Long Day

Man, talk about a long day, first off there was a major test in Mr. Roderique's English class. Nothing like a a multiple choice, short answer, and essay section test...that's 6 pages long! Good thing I have been paying attention, and could recall from the top of my head where Shakespeare was born, who he married and knew 10 of his most famous works. Plus it helps that I watched "Much Ado About Nothing" last weekend, and knew which characters said which famous lines. All in all, I think I did okay.

After English was Communications. We have to give speeches with a modern twist. We have to take a famous speech from sometime in history, and modernize it with today's language. It doesn't have to be memorized (but if you are really outgoing, you can get extra credit for it....not gonna happen with me!), so you can just read it aloud to the class. You have to include the original copy with your version to be turned in and graded. I'm working on updating Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech. It's pretty slow going, but maybe I'll post some of my favorite parts later on. I spent most of the period just trying to Google and find the original speech, and then struggled with the stupid printer in class to actually get it printed out to work with.

Advanced Biology was next. We are working on skeletal systems of various vertebrates. Last week we covered fish, and this week we have worked up to small mammals (a cat to be precise). I can't wait until we get to humans. Rumor has it we get to take a field trip to the University and see a cadaver. That could either be totally cool, or toally gross. We'll have to wait and see.

The rest of the day wasn't any thing special, just seemed to go on forever! Then of course was track practice, and it seems like Thursdays are always the hardest. Lots of sprints and timed runs today. I'm pretty beat.

Nothing out of the ordinary to report about the diabetes today. Poked my fingers a million times, took a couple dozens shots, had high blood sugar a couple times, but no lows today. (knock on wood) With my luck I'll wake up in the middle of the night and be low. Such is life.

Well, gotta hit the sack. Later.

Jacob Logg Log

I think I forgot to mention one of the lamest things I have to do now that I have diabetes. But at least this one isn't forever. I have to keep a log. That's right, a Jacob Logg Log. I have to keep track of everything I eat, the time of day, the amount (well, the amount of carbs in what I eat), my blood test readings (both before I eat, and about 30 minutes after I'm done eating), when I give myself shots, and how much insulin is in each one of those shots. Dr. Watkins said that by keeping track of all this stuff he would be better able to help me fine-tune my diabetes control. So far, it has been a royal pain. It's like I can't even enjoy any food until I have all the information written down in my handy dandy little log book. I've been pretty religious about it, though, so hopefully when I go in for my 1 month checkup next week, the Doc can tell me I don't have to do it any more. Here's hoping.

Track is still in full swing, and I've been better at controlling my blood sugars during practice. I figure if I have a sugary snack (a candy bar, some Gatorade, or something with a lot of carbs but isn't necessarily a sugary snack--like bread or crackers, etc.) before practice, then even though that will raise my blood sugar levels, my working out will bring the levels down again, but not to a dangerously low level. It kind of evens things out. The trouble is, I don't always know how much of a workout I'm gonna get, and if I eat too many carbs, and don't work out enough, then I still end up with high blood sugar.

Like I said, it's a work in progress.

Oh, and switching to a non-diabetes related topic, Prom is coming up at the end of April. I had asked Holly Lukow to go with me a week or so before all this happened. I think it'll still be fun, as long as I don't have any weird reactions or have to be running to the bathroom because my sugar is high, or worse, start acting crazy because my sugar is too low. Keep your fingers crossed.

Holly gave me a piece of her dress material today so I could use it to get a matching cumberbund for my tux. I had been wondering what color her dress was, since she was being all secretive about it. Turns out it's like a dark green. That's cool. I like green. I just hope I don't get too sunburned at the track meet the day of Prom. Don't want to look like a lobster in a tux with a green cumberbund! Haha!

Pros and Cons

Today I think I'll make up a list of things that stink about having diabetes:

1. Having to cart around a million supplies with me everywhere--insulin vials, syringes, blood glucose meter, test strips, emergency candy, etc.
2. Having to watch what I eat instead of just being able to enjoy the food in front of me.
3. Having to count carbs.
4. Feeling crappy when my blood sugar is too high, or too low.
5. Pricking my finger a million times a day to check my blood sugar.

But, to try and stay positive, since this isn't a curable situation, here are some positives, too:

1. Since I have to avoid sugar, and can't drink my favorite soda (Coke), at least there is Coke Zero, which pretty much tastes the exact same, and has 0 carbs! And Diet Dr. Pepper is a pretty close second in the "tastes like the real thing" category.
2. Well, I can't think of a second positive thing right now, but maybe as time goes on, I can come back to this list.
   

More Lows

Since I write about my first low blood sugar incident, it has happened again. Once it was during another track practice, after having done a bunch of warm-up laps, and some pretty rigorous hurdle runs, and once at yesterday's track meet.

I had run my pre-lim race, and qualified for the finals later in the afternoon. Since I had a few hours before the finals I had taken a shot for lunch, but hadn't eaten it all. That was the problem. I had taken a shot based on if I was eating the whole thing, and I only ate about half, and then I ran my race.

After the race (which I got second place in, and set a new personal record--thank you very much) I went back to the stands and pretty much just crashed. This time I didn't get the nervous feeling, but got really irritated at everyone and everything. The littlest things were bugging the heck out of me, and I was totally, as my friend Jared put it, "pissed off at the whole world." Finally, I kind of figured out what was going on and checked my blood, and it was low again...52. I ate the rest of my lunch, plus a regular Coke from the concession stand, and got my blood back up to 133.

I've decided that the doctors are right. This is something you really have to pay attention to, and be mindful of. Watching what you eat and how much, calculating doses of insulin, monitoring your physical exertion, checking your blood regularly, and on and on and on. Man, this is tough! And it's for forever.

Lows

I said at the end of yesterday's post that diabetes can be kind of scary. You have no idea. Here's what happened.

The doctor told me that by taking insulin shots, I could lower my blood glucose level. So from the time I went in with a 485, and began taking shots, and counting carbs and taking more shots, I had been getting readings of various numbers each time I'd check my blood (and by the way, pricking your fingers 10 times a day, gets OLD REALLY FAST). So my numbers were getting lower, but still kind of all over the place: 246, 187, 312, etc. But they weren't in the 80-120 range that would be considered normal. So I decided to try a little experiment. What could happen right?

I got back to school around lunch time, and I would head to the bathroom and lock myself in a stall every time I wanted to check my blood sugar levels. I knew I wanted to have a snack before heading to track practice, so I calculated the carbs for the sandwich I ate right before I headed out, and decided that the 1/15 ratio just wasn't getting the optimal kinds of numbers that my blood glucose should be, so I took a shot for a 1/10 ratio instead. (Good thing I'm pretty good at math, because I was sure doing a lot of multiplying and dividing lately). I took my shot--which is a whole other story about having to sneak around and take shots because I wasn't ready to proclaim to the whole track team that I was diabetic now. And headed to the track for warm-ups.

Warm-ups that day was a couple laps around the track before starting to work on the hurdles. We were doing timed trials: focusing on starting with the gun and running over the first 4 hurdles. Lots of speed, lots of energy--over and over again. That's how Coach Ray likes it! Well after about six or seven starts, I was feeling not only tired, which is understandable given the workout, but really strange. I was sweating. Not just your normal out-in-the-sun-and-running sweat either, but after I had "cooled down" I was still sweating. But it was more than that, too. I was starting to get like a nervous feeling. I was even starting to feel like I was looking through a cloudy window. The corners of my field of vision where starting to get blurry. And then the nervous feeling again. Then I got the chills.

I remember the doctor telling me that sometimes, if your blood sugars gets too low, your body would react just the way it was reacting then. I told the coach I needed to go and check things out (my Mom had forced me to at least tell him what was going on) and I headed to the bathroom and checked my blood. All the while I am sweating buckets, shivering and seeing blurry. Turns out I had a blood glucose level of 54. Yikes!

During times of low blood sugar or hypoglycemia, you actually NEED to eat sugar. That's nuts, right? Diabetics are supposed to avoid sugar, and yet sometimes that's just what you need to raise your glucose levels so you don’t die! So I got a Gatorade and a candy bar from my bag (mom had made me pack some “emergency sugar” just for occasions like this) and chowed down. It took like 20 minutes before I felt close to "normal" again. I checked my blood again, when I felt better, and it was up to 97--safe.

Turns out that my little experiment with the carb ratio back-fired in a major way, especially since I was working out. Exercise is a natural way to bring blood sugar levels down, but I combined that with taking too much insulin, and it wasn't a very good combo. In consulting with the on-call nurse at the doctor's office that night, I was told to avoid taking insulin all together, or take decreased doses whenever I would be working out. Good to know. Could have used that info a little earlier in the day!

They were actually kind of glad that this had happened, because now I was familiar with some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia. The nurse told me that different people with diabetes have different reactions when they have low blood sugar, but the most common reactions were the nervousness, sweating, and blurred vision. After this episode, mom made me promise to always have some sort of sugar on hand for emergencies. So now my car's glove compartment, my locker, my backpack, and nightstand drawer are filled with Jolly Ranchers, Tootsie Rolls and suckers.

I was kind of freaked out about the whole thing, but glad I know what to expect, how to prevent it from happening, and what to do if it ever happens again.

The DL on Diabetes....

So, recap...I found out that I have diabetes, and the doctor was telling me that I had to take insulin shots for the rest of my life. Good times? No. And it was about to get worse.

"We also need to talk about your eating habits, Jake. Since your body doesn't produce insulin, it has no way of dealing with the sugars that foods contain. Basically food is made up of various nutrients, such as proteins, fat and carbohydrates. There are different kinds of carbohydrates, but what it boils down to is that all carbohydrates break down into sugar. Sugar can't be absorbed and used in the body without insulin, which you are now going to have to inject yourself," Dr. Watkins explained, “since your body isn’t producing it.”

This was beginning to sound like a whole lot of not fun. He then told me that I needed to cut out as many sugars as I could, and to start avoiding them altogether. Goodbye desserts, goodbye sodas, goodbye basically everything that is fun to eat or drink. My mind was racing...imagining all the food that was now off limits - cheesecake, Coke, peanut butter cookies, tapioca pudding...my list of favorite recreational foods was rapidly dwindling.

"And since there are carbohydrates is most foods, you will need to know how much insulin to inject to account for your carb intake," he went on.

Yep, you're getting the picture. He told me I have to count carbs. I imagined some cheerleader wannabe counting carbs in everything she ate because she wants to fit into that perfect dress for prom. How freakin' lame is this! The doctor then pulled out this chart that took into account height, weight, age and gender to help calculate what the insulin to carb ratio I should use would be. So, with me being 6'2", 145 pounds and a guy, the doctor said they would start out with a 1/15 ratio. So for every 15 carbs I was gonna eat, I'd have to take 1 unit of insulin in a shot.

He had the nurse bring in a bunch of medical supplies, like needles (oh sorry, they are called syringes...my bad) a bottle of insulin, and a blood glucose testing meter. I got the run-down of how each of them worked, and got to try my hand at sticking the syringe into the rubber top of the insulin bottle, and then pulling out various amounts of insulin all the while being watched over and "coached" by a nurse (didn't mind that, as she was kinda cute). Then I got to practice injecting the insulin into an orange. I guess they say it "feels" the same as if you were injecting it into your own skin.

Then I got lessons on how to check my blood glucose levels. That's where you prick your finger and get a little drop of blood and put it on the end of this strip that connects to the meter. 5 seconds later, you get a reading. The doc said that a "normal" reading was one between 80 and 120 (yeah, mine was 485, remember?). Another thing that injecting insulin could do is to bring that reading down. He pulled out another chart that showed various amounts of insulin that could be injected to bring down your numbers. This chart wasn't as exact, as there are lots of different factors, such as metabolism, age, physical activity, etc. that can affect how much insulin is needed to bring a high number down to within normal range.

Then, I got me some homework. Yep, I had to test my blood (the little finger prick) 10 times a day for the next week, and those readings would be stored in the meter and downloaded at my next visit. He also assigned me to count carbs, and take one unit of insulin for every 15 grams of carbs that I ate. He had a nutritionist lady come in and tell me all about the different ways to count carbs. It seemed like it would be pretty easy since most of the packaged food you buy at the store has those nutrition facts printed on the box or can, and it tells you the serving size, and the amount of carb grams in each. She had me practice with a few empty cereal boxes and soup cans that she brought with her.

Then the hooked me up with a few bottles of insulin, a glucose meter of my own (I got to pick the color....big whoop, there was grey or navy blue--I chose the blue), a couple of boxes of test trips for the meter, a box of syringes. Then he gave my mom this huge stack of prescriptions for all the stuff I would need to get me going, and a bunch of pamphlets and other reading material for me to read.

What could go wrong? That's a post for another day, but let me tell you this...diabetes is a pain in the butt, and can be a little scary, too!

This is me, Jacob Logg....

So my high school communications teacher gave my third period class the assignment of a long term writing project. We have to write at least 200 words, at least five days a week for the next three months. This will count as fifty percent of our grade for the next two terms. The writing can be about anything, but since I'm not the kind of kid to start spouting poetry or something, I'm taking her up on the option of keeping a journal, or a writing a personal blog. And for those of you reading this, I've already heard all the comments about how my name sounds like blog –Jacob Logg….yeah, I get it.

I guess I can do this for that long, and heaven knows I have a lot to write about just in what's been happening to me the last little while.

About a month ago I started to not feel so hot. Track season had just begun, and I have had practice every day after school, and there are track meets on the weekends. I’m a junior this year and I’m in two events: the 110 meter high hurdles, and the high jump (the best events in my opinion). Practices were going pretty good. Mr. Ray, the coach for those two events, was working the junior and senior hurdlers and high jumpers pretty hard, getting us back in shape from the long winter of inactivity. So that meant that Lisa, Sheridan, Rod, Treena and I, were running laps up and down the stadium bleachers for our warm ups. Then came the real work-out. Basically, Mr. Ray would have us start on the bottom bench of the bleachers, squat down with our arms stretched out in front of us , and jump straight up and land with both feet on the next bench. When we’d land on that higher bench, we were supposed to squat down again and begin the process all over. I can hear you saying to yourself that this doesn’t sound so bad. Well, there are 35 rows of benches on the bleachers, and we had to go from bottom to top, turn around and do the same thing coming back down. Five times. Every day. For the next three weeks. And that was just our warms ups, not our daily work outs! Let me tell you, the act of squatting and jumping up all 35 of those bad boys will get your legs burning in no time.

As fun as that sounds, the day after is always worse. I get to school, and have to squat down to get my books out of the bottom of my locker. This would cause my legs to turn to jelly, and I’d nearly fall to the ground, whimpering. And then of course I had to stand back up, which hurt just as bad. I guess that is the price to pay when the sports you are involved in depend on having strong leg muscles and jumping. I could hardly wait for those three weeks to be over!

In addition to the soreness, for days I had just been feeling crappy. I was so thirsty ALL THE TIME. It’s like I couldn’t get enough to drink. No amount of liquid seemed enough. I was hungry, too, but that I just chalked up to being a teenage boy. For example, on the way to school I would stop at the Seven-Eleven to get a big Coke, and would have it finished by the time I got to my locker at school that morning. Then, right before first period I would totally have to pee. That’s understandable right? I mean I had just downed a 44 ounce beverage. So I would rush to the bathroom before class. But then, before first period English was over, I totally had to go again. Mr. Rodrigue has an open bathroom policy, so I could get up and go to the bathroom as long as it wasn’t during a lecture. And after I had gone to the bathroom, I would stop at the drinking fountain and drink what seemed like a gallon of water. I’ll say this again, it was as if I could not get enough to drink. My mouth would get all dry and the only thing that seemed to satisfy me (for the moment at least) was to drink MORE. Well, a repeat of the bathroom visits happened during Communications. And Biology. All day long. Each time I went to the bathroom it was like a full bladder release. I don't mean to be all gross, but I’m just telling it like it is.

Well, over the next couple of days things were the same. We went as a family to go mini-golfing one night, and I had to go to the bathroom a few times in the hour or so we were there, plus I had about three big refills on the Coke I had gotten at the concession stand, too. My mom asked me if I was feeling alright, and I told her what had been happening. When we got home, she set up a doctor's appointment for the next day. I remember it well. It was February 18, 2009. The day my life changed.

I went to Dr. Watkin's office the next morning, and told him what I had told my mom the night before about always being thirsty, and having to pee all the time. He had me estimate how much liquid I would drink in a typical day. Then he asked me all sorts of questions, but one question stood out as weird. He asked me what color my pee was. I know that seems like “too much information”, but that was what he asked. And my answer was "clear." He also asked if my pee smelled funny. All I could think to tell him was that it was a little stronger smelling than normal….and kind of fruity smelling at the same time. What the heck was wrong with me?
Then he said he was going to do a blood-glucose test. He pulled out this little devise that looked like a short, stubby magic marker, pulled back a trigger, touched it to the end of my index finger and pushed a button on the side of the barrel. The thing poked my finger, but it didn’t really hurt or anything. A little droplet of blood appeared, and he dabbed that onto this little cell phone looking gizmo he had. The gizmo had a little LCD screen on it, and it started counting down from five to zero. Then it beeped and showed a number....a not very good number as it turned out: 485. He looked at me, and then at my mom (who wanted to be there and pester the doctor with questions) and then said the 4 worst words a 16 year old could possibly hear, "Jake, you have diabetes."

"I thought you had to be morbidly obese people like those contestants on the Biggest Loser, and eat a ton of sugary, fatty crap to get that," I said. Apparently those aren’t the only people who get diabetes. Apparently skinny white kids from small New Mexico towns could get it, too.
He then explained what this was going to mean for me. He told me that every human being has an internal organ called the pancreas, and the job of the pancreas is to produce insulin, which helps the body break down and absorb the nutrients in your food so the body can use them. Okay, he talked in way more technical terms, and I'm not a doctor, but this is how I understood it. My pancreas wasn’t working anymore, so there was little or no insulin production going on, meaning that my body couldn't break down and use the nutrients in the food I was eating. My kidneys were working overtime to try and process all these nutrients that weren’t being used elsewhere in the body, and changed it all into pee. That explains why I had to go all the time. That also explains why I seemed to be hungry and especially thirsty all the time. My body was craving food and liquid, but then when I would eat and drink, it wasn’t able to use what I was feeding it, and just turning it all into urine. Again, this may not be scientifically what was going on, but is how I understood it, and it made sense to me.

Then came the fun part of that doctor visit. Dr. Watkins told me that I would have to be started on an insulin injection regimen. Translation: I would have start giving myself shots of insulin, because my body wasn't producing it. Okay, it's not like I am scared of needles or anything, but the way he was talking, this was sounding like a LOT of shots.

Whoa, this is turning out to be quite the long first blog entry. I've got other homework to work on, and since this will be an on-going assignment, we'll call it good for today, and pick up at this point tomorrow. Until then, try not to have nightmares about me sticking needles into my own body every day. That’s what I dreamed about that night.