Friends For Life: Just Talking.

Chris (of Just Talking podcast and A Consequence of Hypoglycemia fame) assumed the role of cat-herder a couple of times during FFL as he recorded two podcasts with a scattering of adults with T1 (and some of their spouses, too). You'll hear from folks like Lee Ann, Scott, Brian, Jacquie, Jess, Sara, Dayle, Martin, Karen, Simon, Courtney... the list goes on.

We talk about the sessions we were looking forward to, the You Can Do This Project booth (plans, and then the afterthoughts), how we met each other, pregnancy, and anything else that came up.

Head on over and take a listen!

The "before":
http://justtalkingpodcast.com/2012/07/03/friends-for-life-bakers-dozen/

The "after": http://justtalkingpodcast.com/2012/07/10/friends-for-life-aftermath/

And if you'd like to watch a small snippet of the conversation, here you go:

Photo Friday: Travel Tomfoolery.

Top row: "So I guess I didn't lose this after all..."
Bottom row, L to R: Passing time at the airport; the only photo I managed to remember to take
while in NJ; my Blue Fridays acknowledgement.

To further explain the top photo...

Most of the way through eating breakfast in the hotel's restaraunt on Tuesday morning (where I was served the biggest portions of scrambled eggs and bacon that I've ever seen... really, it was like a mountain of bacon), I reached into my purse to check in with Jim, my Dexcom receiver.

Rumble rumble rumble... clink clank clink (that's me shaking the contents around a bit)... rumble rumble...

"Um, what? Where's my Dexcom?"

It wasn't in its usual pocket of my bag. It hadn't skydived to the bottom, or gotten stuck in the lining. It had not fallen out and taken respite in the booth cushions.

It wasn't anywhere.

"Crap."


Before breakfast, I had left my key in the room and taken my bags with me, as I figured I didn't need to go back up there for anything. Remembering that I had set the receiver on the bathroom counter as I rushed to get ready, I could only assume I had left it there. (Poor little guy, sitting all alone in the dark, in a strange hotel room...)

I coerced the front desk to give me a new key and scurried back up to my room, and just in time - the housekeeping cart was just two doors down from mine.

Barging into the room, I flicked on the bathroom light and expected to find my little blue Etch-A-Sketch - except it wasn't there.

What? Where else could it be?

I emptied my purse onto the bed, sure that I somehow missed it - nothing.

Table beside the bed, floor around the bed, desk - nothing.

With few plausible explainations left, I started to unpack my suitcase. And there, nestled between my pajamas and hairbrushes, was Jim. And not only that - he had been taking readings all through breakfast from inside my suitcase! What a guy.

Smaller, Sexier, and Funky Fresh.

It was a harrowing drive home from the airport Tuesday night, as things quickly progressed from "Wow, that'a a lot of lightning" to "And there's the rain they were talking about" to "Crap, is that... hail? Oh HAIL no" to "OH #&*! I CAN'T SEE THE ROAD". It was as if I had to only think about the weather not being as severe as was expected in order for Mother Nature to be all, "Challenge accepted!" and unleash the ice cubes and break open the dam. It was very dramatic.

Wait, where was I going with this? Why was I at the airport? And why did I miss a day of work at my "real job" to fly to New Jersey for 19 hours?

Tuesday marked the U.S. launch of a new type of blood glucose meter: the iBGStar. The big deal with this little guy is that it plugs into an iPhone or Touch, and the corresponding app will track and chart your results (and allow you to email them to, say, your doctor) as well as giving you the option to log carbs and insulin. The meter is very teeny tiny (roughly the size of a flash drive), and can be used independent of your i-device, or in correlation with it.

Did you catch that? It plugs into a freaking iPhone. What is this, the future? Where is my hoverboard?

Sanofi US Diabetes brought a handful of what they dubbed "Key Online Opinion Leaders" (which creates the uncomfortable acronym "KOOL" - cringe) to their headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ to hear all about it, test drive the actual meter, and be able to ask questions directly of the people involved in the product's launch. I somehow ended up on that list, along with a few other familiar (and some, less so - to me) faces.

From L to R: Shawna Gvazdauskas, VP and Device Head US Diabetes;
Brian Dolan; Riva Greenberg; Emily Coles; Laura Kolodjeski,
Sr. Manager, Patient Solutions; Allison Blass; me; Adam Brown;
Kerri Sparling; Kelly Close. Not pictured: Leighann Calentine;
David Kliff.

Photos courtesy of Sanofi

Let me start out here by saying that my learning curve tends to be pretty steep when it comes to stuff like this. I don't consider myself an expert, journalist, industry insider, or any other official-sounding term when it comes to the diabetes world - I'm a story (over)sharer. I never paid much attention to the business side of things until the last couple of years. And even then - I'm sure I've missed a bunch.

That said, I was pretty impressed during the few hours I spent with the Sanofi team. The attitude described by Shawna Gvazdauskas is that Sanofi wants to "delight their customers": notice that she said customers, not "patients". (That kind of thoughtful word choice was apparent throughout the afternoon - "check" instead of "test; the omission of "good" and "bad" from the BG vocabulary; etc.) That's the reality now: most people with diabetes have more choices than ever, and pharma has to compete and exceed the expectations of end-users to keep up. This means that Sanofi is looking more and more to meet people "at their lives, not just at their disease". Give us what fits into our lives, instead of something that we then have to find a way to fit into our lives. Give us something that helps us feel better about doing something that you don't like doing in the first place.

So what might you want to know about this meter?

• The iBGStar received FDA approval in December of last year, so why the long wait? They wanted to make sure they had the product available in multiple channels (which it is now, through places like Walgreens and Apple stores - no kidding) for people once it was released. Once that was in place, they could officially "launch" it in the U.S.
• If you compare the kits in, say, Walgreens vs. Apple stores, you'll notice a price difference: $74.95 at Walgreens (which comes with 10 test strips) and $99.95 at Apple (which comes with 50 strips, since they don't sell the strips seperately).
• You may also wonder, is there a case available that houses the combined device and meter? Yep, there is, and I'm told that it will be available through a loyalty program. It only comes in black at this point. (I clicked around for a while once I registered my meter and couldn't find anything about the case... this might be a "down the road" thing, so don't quote me here.)
• Sanofi has a "Star Savings" program - this is where actually registering your meter on the iBGStar site will come in handy - which you can sign up for on their website. You can either print off the savings card or have it texted to you. (I opted for the latter - shocking to no one, likely.) Provided that you aren't using Medicare or don't live in MA, the card will get you twelve monthly refills for no more than $20 [EDIT: They are $20 refills, providing that your insurance is covering the script. If not, the card only knocks $25 off the retail price for each box. Details can be found here on how that works.] I have no idea about insurance coverage at this point, but I can tell you that our insurance provider (one of the big ones) told me yesterday that it wasn't covered yet. Bummer.
• This meter is marketed to a very niche market, and Sanofi knows that: people with diabetes (or caregivers) who also own an iPhone or Touch. That amounts to approximately 1.6 million people in the U.S. - cool technology, but it's not available to a whole lot of people. And for those using an Android, the official word was that "other smart phones are under investigation, but [they] have nothing more to share at this time". 
• iBGStar's test strips have a "fill window", and the meter apparently won't begin the countdown until that fill window is... well... filled. Less error messages and wasted strips? Yes, please.
• The meter can be used independently of an i-device, and once plugged in again will "catch up" everything that's been missed into the application, once you've opened it.
• There are no claims of superior accuracy with this meter. It's on par with most other meters out there.

I think it's a really slick little meter. Among other things, I asked about the aesthetics of the accessories that come with the meter - the test strip bottle, the lancing device - because you'll notice that while the meter may be sleek and modern, it is flanked by equipment that is decidedly not.

New hotness, right next to old and busted. (It's not really busted.
Just click the link. It will make sense.)

All told, I look forward to test driving this for a while - as well as watching the neat-o graphics that happen inside the application while the meter counts down. (I'm not telling you what they are - no spoilers!) I also look forward to seeing what else Sanofi (and others) have up their sleeves - word on the street is that there are a whole line of "Star" products in the works, as Sanofi delves deeper into the "diabetes devices" ocean.

[EDIT: Apparently, I won't be trying this out for a while - my insurance won't cover the strips yet, and unfortunately a month's worth of strips for me is about equal to a car payment. So - back to the One Touch meters after these 10 strips are gone! Bummer.]

Disclosure: Sanofi US Diabetes paid for my flights, ground transportation and hotel while I was in New Jersey, as well as some of my meals. I received an iBGStar meter at the meeting, which was mine to keep. I was not asked to write about this event.

Also, hat tip to Cherise Shockley for the title of this post. Funky fresh, indeed.

Things I Learned Yesterday.

1. Thom Yorke sounds just as great live as he does on Radiohead albums, and he still dances as though he's halfway between a caffiene binge and a seizure. And I love him for it.
2. Diabetes isn't particularly fond of 7 hours spent in a car within a 12 hour period.
3. Diabetes is also not fond of margaritas. But I am.
4. Did you know the Sprint Center serves margaritas? I didn't, either. Huh.
5. I realized too late that my glasses, scarf and long cardigan sweater combination gave me the appearance of being a hipster, except that I'm not. (If only I had worn skinnier jeans!)
6. When it comes to doing what I need to do, I truly don't give a sheet about where I am or if anyone else cares. If my pump only has enough insulin left in it to cover my basal dose for the rest of the concert (three plus hours in the car, and I couldn't do a cartridge change? I know. Blame Draw Something. Also, it's really hard to draw when you're the passenger in a moving car. /digression), I will do an injection in the middle of standing room-only general admission. And no one seemed to notice.

    7.   And lastly, Arby's at midnight is never a good idea, no matter how hungry you are. The mild food-borne illness you'll contract is not fun times. 

DOC in DC, Part Three: Planes, Trains and Shuttle Buses.

Airports are an unending source of stories - and so is the Metro.

* * * * *

Hadn't had any of this yet.
That may have been part of
the problem.

We already know the tale of The Girl Who Doesn't Like Airport Security. She also happens to also be The Girl Who Especially Doesn't Like Airport Security At 5:30 In The Morning, and yet all of this was in play at the time of our story.

Making it to the airport in plenty of time, The Girl checked her suitcase and headed upstairs to the tiny airport's TSA screening areas: one to the left, one on the right. Because the one to her left was completely deserted, she headed to the right, following all of the other people. She did the whole hurry-up-and-take-shoes-off-OH-GOD-OH-GOD-I'M-NOT-GOING-FAST-ENOUGH dance, got all of her things situated into four bins, and started sliding them down the conveyor belt.

When she reached the TSA agent, she handed him her boarding pass. He eyed it for a few seconds, grimaced, then spoke.

"Ma'am, this line is for the United gates. You have to go to the other side for the Delta gates."

She looked behind her at the tumbleweeds blowing by the other security checkpoint, and came back at him with an incredulous expression. "Over there? Um... there's no one over there. That line is closed. That's why I came over here. Aren't the gates connected once you get past security?"

"Nope, they're not. Don't worry; someone will be over there soon."

"Ugh."

Embarrassed and shoeless, The Girl hastily slipped her shoes back on, gathered her things awkwardly into her arms, and waddled over to the other side of the airport.

Suddenly, she was thankful it was 5:30 in the morning, and not in the afternoon. (Less witnesses!)

After several minutes of waiting for the checkpoint to be fully staffed, she made it up to the front of the line. As she's done so many times before, she disconnected her insulin pump and shoved it into the ziplock bag with her glucose meter and vacation loaner pump, and handed the bag to the TSA agent.

"Hi! This bag has diabetes equipment in it that cannot go through x-ray, so I'd like for them to be hand-checked, please."

This should be an easy request, she hoped.

"Aaah, what's in here? Is this an insulin pump?" The Agent looked through the bag and shuffled its contents.

"Yep."

The Agent gave her a suspicious look. "You know this is just a metal detector, right? It's not an x-ray."

"That's fine - I'd still like to have them hand-checked."

The Agent started to dig his heels, albeit politely. "You know, we get hundreds of insulin pumps through here, and people always just go through the detector with them."

This back-and-forth went on for another minute or so. The Girl knew how to dig her heels, too, and wasn't willing to take a chance at sacrificing thousands of dollars of equipment.

"Actually", The Girl said, "I know that may be the case for some models, but the one I have has a lot of metal in it. The manufacturer has specifically told me to have it hand-checked when I go through airports." (The Girl might have been going off of year-old information at this point, but she honestly just wanted to go the safe route.)

A few more polite disagreements were exchanged, until they reached a standstill. The Agent finally said, "You know, I'll go ahead and hand-check these this time, but in the future, this might be an issue for someone. (Editor's comment: because that whole conversation we just had doesn't qualify as "an issue"??) When you're telling me that this is a life-sustaining medical device that you have to wear, but then you're taking it off - that raises some red flags, you know?"

Oh, I'll raise a red flag for you.

The Girl fought the urge to roll her eyes, and smiled instead. "I understand. Though I've been through several other airports a lot larger than this one, and never had this issue before, I understand your concern. I appreciate you hand-checking it for me."

After that ordeal was through, The Girl gathered and repacked her things, headed to her gate, and took a seat. After a few minutes, a group followed suit and sat in the row behind her. The Girl caught eyes with one of the ladies, and the lady immediately piped up, "What was his deal?? You have diabetes, right?"

The Girl and the lady had a nice chat about how ridiculous that was, and how neither of them had ever seen a PWD hassled like that in an airport about an insulin pump. The lady relayed that her husband has type 2, and asked about The Girl's insulin pump. The Girl couldn't help but gush a little bit that she was headed to D.C. that morning to do some diabetes advocating. 

She wouldn't let a TSA agent ruin this trip, or begrudge him for causing this spontaneous diabetes conversation between strangers. The Girl was rather enjoying this particular side effect of the situation.

* * * * *

The Girl's flight out of D.C. was a much different experience. 

Joined by her buddies Cherise and Allison, and her rockin' Blunt Lancet bandmate Kelly Rawsugar, The Girl stood in line for security again. They noticed that this airport had not only a metal detector, but one of the full-body scanners, and got excited. The four friends mused, Wouldn't it be cool if we ALL got patdowns? We could all write about it! We could even use a hashtag about it - #patdownsolidarity!

Sadly, this was not their fate. Kelly and Allison were waved through to the metal detector (and passed with flying colors), while Cherise's OmniPod caught the attention of the TSA Agent. While Cherise was sent to meet the full-body scanner, The Girl told the agent about how she can't go through the scanner with her robot parts (by this time, the agent looked a little bewildered by having four people in a row with insulin pumps). She asked for a patdown instead, and the agent called out, "FEMALE CHECK NEEDED!"

The Girl could see her friends on the other side of the checkpoint, grinning from ear to ear about what was about to go down. They yelled, "We'll grab your stuff!!!", and The Girl couldn't help but laugh to herself a bit over how cute that was.

And so, the patdown happened - no "private screening" for this girl! The agent was very nice about the whole thing; telling The Girl exactly what she was going to do and how (using the backs of her hands). After a couple of minutes, it was through. The agent wrapped up the screening by asking The Girl to touch her insulin pump with both hands, then stick them out for the agent to swab and check. That was it! All done! The Girl was surprised at how...  tolerable that was. She even said to the agent, when turning to leave, "Thank you for making that as unweird as possible. Really, that wasn't so bad!"

* * * * *

The car had grown empty, but the two women hadn't noticed. Their excited chatter filled the space until one started looking around. This scenery wasn't familiar, and she started to panic.

"Wait... wait.", the one with the long hair said. "Did we pass over an industrial area last time?"

The one with the curly hair jumped up and looked through the window to the train tracks and warehouses below. "Oh no... I think we talked right through our stop."

"Crap!"

Already running late because of the previous shuttle bus, the two friends leapt up to look at a map. They were lucky to be misplaced by three stops, and not lost.

Lost, however, was their opportunity to make their first Congressional appointments of the day. :(

* * * * *

And those are my travel stories from JDRF Government Day weekend. Are you still awake? Okay, good. :)

NYC = Insulin.

A few funny things happened over the weekend.

I came to realize that relentless exercise (walking most everywhere, and doing the subway stairs several times a day) almost completely diminishes my need for insulin.  At one point I drank an entire 20 oz. bottle of Welch's grape soda - which has 85 ungodly grams of carbohydrates - with a 0% basal rate, and saw no significant change in my BG level.  Maybe I should consider relocating?  (By the way, I'm still fighting these lows - I'm throwing candy at them like I'm on a parade float, and not making much of a dent.  As Liz Lemon would say:  Blurgh.)

The airport security screening process that I worried so much about?  No big deal.  At all.  I disconnected my insulin pump right before getting in line, and tucked it into the Ziploc bag with my other "Don't X-Ray" diabetes stuff.  I made it through each scanner without setting off anything.  Not even my CGM sensor raised a flag!

A picture of A taking a picture.  Like you do.

Apparently, I must look like a trustworthy person.  In the process of getting to see the view from the top of the Rockefeller building, and then before getting a tour of the NBC studios, everyone has to walk through a metal detector, and put their belongings through an x-ray.  In each case, I told them I was wearing an insulin pump and couldn't go through, and they just waved me around - without checking me in any way.  Um...  okay.

I can be a mostly-functioning and blood-testing-while-walking person at 35 mg/dL - that's how low I dropped while our group walked to dinner.  Jim began speaking loudly about 4 blocks from the restaraunt:  "Um, Kim?  You're 53!"  (At least, that's what I interpreted his outlandish beeping to mean.)  I thought to myself, "That can't possibly be right.  I downed half of a bag of Skittles when we started walking."  I tested, and though I was right that 53 wasn't a correct reading, I wasn't fond of those numbers being reversed.  You really couldn't ask for more understanding company in such cold weather, as I leaned against the landscape wall, downing glucose tabs.

Going 11 hours without food, and coupling that with an army of temp basal rates, somehow got me to a place of Blood Sugar Nirvana the first day of our trip.  I have no idea what I did right, but it was a nice surprise.

And lastly, I'm totally bad at ordering food.  That's not to say that I don't enjoy what I get - I do.  But when I'm at a place that's known for a certain kind of food, I more often than not don't end up ordering it.  Not on purpose, really - that's just how it ends up.  It happened four times this weekend, and though we did have an encounter with a Magnolia Bakery - I went the entire weekend cupcake-less.  Because the mini-cheesecakes looked like cupcakes, and because the store was stuffed full of people, and because I couldn't see that there were more cases of yumminess farther down the line.  This is what we call a cupcake fail.

It was a trip that left me recharged, joyful, and thankful.  You couldn't ask for much more.

Insulin and Dinner: a D-Meetup.

This past Saturday, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with a few of my fellow diabetes bloggers (and their significant others).  Jeff and Caroline joined A and I at the famed Insulin Exhibit (at the New York Historical Society), with Allison and Gina joining us later to round out our group for dinner.  We took a few pictures, and I thought I'd share.  It was a pleasure meeting you all!

A Diet Coke action shot, at Grand Central.

It's a Pump Sandwich! 

Meter Power!  (Because we're nerdy like that.)
Kim, Gina, Jeff, Allison, and Caroline.

Juvenation 4 Life!

Freaking Out. A Little.

There are few things in life that get me more worked up and stressed out than flying, and I'm doing just that this weekend.  All of it - the flying, the getting worked up, and the stress.

I'm going to my Happy Place.

The actual flying isn't what gets me - I feel as safe in an airplane as I do anywhere else.  For me, the issue lies in all of the "other" parts of flying.  For instance, the part where things can get mixed up, or run late, or I can't find parking, or my flight gets delayed/cancelled and I get stuck in Detriot overnight (that's happened to me), or I only have 42 minutes between flights (that's happening tomorrow), or I realize too late that I forgot to pack something totally important.

I'm also kind of freaking out about the new TSA security procedures.  A little bit.

The last time I flew, I had some good and bad experiences.  I've read through the TSA's guidelines for people with diabetes, and I'm coming up with a gameplan to make this process as un-lame as possible - I'm planning to disconnect my pump when I'm in the security line, and will put it in the huge ziplock bag of d-stuff that I'll ask to be visually inspected/wanded/whatever.  Since my Animas pump is mostly metal, I know I can't get through the scanners with it on, so I'm not even going to try. 

I'm also fairly confident that my Dexcom sensor is going to set off the scanner, too, so I'm preparing myself mentally for that creepy full-body patdown.  (Fun!)

Add into all of this the lack of sleep I'll be getting, as we're flying out at 6:00 am, and the part about how my glucose level drops significantly in response to anxiety (I already had to start decreasing my basal rates on Tuesday, when it actually "hit me" that our trip is this weekend already), and it's sounding like a pretty eventful morning. 

But totally, totally worth it.

Isn't That What Nick Jonas Has?

This past weekend, I flew out to the east coast to visit some good friends for a few days.  I had a wonderful time, which made it really hard to go back to work today.  I feel so fortunate to have one friend, especially, who I stayed with while I was there.  She just gets me, in so many ways, and it's great to have that kind of support and understanding. 

Being so immersed in both own life with T1, and the diabetes community-at-large, I sometimes forget that "the rest of the world" isn't in on lingo I use, or the schedule I keep.  The people in my inner circle are pretty knowledgable about what goes into my diabetes care.  I guess, because of this, I forget that anyone else I might encounter could know little (or nothing) about type 1 diabetes - or any kind of diabetes, for that matter.  I do my best to educate as I go.

Here's a rundown of things I encountered during my travel and vacation:

Flying stresses me out.  Okay, maybe this isn't news - I have always been apprehensive about flying.  Not the actual being-on-a-plane, holy-cow-this-is-really-high-up stuff, but the parts where I wonder, "Did I bring enough glucose test strips?", or "How much of a hassle is it going to be getting through the TSA checkpoint this time?", or better yet, "What if my insulin pump, or any other piece of equipment, decides to fail while I'm away from home?".  What this means is that I carry a lot of stuff with me when I fly.  As my husband noticed, my carry-on bag is 90% diabetic supplies, and I'm lucky to get a book and a jacket stuffed in there with them.  There are so many things that could go wrong, and I have to plan for every single one of them.  For example, my checked baggage could be lost - which explains why I carry all of my supplies with me.  This trip, I completely filled two gallon-size plastic bags, plus a smaller cosmetic bag.  Here's what I brought:

• a box of alcohol swabs (quantity 100)
• 250 test strips (much more than for 5 days - what if my return flight got cancelled, and I was stuck there an extra day?)
• a glucagon kit (what if I went low during my sleep, and my friend couldn't get me to wake up to drink juice or eat glucose tabs?  This is an emergency-only option, but you never know when emergencies will happen.  And, you can sure bet that they'll happen at the time you're least prepared for them.)
• IV Prep antiseptic wipes for insulin pump infusion sites, and CGM sites (brought twice as many as I thought I'd use)
• two boxes each of two types of insulin pens (what if my insulin pump died?  It's happened to me before!)
• one box of insulin pen needles (quantity 100 - so, about twice as much as I thought I'd use, if the pump broke on my first day there)
• two vials of Humalog insulin (what I use in my insulin pump, to refill it every two-ish days)
• 7 insulin pump infusion sets (which is also twice as many as I'd normally use.  But - what if I accidentally pull out my site?  What if I do it more than once?  What if my sites clog up more quickly than I'm used to?)
• 7 insulin pump cartridges (see above.)
• a jug of glucose tabs
• my glucose meter
• extra lancets for finger sticks

All of these items, according to the TSA, need to have prescription labels in tact.  Some will tell you that you also need a doctor's note explaining why you need to have all of these things with you, but I've never had to show one.  (This always seemed absurd to me.  Who is going to carry around such expensive medical supplies unnecessarily?)  So, for some, I cut off the label from the box and stuck it loose in the bag.

Sometimes, the TSA is cool.  At the airport in Omaha, I had a generally good experience going through security.  I took all of my healthcare stuff out and asked for it to be hand-checked.  (Some things, like a glucose meter and test strips, are sensitive to x-ray, so it's best to have them not go through the scanner.  I tend to pack everything together, so I just have it all hand-checked - which I figure is safer, anyway.)  Took off my shoes, waited my turn, and went through the scanner.  BEEEEP!  Back up.  Let's see, what do I have on me?  Usually insulin pumps hadn't set off the alarm at airports for me before, but I went ahead and told the guy about it.  He had me wait for a female TSA agent, who was a friendly lady not much older than I am.  She had to do the full body check with a wand, and also pat down some parts to be sure.  She kept apologizing, and was very cool about the whole thing.  She found my insulin pump, and the CGM sensor on my abdomen, and asked me several questions about them.  I was glad I had an opportunity to educate!  After a couple of minutes, we were done, my supplies were checked, and I was on my way.  Piece of cake!

Sometimes, the TSA doesn't know what a piece of cake is.  The experience I had in Hartford couldn't have been more different.  As I pointed to my plastic bags and asked for a hand-check, the lady behind the conveyor belt told me "Those don't need to be hand-checked."  Um, excuse me?  I again made my request.  Her rebuttal:  "My boyfriend is diabetic, and all of his stuff goes through the scanner."  Me:  "Well, mine can't.  Some of the things in there are sensitive to x-rays."  Her:  "Which things?  His go through just fine."  Me:  "The test strips, and..."  Her:  "No, those don't need to be pulled out."  This is where I just about lost it.  I spoke as slowly and clearly as I could, enunciating every syllable, hopefully without sounding outright derogatory.  "I would really feel more comfortable if they got hand-checked."  So, what she did was pull out only the test strips (as she didn't let me finish my sentence to include "...and my glucose meter.") and shoved the rest of it through the x-ray.  And now?  My meter screen has two permanent lines going across the screen, that weren't there before.  At least I didn't have to get wanded again - in fact, I didn't even set off their alarm going through the scanner.

Being associated with a Jonas Brother is okay.  Some of my friend's friends were gathered on Friday night at her house.  I hadn't met these people before, and it appeared my friend hadn't said anything about my faulty pancreas - which is totally fine.  So, when I kept fiddling with my pump and CGM receiver, I had some noticing glances.  I mentioned I had type 1 diabetes, and the room lit up.  "Is that where you can't eat salt, or sugar?" was the most surprising one to me - I thought that understanding was pretty commonplace.  My favorite comment was, "Isn't that what that Jonas Brother has?"  I think I actually shrieked.  "YES!!!  That's exactly what I have!"  I was so grateful, that in that moment, at least one person knew exactly what I was talking about.  I feel grateful that Nick has been spreading awareness of the condition we share, so that at least there was one less time in my life that I'll have to explain exactly what type of diabetic I am.

Vacation stress = much less insulin.  I had always thought that stress made my glucose levels rise, because of the hormones that get released during stress and anxiety.  As it turns out, at least for stress related to travel, my numbers drop.  I had to set a temporary basal rate of -50% of my normal rates for pretty much the entire day, on both days I flew.  And I had great numbers after that.  I couldn't believe it!

An insulin pump clipped to your swimsuit really isn't a big deal.  Here I was, all paranoid about wearing it clipped to my suit, and really - no one noticed.  I kept looking around, but I never caught anyone staring.  (If I were a more narcassistic woman, I might have been bothered by this.  As things were, I was just fine with it.)  The pump stayed in the shade most of the day, and it all worked out just fine, being attached to me the whole day.

In short, it was a great trip, and was exactly what I needed.  Even though T1 can make travelling even more stressful than it already is, it's worth it - and can be done without much trouble.  :)

I Love Bullet Points.

It's Friday, my belly is full of delicious Mexican food, and I have too many thoughts to put into one cohesive post.  So, I'm doing a list of thoughts.

• I really need to figure out how to bolus for Mexican food.  I looooove Mexican food, which is a by-product of my love of cheese.  I had rice, beans, tortilla chips, and the tortilla around my burrito - so, a lot of carbs, right?  I guessed it was 80g total, did the math, then went to the Combo Bolus screen and gave the Okay! for a 4-hour, 60/40 split bolus.  I was about 130 (but coming down) before we started eating.  Fast forward to half an hour after leaving the restaraunt:  I'm 71 and dropping - cancel the rest of the extended bolus, drink some sugary stuff.  Now I'm 227.  *shakes fist*
• Almost lost the CGM receiver yesterday.  (By the way, my receiver is named Jim.  He just is.)  I went out for a walk with it in my pocket, and when I returned to work, Jim wasn't there.  Turns out he was laying face down on some mulch, 3 blocks away from my building.  He was wearing his gray "jacket", so he blended in pretty well.  Is my pocket really that bad of a place to hang out that he had to jump ship? 
• There is something about little girls (like, toddler-age) wearing flip-flops that just gets me every time.  I instinctively go "Awwww!".  I can't help it.  Also, I'm seeing pregnant ladies everywhere.  Is there such a thing as Baby Season?  Because I think we're in the thick of it.
• I am going to be on the beach in 8 days, and I cannot wait.  I'm still trying to decide what my insulin strategy will be that day - do I wear the pump clipped onto my swim suit?  Do I disconnect and keep it in the cooler, bolusing a few units every once in a while? 
• I get to go to a couple of College World Series games this weekend.  I think that I'm equally as excited about the sun I'll get while sitting there, as I am about watching the games.

Anywho, that's what's in my head right now.  :)