Beware of hitchhiking ghosts…

Wow, it has been over a month since I posted. Sheesh! I did not think I would let this slide as much as it did. Ok, where to begin, where to begin?

Starting on with the diabetes side of things, last time I wrote about changing basal rates because I was getting a lot of lows. Well, I tried the changes, and they worked for the most part. Some days Pattern A was the way to go, and some days Pattern B was the way to go. And after a month of this, what pattern am I using? Yup, you guessed it, I am back using the Standard Pattern that I started off with. You see after all of tests and fumbling and trials, it turns out my existing rates are still pretty solid. Now mind you that doesn’t mean I won’t try switch rates again in the future, as needs dictate but overall my standard pattern is working for me. I did just get back from my endo and my A1C is at 7.2 which I am most happy with. It was 7.1 last time and a +0.1 I can live with most definitely. She was happy that I decided to experiment and was taking charge of what I saw as a pattern developing (lows mostly overnight) and she was very supportive of me staying with status quo. She did make some suggestions about overnight insulin needs that I will try next week, basically bumping my 3AM-6AM basal up to 1.15 units/hr from 1.10 units/hr just to see if it helps with my morning highs.

As you can see here, my averages have been ok for the last 4 weeks, well at least I am happy with them.

BG Values 9-09

So what else has been going on in the life of Nairby you may ask? Well, let’s see. Most of the balance of August and start of September was taken up with my office move. My office moved to a whole new building, a NEW building that was basically an empty floor 3 months ago. We had to move our entire main office (~150 people I think) in a weekend. This was no small feat. We had to move an entire data center, computers, phones, and people over to the new location, get them all setup and test it all out in less than 72 hours. And you know what? We did it. It was a loooooooooong weekend but we did it. The new digs are very nice and for the first time in 11 years I have a window to look out of. I can see sunlight! The last few years I have been stuck on the inside of the building in IT Center lovingly refered to as the dungeon. Nothing like no natural light and constant hum of air conditioning to make your soul soar! (can you sense the sarcasm there?) Anyways, that move was a huge deal for a long time and I am glad it is done and I can move onto bigger and better things.

September is also my birth month. So my wife and I celebrated my birthday the only way I wanted to…at Disneyland, just the two of us. We got there before the park opened and had a great time. Almost all of the rides were walk ons. My first ride?

The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion of course. My #1 favorite ride of all time. And as you can tell from this picture, I was able to get a decent pic of it with no other people there, that is how dead (no pun intended) the park was in the morning. Of course after the Mansion is my second favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it was time for lunch, the part opened at 10AM after all. Hand dipped corndogs were a welcome meal. The day was just perfect and I had a blast just spending time with my wife relaxing and enjoying Disneyland together, something we haven’t been able to do in a while. The day ended a little early, but before we left, I had to make one stop at Sleeping Beauty Castle just to take it all in.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Then our plans took us to Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant for dinner.

The perfect dinner!

 

I love that fried chicken.  It was a perfect end to a perfect day.

 

Next up was our first visit to the Los Angeles County Fair.  It was an eating adventure of epic proportions. Never in my life have I seen such array of food, most of it either fried or barbecued. The first thing we went to see is the dog park. They had some puppies roaming around that were soooooo cute. Then it was off to Splash Dogs to see them warming up. All I have to say is those dogs are athletes! They can run and jump a lot better than I can. Just look at this one.

Go get it!

Amazing, just amazing and cute. We then saw some basenjis and they just reminded us of Roxi. She is soooooo basenji! Then it was time to just walk around and see what was going on, and there was a lot! Of course I had to indulge my love of all things fried and get, yup you guessed it:

The best snack in the world!

I love Twinkies always have an always will. And I have to say, having a fried one with chocolate was a little odd but still yummy. We spent the rest of the day walking around and sampled some bbq brisket, Texas style, and a footlong corndog. It was a full day of eating and boy did my insulin pump get a work out that day, but you know what? My numbers were pretty good that day.

Fair Avg for the day

 

Some might say this is awful, but with what I ate I can tell you this is damn good! We had a blast and I can see us going back again next year.

 

So what did I learn from all of this in the past month? If you never try you’ll never know. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I gained a lot over this past month. Knowledge about myself, my wife, my life, and a few other things along the way. Life’s a great ride, get out there and enjoy it.