?

Perhaps...

I call it EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of these little bastards attacked me today as I was walking by a creek.  It swooped down and hit me with feet or wing right on the top of my head.

It didn't hurt, but it shocked me - and those who know me, know that my reaction was not silent.

I let out a loud "FU@&" and expressed my dissatisfaction on my cell phone to the person with whom I was talking.

I was hung-over and all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep on the grass in the sunshine, but I couldn't do that with this evil little monster flying around!

This evening, I was able to identify the species of bird online and discovered that I am not alone in my experience.  Apparently, it is well documented that these are malicious birds and they like to defend their territory by swooping down on people often!

In other news, today was my last day at the ballet school I have been playing at in London.  It was a great part-time job to have this year, but I'm glad the year has come to an end.  I've long known that ballet-piano is not something that musicians can do for a long time without a certain embitterment and general disdain for the world; I'm finding that I'm getting close to my saturation point.  It's good to have it as a back-up or part-time job, but I will be happy to not have to play for dance classes next year in Vancouver.

I think I will still play for some exams because it is contract work and I've already learned the music, so the investment has already been made!  

Not to say that I can't still improve in my playing for dance classes, but I think I've learned about as much as there is to learn from ballet classes about the relationship of dance and music.  I am looking forward to exploring that relationship more through a creative process - working more with choreographers and professionals.

Life seems to be going pretty well these days.  The summer is already slipping by and surprise, surprise, I've done nothing.

I'm working, that's it.  The people at work are great and we're having lots of fun both in and out of the office.  The downside to that is that I'm spending a lot - too much money.

Part of me wants to be doing lots of great, worthwhile things this summer - reading books, listening to loads and loads of music and writing piece after piece so that I am really prepared to start a doctoral program next year.  The other, more powerful part of me, senses that after spending the last 7 of 8 years in university, I am about to embark on another 4 years - I need a little break.  I liken it to those weeks of summers growing up where there were no activities planned, your parents were working and you just had to amuse yourself - it was like recess all day long!

That's not to say that I'm completely wasting my time.  I'm still playing some piano, though the practicing has lessened.  I'm still learning the Scriabin piece as well as a Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in B-Minor.  There are actually a lot of pianists at my office job, so it's fun to talk about piano rep and that kind of piano-nerd stuff.  

 

Diabetes control is pretty damn good.

I've been extra good about writing all the details of my infusion sets in my calendar book so that I keep a good record and can track patterns.  I've actually found more spots on my arm than I would ever have thought - half of them have had some trouble with pooling the insulin before absorption, but I am fine with using my insulin pen to avoid the BG jump.  I will use one more arm site and then I'll move to my lower back.

The life of an infusion set

Funding for insulin pump supplies is based on the perfect world assumption that an infusion set will last for 3 days, which is also the longest that one is recommended to wear a single infusion set.

I wish mine were lasting for that length.  So far, I have gotten an average of 2 days out of the first two sets.  After the 48 hour mark on my first Silhouette set, I had elevated sugars which would not come down.  I switched the set and it was better.  I remember moving in my sleep last night - I shifted to sleep on my right side, but that cause some discomfort on my right arm, where Silhouette #2 was placed.  When I woke up, there was no discomfort, but also no absorption - it had dislodged sometime during the night and my sugars were yucky in the morning.  That was just a few hours ago and I still feel like shit getting rid of ketones and waiting for my sugars to come down to a comfy level.  I'm about to take a shower and then I'll put in a new Quick Set in the front of my arm.  It's one of my few more muscular areas, but there's still some extra fat there...

Let's see how it goes!