Monday, April 10, 2006

Numbers

I had my endocrinologist appointment today. I brought in the Guardian, already back to finger pricks after the sensor died Sunday morning.

My overall experience with the Guardian was good. It was great. I really enjoyed seeing what my blood sugar did after eating different things. Turns out I had a better time controlling it after eating a big bowl of cold stone ice cream with Chris in Minneapolis than I did after eating a 6 inch whole wheat sub from Subway. I discovered that my blood sugar sometimes RISES while I work out.
Before I just thought that if it was higher after working out I’d eaten too many carbs some how and got my blood sugar too high. No no no. Saturday I worked out (hard!) without eating anything before hand. I had my bottle of Gatorade at my side and the Guardian on the machine and I just watched it clime. 103, 108, 115, 123, 130! I had no idea.

I didn’t enjoy the random alarms during the night because the sensor ‘lost’ the transmitter. I didn’t enjoy the giant strips of tape that had to cover the sensor so as to keep it dry. I didn’t enjoy having the pump AND the sensor/transmitter on my body at the same time. I also became a bit… anal, about checking my blood sugar. But I couldn’t help it! Ten minutes into a meal, why not just push a button and see what’s happening?

So, back to this morning. I brought it into my doctor and my CDE downloaded the information for me to review with the doctor. It was great. We changed a couple bolus ratios and one basal rate, but everything else was great. He was happy. I was happy. Then we went over my lab results. My a1c dropped a little (yay!).

Then there was the ‘4’. Under TSH. Thyroid. My mother has been taking hypothyroid medicine since her early 20s, so it’s in the family. And now I’ve got the ‘betes, which goes hand in hand with thyroid problems. Apparently the old guidelines say that if it’s 5 or over, then I’ve got hypothyroidism and need to take a pill to add some thyroid hormone to my body to combat the symptoms of fatigue (hmm), weight gain (not me, somehow!), and other things (memory loss, slow reactions etc). My doctor likes to play things safe so I went and had some more blood drawn to do another test. When it comes back, he’ll let me know if he recommends a pill to replace some of the thyroid hormone.

Amazingly, I feel great. I had such a good diabetes evaluation that this hypothyroid problem seems like nothing. And really, one pill a day compared to what I do for the ‘betes? No problem.

But for now I’ll wait to see what that number comes up as on Wednesday.

Also, for those of you considering the Guardian, I had a couple questions that I had to call into Minimed for and they were answered wonderfully. Great support. In addition, my doctor mentioned that some people think of buying the Guardian ($2,700) and then using it only intermittently, when there blood sugars are doing crazy things. So instead of using it full time ($400 a month for sensors), you could use it half the time and only spend $200 a month. He also said that the sensors actually last longer than 3 days… you just have to know the trick to tell your meter to keep going! Didn’t mention how long it would last with the trick.

3 Comments:

At 10:20 AM, Blogger Scott K. Johnson said...

Mmmm, Cold Stone ice cream....

I would be the same way with a CGMS. I swear I'd be checking every couple of minutes. Like you say - how could you not?

I think it will be exciting to watch these devices mature over the next couple of years. I think they will be almost as common as the regular glucose meters are today.

I've also been on thyroid meds for a long long time. No biggie, like you say, pop a pill in the AM, and compared to what you're already doing it's a small thing.

I've also heard that low thyroid levels can play games with other lab results, such as cholesterol and even A1C results (making both higher than what they would be normally) - BUT I would think the thyroid tests would have to come back more out of whack that what you're seeing. Might be worth asking the doc about next time?

I could be wrong too...wouldn't be the first time!

 
At 7:36 AM, Blogger Tekakwitha said...

scott,

Thanks for the support and info!

I just read about Dexcom's new sensor on some blog I came across. The new competition will just make everything better! and smaller and cheaper!

tek

 
At 9:07 AM, Blogger Major Bedhead said...

Thanks for the update. Olivia's endo said she could go on it if her a1c isn't good - this is the first time I've wanted a bad a1c result! She'd go on it for three or four days, I think. We'll see.

I'm on thyroid meds. My level was 78, though. I felt like I was dying. It was unbelievable.

 

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