life with type 1 diabetes

Tag: I’m working on it

A shitty doctor’s appointment… as expected

my numbers have been shit, I know this, also I was traveling which rained crap all over my routine… nevertheless I am determined to keep the travel in my routine, so I’m adjusting my diabetes around my life and not the other way around. That being said… my numbers really were shit and I did really say “fuck it” a couple times… I mean I was 300+ or under 70 pretty much the whole time I was in NYC, in Denver I mistook a sugar drop as altitude adjustment and very nearly passed out (40)… there were some learning opportunities… on the whole it was an amazing trip, a testament to the fact that I can be away if and when I need to be… that it’s okay to ask for help, and there are creative solutions for when living on my own is sub-optimal, other than hiring a nanny for myself… go me! But really my numbers are shit, so I’m getting back on that now… back to paleo light… and “remember to eat” alarms, if that’s what it takes, then there it is… today is a positive day, there was a lot of swearing about this yesterday, my lap time to sanity is getting shorter — big improvement, xo

Diabetic Dashboard

People ask “How are you doing?” all the time, usually I answer with “fine”… well here’s a more comprehensive and Illustrative answer…
 

 

This is my latest take on something that could help me to better understand my diabetes and how to manage it. For right now I’m really just reporting findings, but as I get a better sense as to what I can pull out of my devices, I will switch gears into focusing on insights that I can pull out of the information.

Let me start by saying that I used professional tools to get to this point — I could have stuck to excel, but it would have taken me a lot longer and wouldn’t have been a repeatable process. My goal is to hone this process, so I can get as close to real time as possible — based on the level of effort required, I think that the most practical estimate for this is probably a weekly report, but the process is going to need work to even get to that point.

How did I get here? [the geeky stuff] Dexcom reports out two sets of numbers — the meter values that you input to the receiver (calibrating it), and the reported values that show on the screen every five minutes, these two sets of data are reported separately, but in the same worksheet. To add to this, when I updated the software on my Dexcom receiver it archived my file to date and created a new file, so I have to files one from when I started with the Dexcom to the software update, and then one from the software update to present day. What I needed to do was split and clean two data files, and then add together the corresponding parts, from there, I added an additional field identifying each of the data points as either being a “Meter Value” or a “Dexcom Reading” — which then enabled me to join the two tables back together as a single table with the fields of Time, Blood Glucose, and Type. This is the data set that I pulled into TableauPublic to build the visualization below. There were around 65k records, so we have a good bit of time in TableauPublic before we will have to think about filtering the data set down in anyway.

how did I get here?

love-actually-bill-nighy-holiday-gifs-and-movies-shk

I’m 27. I’m sober. on psych meds. on insulin… oh yeah, because I’m diabetic. living in Hermosa Beach, working out of my apt for the most part. some people believe I’m smart and/or competent. both could be debated depending on the day. that imposter syndrome thing… it’s real, sometimes I even shock myself when I know what I’m doing. how fucked up is that? how did I get here? more like where the fuck am I? where am I going? that’s an even more outlandish question. who the fuck knows. do I care? I must if I’m writing this. this thought keeps popping up — who is reading this? do I need to be concerned about this? everything I put out here could definitely be used to question my sanity… I mean, fuck, I question my own sanity on here… I questioned it about two sentences back. I am one person, true, there is no separating the sobriety from the diabetes, from any other aspect of my life. Maybe I could be more polite about things, but let’s be real that’s not authentic to me either… haha. authentic, there’s a loaded word, blatantly misused by so many — if you have to state it over and over, did you ever really have it to begin with? anyway, I’ve never been one to mince words, so I guess why would I start here — the place I started writing just for the purpose of not having to filter myself. not filtering while also expressing those thoughts in open forum for the rest of the world to read, interesting concept. I guess I didn’t give that contradiction all that much thought before I started. too late to stop now. and let’s be real it feels good to get this off my chest, dropping the rock as my sponsor told me. somehow this is different than just writing in my journal, or typing in an empty document — I hope someone reads this and for whatever reason it causes them to pause, even if they just laugh at me because they think I’m ridiculous, it it could help someone who feels some of the same things I feel that would be great too, but let’s be real I am a bit ridiculous, so at least if someone gets a laugh out of it, I guess it’s not all for naught. who the fuck knows.

…and a new A1C in a pear tree

partridge-pear-tree-21405152 So I knew I was having trouble with my sugars, I figured my dexcom read out wouldn’t be great, but I wasn’t prepared for this… my A1c went from 6.9 to 8.0 over 4 months. Now, relatively I guess it’s not terrible, but my doctor’s reaction was the thing that blew me away… you would have thought my A1c had doubled, and she’s making me come into see another PA (not my normal one) next month… so every month, instead of every three… I objectively accept that this makes sense, my A1c jumped so they want to keep a closer eye on me… but I’m not pleased. I’m not pleased with myself, with being monitored more closely, with being treated as a petulant child, with acting like a petulant child, with feeling like an idiot, with feeling exposed, and alone. Objectively, I can see this for what it is, I was away from home, my numbers haven’t been great, my doctor is on my side, she’s there to help me — but it doesn’t feel like that, I don’t want to be told what to do. Coming out of that appointment I resolved to do better, I don’t want to be told off again — I’m a fucking adult, but now away from home once more, I just had half a bagel… I know it’s not terrible, but I didn’t really want it, I was just working in the kitchen and my sister had brought them in from NYC, I mean they are good bagels, but I wasn’t even really hungry, they were just there and that’s 40-ish carbs that I didn’t need, didn’t really want, and now will be paying for the next couple hours, if not longer than that. And guess what’s for dinner, fucking pizza… self-control at night, I think not. This blows, I want to go back to LA, at least when I’m home I control the food that is in my apt. Oh yeah, did I mention my weakness for christmas cookies? #fml