Hello again, world. Who wants to read about my crappy blood sugars?

So it has been six days since I've posted...sorry about that. I moved into my new apartment with my brother and finally got our Verizon Fios installed and everything moved in and the other 9284838374 things you have to do when moving.

Last week was my first week at my internship,  and I love it. It takes everything I learned in school and compiles into one job. It's awesome. I like having a routine.

Now to the diabetes part of this post. And, unfortunately, the super negative part of it.

My blood sugar has sucked for the past week and a half. Plain sucked...bad. I've been going low on AVERAGE like 4-5 times a day. It's ranging anywhere from 78 to 37 and I have no idea why. I've been giving normal doses (now I'm playing around with giving way less insulin for corrections and food), dropping basal rates on my pump like crazy. Obviously my body is changing (or I'm getting cured!!!) and it is really affecting me. I'm going low way way too much and I honestly feel different because of it. It's kind of making me nervous.

I've never been scared or nervous to give myself a bolus before, but I'm seriously at the point where I give myself a fraction of the insulin I need and I'm still going low.

I'm just going to settle into my new work/home routine and play with my insulin levels and cross my fingers. I promise now that everythign is settled that I'll be posting more often.

Hey, thanks for reading.

On That Corporate Grind

So today was the second day of my internship. This is my first adult-like job and it's way different than anything I've done. Sure I've done similar hours with school and jobs and what-not, but this is way different. I'm not saying it's good or bad (I actually like it (I think)) it's just a big change. I am constantly busy now - waking up at 6:30, getting ready, work 9-4, come home and change, gym, shower, dinner and making lunch for the next day, repeat. And this week is extra busy because my brother and I are moving into our new two-bedroom apartment. Oh yeah, I have a second job thur, fri and sat night from 9pm-4am.

That's a lot.

I've been pretty good with watching my blood sugars and eating when I need to but today I went low like four times at work and I have no idea why. Spent way too much money at the crappy convenience stores in my building...guess I'm gonna have to store Gatorade and munchies at my desk. Just some change I'll have to get used to.

That's really all I've got for this post (I'm doing laundry and making lunch for tomorrow and ironing amidst writing this post).

Hey, thanks for reading. 

Diabetes-1 AJ-0

Well, it happened again...my bg went low at the gym. It hasn't happened in a while so I guess I was due. And now that I think about it, my day started off crappy anyways, so I guess I should have expected it.

I woke up at 7:30am and I was 47. Awesome. I ate some food and fell back asleep. I awoke at 10:30 needing to pee badly. Immediately I knew that I was high. Yup, 318. To top it off, our power was out. Sweet.

A few hours passed and I tested before going to the gym and I was 97 so I took precautionary measures and ate an apple to make sure I didn't go low.

Didn't matter.

I was lifting and sure enough I knew I was doomed - I had hit 61. So there went my workout. I didnt even get through half of it.

Now, usually I'm very passive aggressive (and it took me a long time to get that way) but today I was just plain old pissed off. I deal with it very well a majority of the time but not this time. My lady friend texted me and said she wished there was something she could do and I was kind of mean to her. I didnt mean to be, I just was. I think only diabetics can truly understand this, but when I'm low and in the mood I was in, absolutely nothing can make me feel better and I can't control it. When I came back up I apologized to her but I still dont think she gets it and I hope she will work with me on it.

So, this leads me to now. I start my internship tomorrow and I have to figure out how to fit two workouts in. I dont know. I'll do it.

Just one of those days where diabetes got the best of me. It doesnt happen often and I'd like to keep it that way.

Hey, thanks for reading.

The First Post of Many to Come

So it has been over a year since I have made an entry here. You can thank Jaimie (@JaimieDOC on twitter) for giving me the spark to want to create an entry!

For those of you who have never read my blog, allow me to reintroduce myself (cue Jay-Z lyrics). My name is AJ Owen and I have had Type 1 diabetes for 14 years. I started this blog for a class I was enrolled in and was required to make a certain amount of entries. Obviously it died off after the class was over, but I'm hoping to share my stories here for you all (whoever you are) to read.

I don't really have a direction I go in with this blog, just that it's focused on type 1 diabetes. It's amazing how many blogs are out there and how you can read people's stories, struggles and accomplishments. You think that you are having the worst day when you read someone who had the same exact day as you and knows that awful stomach ache you get and the foul-smelling breath you get when your blood sugar has been 400+ all day. Or the fatigue you feel when you accidentally gave yourself too much insulin and bottom out to 30.

I'm not trying to be anyone's lifeline, but I will be a shoulder to lean on. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in past entries that I am (well, was) a counselor at an overnight camp for kids with diabetes. I like helping people and shaping their lives in a positive way (you can thank my dear Mother for that one), and I will gladly do it here too.

As you read my last paragraph you may think I'm a bit of a sap, but I assure you that's not the case. I'll make posts that are funny, angry, happy and sad. I've had a lot of people over the years tell me that they look up to me and think that what I do is amazing. But I'm just a normal person doing normal things - I just happen to be vocal about it.

I think that's it for now. You can find me on facebook or twitter (@ajowen88), but I'll warn you - I'm just a normal guy doing normal things so there;s a good chance you won't see 100 tweets a day about how a new pump is coming out or 78 articles and studies showing that stem cell is working. It'll probably be that LeBron is going to whoop ass against the Mavericks or the fact that I start my internship on Tuesday. But I will also tweet that My bg just dropped at the gym or that my site got ripped out when I was throwing someone out of my bar (my 2nd job).

Hey, thanks for reading.

I Hate This

Sorry about the disappearance for a while there. I had just gotten caught up in one thing or another and this took a backseat.

So I pretty much never have hated the fact that I am diabetic. Maybe when I was first diagnosed and didn't understand, but now I know it really has helped shape who I am.

But yesterday I truly hated the fact that I was cursed with type 1 diabetes. My blood sugar would not cooperate. I was constantly low or high all day. I dropped from 312 down to 50 within 45 minutes. What?! Did I mention that I was at the gym I figured out I was 50? Yup. Went to the gym for over an hour and spent 55 minutes of it in the locker room getting my bg back up.

Now most of you are like "well it happens" but when you already have a tiff about your diabetes holding back what you can do with lifting weights and what-not, it's a big deal. I was just so upset it was holding me back from what I wanted to do. And to top it off, hours after the gym, my bg still was screwed up. I was 50 (again) and ate a whole subway sub and some glucose tabs and was 65 1.5 hours later. My body just felt miserable all day.

I feel better today but sometimes we all have those days...

Updates to Come

Omg! Kinda forgot about this. I finished the semester and have been working a wonderful 39 hours a week plus doing work for my internship. Updates to come. I promise!

My First Injection in About Four Years

SO last night I was ~320 and corrected for it with my insulin pump. I watched a movie with my roommate and noticed that I still didn't feel that well (when my blood sugar is high I get that awful taste in my mouth and a stomach ache). So I tested again (this is about 2.5 hours later) and I was 399 and had ketones. So I decided that I need to change my pump site and give myself a shot.

It took me about 10 minutes to finally get the nerve to do it. It has been so long since I've done it, I was nervous. (I also gave blood my senior year of high school and passed out and ever since I've been kind of weird about needles. Weird, I know). But I did it.

I ended up staying up two hours longer than I wanted because I needed to keep drinking water because of the ketones. It was about 2am when I went to bed and I was 286 and feeling a ton better. It had been over two hours since I gave myself my insulin (which is about the amount of time you should give yourself before giving yourself more) but I decided to not give myself more and just went to sleep.

Fast forward to 7:45am and I'm 42. Grrrrrr. I woke up and pounded some juice and a bowl of cereal and went back to sleep.

Woke up, felt like crap because my number was all over the place and now my number is better and I feel better.

Ugh.