2 Years & 3 Days
This is my now 2 year old..hard to believe it's been that long! It was a rough first couple of weeks for him. After the 3 am c-section, they monitored him with me for the first couple hours & when his blood glucose started dropping, gave him formula. That didn't work so they placed an IV & gave him Dextrose. That worked, but then his temperature started dropping so they placed him on antibiotics until cultures came back negative for infection. (That took a couple days) Cultures came back,they took him off the antibiotics and then his bilirubin levels started to rise (getting into the moderate range) so they treate...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - January 11, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Dday: In the Next 15 years
In 15 years I've leaned that diet coke and sugar free gum (together) taste like stinky socks. In 15 years I've learned to stand up for myself with every HCP I've met. Sorry, but I know more then you do.In 15 years I've traveled to Hawaii, Canada,Denmark, England..with a few hours in Amsterdam to boot.In 15 years I've dated three guys, married one guy, and celebrated wedding anniversary #6.In 15 years I've given blood 43 times.(can't do it anymore,due to the magnesium issues)In 15 years I've had between 80-100 magnesium infusions.In 15 years I've passed out from lows 4x. My lowest low was under 10 mg/dl,and I've had a 12 & ...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - December 10, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
November Dayz
What if diabetes were more like Choose Your Own Adventure & less like "I've been doing this for a decade and a half & I am just plain TIRED of it?" Tired of the monotonous day in,day out,check sugar/low/high/crapcrapcrapness of it all? (With no sort of consistency,ever. I believe that's called stupidity.) If diabetes were more like Choose Your Own (Happy)Adventure, the hardest decision I would ever make would be between Spa Day & Turning Myself Into a Beach Bum Day. There would be no side trips to the land of frustrating pharmacies that never have my RX's in stock, no 4 am pump site failure bladder wake up calls, and no co...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - November 21, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
The Tubing People
"Hey, is that an insulin pump?" It is. "I've been trying to get my dad to get one. How do you like it?" It's great..really cuts down on my highs and lows. "Where does the insulin go?" In a hole, right there, see? You inject it into a changeable cartridge every few days. "Well that's so cool! And thank you for shopping at Kmart!" (Guy behind me looks mildly annoyed at the amount of time I've been there ringing up my purchases.) Have a nice day! ------------- The thing about being on a tubed pump versus the Omnipod is that you become a homing zone for every other pumper or relative of a PWD. (Or nosy instructor) It'...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - November 11, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
The Sweet, The Salty, & The Rogue Pancreas
I used to think that getting any disease that restricted the intake of certain foods would be the absolute end of the universe. I've always loved food(like 95% of the human race) & find it something to be enjoyed. Growing up, I lived on a farm(& thus was able to inhale vast quantities in keeping with my teenage metabolism). And then diabetes entered the picture & the first order of business was to get me to gain weight, a lot of weight, so they put me on a 2400 calorie a day diet & gain weight I did-52 lbs. (which took me out of the death camp look and into the solidly chubs look. Quite frankly, the insulins I was on did n...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - October 30, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Dreams: On Hold
On the day that I failed nursing school, I kissed my husband & son goodbye in the wee hours of the morning, climbed into my car, & drove into the city to go to the hospital. As I was in the 2nd lane of the left turn lanes, following several other cars, preparing to turn left along came another car barreling straight towards me at what felt like ten billion miles per hour. "It's going to stop," I thought, not really expecting otherwise. That light for them was solidly in the red. But it didn't stop. And by the time I'd processed this & swerved my car straight, it was like I could literally feel the whoosh of a near head on ...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - October 21, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Of TSlims & Tantrums
Life is chock full o' crazy right now, it's the 6th out of 8 weeks in the Med Surg/Mental Health rotation. I'm not going to personally comment on what that is like, but I focus on two main things (exam prep, and surviving each clinical day without getting expelled from the program) & count down the days till the insanity will be over.(if it weren't the Internet, I could tell you a lot more) As for that little thing called diabetes..it's been downgraded to the very last thing on my to do list. I have absolutely ZERO time to deal with low blood sugars, and my bg average is pretty high. Survival dictates getting all your pati...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - October 4, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Nursing Student: Law 101
Tort. Assault. Battery. Neglect. These are words that make every nurse(and nursing student) break out into a cold sweat, to re-evaluate their chosen career. Because you see, the law is not kind to nurses..the law is brutal. You hear about all these terms, all the legal mumbo-jumbo and you're like "Whatev-I'm not a lawyer. I don't need to know that stuff." But you do need to know it, & the biggest thing you need to know is that YOU DOCUMENT EVERYTHING that you did. Because if you don't document, it didn't happen. And maybe you've been a nurse for 25+ years and forget to document something & the hospital fires you and the nu...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - September 7, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
FFL: The Hard Stuff
When J was being born, amid the crazyness of water breaking and contractions and epidurals and hourly blood glucose checks and being dragged off to the OR at 2:30 am for a C-Section,we made sure everyone we came in contact with knew about this kit. Because, you only get one chance to tap this resource, and you better not miss that boat. Yes, it made for a rather stressful time, but the hospital staff handled things just fine,and hand delivered it (that morning)to the courier person who rushed it off to the depths of some cryogenic safe to be stored, hopefully never to be used, but there, nonetheless. Primarily, st...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - August 19, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Strip Safely (and carry a BIG stick)
In the beginning of my diabetes journey, a blood glucose reading was a thing written in stone, the Gospel truth."What's your number?" "What's your number?"I had no reason to doubt the number, to doubt the archaic brick of mid-90's technology that took a whopping 45 seconds to spit out that number. I was good, I was bad,that number ruled my life.(as well as my parents)And then came the day when my blood glucose dropped from 77 to 33 in the space of about 10 minutes. As a good little PWD who actually was listening when the CDE taught Hypo 101, I drank juice & eagerly awaited the sensations of this, my first low blood sugar. ...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - August 17, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Imposter
I'm a little upset right now. (Warning: what you are about to read will probably disgust you...proceed with caution. And if you should read the entire thing do not,in any way, take the content therein then other then that of my own personal diabetes opinions.)This is my child. He is 19 months old, bright,funny, a social-ite (and overall, quite healthy except for the occasional ear infection.)Having said that, you may feel free to head over to a certain large diabetes website & listen to a webcast from a certain leading expert on diabetes & pregnancy.I didn't make it very far,switching it off when I heard the words "I don't...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - August 8, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Friends For Life: the Wednesday Prelude
Decisions are hard for me. Which is how I found myself staring at the Friends for Life schedule, 15 minutes before the focus groups began,with still no earthly clue which one I wanted to attend. The movie screenings looked pretty interesting, but the siren call of the traditional ones also beckoned. Visions of potential Disney gift cards danced in my mind, and which focus groups might actually stand and deliver.(it's kind of a guessing game) Except for the last session of the day, which my friend and I actually sought out the rep to sign up for. In the end,these were the ones I did. And I kind of missed out on most of the...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - August 5, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Ten Things that I wish the Nursing Profession knew about Hypoglyemia
1. It's called hypoglycemia. It's not called freak-the-heck-out-and-dial-911-itis. Unless I'm unconscious.2. Stop asking me if I feel better ten seconds after I drink the juice. If its a bad low, I won't be feeling better for another 45(and beyond) minutes.3. I'm shaking like this because my cells are reacting to being deprived of glucose, not because I'm cold. Although I could be cold as well, piling 50 blankets on me is not going to fix the issue.4. I can't be held responsible for what I do and say under 70 mg/dl.5. Stop asking me what I had for breakfast. Totally irrelevant in the present situation, I'm on an insulin pu...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - July 27, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
On the Road with the Artificial Pancreas
He is the most interesting man in the world.The "he", fyi, is Ed Damiano...a biomedical engineer turned Artificial Pancreas guru, and father of a type 1 child with diabetes. (and a speaker this year at Friends for Life. Perhaps he has been other years, but I've been kind of out of the loop. I was excited to hear his talk this year, to find out exactly how the Massachusetts clinical trials are going. (very well, apparently. On track to submit to the FDA in 2016, perhaps on time to be approved in time for his son to go off to college in 2017). And I was impressed by his drive (and smarts), but namely, I needed one very impor...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - July 23, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
Friends For Life:Part 1
Let's talk about Friends for Life. (was it exciting? Did anybody fall into the pool? Were there any Diet Coke drink-offs? Did the sponsors bust some moves, Gangnam style? Did you met any new DBFF? What happened?!?) I feel like this conference was basically one big hyperglycemic blur, probably because it was. I had grabbed a box of bad pods, & basically Monday-Sunday was spent in upper echelons of 300 mg/dl. You'd think that,being at a D conference,the pump company reps would be able to help you out...nope,not in this day and age.(lawyers?!?) Changed pods 8x, got two pump errors,& even borrowed a pod from someone else. (sho...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - July 19, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
