Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Congrats, and Some Diabetes Tips and Tricks for Young and Not So Young

Hey guys,
I have some great news! A dear friend of mine, Karen Dionne, has sold her book! It is an ecological thriller titled FREEZING POINT and it's just sold to Berkley Books! I simply can't wait for this one. Karen is the proprietor of the Backspace Writers Forums, which has been an immense support to about a jillion writers, including me. When our family lost so many personal items during the New Year's Flood last year, Karen rounded up an effort for people to replace some of the items. I can't think of an author who deserves success more than Karen!

The other two pieces of info are of more help to my friends in the diabetes community. Do you have a son or daughter with Type 1 who uses an insulin pump? Then check your local JC Penney store. They are clearancing a group of sweatshirts made by "Top Heavy" with a "secret compartment" intended for children to sneak their MP3 Players to school. (I mean, c'mon?!??) Like most people I thought these sweatshirts were ridiculous! But guess what? The "secret compartment" is the perfect size for an insulin pump. And behind the compartment is a grommet through which the MP3 cords are to be threaded. Guess where your insulin pump tubing goes! These just couldn't have been more perfect if they had been designed for someone with Type 1 Diabetes. So check them out, we were able to find a few armloads at the Santa Rosa JC Penney for $11.99 a piece!

The other thing I want to share our experiences with is the concept known as "Super Bolus!" Until recently the concepts of advanced insulin pumping were beyond my comprehension. But I had a very patient friend explain the use of the Super Bolus to get rid of postprandial (after meal) highs with a carb laden meal that is high on the glycemic index. For instance, three candy canes. That seems like a good post-holiday meal, LOL.

Normally these 3 candy canes would send my child's blood sugar skyrocketing! But not with the Super Bolus. All I did was give the insulin for the carbs and for any correction we needed to do, and then ADDED UP the basal insulin that my child was going to receive for the next 2 hours. My son gets 0.45 units/hour, and for 2 hours that makes 0.90 units. I gave the 0.90 units as upfront insulin (remember, in addition to, NOT instead of, the insulin I would normally give according to my child's insulin/carb ratio as well as the insulin I would normally give as a high blood sugar correction).

Then I SET A TEMPORARY RATE of ZERO for 2 hours. I was giving the same amount of insulin, just having it "hit" differently so as to attack those spike-causing carbs in the candy canes. 1.5 hours after the candy canes we had a bg of 126, yeahhhhh! And it stayed stable until we checked again around dinnertime!

One thing I made sure to do--use the "fill cannula" feature in order to give the extra upfront insulin. That way, the insulin was NOT figured into insulin onboard. It's not really IOB since it is technically basal insulin that I was giving a different way. I just went to the Load menu, scrolled to Fill Cannula and then scrolled up to the amount of insulin I needed to give. More info on the Super Bolus can be found here!

IMPORTANT! ALTHOUGH WE HAVE HAD LUCK WITH THIS METHOD, I MUST TELL YOU THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO GIVE MEDICAL ADVICE. I AM NOT A DOCTOR NOR A NURSE, PHARMACIST OR OTHER HEALTHCARE PROVIDER AND THEREFORE AM NOT QUALIFIED TO GIVE MEDICAL ADVICE. CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE CHANGING YOUR OR YOUR CHILD'S INSULIN PLAN IN ANY WAY.

The inventor of the Super Bolus (and author of the article linked above) is John Walsh of PUMPING INSULIN fame. Thank you John! Strike the spike!