I knew I had been working hard towards lowering my A1C and I was looking forward to my A1C this endo trip....

(Never thought I'd say that!!)

And...


I HAD THE BEST A1C I'VE EVER HAD!!!!


Three months ago I was 9.2 and today...DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

7.7!!!!!!!!

I know it's not perfect, but OMGOMGOMGOMGOM!! That is the BEST I've ever been.




Last week I also found out my eyes are perfect!


Overall, I am feeling good and motivated to try even harder!

I feel like I a breath a sigh of relief.

This is all because of you DOC. You have changed me for the better. Thank thank thank you you you!!! You each inspire me everyday with your success and set backs. I learn from each one of you and I can't wait to tell you all when my A1C is even better!!!

This week I had my monthly type 1 support group meeting with JDRF. It was SO much fun! It was just beautiful! So classy and fancy, and I got to meet some amazing people.

They had such things as a liquid olive!!
This exploded in your mouth to create the sensation of eating all those flavors!

Very fancy!

I got to meet one FANTASTIC girl named Ashley.

She is a type 1 and she is actually doing a research on girls who have Type 1 Diabetes, live in California or Colorado, who wear a pump and are between the ages of 12 - 22 OR WORE a pump they WERE 12-22.

I told her I would be happy to try and get the word out on my blog!


Her blurb:

I am a type 1 diabetic looking for participants in the Los Angeles/ Southern California area interested in participating in a psychological study about insulin pumps! I am conducting my doctoral dissertation and am looking for female type 1 pumpers for a one hour interview. You can contribute to diabetes research and earn cash!! Please contact me if you have any interest! ajtullman@gmail.com- Ashley

DO YOU WEAR AN INSULIN PUMP?

ARE YOU BETWEEN THE AGES OF 12 & 22?

DID YOU WEAR A PUMP WHEN YOU WERE 12 & 22?



Research Study



IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO THESE QUESTIONS THEN YOU MAY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO EARN CASH & CONTRIBUTE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH!



WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:


The goal of this research is to understand the experiences of female adolescents with type 1 diabetes being treated with an insulin pump and assess any commonalities between them. The aim is to gain an insight into each individual’s perspective of their daily life experience as an insulin pump wearer.

THE STUDY CONSISTS OF:
1 BRIEF PHONE CONSULTATION
1 ONE 1/2 HOUR INTERVIEW



THIS STUDY IS BEING CONDUCTED IN TWO LOCATIONS: WESTWOOD, CA AND DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, CA.

PARTICIPANTS WILL BE GIVEN $50.00 CASH REIMBURSEMENT





Please let me know if you know anyone or please contact Ashley!

Thank you DOC!!!

I love reading blogs over at Medtronic's, "The Loop". Therefore, I was so honored when they asked me to blog about having type 1 diabetes while in college.



Please head on over HERE to read it and let me know what you think!

Do you ever feel like you just can't give yourself enough insulin?

I do not know what's going on!! For the past week, I have increased my average insulin intake by 20 units a day! That's huge! It seem like I am constantly high, until I OVER bolus then I have scary scary lows.

I am not sick and I changed the site and tried new insulin...WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE??

Things haven't been AS normal as usual...

I had a very hectic schedule recently with family in town.

With that comes AMAZING memories. This past weekend I went on my first hot air balloon ride. It was really scary at take off and landing but other then that, AMAZING!! It's interesting though, I was thinking while I was up there, what if something happened to me? What if I went so low that I needed to go to a hospital? Would the hot air balloon fly right to a hospital? Oh how diabetes likes to interrupt every part of your life...

Everything ended up great, and the trip was something I will never forget.

I'm not sure what is it about today, but I have heard some very exciting news today regarding Type 1!

Over at Your Diabetes May Vary, I read a REALLY interesting post, you should read the entire thing click here!

Here is a quick overview: Lilly and Disney showed a kids book with Goofy (my non d son's favorite when he was little) and a new type 1 character. The story line helps break down some misconceptions and gives kids with t1 a Disney character of their own. They also announced an official guide to the parks for type 1 visitors. It is a start that I hope leads to better type 1 awareness in the parks. My dated unofficial guide is at http://DisneyWithDiabetes.com.

It gives me great comfort knowing that SOMEONE acknowledges that living with diabetes is hard, and seeing that people are aware that there are more challenges than just the medicine in the life of someone with Type 1.

THEN I HEAD THE BEST NEWS THAT I HEARD FOR A LONG TIME FROM MY FATHER:

"Denise L. Faustman, MD, PhD, is Director of the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has worked in the field of autoimmunity for nearly two decades. In 2001, the Faustman Lab reversed type 1 diabetes in mice with end-stage disease, a project that is now in human clinical trials. Dr. Faustman’s current research continues to focus on uncovering new treatments for type 1 diabetes, as well as searching for therapies for other autoimmune diseases, including Crohn's disease, lupus, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, and multiple sclerosis. "

The link is here to read more about her clinical trials. If any of you live near Boston I am VERY jealous!!!

I feel so torn when I read things like this though...if you head on over to the clinical trial Q&A:

How long will the human clinical trials take?
We expect the clinical trials to take around 8-10 years, but this depends on many factors, such as the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the availability of funding for the different phases of the trials.

That seems so far from now...I hate getting my hopes up, but this would be so amazing. I wouldn't even know what to do with myself anymore if I didn't have diabetes...would I write this blog anymore? Would I need support to transition into "normal" life...it seems like I have so man questions and will never have enough answers...

Till then, here's to hoping!

Even though I have made huge leaps in my diabetes care, I still have a few slip ups. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in life and diabetes can slip a little.

This weekend was a great weekend! My brother and Great Aunt and Uncle were in town and we had a blast! Constantly swimming, great food and lots of laughs.

My mother's birthday is the 4th of July, so what more could you ask for??


I am embarrassed to admit it, but my care was not great this weekend for many reasons. It is obviously much easier to control what I eat when I'm at my own apartment or work, and not eating things I normally wouldn't. My sensor was giving me so much trouble and not being accurate so I just took it off for more fun swimming. I didn't take my victoza either because I wanted to enjoy all the fun and not feel full too soon. I wanted to be "normal" and join in on the holiday fun, but perhaps I had a bit too much fun...Maybe my pump was suspended for too long while enjoying the pool or maybe I was just so happy, I didn't want to think of anything negative...I know this infection isn't helping ANYTHING. This infection is being such an annoying bugger, he has kept my blood sugars up all day today too. Even after yoga! All of these many many factors lead to not good numbers.

Either way, diabetes was not on my side this weekend...


As I was driving home after the fantastic weekend, I noticed I was having trouble reading the freeway sings. They looked like this:


I was so mad at myself! I KNEW what that had meant...I was high. This is not a new thing to me, which is why I knew I was high. Every time I visit my eye doctor I say the only eye problems I ever have are when I am high I get blurry vision. And everytime he says the same thing, "That is totally fine and will go away, nothing to worry about".

Of course, in my head, I am thinking of all the damage I am doing...

Finally once I get home I test. After looking through my results for the day, I notice I had only tested ONCE before in that day. How could that happen? I swore I checked more...but alas I didn't. Once again, here comes diabetes anger and guilt.

How could I let myself get this high? How could let this entire weekend happen the way it did?

Do you get blurry vision with high blood sugars?


I am learning from this slip up. This weekend will be a lesson for me, that even if I change my diabetes care around, I need to maintain. Even if it's a holiday.

Diabetes doesn't take a day off, so I guess I can't either.

Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised...

Very rare...but it happens!

I went to the dreaded CVS, where I know it will be a nightmare. (When is there EVER a good experience at CVS???)



=






I tell the pharmacist my name and she walks over to the rack of pills and other medications. This usually drives me nuts because the insulin is ALWAYS in the fridge, but I can't expect everyone to know that...

"It's not ready yet. You scheduled a later time for pick up."

"No...I said I'd be here in an hour at 3pm and it's now 8pm..."


"I'm sorry ma'am we have been busy. We can have it ready in 10 minutes."

SURE YOU CAN....

30 minutes later....

(This is the good part I swear!!!!!)

She hands me THREE boxes of humalog!!



This is fantastic, because ever since I even used humalog I got two boxes. THREE!!?!?! For those who might not understand that means I don't have to go to CVS AS often. Having diabetes means I live inside the CVS. Literally. My address is CVS.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE EVEN BETTER PART?!?!?!




As I have the THREE boxes in my hands super excited hands, it's $20 LESS than before.

YES LESS.

Maybe she messed up. Maybe it was because she felt bad she called me ma'am.

I AM NOT A MA'AM!!!!!! Since when does being in your early 20's make you a ma'am?!?!?!

Either way, I caught a little break.

Here's to all of you catching a little break every now and then as well.

:)