One week of Life, amplified!

I have had an adventuresome week. I have had my nephew, Alex over and my Mom from Oak Ridge. Also, my wife's little adopted baby son has had issues. Bjorn has spina bifida and has had a rough little life in his 10 months. He has a shunt which had a failure. As a result, he's been swollen and very uncomfortable. Our pediatrician had him checked out by a pediatric neurosurgeon and they told us he needed the shunt repaired. Ingrid, my wife and Bjorn spent 4 days in Children's Hospital in Knoxville. He's doing great now. I have had issues of my own. Mainly my One Touch UltraSmart reading too low. I am using my backup Freestyle Freedom while I am awaiting a replacement meter. I have also had to adjust my Insulin/Carbohydrate ratios and Insulin Sensitivity Factor and learn how to do my own adjustments. So a lot of studying and testing BG. Erik is doing great and no problems. Ingrid is a rock and superb. I have PT ongoing. Working out like a dog. Running lots of Temporary Basals and snacks keeping the blood sugars fine.

A celebration of pumping!

July 3 of this year marks my third year of insulin pumping. I have really preferred it to the old routine of 6-7 injections a day and having less freedom. I have an Animas IR 1250 and chose it really carefully out of the available pumps. I have no regrets over that choice. The Animas trainers have been superb to work with and a pleasure. I can say pump training is much like D boot camp and like being diagnosed again in terms of what is learned in a short amount of time. I could write a book on infusion set reactions and allergies to the cannula. My pump is named R2D2 as it beeps just like the robot when he demands input from the operator. I begin PT tomorrow with some newly fine tuned basal rates and trying to work around my primitive balance.

I have returned!

It has been a chaotic several months. Been dealing with my wife's baby a lot and him being Type 1 diabetic. I have also dealt with my grandmother having a serious illness. She had a bacterial infection and it was really serious. Her doctor was away and she had superb care while in the hospital and he released her too soon. We changed doctors to a new one who is much more interested in her. We are doing OK. My HbA1C has been good through all this, 5.4%. I have changed my infusion sets on my Animas IR 1250 from Inset 30s (I am allergic to the cannula) to Contact Detach and have had success. Had a fine fourth of July. Plan to return with more posts. I am also dealing with relearning balance, gait, and movement after many Botox injections last month. Had the Physical Therapy evaluation and am waiting for approval of PT.