Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Excuses, Excuses, ...

Time for me to continue being the bad summer blogger that I have become. If I were the type for confession, I'd have to begin with "Forgive me father for I have sinned. It has been one week since my last blog post..." I actually have been busy for the last week and the blog took the back seat to real life. In the words of that famous aphorism, "Shit happens!"

What have I been doing? Well ... on the work side I am trying to keep everything on track for our upcoming 5K Run and Pet Walk. So I have been doing everything from artwork procurement to tee shirt manufacture. And of course still working on all the contracts to get our new facility constructed. And trying to get all the staff through FEMA certification and then CART certified so we can proceed with the plans for our expanding role in emergency preparation (with some of the staff definitely exhibiting a bit of resistance to getting trained). (I would never have believed the number of youngsters that have deep seated fears of web based learning.)

On the personal side, my annual medical tests a few weeks ago indicated that the beta cells in my pancreas finally gave up the ghost. Now, after decades of all sorts of drugs and hormones to trick my liver, pancreas, and muscle cells to make up for the ever decreasing number of beta cells (and thus less insulin production) to keep my blood glucose under control, I am a fully insulin dependent diabetic. The last week has been consumed with the process of adjusting dosages and timings for the daily injections of insulin, working with the fact that walking 6 miles can drop the blood glucose levels radically. Now my walks require a bit of forethought and preparation that was absent before.

The process has been interesting. Modern diabetic injection equipment uses such fine needles that the shots are painless.
It's hard to convince yourself that it isn't going to hurt to stick a needle in yourself, but after a few times with no pain, the mind begins to accept it. There are definite advantages to the insulin treatment compared to the oral drugs and hormones. The biggest plus from my point of view is that the chronic muscle pain has faded - which is great. The biggest drawback thus far is the number of finger sticks to test glucose level as we (my internist and I) try to get the base levels of insulin right. I'll try to put together a post on the whole experience later on if anyone is interested.

I have been so busy that I haven't had time to even open the box with the new printer that arrived via FedEx. I'll wait to disclose more until I can do my thank you up right. I'll leave you with the teaser that I won it on another blog. (Yeah, shocked me too.)

5 comments:

  1. At least staying busy keeps us out of trouble--well, most of the time.

    Diabetes runs in my family as well. You are braver than I am with the needles.

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  2. Okay, you were busy -- no time to open up the new printer??? Don't you computer people live for that stuff?

    Sorry to hear you're on insulin, but it sounds like you have the right attitude and have gotten over the needle fear.

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  3. Dan, sorry to hear about the shots. That's tough. I'm glad that you can even put your clever Dan spin on this new event in your life too. Wishing you well.

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  4. Dan, Diabetes sucks. Here's what I have learned from my newphew who was diagnosed at age 8. Use your pinky for your glucose meter. It hurts less. Carbs are in everything. The more active you are the more you need to eat and if you feel even a little bit off, check. It's worth the minute.

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  5. Best of luck. My FIL was holding off diabetes with exercise and diet but now he's on insulin as well. Of course being 80 means he's been doing pretty well.

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You know you want to ... so just do it!!!

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