Expensive.

When i think about it... I'm glad i got diabetes over someone that may live in say a third world country, or a country that doesn't provide health insurance, etc. Diabets is VERY expensive. My insulin pump alone cost about $6,500. Not to mention the boxes of expensive medical supplies that we receive every three or so months. Luckily health insurance covers pretty much everything. It's sad to think that there are some places in the world were people don't have access to insulin pumps, or even just insulin. Without this, diabetes is a terminal disease, yes it's entirely manageable when you have the right resources... but not everyone does.

"Just in Case"

Parents of children with Type 1 diabetes have a lot of resposibilty too, especially when a child isnt old enough to take care of its own health. I was lucky that i was diagnosed at 15 so i could already take care of myself. On the other hand, my mom still finds her way to weave her way into making sure the little stuff gets done. For example, the second time she came up to Chapel Hill she hands my roomate a tube of icing and says... "just in case". Or in highschool she gave my boyfriend a spare glucometer to keep in HIS car... "just in case". Embarrassing? maybe... but I'd do the same if my kid was constantly in danger of his or her health. Really bad things don't usually happen with diabetes... but the problem is that the very easily could at ANY moment. Even when you think everything is okay.

Oops!

Just got back from lunch and my blood sugar was 326... I wasn't sure why because i gave the proper amount of insulin for what i ate. I started to do a little investigating and at one point i had asked a friend to refil my DIET coke... she accidentally gave me REGULAR coke which has a ton of sugar...oops!

LFit

So I took my LFit exam the other day and there were actually a ton of questions on diabetes! It really helped to understand what they were asking about insulin sensitivity and such. If i had just watched those modules that we were supposed to i probably would have gotten them all wrong! Most people don't know very much about diabetes, and i probably wouldn't either if i didn't live with it!

Uh oh...

So last night i was going to spend the night in a friends dorm room in south campus. However, my tube got caught on her door at one point and my pump site (where the pump connects to my body) came out. It doesnt hurt when that happens, but it just sucks because it's not like you can put it back in. So I had to make the treck all the way back from south campus at 2 in the morning... in the freezing cold. Way to go diabetes...

Me Checking by BG

Here's me checking my bloodsugar, it does'nt hurt at all when I do it in my arm, a lot of diabetics use theyre fingers but mine get really sore if i do that.

Nick Jonas

Kind of cheesy, but this is a short video by Nick Jonas. I tried to embed it into my blog but it isnt working properly. But still, take a sec to look at it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLrSFgvvgZc

Myths

Here are so common myths that i have gotten from people about Type 1 Diabetes...

1. People with Diabetes can't eat anything with sugar in it. This is false, type 1 diabetics are allowed to eat sugar, yes we have to be careful with things like soda and sweet tea, but they're are not limitations on sugar intake.
2. Diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar when you're young. This is a funny one, for the record... eating sugar does NOT cause diabetes!
3. Type 1 diabetes is genetic. This is partially true, it is a little bit gentic but not near as heavily gentic as type 2. For example, i have zero family history of type 1 diabetes but i got it.
4. People that have diabetes have to check their blood sugar with finger pricks. I actually am able to check my blood sugar in my arm, not my finger. Although your finger is a more accurate representation of your BG.
5. You have to diet and exercise more than other to control your blood glucose False. Yes, diet and exercise is good for you but since with Type 1 you are insulin dependant, you don't need to exercise to bring you BG levels down.

Carb Counting

The amount of insulin that you give is based on two things, carbohydrates and your current blood sugar level. For myself, for every 12 carbs i eat, i give 1 unit of insulin. How many carbs that are in what your eating aren't always clearly labeled so i have to know on average for some things. For example...

bagel: 45-60
hamburger bun: 30
hot dog bun: 25
1/2 cup of icecream: 20
apple: 13
Bojangles chicken biscuit: 45 : )
baked potato: 45
1 cookie: 15

granted these are all approximations from off the top of my head and they're are a lot more that i try to know so this is just a few. As convenient as it would be, diabetes is not an exact science so sometimes you just have to guess and check!

Famous People with Type 1 Diabetes

You probably didn't know this but here are a few celebrities that have Type 1 diabetes!

Halle Berry
Nick Jonas
Mary Tyler Moore
Ashley Blue (just kidding)
Jackie Robinson
Elliot Yamin

It was interesting to find out that there are celebrities with diabetes that i had never even heard had the disease. Nick Jonas is a big advocate for diabetes awareness but other than him i have really never heard anything else that those people did for diabetes...

The Diabetes Center

I was looking up some information about diabetes at UNC and i found this place called the Diabetes Center. Theyre whole mission is to help people with diabetes live longer and healthier lives. I think that it is interesting that I am a UNC student with diabetes and i have never seen or heard about this before now. They also have a alot of great education programs that will be awesome for the newly diagnosed. I was lucky that when i was diagnosed i had the WakeMed pediatric diabetes center to go to, but i don't feel like they're are alot of those around! Hopefully i'll get a chance to check this out at some point!

Alcohol and Diabetes

When you have diabetes, you have to practice extreme caution with alcohol as with most other things. Alcohol causes hypoglycemia (blood glucose less than 80) from shortly after you start drinking and up to 8 to 12 hours after. It's important when your drinking alcohol if your diabetic to make sure to drink with food, and constantly monitor your blood sugar levels to make sure that everything is running smoothly! I have found that usually when consuming alcohol most peoples sugar levels go up and run at a much higher level (like 200's to 300's), mostly because of the sugary drinks that alcohol is usually mixed with.

Laziness

For the past week my blood sugar has been nowhere near where i want it to be. This is because of one thing, laziness. Its something that comes all too easy to those of us with diabetes as far as checking our BG (blood glucose) levels and giving insulin. For example, last night i was starving but i had showered and taken off my pump and now i couldnt find it. So after i couldn't find it after 30 seconds, I just went down to the dining hall without it. Smart? no. Lazy? yes. As a diabetic you have to constantly think about your health and what the long term consequences of your actions are. And as an 18 year old college student... that is not as easy as it sounds.

Woohoo!

This year for the Walk to Cure Juveniles diabetes I raised $725 towards finding a cure! This is totally thanks to all my friends and family for donating money to my cause, and I would have never been able to do it without them! They always find a way to pull through for me!

Sick : (

Personally, i feel like everything that can happen to a person healthwise is always magnified when you have diabetes. Unfortunately, today i am sick. i guess its just a bad cold but still... I have currently been in bed all day. I have not eaten, nor checked my blood sugar, nor given insulin. I know i need to, but when the choice comes down to staying right here in my bed or getting up to do anything... i think ill just stay here.

Walk to Cure Diabetes

This past week was the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's annual Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes. Unfortunately, I was unable to partcipate this year because it was the morning of the UNC vs. Duke football game... but with much regret. Every year we do this we bring my dogs out and get to eat, hangout and see old friends. They have tons of information on new kinds of equipment (pumps, glucometers etc.) which is really nice. I was disapointed that I wasn't able to go this year, but it was just to hard to miss the big game!

A1c

A friend of mine's dad bought a machine to check your A1c and since i did not have mine done at UNC I stopped by his office during fall break so that i could do it myself. You want your A1c to be around a 7, which means you averae bloodsugar is 126ish. Mine was 9.4... which is not good. Thats the average blood sugar of about 223.

The formula for determining you eAG (estimateg average glucose) a.k.a your averae blood sugar is this...

28.7 x A1C - 46.7 = eAG

Student Health

Okay, so last Tuesday i made an appointment with the Diabetes specialist here at Carolina. She was very nice but unfortunately it made me miss a class and was a rather significant waste of my time.
Here is a little bit of background information...
1, every three or so months diabetics need to get something called the A1C taken. This is basically a number that is equivolent to my average blood sugar over the past three months and it is also is the one thing that i wanted to accomplish from my doctors appointment.
2, I am deathly afraid of getting blood drawn and this was the only way she was going to be able to take my A1C (when i can do it at wake med with a finger prick). so i opted out of that one.
aka very frusterating.
She gave me some pretty okay pointers about how to better manage my diabetes at college, but to be completely honest i have a hard time listening to people who don't actually have Diabetes themselves... it feel like its just kinda of like a "you don't know unless youve been there"
But anyways... that was my last Tuesday. Sorry Dr. Taylor for missing class but I'm gonna have blame this one on diabetes.... : ).

Sean Busby: snowboarding type 1 diabetic

Below is the link to an article i found interesting... its about a snowboard who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It talks about how after he got his own health under sontrol he turned to focus on that of kids with type 1 diabetes. He has started a series of camps for them and the article talks about what they offer!

http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=B81D1550-1279-CFD5-A757F09C70478428

Statistics

• Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of diagnosed cases of diabetes.
  
  
• The risk of developing type 1 diabetes is higher than virtually all other severe chronic diseases of childhood.
  
  
• Peak incidence occurs during puberty, around 10 to 12 years of age in girls, and 12 to 14 years of age in boys.
  
  
• The symptoms for type 1 diabetes can mimic the flu in children.

I found these few statistics on the Virginia Health System website and thought they were interesting!

Taking "low" to new depths

The other night i actually reached a benchmark in my own history with diabetes. I woke up around 6am an knew that my blood sugar was low. I checked it so i could record it and it was 35... 35!! The lowest i have ever been was 43. So, I managed to set a new record. The frustrating thing is that I don't know why this happened... Sometimes with diabetes there are things that you just can't explain.

Here is a list of the symptoms of low blood sugar.

• Trembling;
• Cold sweat;
• Disorientation;
• Numb feeling in your lips;
• Nausea or vomiting;
• Elevated heart rate;
• Irritability;
• Headaches;
• Tingling in various parts of your body;
• Constant food cravings;
• Distorted eyesight;
• Light-headedness;
• Chronic fatigue;
• Seizures
• Lack of concentration;
• Periods of unconsciousness.

Animas Ping Insulin Pump

Allways there

So basically like my title alludes, my pump is always there. There being somewhere on my person, whether in my pocket, on my waistband or anywhere else that i can find a place to hook it. These are just some random pics that i found of myself so that you can kind of visualize it's role in my life. Often times when people ask me a question about my pump it is, "do you ALWAYS have to wear that??" the answer is no. I can take it off when i shower! Haha but besides that, yes. It's on me when i sleep and even when i swim (it is waterproof up to 15 meters)

at school vs. at home

Being a college student with diabetes is entirely different than being a high schooler with diabetes. The level of difficulty is about the same, but it is just a lot... different. Being diagnosed at 15, I have always had a pretty good idea of the importance of taking care of myself, but when I lived at home I did have that extra pressure from my parents asking "Ashley, what's your blood sugar?". However, it's not hard to think of a number between 80 and 150 quickly off the top of your head... : ). Just kidding, I usually would go find the nearest glucometer and check it so that they would be pleased. I don't have anyone here at school with me to put on that pressure, but I am doing a pretty good job of doing it myself. A plus of living in a dorm is that when I am in my room, I am no less than five feet away from a glucometer at all times so I can no long use the excuse of "crap, my glucometer is upstairs... oh well...".
For those of you who aren't diabetic I guess I'll give you a little bit of background terminology... A glucometer is a meter that tells you what your blood sugar is. It pricks you with a little needle and produces a small dot of blood that you touch to a strip that sticks out of the meter. Somehow it soaks it up and tells you your number. Your number (bloodsugar) should be between 80 and 150. It sounds complicated but it's not a hard concept (I taught my roomate how the other day).
But anyways, so college isn't much more difficult as far as checking bloodsugar when I'm in my room. I make myself check it usually before I leave to go anywhere and when I come home.
As far as for my pump, that thing is pretty much a part of me so whether I was at home or at school. Being at school and away from home just means that a little bit more of the resposibility is in my hands, and I think I'm handeling it pretty well.

to east to conform

Why is it that sometimes the most important things about ourselves, are the things that we always just happen to forget to mention? In 2006 me and my boyfriend had already been dating for two months before I told him that I was diabetic. I was diagnosed in August and we met in Septemeber and I somehow managed to keep it hidden for quite a while. Not that he would have ever minded, it was just something that I did'nt feel like making "public". I was 15, and as I'm sure we can all agree, at 15 all you want to do is be like everybody else, and even though I wasn't, I tried like hell to pretend I was. I think that so often, especially as young people, you try so hard to fit in, and then you grow up and all you want to do is be different. Why is this? Who knows.

I think that society makes itself all to easy to conform too. Being like everyone else is an entirely reachable goal. For example, I was on shots for a year before I decided to go on pump therapy. The way I saw it was, with shots I could pull out my little insulin pen and glucometer (aka diabetes) and put "diabetes" in my purse when I didn't need it and be back to my old conforment self. Voila!

It's a Blessing, Not a Curse

This is my first blog entry! It is very exciting to have an outlet such as this in which you can tell you own life stories as well as here some of other people. I have only been Diabetic since August of 2006, so I'm kind of a "newb" at this whole game. In a way I was blessed to not get the disease until then, I was old enough to take care of my own health needs, give my own shots and count my own carbs and such. I have heard many stories from other diabetics and moms of children with diabetes that have had terrible experiences brought upon them because this disease is usually breaching the surface so early in children's lives.

So anyways, back to being "blessed", no matter how many times I hear that word associated with the fact that one of my internal organs no longer works properly, i don' t think it will ever be what comes to mind in my own reflection of the whole situation.

I apoligize for making this seem like such a morbid situation, that's an exagerration. It's entirley live-with-able. It's just more responsibilty. Technology nowadays is amazing, and I thank this for my pink Animas 2020 Insulin Pump. It's the bomb, althought not quite as good as a real pancreas but definitely a good substitute. All type 1 diabetics in today's world have it easy, including myself. The first insulin pumps had to be wheeled aroung beside you. Mine fits nicely in my back pocket... with extra space. Also, a long long time ago people used to have to sharpen their own needles. Now virtually everything comes pre-packaged and disposable. It's awesome.

My plans for this blog are to tell my story. I'm sure it isn't as exciting as many others, but it's definitely interesting and comes with a ton of surprises, most of which I'm sure are yet to come. I will also post on new technologies that surface in our economy, and things that I have found work best for me. I hope you enjoy!

Ashley

Explanation Video

Here is a video that i found on youtube that describes diabetes in a more "scientific" way in case your really interested in what causes it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OOWhuC_9Lw