As a diabetic, it’s critical that I take care of my body and be as healthy as possible.  The odds are stacked against me so any little opportunity to eat right, exercise or pay special attention to my body could help me over the long run.

On the Facebook fan page, I have been talking about the BodyBugg that I picked up at the beginning of July.  The BodyBugg is a calorie management system that combines a monitor (arm band) and online program that helps you to manage calories intake and calories burned.  It’s truly amazing how accurate it is and I highly recommend it.  It’s not cheap, but if used diligently, can help you lose weight or change your body composition.

As I track my calories, carbs, protein, etc., I have found how extremely difficult it is to estimate the nutrition contents in a salad.  I have been eating salads more often and combine, chicken, lettuce (all different kinds and definitely not iceberg), peppers, carrots, light dressing, cranberries, walnuts, etc. into my salads.  Combining all of these things makes for a difficult time in estimating carbs for my bolus and nutrition contents for the BodyBugg.

For something important to one’s diet, it is so frustrating how difficult it can be to manage for diabetes and calories.  I have recently picked up a kitchen scale to help weight my food contents, which helps a bit.  You try to go healthy with a salad and end up with a high or low blood sugar… sigh.  It’s so much easier to crack open a box of frozen shit that has the obnoxious nutritional [lack of] facts listed on the side or back. 

If you want to be utterly shocked, track your sodium intake for a few days.  Just about everything that comes in a box is loaded with salt.

/rant

Having diabetes for about 12 years now, there are two things that I watch very closely and have been proud to have never had any issues.  The two things are: my feet and my eyes.  I have always been someone who runs hot and have never had any circulation issues.  Someday I’m sure this will change, but I have perfect vision with my annual results always coming back better than 20/20 with absolutely no signs of damage from diabetes.  I can basically read the tiny print of who the company is that created the eye chart when asked, but that’s neither here nor there.

I was on vacation in Scottsdale recently and after three days of wearing nothing but flip flops and enjoying the resort pool (heavily chlorinated), I noticed my heel hurt quite a bit.  I didn’t think too much of it at first until later on when I fully inspected my foot.  I noticed that the calloused part of my outer right heel had cracked.  I freaked out a bit because I’m constantly going into the pool, playing with my kids around the pool and didn’t want to get an infection.  I did an internet search right away to find out that this issue is called a “heel fissure’” and you can see images of what it can look like below. 

If left untreated, a heel fissure that is deep enough can lead to a serious infection.  I used Neosporin every day, caked my heel in Vaseline each night and covered it with a sock.  It healed and is now better, but it taught me a lesson.  I need to take extra care of my feet to proactively prevent issues like this instead of being reactive.

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If you have experienced a heel fissure, you know how painful they can be.  Share your thoughts in the comments if you would like to add anything.

I’m going to be 100% completely honest with the upcoming statement.  I’ve read many stories, posts and tweets that talk about making sure you always have your blood glucose meter or testing supplies with you .  There have been those that panic when they don’t have their meter to test with.  So here’s my approach.

I can honestly say that I NEVER take my blood sugar meter with me unless I know it’s going to be a day long trip.  Even if I’m going out to dinner, I’ll test before I leave and run with it.  Going to the mall, test before I leave and head on out.  Going to the park, test before and go to the flipping park.  I tend to know when my sugar is low through the typical warning signs, which is different than those who sometimes can’t tell.

Does this make me lazy?  Does this approach lead to poor diabetes management?  Am I setting a bad example by admitting this to you?  You know what?  I think I’m not alone.

I can distinctly remember back in the day rocking Obsession for Men by CK and thinking I was pimping. We have to be going back about 15+ years if I had to guess.  Since I’m taking a stroll down memory lane, I want to share with you my perspective on improvement whether it’s for work, personal or just about anything, but mostly related to diabetes.

In my professional life, I have been successful because I tend to become almost obsessed with A) doing the best I possibly can each and every time B) constantly trying to improve and C) learning from mistakes (mine and others) to grow personally and professionally.

No matter if I was cleaning up the kitchen, cutting the grass, raking leaves or working on a project for work or school, I found that I excelled at it because I would become obsessed with doing my best.  I wouldn’t call it perfection, because I know better than trying to be perfect.  I guess you could call it an obsession with determination and execution.  I also found my best results with exercising, diet and weight training came when I would fully engulf myself in these activities to the point of being obsessed.

Enough of my past, I now want to share my thoughts on diabetes management.  I have done well over the last 12 years by trying to take care of myself and always staying on top of my blood sugar.  I’ve never considered myself obsessed with my diabetes control and I’m not sure why.  It’s probably one of the most important things I could do, yet I haven’t executed on better control.  I have said many times before on this blog that complacency is the enemy of good diabetes control.  When I became obsessed with my weight, dieting, exercising and health at the start of this year, I noticed my blood sugars were phenomenal.  You could say I became obsessed with better health all around.  My wife would certainly say that I’m an exercise addict.  I would counter with, that’s when I do my very best.  There’s absolutely no room in my vocabulary for “half-ass”.

I also acknowledge that an obsession with things such as diabetes management can become almost a disease within itself.  So this all leads up to a question I will pose to my readers:

Is the only way to really have perfect (if there were such a thing outside of a working pancreas) control with diabetes to be obsessed with the numbers, tweaking, testing, adjusting, testing, readjusting, count every carb by 10ths etc.?

“I fight because I have to…

I push myself because I can…

I push myself to the limit because no one else will…

I sweat because I’m trying…

I sweat because I’m giving 100%…

If I lose, others will lose too…

If I win, no one will know…

He chose me because he knew I could handle it…

He chose me because he knew I could win…

Knowing I could win, maybe he chose me so someone else could live…

Maybe even someone I love…”  A.Rose

This morning, after dropping off the kids at school, I decided [unintentionally] that I was due for a car accident.  This is my attempt at a bit of sarcasm, but it’s now more than 12 hours old and time for a chuckle at my own expense.  It was just the previous day when I was thinking about how quickly my girls are growing up and before you know it I will need to teach them how to be safe drivers. You know, the little things they don’t teach you in Drivers ED like know who is around you, anticipate the unexpected, stay calm and observant and give yourself PLENTY of room.

The point of this post isn’t to highlight my minor fender bender that had half of the county’s fire department stop by or “friends” text me “having a bad day?” after seeing me beside the police officer on the side of the road.  I will say that I’m OK, the other driver seems to be OK, minus the whole whiplash claim that reminded me of a scene from a movie and least importantly, unless my wife’s reading, the car is fine.  There’s barely cosmetic damage to my (wife’s car, which could be a whole separate post) vehicle. So I got lucky in a sense.

I look at it now like it’s an opportunity to shape up – get my head out of my ass and stop being complacent.  I’ve talked here before about complacency and how it’s the dark side of diabetes. This situation (I can’t write that word without thinking of the Jersey Shore) is my opportunity to try harder and do better while I have the chance and no one is seriously hurt.

Maybe this accident doesn’t happen and later on, it’s far worse.  Maybe my kids could have been in the car.  Not good scenarios.  I can now refocus, remind myself what’s important and get back on track.

Perhaps each of us with diabetes need a minor crash once in a while in order to wake up before it’s a disaster or life threatening.  I don’t recommend getting into an accident on purpose.  So, for now, just learn from me.  Don’t wait until complications from diabetes are serious, take notice of the minor signs and do better while you can.  When it’s too late, it’s too late.

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P.S. I was not texting, didn’t have a low blood sugar, my phone wasn’t out and I wasn’t even distracted.  If you are my insurance company, I claim no responsibility for the accident.  If you are my wife, it’s only a car, right hun?  It adds character.

In the last few days we’ve had a lot of new readers to Blogging Diabetes.  Today is also the day the diabetes newsletter comes out for QualityHealth. I would like to welcome all of the new readers.  Below, I put together a quick tour of some popular articles and links on the site.

My name is Tony Rose and I have been blogging about diabetes since October 2008.  I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the summer of 1998, just about 12 years now.  Utilizing technology, I have been pumping insulin with Medtronic since January 2006.  This blog was started to help my readers and me to constantly learn more about diabetes from the online community and other resources.  For those that do not know, I try to inform and provide insights about real-living with diabetes.  To see more, you can click on the Welcome page.

Thank you for stopping by – I hope you enjoy your stay at Blogging Diabetes. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me using this form.

Diabetes Magazine

Just last weekend while I was getting ready to pay for my groceries, I noticed this “gem” of a magazine by the register.  I typically laugh at most of the magazines and entertainment guides that are strategically placed in these locations.  This one caught my eye for obvious reasons. 

OK, Seriously – I’ve been living with diabetes for almost 12 years and no one, not a single person, told me I could reverse my diabetes.  With all of the information I’ve tried to share with you, I’m a bit disappointed.  Not only can I reverse my diabetes, but I can do it with FOOD. SWEET (get the pun?)!  If you are looking for 12 “Superfoods” that can just melt the pounds away, check this magazine out.  On a semi-serious note, I would like to know how to improve my insulin sensitivity in 7 days.  My sensitivity seems to change like I change my underwear.  I didn’t buy the magazine because I do not want to support a company that advertises misinformation or misleading information.

…click here to read more

If you haven’t noticed, there is a new ad image on the right side of this blog for a Diabetes Meal Planner.  This post is to announce that Blogging Diabetes has teamed up with QualityHealth.  You might be asking, what is QualityHealth?  Here is a blurb from their corporate site:

A top-10 consumer health portal, QualityHealth.com provides users with thought-provoking articles, interactive health-management tools, patient-education resources, and valuable manufacturers’ offers. The site enables brands in the pharmaceutical, medical-device, and consumer packaged goods industries to connect with consumers who have a demonstrated interest in a specific health condition—and a vested interest in finding the right treatment.

What I have quickly learned is that this site has a lot of great information on many different areas of healthcare besides just diabetes.  In terms of diabetes, there are articles, recipes, coupons, advice, directories, drug information, videos and much more.

So the question that you as the reader of Blogging Diabetes may have is how does this impact you.  I’m here to tell you that it will not impact you at all.  As of writing this, I am more committed than ever to Blogging Diabetes, helping my readers and doing my best at my diabetes management.  I will not be writing for Quality Health, but have agreed to let them stream my blog posts (feed) to their site.  So their readers can get quality diabetes information, tips and insights from my blog. 

…click here to read more

Just last week I finally started the Diabetes 365 project.  This project is located on Flickr and has a group of around 220 people that submit pictures or videos every day, hence the 365.  At first I thought it would be a lot of work with little return.  I’m on the verge of pre ordering a new Canon Rebel camera and enjoy taking photos.  I’m not even close to anything but an amateur when it comes to photography.  On Blogging Diabetes you can easily keep track of my pictures by clicking on the word “Photos” in the header.

Back to the project; It has been fairly easy to keep up with the daily pictures because I can snap one on my phone camera, which is pretty good, and with the click of a few buttons, email it to my Flickr account to be automatically posted in my Diabetes 365 folder (called a Set).

…click here to read more

When I converted over to an insulin pump roughly four years ago, little did I know that syringes would never go away.  I have written here before some of the reasons I miss my syringes and my insulin pen.  With injections there’s no unknown.  You fill the syringe, you grab some skin and inject.  When using an insulin pump there are a few unknowns and a mental checklist that you need to go through when something doesn’t seem right or your numbers are out of whack. 

…click here to read more