Category: Health & Well Being

Spending money is never fun… Unless it’s money you intentionally saved up for something fun, but that’s rarely the case. Bills, debts and monthly obligations take all the joy out of having a bank account and I think we can all agree that money is some of the dirtiest stuff in the world. It makes the world go ’round while throwing rust into the gears, if you will. If you have Type-1 Diabetes (or any other condition requiring regular therapy of any kind) money can be especially important, since Diabetic supplies cost a damn fortune.

I covered expenses in a post I wrote in June of 2019, The Cost Of A life… where I explained that in Canada, insulin therapy involving the use of an insulin pump can run close to $1,000 a month. That was before I got onto CGM, so it would likely tip the scales over that one grand total per month now. If one is lucky enough o have medical insurance (which I do at the moment), this isn’t a big concern. But for those who don’t, cost-cutting methods are often employed that may not be ideal, no matter how necessary they may seem.

This is where the title of today’s post comes in. Before starting my current job, I found myself without medical insurance and as a result, I used to undertake a lot of nasty practices. I’d skip meals so I’d use less insulin. I’d only test my blood once or twice a day to save on test strips. On a few occasions, I even slept through some days to avoid taking insulin as I couldn’t afford it until the next pay check. But one of the habits that I know we all have, regardless of financial situation, is the reuse of needles.

I say “regardless of financial situation” because I’m still guilty of this one. The auto-mode on my most recent pump has seen me testing my blood sugar more frequently than before. It’s almost as though I’m punished for good behaviour. Blood sugars have been stable for four hours? Better check your blood sugar, something must be wrong. Pump hasn’t HAD to deliver insulin for two and a half hours because of regular readings? Something off, check your blood sugar! And that’s not including the mandatory, twice a day calibrations the pump requires.

My point is, the temptation to test my blood via fingerpick and simply leave the lancet in there for next use is very real. Especially if the damn pump wakes me up for a test at 3 o’clock in the morning. I’ve had enough things outside of my body waking me in the middle of the night; I get pretty pissy when it’s a medical device that’s supposed to make my life easier. Waking me up doesn’t make my life easier (or anyone else’s since I tend to get cranky).

As you can see from the photograph I included above, the needle begins to dull and suffer damage to its surface after just one use. After six uses, the tip becomes something that one would never consciously use to inject themselves. But because the damage is microscopic and we can’t see it, we usually succumb to the temptation to reuse needles. I’ve often fallen prey to this and in fact, still do. But there are a lot of problems with doing so.

The multiple reuse of a needle can potentially introduce unknown contaminants into your insulin vials and into your body. Your needles are sterile when they’re opened, but once used and exposed to open air they can be subjected to any number of untold filth and bacteria on surfaces and in the air. When you reuse the needle that second time, you may be pushing something into your insulin vial and contaminating the entire supply. Or you could be pushing it into your fingertip and potentially introducing something to yourself.

A common risk and side-effect of reusing the same needle repeatedly is developing Lypohypertrophy, which I described in great detail in my post The Needle Jammed Into Your Haystack… (Yes, I refer back to my own posts a lot! It’s MY blog, what can ya do???) Basically, the condition describes the accumulated lumpy, scarred tissue that develops under the surface of the skin when it’s pierced by a needle. Since we Type-1’s tend to inject ourselves frequently, the risk of this condition is greater. But reusing a dull, used needle will increase the chances of infection and scar tissue.

I decided to write this post because I’ve often heard other folks with Diabetics sarcastically say things like, “Oh, it’s Sunday! It’s lancet changing day!”The reality, although I fully understand that I represent the kettle in this equation, is your lancet and needles should be changed after EVERY use. Although it’s an easy way to save a buck (sometimes), the complications it can cause are too frequent and serious to risk. And I think we can all agree that Diabetes carries enough complications on its own without intentionally causing more. ☯

Without a doubt, one of the hardest aspects of Diabetes HAS to be carb counting. It probably doesn’t help that I really didn’t start carb counting until 2015 when I started using an insulin pump. Before that, the subject of carb counting was never bought up by any medical practitioner or dietitian that I had retained. This likely isn’t any fault of theirs; they no doubt did the best with what they thought was working. But I have to admit that I certainly don’t miss the days of randomly guessing how many units of insulin to inject at mealtimes.

First of all, I’d like to remind everyone that carbohydrates are a necessity for a healthy life. Carbs are a fuel source and in fact, is the body’s primary fuel source. This means that you can’t TOTALLY eliminate carbs from your body, or you’ll suffer the effects. That being said, a reduction in carbohydrates can result in weight loss when the body starts to depend on its secondary fuel source: fat.

But carbs are insidious. They pop up where you least expect them, and not always in the amounts one would assume. A good example would be a vegetarian snack I purchased some week ago. Kung Pao broccoli. Yes, you read that right! I don’t know what’s worse, the “Kung Pao broccoli” part or the fact I bought something vegetarian. Regardless, I decided to try it out (along with its counterpart, “Buffalo Cauliflower.” Totally not kidding!). On a particular day, I decided to try it out as my lunch. I figured, why not? A bowl of broccoli is healthy and there are worse ways to have a reduced carb lunch.

When it was done baking, I mixed it with the Kung Pao sauce and checked the box to see how little I would have to bolus for it. The contents of the small box totalled in at about 80 grams of carbs! I daresay, I was flabbergasted! I could eat half a frozen pizza for the same amount of carbs! The problem is the light coating of batter over the broccoli as well as the sauce itself. It packed a bigger wallop than I thought. Then again, the makers probably didn’t count on someone eating an entire box as a meal; broccoli or not.

The next big problem is family. Not that family IS inherently a problem, but they can be a hindrance to proper blood sugar balance at mealtimes. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve prepared myself a bowl of food, sat down at the table and started eating only to have Nathan come running up, “Daddy, I’m hungry! That looks good, can I have it?” Knowing he has neither the patience nor the attention span to wait, I’ll usually surrender my meal to him and go make something else. In the meantime, the insulin I just bolused in response to the expected meal is coursing through my system and lowering my blood sugar, which will likely result in a low.

Trying out new foods is also a problem. Sometimes I’ll try something new like the broccoli, especially when I see that everyone else is eating or has had their lunch already. But something new will usually result in one of my family members deciding they wants to try some. The Kung Pao broccoli was an example of this. I asked if it was to be split or if they’d just be trying a piece to see what it tastes like. “I’ll see after I’ve tried it” is the usual response, which is the worst thing I can hear. This leaves me in a position where I don’t know if I’m calculating my bolus for half the amount or the entire amount of food.

Last but not least is incorrect or inaccurate nutritional labels. I always check the nutritional information label on the food I eat. Everyone should, Diabetic or not. And sometimes my blood sugars will go crazy despite a precise serving and supposed exact amount of carbs. There can be a lot of reasons behind this, including how quickly specific foods are absorbed, a person’s insulin sensitivity or a score of different physical conditions. But more often than not, bolusing for 10 grams of one type of carbs will require a different insulin dose than 10 grams of another type.

Carb counting is not only important but it prevents problems on a day-to-day basis. I can’t tell you how many meals I’ve consumed where I bolused what I thought I needed, only to suffer a low because the food was processed too slowly or an extreme high because it was more than I thought it’d be. Then I’d take added insulin to correct the high, only to have it boomerang and crash. Diabetes is a lovely roller coaster of bullshit. ☯

This will be a pretty bitter post. And to be honest, I’ve been avoiding it (mostly because I had to finish out the last week and scan the paper) considering some aspects of what I set out to do didn’t go QUITE according to plan. In early December of 2019, I posted Here Comes The New Year… where I outlined my intention to work through a resolution for 2020 that would see me cut down and/or eliminate alcohol, cigars, processed foods and exercise regularly. I tried not to be a pest about it, since most people don’t want/need to hear about someone else’s New year’s resolutions, but this is MY blog and here we are!

I did provide two updates in the posts Getting Ahead Of The Curve and It’s Going Semi-Well, And I May Have Woken Up. That last one is a touch ironic, since I apparently didn’t wake up quite as much as I should have. But before I get into the meat and potatoes of how I felt this went, let’s take a look at the spreadsheet, which I’ll provide below as two separate images:

Now as you look at this spreadsheet, there are a few things you can notice. The first is that anyone who isn’t blind can obviously see what aspect is my weakness. And I’m quite unhappy about this. Although I’ve had some weeks where I completely abstained from alcohol, the majority of the year sees a red “X” under the “No Alcohol” column. I will admit, and I’ve pointed this out before, that limiting each row to a full week makes things difficult. After all, I can go to Saskatoon for my eyes and have a single beer with my dinner out, and it’ll earn me an “X” even if I abstain for the rest of the week.

What’s funny is that there is only one “X” under the “No Tobacco” column, which was all the way back in March. This is because I decided to treat myself to a cigar right before the world turned to shit and everything started closing because of COVID-19. Since I try not to leave my home for frivolous purposes, the purchasing of cigars hasn’t happened since then. The rest of the columns are self-explanatory, even if most of them are green all the way down.

My water consumption is always within the 3 litre arena, considering all the fluids I take in throughout the day from various sources. I’ve caught myself salting certain foods lately, so I’m admitting that those green check marks aren’t all accurate. And as a wise friend pointed out several months ago, some of the food I’ve consumed is processed even if I haven’t acknowledged it as such (Thanks, Kristen!). The “No Soda” column is likely the one I was the most disciplined with. Workouts are workouts, with some weeks showing as many as 6 workouts and a few that even had none.

All in all, the spreadsheet was top-heavy and tedious to maintain, as I’d forget to fill it some weeks and have to rely on memory in the weeks that followed as to whether I did certain things or not. The end goal wasn’t to completely stop all these things, cold turkey. I like to think that this was more an experiment in order to recognize and document the areas of myself I need to work on. And even though we can blame a certain amount of it on the current state of the world, this only carries you so far.

That’s why this year, there will be no spreadsheet. There will no grandiose blanket declaration of doing one thing or another. All I’m going to try to do better myself. Period. I’ll be cutting out alcohol and excess carbohydrates, working on developing a healthy calorie deficit. Not to be mistaken with starving myself. I’ll eat plenty, but I’ll be reading labels and taking conscious note of how many calories I’m taking in. I’ll re-assert my focus on personal fitness and hope to slim down, even if only a little. ☯

I’ve had Type-1 Diabetes for about 38 years at this point (yes, you read that right). And for the most part, everything I need to do is routine and pretty much happens on auto pilot. Need to test blood sugar? No problem. Calibrate the ol’ CGM? Done deal. I can even change up my insulin pump’s infusion set in the middle of the night while still half asleep, if I had to. I generally try to keep that from happening by checking my insulin remainder BEFORE I go to bed for the night and calibrating my CGM right before I go to sleep.

These are reasonable steps, and ones that I KNOW I need to take and SHOULD be taking. But despite having Diabetes for almost four decades, I’m only human. This means that sometimes I still forget things. And as anyone who has had Diabetes for any number of years will tell you, it doesn’t take long to become physically and emotionally exhausted from all the testing, needle pokes and medical appointments that one needs in order to maintain proper health and blood sugar levels. Which unfortunately means that I also occasionally IGNORE things.

Just before the Christmas holiday, I did what I usually do before any holiday or long weekend; I went through all my supplies prescriptions and ensured I would have enough to make it beyond everyone’s amended schedules. Now, I’m not much of a holiday guy and since I’ve spent the majority of my adult life working through most holidays including Christmas, I’m usually miffed at my routine being messed up because certain locations are closed on Christmas. That’s my “bah, humbug” attitude coming out. But I digress…

As I called into my pharmacy with my refill request, they pointed out that I wasn’t due to renew my Guardian sensors (CGM) for at least another week. Now, being the responsible T1D that I am, I explained that I had one sensor installed on my arm and only one extra in the box. Should I suffer a failure, I’d run out pretty damn quickly with no recourse during the holidays. The pharmacy employee on the phone was quick to point out that in the event of an emergency, I could always go to the hospital. Right. Because I want to sit in a waiting room over the holidays for six hours to get one sensor, which the hospital likely doesn’t carry in stock and I’d need a pharmacy, regardless.

The big problem is that everything is on computer, nowadays. Wow, I just made myself sound SUPER old, but it’s true. So the technician I was speaking to was basically telling me she couldn’t renew my sensors because I was calling a week early. Everything else was fine, but it was too early for the sensors. But this system is meant to be used as a guideline to when prescriptions were filled, not as a limiting tool against patients. And since sensors are not a drug or narcotic, there really shouldn’t be a problem. But I picked my battles and calculated that since I was on Day 1 of my current sensor and had one more in the box, I technically had two weeks’ worth of sensor and told the technician I would simply call back in after the Christmas holiday.

Because life rarely cares about one’s plans and because it’s me, this is what ended up happening after Christmas. I reached the end of the first sensor’s lifespan and installed the second one. Within 24 hours, the second sensor (last one of the box) failed and my pump instructed me to replace it. Once that happens, there’s no getting the freshly installed sensor to work. You basically have no choice but to waste it and move on to the next one. It was late evening, too late to make it to the pharmacy. I would have to wait until the next morning.

In the meantime, I installed a spare Freestyle Libre sensor that I still had. But it wasn’t quite the same. The CGM sensor interacts with my pump and makes minor basal corrections throughout the night. This means that if my blood sugars begin to rise, so will my insulin levels and vice versa. It keeps a reasonably tight control, and I’d be lying if I said that I’ve woken up with bad readings on any given morning in quite a long time. The Freestyle Libre however, allows me to continuously test my blood sugar through my phone but does NOT interact with my pump and makes no adjustment to blood sugar.

The result is that I awoke with blood sugar levels in the high teens, which hasn’t happened in quite a long time. I’m not afraid to admit that I felt like shit. I had to skip breakfast because I didn’t want to introduce more carbohydrates into my system before I brought my levels down a bit. So I spent the morning without food, but made my way to the pharmacy to get my sensors. I had a bit of a discussion with the actual pharmacist about the issue, to which he invited me to speak with him directly the next time I was in a similar situation.

It got me to thinking… I’m addicted to my Diabetic equipment. I lived for decades with CGM and an insulin pump but now, one day without a sensor and my house of cards comes crashing down. It’s surprising how spoiled we become when faced with the use of technology. Compared to the imminent death that Diabetics faced prior to the 1920’s, “spoiled” is a pretty appropriate term, all things considered. It’s made me realize that there’s no turning back for me. I’ve settled into a certain standard of care with the technology I use for my Diabetes treatment, and I don’t think I’d ever be able to return to pen injections and testing my blood only once a day. Here’s to hoping I’ll never have to… ☯

One of the benefits of this soul-crushing pandemic is that people have been taking advantage to make changes within their household and in some cases, within themselves. Home improvements, distance education and fitness regiments that were previously untapped have become the norm. In fact, my neighbour has spent the past month bracing his basement, drywalling, replacing the electrical systems in his home and making upgrades. It’s been impressive to watch.

Some people have gained weight and damaged their health through the increased consumption of alcohol and junk food as well as a “nesting” instinct that includes lounging and working from home; all of which can have a detrimental effect on a person’s health. In my case, I’ve taken advantage of the current pandemic to do something that’s completely out of the ordinary, for me. It’ll likely sound silly and frivolous and I’ve done this twice. But to me, it’s something of significance. I’ve grown out my hair.

As you can see from the photo above, I have a significant growth of hair on my head. Considering the fact that this was a bit over a month’s growth and I’m usually bald and clean-shaven as a newborn, this is a fair bit of hair. You can almost see a light tinge of grey in the facial whiskers, a result of stress and troubles that plague my life in recent years. Considering I’m only in my early 40’s and my mother reached her 70’s before a touch of grey started to appear (notice I say a “touch” of grey), it’s a testament to the hardships I’ve had to deal with in recent years.

For those who may not be in the know (or who simply haven’t reached that stage in life), grey hair is caused when the pigment cells in your hair follicles that make melanin start to die. For the most part, this occurs later in life as advanced age begins to set in. Without these pigment cells, a person’s hair begins to lose it’s original colour and begins to appear grey and/or white. I started out my life with red hair, not unlike my infant son Alexandre’s hair. By the time I had reached the age of about six or seven years old, my hair darkened to it’s current dark brown, which is a combination of the red hair of my father and the black hair of my mother.

Although my first attempt at letting my inner hippy out to play only lasted a couple of weeks (I would shave EVERYTHING days after the photo was taken), my second attempt has gone on for almost two months. The difference this time, is that I trimmed my scalp while my facial hair continued to grow. The result is that even though more time has elapsed than the growth in February, my head doesn’t have as much hair but my beard is much fuller.

You may be asking, “Why are you writing a blog post about your hair turning grey? What does this have to do with Diabetes, Fitness or Buddhism?” Well, first of all, stop being sarcastic with me… My grey hair entitles me to respect! No, but seriously, I’m using this post as a visible indication of how much of a physical effect that stress can have on a person’s body. Some of us like to think that we’re invincible and can handle anything. But even the strongest stone will eventually succumb to the trickle of water.

According to an article posted by HealthLine.com, increased stress can lead to an increase in the stress hormone “cortisol,” which can lead to a bunch of negative and nasty side-effects over the long term. This can affect the nervous system and, big surprise! Your hair follicles are connected to your nervous system! This can cause those pigment cells to die off prematurely, turning your hair to a more, shall we say “distinguished” colour, way earlier than expected…

So there you have it! Increased stress can certainly cause one’s hair to turn grey, prematurely. And I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t been suffering from an increased level of stress over the past two and half years. I think we all have, for different reasons. But this is a visible reminder of why it’s all the more important to take steps to try and keep your life as stress-reduced as possible. You’ll notice that I say “reduced” and not “free,” because there really is no such thing as a stress-free life. Bruce Lee said so. ☯