Archive for the ‘Living with Type 1 Diabetes’ category

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Hats Off!

April 7th, 2011

Feeling a bit scattered as I sit down to write today: I’ve got a couple things I’ve been meaning to say but none of them are really worth a full 500 word post… so I’ll just jot a few here and we’ll see if we can’t cobble something together in which you can find something  useful.

  1. Hats off to my mom, reporting in from my sister’s place where my mom and dad are visiting to help my sister get ready for the Spring.  My mom says “For me personally, I just helped Dad hoist a 4×8′ sheet of pressed board up into [my sister]’s garage rafters, and I was far more concerned about his shoulder than anything to do with me.” Sweet!
  2. Hats off to my dad, for returning after taking six boring months off of his 12 plus years of daily bootcamp routine for some shoulder surgery, and for his working hard to get his cardio capacity back to what it once was!  Every time I see him he reports how many additional laps he can get in around the track since the previous week.  Awesome!
  3. Hats off to my parents’ friend, also a regular bootcamper, who is in her 70s and considers straight-legged pushups her “party trick”.  J  She just had some stomach surgery and was able to come home from the hospital within 24 hours of the surgery. Impressive on both counts!
  4. Hats off to my bootcamper last year who won a trophy for being the first finisher at a stair climbing fundraiser at the Transamerica building… he made the (approximately) 50 flight climb in 6 minutes!!  (This year he wasn’t able to attend and the first finisher came in at 8 minutes!)
  5. Hats off to my other bootcampers who joined in the fun this year at the Transamerica building… and they went up TWICE that morning, finishing their second trip 9 minutes FASTER than their first trip!
  6. Hats off to one of my personal training clients who has mastered her fear of climbing hills!  I got an email report from her the other day that she and two of her friends spent the afternoon that day not only climbing her dreaded hill once, but TWO TIMES.  That makes me so happy for her!
  7. Hats off to my teacher bootcampers for all the work they have been doing on themselves since September!  It is SO FUN to walk on campus and get stopped by other teachers.  Most conversations begin “are you the bootcamp lady?” and end up with huge massive compliments paid to how great the campers are looking and feeling and sounding as they embrace a more active life through exercise!!

Tell me why I should take my hat off to honor YOUR efforts!  I’m all ears!!!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Wilderness Survival

April 6th, 2011

Do you remember when you were diagnosed with diabetes?  Did the world suddenly become a crazy disorienting dangerous place?

Or did you take the diagnosis in stride, leave the doctor or hospital thinking “I can do this” and learn in the coming weeks or years how perhaps incorrect that initial assumption really was?

Reading this article at Active.com today made me smile.  What it takes to survive in the wild isn’t all that different from what it takes to survive living with diabetes!

I will paraphrase the article, although I do think it’s worth a read on its own.  They say that a six year old survives better than an accomplished adventurer or wildlife expert, overall.  (Shout out to the kids on this one!)  Why?

A kid recognizes he or she is lost, and stays close to where they are, unlike an adult who keeps thinking they can find their way and keeps wandering… making it harder for rescue teams to find them!

A kid will rest when he or she is tired, drink when thirsty, and look for shelter when tired.  These things seem like no-brainers, but honestly, now, when was the last time YOU took a nap when you were tired?  By resting when tired, a child will be better able to reduce their stress and mental fatigue.

Think about the kids in your life who are living with diabetes.  Do they ask for help?  Do you think they recognize they need help when it comes to checking blood sugar or help with a low or taking insulin?  (No fair to count teens in this category!  Teens get their own category.  And, for that matter, their own wilderness.)

Does a kid with diabetes sometimes say “I’m tired of this disease” or words like it?  Do they ask a parent to take away their diabetes? 

Six year olds can be so smart.  (And adults can be so silly.)

Go kids!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Is It REALLY All About the Scale?

April 5th, 2011

I read the Joslin blog from a few weeks ago written by C. Ronald Kahn, MD about Obesity and Diabetes.  He writes about the importance of cutting insulin resistance as much as possible in both Type 2 and Type 1 diabetes.

It’s a frustratingly shallow article, overall.  Especially when it’s written by someone with such expertise!!

So here’s my take on some of the topics he mentions:

Cut down your body weight to decrease insulin resistance.  While the Joslin blog doesn’t explain why insulin resistance is considered harmful, I’m willing to pose a few ideas:

Insulin Resistance leads to elevated blood glucose, which in turn leads to damaged micro- and macro-vascular systems that lead to traditional complications of kidney and eye damage.

Excess Insulin removes free fatty acids from the bloodstream and sends them to your body’s fat storage cells.  This creates a circular cycle as added body weight in the form of increased fat stores also increases your body’s resistance to insulin.

Dr. Kahn also says the bottom line is what you see when you step on the scale.  I disagree.  I think the bottom line is somewhat more complicated than that.  I think your body composition matters quite a bit as well as your weight.

You need to increase or at the very least maintain your lean muscle mass if you want to keep yourself strong and healthy for the long haul.  As you age, your body begins to lose its lean muscle at the alarming rate of about 1/2% each year after the age of 25… and that loss doubles after the age of 60 UNLESS YOU STAY ACTIVE with exercise and resistance training.

(Because muscle is more compact than fat, you may be a muscular trim size 6 and weigh more than a weak flabby size 4.)  To maintain your body’s performance, you need to work at preserving and hopefully increasing the lean muscle you have.  It’s never too late to start!

Joslin says it’s important to work with your physician, nurse or dietician to lower your body weight to a healthy weight.  I would also like to jump up and down, wave my arms, and shout “WORK WITH A KNOWLEDGEABLE TRAINER, TOO, TO KEEP YOUR BODY WORKING AT ITS BEST!”

You know where to find me!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Feedback

April 1st, 2011

Diabetes is a constant-feedback kind of disease.  It often leads to frustration, confusion, exhaustion, and can result in an intense desire to throw things across rooms.

I feel I know this very well today, since I woke at 12:45am at 451 (thanks for the warning at 175, CGM) and stayed awake until 3:50am until I felt I could fall asleep again (until 5am when I get up for bootcamp).  I was going to fall asleep earlier, but then the insulin hit and I was dropping and it was just feeling too complicated to sleep through.

I’m so lucky I had a good book to read.

But one of the tough things about living with type one diabetes is that I know if I say something to anyone who knows about diabetes they’ll start in with the questions and the suggestions.  (Probably not those living with type one ourselves, we’re busy questioning what’s going on in our own bodies!) While I know they are always intended to convey concern and caring, sometimes, on too little sleep, they come across as criticisms.

It can get tough to manage the advice and feedback, especially when we are the ones who feel the swings and the highs and sometimes all we really want to do is sleep at night!

I saw Carrie Cheadle’s blog post today on receiving feedback and using it to our mental advantage.  I think I’ll use some of her advice to review last night for myself. 

I doubt I’ll be open to suggestions from my doctor, but since I made my husband stay awake through some of the high and some of the low, I might run through this with him, just to share and hear what things are like from his side (and it’s a way to ask for help!).  I need to be running through these kinds of things more often for myself, so that I can better learn how to keep at this!

Carrie lists three questions that we should ask ourselves to discover constructive feedback after any event of significance.  For her, this is any athletic competitive event and for me, today, it happens to be my last 15 hours.

-What did I do well?

-What would I have done differently?

-What did I learn that I want to carry forward into the next event?

I think these thoughts are good for each of us to keep in mind as we deal with ups and downs of life with diabetes.  I particularly like the “what did I do well” question because it calls for a thoughtful compliment of the work we put into our health every day… something that we often forget when we find ourselves with a higher number than expected or desired. 

In case you aren’t feeling it, remind yourself that you ARE doing a good job taking care of yourself with a crazy mixed up disease.  Pat yourself on the back, answer the above questions constructively, ask for as many hugs as feel good, and keep at it.

You deserve it.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Last Day of the March Challenge

March 31st, 2011

You know I’ve been encouraging you to figure out ways to ask for help all month when it comes to living with your (or your child’s) diabetes.  It’s important.

I had a strange afternoon yesterday, and it showed me the total awesomeness of strangers and it has been making me grin ever since.  How lucky are we to be a part of such an amazing world??

(Okay so it has been rain-free and sunshiny and today it’s going to be in the 80s so I freely admit I may be a little wacky just because of the change in weather!)

I thought I’d close out the month with a reminder that we could ALL use this skill in our lives, with and without diabetes being a part of it.

Check out this little story a reporter wrote about a woman at a Texas road race:

___

Before I ran my first half marathon six years ago, Barbara Sucher sent me an email. She wished me luck, said she knew I could do it, and then told me this, which I’ve thought about every time I’ve run a half-marathon:

“In a race, I always write the Winston Churchill quote ‘Never give in’ on the back of my legs. Many, many people have told me how inspiring that is and that it keeps them going.”

Barbara is 66 now, still running marathons and half marathons. Last Sunday, she ran an amazing 2:12 at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas Half Marathon , finishing third in her age group. Elated, she headed for her truck on the huge Cotton Bowl parking lot.

“I knew where I’d left it, but an ambulance came by and I got a little off track,” she says. “I continued to search until I was getting cold and a little panic-stricken.”

Suddenly, Barbara says, she tripped on buckled pavement and landed face first. Totally stunned, she just lay there.

“A very nice man named Andy rushed over and asked if I was all right,” she continues. “I couldn’t even think of who I was or anything else about me…Finally, I realized I was wearing my Road ID and I pointed to it. He tried calling the numbers and finally left a message for my daughter, Kelli.”

Then he told her, “I won’t leave until someone comes to get you.”

Other people stopped by, too, offering to help Barbara find her truck. She couldn’t remember what it looked like, but thought it was a Toyota. They set off searching, and she could hear them calling out to one another. She finally felt able to sit up. Andy kept watching until Kelli called and took Barbara to the emergency room.

A CT scan of Barbara’s head showed two enormous bumps. She hadn’t broken anything, hadn’t bruised any ribs. She finally began “to get my senses back,” she says. “But I have a huge and startling black and green and red eye and look pathetic!”

Her point of telling me this, she says, was — well, basically to say thank you. She knew her fellow runners were cold and tired, yet they went out of their way to help her.

Life can turn on the proverbial dime, or on the twist of an ankle. It can be tripped up by a 3 a.m. phone call, or by a piece of concrete on a parking lot. When that happens, what a blessing it is to have people around to make sure you’re OK; to guide you to where you need to be; and to make sure, if at all possible, that you never give in.

___

Let the concepts of asking for and giving help and what those two actions give you in return carry you well past the month of March.  Let it be something you always hope to share, in either form, wherever you go and whatever you encounter.

All my best to each of you!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Leading A Charmed Life?

March 30th, 2011

Joslin directed me to a WebMD Health News article today.  The title: Why Some May Avoid Type 1 Diabetes Complications: researchers say more than just blood sugar control may be at work for some patients.

So of course I read it.  (Especially after my eye visit yesterday when my doctor said she saw no diabetic retinopathy!)  I didn’t understand the other proteins, the ones referred to as advanced glycation end products… there are times I just need to draw a line in the sand of how much of some of these things I need to understand in a day.

Continuing on through the article, they quoted one of the experts as saying “those with diabetes who are free or mostly free of complications [after 50 years] are leading a charmed life.”  That one didn’t make me happy or motivated to seek that guy out.  I think a large part of what he calls “charmed” involves quite a bit of work every day over the course of several decades.

The author won me immediately back when she quoted another expert who said that most of the [Joslin 50 years of living with type one diabetes] medalists “do fairly rigorous exercise at least three times a week, 45 minutes or more.”

So check it out: EXERCISING DOES NOT REQUIRE LUCK, GENETIC GIFTS, TALENT OF ANY KIND, COORDINATION, INTELLIGENCE, MONEY, or anything, really.  You’ve seen that people without legs can exercise, and do!

Since exercise, and I do mean rigorous exercise, can lead to so many benefits and is one hallmark of a long life with type one diabetes, and since exercise requires so little of us other than carving out the time it takes to work up a sweat, my vote remains in favor of exercise as a way to deal with and combat some of the unwanted outcomes of type one diabetes.

In fact, I’m now re-energized and heading out for a nice long run to celebrate.

Who’s with me?

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Posted in I Can't Believe Someone Got Paid to Conduct This Study, Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

My Favorite Doctor Visit is Today!

March 29th, 2011

I was all set to blog this morning about diabetes and exercise and let me tell you, in case you haven’t noticed, I have a heck of a lot to say about it. But then I realized maybe you can relate to something I’ve got going on this morning that doesn’t have anything to do with exercise.  I’m curious now if you do!

So I’m all set, starting to write in my head what I have to say about exercise as I’m rushing around my house, trying to clean up because surprise the dinner we are having with friends tonight turns out will be at OUR house and wow I pretty much made it through the fitness convention weekend threw all my stuff on the ground and collapsed, and I’m rushing because I have a doctor’s appointment in a little over an hour and my house is a mess.

An hour. From now.

And I need to shower.  And get ready.  And my CGM is blaring at me that it wants me to calibrate.

Sigh.

But you know what?  Not one part of me is anxious about my doctor visit.  Why not?  Because I get to see my favorite type of doctor today.  All of my annual visits to all of the specialists (alright fine CGM you win I’ll go check right now)—so where was I—all of the specialists my life with diabetes requires me to see, and today is my favorite one.

It’s my favorite because I have the least anxiety when I see this doctor than any other doctor (dentist included).  It isn’t the personality of the actual professional (although my very first doctor did sing me the song every year that I later danced to with my husband at our wedding so that guy gets a gold star)—it’s the subject of the visit.

It’s my eye doctor!  (The song was “Once in Love With Amy” and I can still hear my original eye doctor warbling it to me in his office for the first time, 23 years ago.)

My dad has what I consider terrible vision, so the fact I have worn glasses since the seventh grade I kind of blame on him.  It’s nice to have a health-related something that I don’t think is related directly to my diabetes.

Very nice.

Amazing to think that if I didn’t have diabetes, I’d maybe see a general doctor once every two years.  Can you imagine?  But I’d still see an eye doctor, and I’d still see a dentist.  But the eye doctor doesn’t make horrid noises or make me spit, so the eye doctor would still win, hands down.

Sure, my eye doctor will ask me about my diabetes, and sure, she is checking for retinopathy and all sorts of other things that ARE related to my diabetes, but it’s still a different kind of visit for me.

It’s weird, but seeing my eye doctor almost makes me feel normal.  No wonder it’s my favorite!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, Random Musings, Uncategorized

A Weekend of Workouts

March 28th, 2011

I know some of you saw me posting on facebook all weekend long about the different lectures and workouts I attended at my fitness conference.  I hope it wasn’t annoying to you as I broadcast my activities every 90 minutes!

It was so fun. 

I had such a great time!

I did notice as the weekend progressed that my blood sugars were running higher than I expected during rest times, and I also saw my heart rate was higher than I expected it to be during the same periods.  

I was more exhausted than I thought! 

The adrenaline I must have relied on to keep me going as my physical energy dwindled workout after workout was making itself known.  When I’m at an event and I’m excited to be there and do whatever the activity is, sometimes I confuse the excitement and the adrenaline.  Seeing my blood sugars and heart rate rise cued me to recognize the adrenaline.

Dang!  I wish I could have the energy of the Energizer Bunny who can keep going and going and going.  I need to rest way more than I’d like.  (I have a lot of exciting things to do, thank you very much!  And it’s fun stuff!)  I know with absolute certainty that the exercise I do and the active life I lead gives me a great amount of energy that I probably wouldn’t last a moment without it.

 I still haven’t processed much of what I learned this weekend and many of the ideas that passed before my eyes I’m afraid continued through my brain and out: it is nearly impossible to retain all of that information and those ideas in such a concentrated amount of time.

But it was so much fun.

So I’m taking today off of exercise, and I might take tomorrow off as well.  I went back to bed after I got home from bootcamp this morning and re-woke at 11am.  My muscles are recovering, but this whole week I’m going to try and get extra sleep when I can.

I think I’ve probably earned it.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Exercise as Medicine?

March 25th, 2011

I’ve said food (more specifically, simple sugars or juice) is medicine to me to young kids who question what’s going on if I’m low.  I’ve said that exercise is like medicine, as well, particularly for those of us living with type one or type two diabetes.  But is it?  Have I been thinking about things all wrong??

 I read a newsletter yesterday that put a different spin on the “exercise as medicine” idea.  I hadn’t thought of it this way in the past but I love it a lot and I’m thinking of changing my opinion!

 The newsletter comes from Brett Kilika via Todd Durkin at Fitness Quest 10; I’ve blogged about FQ10 and Todd in the past.  Love him.  One of the FQ10 trainers wrote a piece for the newsletter:

“Exercise As Medicine”

By Brett Klika, Director of Athletics at Fitness Quest 10*

In America, too many people view exercise as medicine for an ailment. When you get fat, take exercise until you’re not fat. Exercise is not medicine. You take medicine for a brief period of time until you are no longer sick. Exercise is merely using our body the way it was designed to be used. It’s a lifestyle we were created to lead, not some trendy novelty.

Years ago, we didn’t have to think about creating opportunities to be physical. Very few things in our lives were automated, so our daily activities were enough to keep everything going. Right now, we have very little, if any daily activity requirements. We have to create them. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. You’re body runs a tight ship. It frequently goes through a “spring cleaning” process to get rid of anything it doesn’t need. If we don’t create daily reasons for our body to keep moving, it will stop. When your body stops, it hurts. It’s debilitating and you begin to suffer.

How do you plan to live your later years? You want to be able to walk? You better be walking quite a bit right now. You want to be able to pick up your grandchildren? You better be picking up heavy stuff on a daily basis right now. You want your heart to beat? You better be giving it good reason to beat hard every day! You don’t have to go to aerobics class, lift weights, or play a sport. You don’t have to strive to look like a model. You do, however, need to do something that gives your mind, body, and soul a reason to show up to work.

 _________________

Perhaps we should re-think exercise in our lives.  As a means to an end we all want.  Let’s work toward that end every day and see what happens! 

I’m here if you’re struggling with exercise and your diabetes. 

*Brett Klika, Director of Athletics at Fitness Quest 10 is an international speaker, educator, author, and motivator with 17 years experience in the realm of training and coaching. Through writing, speaking, and various other forms of media, Brett educates and inspires trainers and clients all over the world to optimize their lives through wellness.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

What Were These Researchers Thinking?

March 24th, 2011

So I should really start out by saying that I don’t intend to bash medical research or studies or what have you.  I think a lot of what they learn and we put into practice is important.

This one, however, just makes me kind of laugh.  It’s one of those “who do they think we are?!” laughs, more than anything.  Sure, it’s good information to have… but did it really require a full-on study?  That one is hard to believe. 

They wanted to resolve an apparently age-old question about blood sugar checks: whether or not you need to wash your hands before you check, and whether you need to wipe away the first drop and use the second drop of blood instead.

(Let me also put it out there that the colder my hands get through the winter the more likely I am to poke myself 3 times before any finger bleeds at all, much less a full drop or for heaven’s sake two drops.)

The way they did the study also makes me smile: they set up blood checks in several ways: (1) without washing hands, drop 1 and drop 2; (2) after exposing the hands to fruit, drop 1 and drop 2; (3) after washing the fruit exposed hands (love that phrase, too), drop 1 and drop 2; and (4) checking while “applying external pressure” to the finger, drop 1 and drop 2.

(Also note please that I usually won’t bleed unless I press my finger.  I consider this a very useful thing.)

Glad I wasn’t part of the study.  I feel I check plenty, thank you.  I hope they at least got paid for the 8 extra checks that day!!

Fancy this: they found the most difference between drops 1 and 2 were in the fruit exposed hands that had not been washed.  Makes sense, as you are essentially cleaning the fruit with the first drop and have more blood (and less fruit) in the second drop since the fruit was washed away.

They concluded (surprise surprise!) that we should wash our hands with soap and water and dry them before we check.  And then if we do that we can use the first drop.  But if we can’t wash our hands we’re supposed to use the second drop.  They also say that external pressure can lead to unreliable readings.

Alright.  Time for a reality check, researchers!  Get outside of your lab/office/clinic and go shopping at the mall at Christmas, or go for a hike on a spring afternoon.  Go to the movies and get some popcorn.  Sit in a classroom and take a spelling test.  Go to a piano or painting lesson.  Play a pick-up game of basketball.  Get caught in the rain or snow.

Then, randomly, realize you want to check your blood sugar to check what’s going on.

Repeat this every day, multiple times a day, and see how often you actually go wash your hands with soap and water, dry them, and then check.  See how quickly your calluses form and you need to press on your finger to get enough blood for a strip… and then double that requirement.

Yeah.  It’s harder than it sounds, isn’t it? 

As for me, no big surprise here, I plan to keep on checking the way I’ve always checked.  (I’ll bet you feel the same.)  But the study does make me smile.  It’s kind of quaint how all the scientists are trying to keep diabetes in a lab or clinic.

I’ll be outside, busy living, if you need me.

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Posted in I Can't Believe Someone Got Paid to Conduct This Study, Living with Type 1 Diabetes, Random Musings, Uncategorized