Here I sit with frustration. I have a problem. You may also have this problem. Heck, many of us may have it. If you wear an insulin pump it's likely somewhat of an issue for you. My wife has been gone all week out of town on a business trip. The problem....I hear my pump alarms less and less at night now-a-days. My wife is a lite sleeper so it wakes her easily, and in turn she wakes me if I don't get to it by the second round of "personal fire alarm". It doesn't matter whether the pump is on vibe or high, I don't hear/feel all of my alarms while sleeping. I'm a heavy sleeper and it just doesn't wake me up.

Now I've tried a few things to see if we could increase the volume, but to no avail. We tried a baby monitor, but I could hear the alarm from the pump better on it's own than I could hear it through the amplified speaker. Strike 1. I've tried alternating between vibe and high alarm settings and.......strike 2. Whatever trial number three would be, I'm sure it would probably be a strike also.

What I need is for the pump companies "Animas", "Deltec", "Disetronic", "Minimed", or "Sooil" to come up with an external speaker that will recieve data from the pump and properly relay (from my nightstand to my ear directly) a signal I don't have muffled under a down comforter of sheet.

That shouldn't be too hard, right? All I need is a simple 2" speaker at my bedside that's going to wake me more easily than what I currently don't hear or feel as quickly.

Now there are a few things to note here. One, sometimes I do wake-up right away. Two, unless I'm sweating I tend to not wake-up automatically when I have a low BG. Three, I'm a good bit cranky sometimes when I awake out of bear hibernation to check on whatever personal fire alarm is sounding off. Fourth, I've tried to pay more attention to the alarms and force acute alertness...but within a week or so I'm back to unfortunately less then adequate fire alarm response. Fifth, I can wake at 3 AM to the sound of an owl softly hooting in the woods directly behind the house, but don't hear or feel my pump alarms....I have indeed come to the point of non-responsiveness due to my becoming unreacitive to the same alarm types.

Personally, I think this would be a simple way to enhance and make the closed system a bit more secure, esp. for the hibernating bear sleepers.

The Ever Fearful - Hypoglycemia

You don't like it. I certainly don't like it, and no one's spouse or loved ones like having to deal with it either. "It" would be the distasteful "Hypoglycemia". If you've had Type 1 diabetes for very long, then you've experienced some of these interesting/frustrating moments. A fellow blogger and friend posted on this subject and incited my thinking.

I think hypoglycemia has varying levels of intensity depending on, for example, how fast your sugar is dropping, where it started dropping from, what's in the tank, how fast you get some fuel in the tank, and what you're currently doing. Just remember I've had a BG of 24 mg/dL and was still walking around talking as if nothing was wrong. So, I'll arbitrarily make the following categories based on reaction type and intensity (I'm sure some clinical genius has already categorized these): (A) the "Hyper-Alert Genius"; (B) the "I'm Not Really Listening to Anyone"; (C) the "Conscience Paralytic" -AKA OBLIVIOUS; and (D) the "Long Road".

The Breakdown:

(A)Hyper-Alert Genius: Some of us have been here. Many hopefully haven't. This is the place where I think the brain is starving for glucose. It's outcome is a little different for everyone, but essentially it's the feeling of having these grandious ideas that seem to come to you - "Enlightenment". I had this experience while researching ideas for a certain piece of stained glass artwork. I was looking for a few small ideas for a portion of this project, but by the time I realized it was my BG and not my healthy running brain introducing these "never done before in history" concepts, I was already in the "GENIUS" zone. I corrected it, but it sure did take my brain long enough to realize what was going on and relay that correctly to my muscles.

(B)I'm Not Really Listening to Anyone: Those who love us and interact often with us, hate this category. It's very frustrating to them. In this category the individual is usally very ornery, unhelpful, and down-right stubbern. We know we should eat those crackers and drink that milk, that person keeps putting it in my face or asking if I've done it yet, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Why? That's usually the only question I can ask myself for the whole of this category. It's frustrating to me, after having one of these, to realilze I was so ornery. It makes dealing with me a lot harder. My wife gets so frustrated with me I know. I love her and I appreciate her putting up with it.

(C)The Conscience Paralytic - Oblivious: You just know something is wrong, but whether you know what's wrong or not, you can't seem to do a dang thing about it. Either you're staring out the window at a piece of grass profusely sweating (as if your using all of your being to try and get that blade to bend), or it takes 30 minutes to drown those crackers with a glass of milk. So, 30 minutes ago I was in the garage working on some project when I knew my sugar needed attending to. I started heading up stairs, but hey (in my head)"What's that on the rug at the garage door? I've never seen that there before." (Ten Minutes Later) "Oh, hey, I was headed upstairs to get a snack. I better get there." Four steps later, "Wow I've never seen the sun shine in the window like that before. Neat. I wonder how often I pass right by here and never see it like that? I was headed somewhere wasn't I? Snack. That's right." (15 Minutes Later) "Well, I finally made it upstairs. Oh, I should pet the dog. I've been in the garage for a while and I'm sure he's been missing me." (5 Minutes Later) "Hey Dufuss, get your mouth wrapped around some crackers would ya!" We can laugh at this, but it really can make the low even lower if we take too long to address it.

(D) The Long Road: The only name most people tend to give to this road is "siezure", and that's never a road we voluntarily go down. No one wants to be here...ever! It's only once you realize that you have gone down this road (you're usually blindfolded - seizing and unconscience while headed down this road) that you begin the long trek back up it. This is the road trip that takes so much energy it takes days to recover from it...to get back to feeling normal again. It's ugly and you usually end up with a tongue scar for going there. I haven't been down that road in years, but for those of us who have, we never forget how it feels. You never forget how your loved one explained what happened. Were you driving (I hope not - I was during one of these in college - scares the crap out of me even to this day. It's why I finger stick before I drive). Were you sleeping, or was it out of the blue? What did those around you do to help you get out of it? I know that my CGM is a huge relief to my wife because of the potential for these to happen during sleep. She actually sleeps at night now!


So, what are your thoughts? Can you clarify any of these definitions? Add to them? Share?

CAFFEINE

What does it do to you?

   Well, sure you get the wide eyed energizer feeling from it. But I get a little more than that from this stuff. I drank a home-made cold Chai latte this AM. It tasted great. I actually let the tea bag brew over-night -which might be why I felt the way I did this AM.

So the second thing it does to me though is more like caffeine over-dose, super high BG level feeling, restless leg syndrome, and A.D.D. - all wrapped in a rather unpleasant package. This toon pretty much says how I feel afterwards.

   Now, to be clear, this appears to happen with certain quantities of caffeine. For example if I drink a Mt. Dew too quickly, or that Chai this AM and the afforementioned is the result. If I slowly enjoy a cherry Coke, no problem. But I have to say I'm kind of affraid of feeling like I drank a Mt. Dew (x10) and knowing it's going to be hours before it gets better. All I can usually do to help is hydrate.

   So, do you drink any of those energy boosting drinks (say for a race)? How do they make you feel?

The Life of Mike

I'd like to say life is humdrum or hunky dory right now, but we all know that that's rarely the case for a perfectionist busy-body who never has enough hours in the day to get all of the things done rolling around in his head. That's me in a nutshell. So, I'm checking off project after project as I complete them....buuuutttt, I swear that list isn't getting any smaller.

On the other side of that sheet of paper though are some things that are a little more important to me. Like running, cycling, and co-leading a team of folks to the Tour De Cure this year.

RUNNING: I love it. It clears my head and calms me. I continue to do the basics for right now...a 3.3 mile very hilly trail run done 2-3 times a week. Call it maintnance running. When I can check off a few more items on the other side of this sheet, or after the tour whichever comes first, I'll start longer runs again.

CYCLING: I've got a nice hill training route I do almost every Friday. It's about 13 miles and has an elevation gain of about 1300 feet. And the ride back to the house ends with a nice large hill too, so this is not a slacker ride for sure-(at least for this pup). I'm also doing more training rides with the group little-by-little and getting in mileage on my own also. The best thing so far to happen to me is that one of our local gas stations agreed to allow me to do a fundraising event at the gas station. We're going to advertise in advance and the day of, and provide full-service for all clients (pump thier gas and wash front and back windows) for the price of the regular fuel. We'll be taking donations for the American Diabetes Association for this service. I don't know about anyone else, this station use to have a full service option, which is gone now, but there is nowhere locally that provides full service anymore. So,I'm excited to see how this works. We'll do this on a Friday in about two weeks.

And then there is mowing the lawn, powerwashing the pool deck, planting, getting the irrigation systems up and running again this year, finishing the rain water barrel collection system, getting the facsia and soffet repairs finished, getting a new pool liner installed.....yadda yadda yiippa yappa...ackkkckaa. Anyway, to put it generically "I'm awefully busy".

Those Winter Days

That is "those winter days" that are almost gone...for we in the south at least. I'm finding myself low on the need to write in the blog right now. What can I say, I'm running a little, and ramping up my cycling a bit for a metric (maybe century) in May....Tour De Cure calls again. So, 8 of us escaped for an Olympics/Valentine cabin long weekend get-away. Man, if you can't take a real vacation and leave the country or head out a few states, then a long weekend near home is always a good thing. We got snowed in the night we got there, so my run the next AM was rather cold, peaceful, and beautiful. Good time - good friends. The next weekend we had sunny weather in the 50's, so you couldn't pass up a bike ride in weather like that.

...and life goes on.

Lackadaisical Running

     "lackadaisical". I feel like that's my word for the month, as for getting my tail out on the trail and burning some calories. It amazes me the number of things that can happen in an individuals life to avert their attention from the necessities of balance. Taxes, Holiday's, getting ready for spring planting, financial adjustments, and even a friend from college days passing on. It's at moments like this that I marvel at those who can handle more than this very calmly.

    So, it is I find myself feeling a bit more lethargic currently, about getting out to run. Not every time, but enough it's annoying. Man, I never use to be this way. If writing this junk down is healing, then I feel better. So, on I go running 2-3 times a week, and yet it still feels insufficient. Probably because at the moment I feel way out of my training zone and barely ready for a 5K. I'm probably wrong and just whining. Usually by the first or second mile I'm warmed up and feeling better about the run. It's funny though, 2 weeks ago I had a Sunday run and it was like 15 degrees (F) outside. That Tuesday I ran again and it was about 55 degrees (F). That just messes with my mind man. I mean I'm wearing cold gear one day freezing my tail off until I get to the tree buffer, out of the wind, and warm-up, and then the next run I'm wearing shorts and a T. Tennessee weather is physcotic. Next steps, keep running (increasing long runs), and get back on the saddle. It's been like two months since I've touched my bike. Poor thing is lonely out there in the garage.

Christmas Vacation - Runs

Distance: on 2 runs totaling about 6.5 miles
Temperature: -16 or -17 C or for some that's 1-3 degrees F

Before I left for Oshawa, CA for a little break, I set a goal of getting back on the trail weekly. It took two runs in insanely cold temperatures to quell that thought until I got back home. Honestly, it would have been OK, but I was definitely unprepared for such low temps. I was adequately dressed from my feet to my armpits. However, on the second run, the one with temps at 1-3 F, I hit my turn around and knew it was important to get back soon. I would realize just how important that would be when I hit the first open field and understood that I had to keep running/moving otherwise I would be in trouble. I forget what it's like to live near large water. The breeze comes in at night and goes out in the AM, and this place was no exception. The breeze across the open areas was brutal. I'm guessing with everything added up the temp going back was close to -3 to -6 degrees Fahrenheit. I didn't have enough layers to sufficiently protect my arms and face. My hands kept warm and my head was OK, but the arms are still a little numb in areas. This was the first time I've made a pretty serious mistake in quite a while. NOTE TO SELF: when it comes to running gear and vacation - ALWAYS take more then you think you'll need.

I did show myself that I was still in pretty good condition though, even after not running for a few weeks.