Ping-tastic!

Just wound up on the Animas Corp website to see if I could order my pump supplies using their webstore when I found a lovely little press release about the new One Touch Ping Glucose Management System.

At first glance the Ping looks like the old one touch ultra smart meters… On further reading, it seems to be a combination of insulin pump remote and data management system, when combined with the new EZ Manager MAX software.

I spoke to a rep in the supply ordering dept at Animas this morning and found out that when it is released in Mid-August 2008 it will not be an add on to my existing pump, a 2020 (which was brand new in January 2008)… The One Touch Ping is a complete package and not just a shmancy number crunching meter as I thought or a meter and remote- it is an entire pumping package.

While I would love a continuous glucose dealio with all of my heart and soul, but cannot afford one at this time, I am ecstatic that Animas & OneTouch (same parent corp- Johnson & Johnson) are making data management easier.

I really don’t care about the remote feature.  I do not need remote access to my pump. I am not a concealer, I wear it with pride clipped to my pants.  Some folks have asked if it’s a new model cell phone…Someone asked if it is a satellite phone (it’s a little more chunky and rugged looking than most current cell models)… When I need to use it I unclip it, do what I need to do, and clip it back on…It does help that it has a clip that is attached directly to the back of the pump…Back in my Cozmo and even in my Disetronic H-Tron days I found the various pouches to be helpful but not perfect… And only late in my Cozmo usage did I discover Unique Accessories’ solution which worked beautifully and for me… Also, I’m not quite clear on what sort of screen the PING meter/remote (can we call it a glu-mote?) will have but one of the reasons I chose the Animas 2020 this time around was the clarity of the screen (in color and super bright…it’s like having a little lcd TV on me at all times…OK, without anything that entertaining.)it’s really nice not having to hunt up reading glasses or put my health at risk by doing a squint and guess…

As I have had my 2020 for less than a year the cost of exchanging it (they have a tiered program) is $399. Not a ton of money and for me totally worth it as recording usable data has always been a weak area for me in my diabetes care.   But it’s still $399 so I will wait and see what happens with bald guy’s job and kiddo’s school stuff.

The other cool part of this announcement is that there will also be new EZ Manager MAX software and it will be MAC and PC compatible!  Woohoo!  I do use a Mac but I also have Windows installed just for my diabetes management software. It will be so nice to not have to use Boot Camp anymore…

Anyway, good news all around…

You can read the press release here.

Gak.

No seriously. Gak.

Boy has pink eye and an ear infection and we think strep throat.  He is feeling better today but still can’t hear out of his infected ear very well.  Normally we have communication issues but this is ridiculous and then some.

Hubby home from work with a nasty bug.

I finally came down with the fever and sore throat part this evening.  My sugars seem to be ok- not great but not totally resistant so I’m guessing I have a virus but the numbers will tell by tomorrow if I need to head to the docs… Until then I’m drinking some tasty tea (Thank you Julie!) with a diet ginger ale chaser…

Going back to bed. Neato documentary/discovery channel thing on the Ice Hotel… Probably not the best thing to watch with chills….

Later…Hope everyone stays healthy and happy…

Belly.

Pumping.

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

Ok. So it’s blurry.

But that little pink spot at the top, the actual catheter going in my belly part, is not supposed to have that dark shadowy stuff around it…

It was a bit of a bleeder… I nicked something going in, or shortly after, but didn’t discover it until the numbers were high again. Grrrrrr…. Making me a little nutso….Well, a little more than usual….

That is my lovely belly…. The episode of Jon & Kate Plus Eight where she has a tummy tuck was on a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to find out that her belly, at it’s biggest, was only a few centimeters larger than mine (at my biggest)… She had 6 kiddos in there. I had one (and my kiddo was born at 33 weeks). I had polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) and went from not showing that much to ginormous within a matter of 2 weeks. Yeah. Itchy, sore, and lumpy. Gorgeous. I’ll have to find a picture of my belly… I’m sure I have one somewhere…. So this belly you are seeing here is my belly now. It’s not attractive, but it’s mine. And everytime my little guy gives me a pat and mentions that he lived in there, I smile.

I won’t have a tummy tuck. No way. I have been through too many surgeries in my short time on this planet to do anything medical that is elective. So I’m working on getting into healthier shape so I can feel better and have more energy for my little guy, but we are still trying to figure out what is destroying my energy this much… Off to another doc tomorrow to review the ct scan of my trunk and some blood work… We shall see what we shall see….

Better numbers…

Survived the night.  With my body fighting so hard just to keep me alive in such extreme conditions (blood sugar that spiked close to 500), I’m exhausted.  Every muscle aches and I can barely keep my eyes open.  So I’m drinking more fluids, eating a flax and berry waffle and heading back to bed.   I’m also plenty swollen… It took over 30 units of humalog/insulin in 6 hours to bring my sugar down…For comparison, I usually take around 60-80 units a day (depending on what I eat and how active I am)….30 units is a boatload.  I look like a freaking stickerbook as I still have all of my failed catheters in my belly. Ok, off I go with my 155 (woohoo!) to recover for the day….Toodles. 

Sugar sugar

Blech.I’ve been feeling crappy but now I feel super crappy…For 4 hours I have been trying to get my sugar down to at least a point where I feel safe enough to go to sleep. It’s “supposed” to be around 120…Since 10 it has been over 400.I was 3 points away from 500.This sucks.Changed out all parts of pump and I’m drinking lots of water…A little kink in my catheter can do some serious damage rapidly… I’m thinking that having a tickle attack with Alex may have messed it up… New catheter is at least delivering…. Numbers are dropping slowly… I just want to be at 300, but I’m also exhausted….  There is a huge difference between me seeing higher sick day numbers and the way I have been feeling all week and lately my sugars have been better, until this drama…. Yucko. Off to drink more water…Update tomorrow/later today….xob  

I’m back from outerspace…

Ok. So not *actually* outerspace, more like innerspace (and no, Dennis Quaid was not there and I was not stuck in the 80’s :-)

June 14th, Flag Day here in the US, is always a “holiday” in our home. It is the anniversary of my diagnosis with Type 1 (”juvenile”) diabetes and each year we celebrate (Jeff takes the day off and there is usually cake or chocolate involved- kind of a way to safely give the big D the ol’ stinkeye….) . Some folks just don’t understand and think it’s sick that we’d celebrate another year of such a shitty, all consuming disease. We call it D-Day in our home and we definitely celebrate- we aren’t trying to make light of such a serious disease (although I do make plenty of corny diabetes jokes) -we are actually celebrating another year of my hard work to keep this disease from maiming or killing me. It’s a big Hip-hip-horray! for another year without complications.

This year was different.

Despite a lot of hard work after 14 years of ups and downs and strange happenings this was the first D-Day where I couldn’t celebrate another year being complication-free. In the past couple of weeks my docs have all agreed that it seems that I have autonomic neuropathy. Basically it means that the nerves that regulate my heart rate, breathing, digestion, balance, etc are crapping out. Actually, it’s not just my autonomic nervous system either. My hands shake and detailed work is a challenge- a challenge I happily take on but yeah, there are tears and a lot of frustration. I’m glad this didn’t happen when I was younger. I’m more levelheaded now. I’m also more bullheaded- but it’s a focused bullheadedness. I don’t just lower my head and strike whatever is in front of me, these days I aim and focus all that energy at appropriate (most of the time) targets.

With creating/crafting/metalwork/jewelrymaking this means that I’m modifying tools and techniques where I can. I’m using a pistol grip rotary tool instead of a traditional flex shaft. I’m learning to push myself less physically - I can no longer work until the muscles in my hands and wrists go numb or cramp up because that means I can’t even pick up a pencil for at least a week. So I’m pushing myself more creatively. I’m reading a lot more. I’m languidly playing with materials and discovering as many of their possibilities as possible - sometimes without the intention of actually making anything with a largish scrap of silver- sometimes I just hammer and play. Melt and play. It’s meditative. It keeps me out of trouble. And I’m writing down everything and instead of spending hours figuring out a new piece I’m actually keeping a sketchbook fairly regularly. That way I’m being smarter with the little time I have to fabricate. I’m learning to take baby steps again and once the initial frustration passes (and the little patches of residual frustration!) I’m finding it to be calming and centering. It’s like I’m letting go of the material (the finished product to introduce to the public…keeping up with listing new stuff on venues such as Etsy) and just enjoying the process, the experience…. The interesting thing is that by reaching this meditative point of creating I’ve also found myself to be more productive than before I got my big news… I’m also finding the materials to be more malleable and creating with metal is less a recollection of what I’ve learned in the past (I’m self-taught and learn by doing and experimentation, if I don’t do it that way everything escapes me) and more of a natural motion- as natural as breathing in and out. As natural as the rhythmic pumping of a heart. As natural as standing up without blacking out. I’m focusing on my creations to work through this but also as a reminded of what I do still have control over.

Ok now a little poll/survey question thingy:

If you have arthritis/carpal tunnel/hand tremors/structural issues- what mods have you made to your crafting tools/equipment or are there any tools and/or accessories you have found particularly helpful?  Thanks in advance!