Happy Birthday dearest Marjie, my inspiration

Every day I attempt to put life with Diabetes into perspective....there are people with untreatable disease that will die much too young, there are people who never bring their newborn babies home from the hospital, there are people undergoing treatment to try to stay here on Earth and ones who don't win that battle. Today is my 61 one yr old cousin (my cousins wife) birthday, she died 1 year ago before turning 60, she was a magnificent person with adult children and grandchildren who adored her and a husband who loved her so very very much. She is gone, we are here. She had a long battle with Cancer several times and through it all she kept her faith and kept on fighting. She fought until there was no treatment left to heal her. She was an inspiration to me in her ability to never give up. She told me to keep fighting and to stay strong against my long road ahead with Diabetes. I have no idea how but she saw my daily struggles as an inspiration even though her battle to me seemed so much harder to endure. 

Not the way to start your morning.

So Im changing my infusion set this morning and my Dexcom sensor expired 2 hours ago so I restarted it. No big deal right? Yeah I yank my set and there is a spec of puss in it. Not so great but its not like thats never happened.  Put a new set in get it all hooked up and Dex is ready to calibrate. Ok great! Not great. My blood sugar is 500 and I had no clue besides my stomach feels kinda crappy.  This is why my Dexcom is so so very important. I had no idea I was 500! I mean come on holy crap 500!!!!! Freakn wnderful. So I just took a giant correction and now I cant calibrate Dex until Im under 400 since you cant enter a number over 400. Great way to start the day.  Now I feel like barfing and I have to drink a ton of water.

Just so you know

The NEW Butterfinger peanut butter cups......suck. Not a fan...do away with the smooth part and make them just crunchy thennnnn they would be good. Yeah so dont go buying any to treat your lows.  Or try a two pack first, I was low and bought a four cup pack and just now finished it a week later. 

Last day to take the BIG BLUE TEST and trigger a donation to help others in need to get their diabetes supplies!

TODAY is the last day to take the Big Blue Test!   Every time you do anything to move around and you have Diabetes or not, log on enter your info and hit submit!

Go here: http://bigbluetest.org/take-the-big-blue-test/

Each Big Blue Test entry you log between October20th and November 19th triggers a donation on your behalf to nonprofit groups that are providing life-saving supplies, services and education to people with diabetes in need. Taking the Big Blue Test is easy.

The current count is:

27679 and they need to get to 35000!!  

 

#BigBlueTest

How I get air bubbles out of my tslim pump luer lock

This, right here is what I do every time.  This is not my video, I am sharing it from youtube. 

(reblogging from Nov 2013) PortaPocket and why it rocks my Diabetic life!

Thank you Kendra Kroll owner of PortaPocket!

So the owner of PortaPocket sent me some of her products to try. I got the small and medium sized pockets and 12 and 18 inch bands.

I am the kind of person who wants to reclaim her pants pocket for things other than Diabetic junk.

Sometimes the pockets in my work pants are too small or they just dont exsist. So I use my ankles. 

Call me weird but it works and after about 3 days you dont notice it at all anymore.  Plus when I use my ankles you would have no idea I had a pump on me. 

I also wear my dexcom on my ankles sometimes. I have a tally gear case and I like because it protects Dex from water and dropping it.  I need more options sometimes though.

<<===This is the small pocket on a  12" band held on with velcro.  The velcro makes it easy to unattach from your leg.  It holds my t:slim pump very well!

CGM in the cloud from a parents perspective.

I am a member of the CGM in the Cloud Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/cgminthecloud/ which has nearly 8,500 members right now) and day after day I read the incredible stories of how the Nightscout project has helped thousands of parents of children with type 1 Diabetes.  Some of their stories bring tears to my eyes even though I can only imagine how much something like this it just a giant help to them and keeping their childs blood sugar from crashing and not knowing about it and just how much it helps when their child is away at school or anywhere away from home.  It is not yet FDA approved but as the hash tag says it all #WeAreNotWaiting it has been proven time and time again to be a priceless tool for many parents and even could be used for adults who have lost the ability to sense their lows or who have to sleep alone at night. 

Laurie Schwartz is a mother of a type 1 Diabetic son and on day one of using the CGM in the cloud set up believes it saved her son from a very close call.

Dexcom and T:slim data together in one place! You guys have got to do this!

I am sure by now a lot of you  have heard you can upload your t:slim and Dexcom to Diasend.com...but maybe some of you havent.  So let me give you the run down.  (You can also upload your blood glucose meter if it is on the list of compatible devices)

INFUSION SET SAFETY NOTIFICATION Select Lots of Unomedical Infusion Sets Comfort™, Comfort™ Short and Contact™ Detach

INFUSION SET SAFETY NOTIFICATION Select Lots of Unomedical Infusion Sets Comfort™, Comfort™ Short and Contact™ Detach November 13, 2014 Dear ******, Unomedical, a manufacturer of infusion sets used by a number of insulin pump companies, has recently contacted us about a potential safety issue regarding their Comfort™, Comfort™ Short and Contact™ Detach infusion sets.  Unomedical states that there have been reports of the tubing becoming detached at the connect/disconnect location on these infusion sets (images below). While we are told the number of these reports remains low, we wanted to make our trainers aware of the potential issue and that we have notified all our affected customers.

Bayer Contour Next savings this month!

I got this in my email the other day and wanted to be sure to share it!  Go to CVS, Kroger, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Target or Walmart to get this discount!

World Diabetes Day!

Today is World Diabetes Day! I am again participating in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes on May 2nd, 2015 This will be my 5th time participating and our team has raised $7,654.00 in 4 years. JDRF supports many research teams looking to find better treatments and even cures. On this World Diabetes Day will you make a donation to help fund that research? Any amount you can make will help all of those you know and love with type 1 Diabetes. This year I decided to go with the team name I am a Diabetic Warrior to go along with this blog and the Diabetic Support Groups on Facebook I started.

Click here to go to my JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes Donation Page

Medtronic safety Issue announcement

Today, Medtronic announced a potential safety issue regarding the MiniMed™ Silhouette® and MiniMed™ Sure-T® infusion sets.  Models affected are:
Involves models MMT-368, MMT-368T, MMT-371, MMT-371T, MMT-373, MMT-373T, MMT-377, MMT-377T, MMT-378, MMT-378T, MMT-381, MMT-381T, MMT-382, MMT-382T, MMT-383,MMT-383T, MMT-384 and MMT-384T, MMT-862, MMT-862T, MMT-863, MMT-864, MMT-864T, MMT-865, MMT-866, MMT-866T, MMT-873, MMT-874, MMT-874T, MMT-875, MMT-876, MMT-876T, MMT-883, MMT-884, MMT-885, MMT-886, and MMT-886T infusion sets.

The article can be read here: http://diabetes247.org/2014/11/10/medtronic-safety-issue/

Win a FREE Fitbit or Jawbone fitness tracker from diaTribe!

 
Want the chance to win a FREE Fitbit or Jawbone fitness tracker? Well you're in luck, because diaTribe® Gets Fit by giving away ten fitness trackers!

Enter to win at diatribe.org/r/255a6465 and receive the latest news in diabetes. You can refer others to join too for a chance to win other cool prizes. #diabetes #dTGetsFit

Go to:  diatribe.org/r/255a6465

NEWS FLASH: FDA Approves Dexcom Software with Artificial Pancreas Algorithm

Holy cow this is AWESOME news!  http://investor.shareholder.com/dexcom/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=881085


"New Dexcom software achieves critical milestone in measured accuracy for continuous glucose monitoring
 
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dexcom, Inc., (NASDAQ:DXCM), a leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved new software for the Dexcom G4^® PLATINUM CGM. The new Software 505 features the same advanced algorithm as used in artificial pancreas research around the world. The software will impact the performance of the Dexcom G4 PLATINUM, already considered the most accurate CGM system on the market today. The software will be made available free of charge to adult patients using the Dexcom G4 PLATINUM."

Have you taken the Big Blue Test yet?

I know, I am so completely late to the game sharing the Big Blue Test.  Work has been insane, my birthday and my toddler and husband were sick this weekend.  Sorry Manny, I totally dropped the ball.

This is why you should take the Big Blue Test

If you have Diabetes or you know someone who does you have to, yes HAVE to take the Big Blue Test.  This is all it takes to do:

Join the movement by taking the Big Blue Test right now. Each Big Blue Test entry you log between October 20th and November 19th triggers a $1 donation on your behalf to nonprofit groups that are providing life-saving supplies, services and education to people with diabetes in need. Taking the Big Blue Test is easy.
1. Test your blood glucose.  If you do not have diabetes, you can skip this step.
2. Get active.  For 14 to 20 minutes, get up and get moving.  You can , walk, run, clean the house, swim, tap dance…whatever!
3. Test again.  On average, Big Blue Testers seen their blood glucose level drop 20% after 14-20 minutes of exercise.
4. Share your results.  Answer the questions in the right column of this page. And don’t forget to talk about your experience on social media.

Now go here: http://bigbluetest.org/