My life as a Pin Cushion! Love this guy!

Diabetes Police: Aptly named!

Turk from Scrubs

I watched this episode some time before I was diagnosed ... had no idea what diabetes was at that time ... now when I watched this clip back again, it's hilarious! Have a look:

The Airplane Analogy

I found this great analogy (http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottsDiabetesExplanationTheAirplaneAnalogy.aspx) for making people understand the difference between Type I and Type II. I've modified it a bit suiting my 'use case'. Here goes :

You are flying from L.A. to New York. You have to maintain a consistent altitude the whole way.

Note: For this analogy we will focus on a good cruising altitude and pretend that taking off and landings aren’t important.

Food raises blood sugar (altitude.) Insulin lowers it. Non-diabetics don’t have to think about altitude, as you all have a working pancreas (autopilot) and don’t sweat altitude. Diabetics, on the other hand, have to constantly wonder if they are at a safe altitude. Staying at a consistently high altitude (high blood sugar) will eventually make you sick; while a low altitude (low blood sugar) will kill you quickly.

When I prick my finger to check my blood sugar with a glucose test strip, that’s an altitude check. I want to know how I’m doing. Each time I do it, it costs about $1.

Each time I feel I need to lower my blood sugar, I take insulin. I take a manual shot by measuring the insulin and filling the syringe by hand (or I use an Insulin pen). I would typically take about 2 or 3 shots a day (presently).

Here’s where the analogy gets interesting. Remember in the analogy we are flying from L.A. to New York, except we only get to check our altitude seven times. And, we only get to change altitude (take insulin) less than ten times. But, when I check my blood sugar, I’m actually seeing the past. I’m seeing a reading of what my blood sugar was 15 minutes ago. And, when I take insulin, it doesn’t start lowering my blood sugar for at least 30 minutes.

Now, imagine yourself in that plane with an altimeter that shows you the altitude 15 minutes in the past, and a yoke that changes the altitude – but when you press on the yoke, your altitude won’t change for a half-hour. It would be a challenging trip.

Kind of reminds one of the delays in controlling the Mars Rover by remote, eh? This is what Type I diabetes is like. It’s a daily “chasing of one’s tail.” This is why I prefer to eat at Subway when I’m in NYC or SFO. It’s consistent. I can count on it. I know how much insulin to take for a Steak & Cheese. Believe me, I’d love to eat new kinds of food every time I visit a new city, but I’d have to discover how much insulin to take and that’s and exhausting series of calculations and trial & error.

23 and me

15 minutes from now, I'll be 23 (well, actually I already turned 23 12:30 hours ago, but yeah whatever!). It has been an interesting ride until now - filled with a lot of fun ... i've had my share of bumps and I am glad I always had family and friends with me all the time! This year, I don't have a lot of them around on my birthday .... that just means one thing - I am sure gonna get a hell lot of calls tomorrow! well, happy birthday to me!
Update: I had a piece of my favorite chocolate cheesecake on my birthday morning after taking 2 units of insulin. I was scared but the values were perfectly normal 2 hours later! I need more cheesecake now!

Digest

I saw my endocrinologist last week. Last time I saw him, he had ordered some labs for me. This time he had all the results. Here are the highlights:

My c-peptide was much better (2.0) than before (0.9) although it was not as good as it should be. Basically it means that my pancreas is still somewhat working. I am currently in something called ``honeymoon period`` - the period where most of your islet cells (cells in the pancreas that produce insulin) are dead but some of them are still working their asses off to produce as much juice as possible.

My antibodies labs came out positive - well they were way high! While the normal value is around 1-1.5, mine was somewhere around 13! These antibodies are generated by my own immune systems. They go attack the islet cells in my pancreas and kill them. So, that helps explain how it all happened and confirms my diagnosis to some extent. My insurance although has not been helpful at all with these labs. They marked my antibodies lab as ``experimental`` and refused to pay a single penny for that! I had a chat about this with my doctor, and he was really pissed at the insurance guys on hearing this. The test is actually not ``experimental`` at all. It is kinda required for the diagnosis. Now, I have to go thru the grueling process of appealing for a claim for this lab but as of now, I need to pay $207 for the freaking test!

On the tratment front, I am on long acting insulin shots currently. I inject 17 units of lantus (a long acting insulin) in my tummy every morning. I was expecting (and half hoping!) that my endocrinologist will start me on short acting insulin as well this time and he did exactly that. So, now I'll also be taking a few (3-5) units of short acting insulin (Novolog) right before dinner. So, that makes it 2 shots a day. This makes things more inconvenient but the upshot is that I can eat more freely (=more carbs) in one meal of my day. Probably a piece of cheesecake once in a while! Totally worth it!!!

And yeah! I asked him what he thought about the kind of research going on for finding a "CURE" for type I diabetes. He was very hopeful for a cure coming up in the next 10 to 20 years and he believed the most likely cure would be a islet cell transplant. It seems researchers have carried out such transplants recently and so it is possible to do that. The problem that the community faces today is the source of these cells. Right now, they come from cadavers but researchers are looking into various other sources to get these cells from. 10 years, 20 years - it's definitely a long time but if we are looking at a possible cure, I'll surely be waiting. Here's a wonderful video I came across that talks about another possible cure.



PS: I have been telling a lot of people about my doctor's visits lately. So, I figured it will be best if I write down all of the stuff somewhere, so I don't miss anything when I am repeating the whole story again and again. This is the reason for the post above.

Ten Things I would never do!

3 months ago ...

Ten things that I can't imagine myself doing:
1. Cribbing about the food that I eat and do not eat.
2. Reading the label on a food item for its calorie content.
3. Carrying a heavy bag to work.
4. Exercising regularly!
5. Doing yoga for more than 10 days in a row!
6. Eating my meals at around the same time everyday.
7. Showing my bare belly to everyone around me.
8. Not eating chocolate for more than 10 days in a row!
9. Not eating pizza for more than 5 days in a row!
10. Not having anything sweet for more than 10 hours!


Today,

Ten things that I must do now:
1. Cribbing about the food that I eat and do not eat. [I am on a diet+insulin shots treatment]
2. Reading the label on a food item for its calorie content. [ofcourse]
3. Carrying a heavy bag to work. [gotto carry lunch and snacks for the whole day]
4. Exercising regularly! [Well, I started yesterday!]
5. Doing yoga regularly! [20 minutes everyday in the morning for last 2 months!]
6. Eating my meals at around the same time everyday. [yups! or you really screw up your values!]
7. Showing my bare belly to everyone around me. [not doing this yet but I am sure I'll be on a short acting insulin very soon.]
8. Not eating chocolate for long periods of time. [damn! I miss this the most!]
9. Not eating pizza for long periods of time. [yeah .. whatever!]
10. Not having anything sweet for long periods of time. [isn't it obvious?]

Well, the list doesn't seem to have changed a lot in last three months. My life sure has changed though.