I just got home from a check up with my diabetes team at Mount Sinai hospital here in Toronto. It's my first time meeting the whole team because my Endo (diabetes Dr.), Dr. Perkins moved from Toronto General Hospital to Mount Sinai recently so I hadn't been there since he moved!
Dr. Perkins :)
I liked the visit for a couple of reasons...1. I love Dr. Perkins. He's super charismatic and SO nice and so well dressed.
2. I get to actually reflect on my goals and my blood sugars and my health.
3. I get to make a game plan with my team of experts (Doctor, Clinical Nurse, Dietician)
The first person I met with today was Carolyn my dietician. She's so cute and so nice and I love meeting with dietician's because with my love of food and nutrition it's nice to have that little thing to bond over. She got a feel for me as a person and had me tell her about how I eat in general. We figured out a couple of reasons why the current "game plan" I was on before wasn't working.
With Type 1 diabetes, the biggest thing to remember is that the amount of insulin I give myself is based on the amount of carbohydrates I eat. It's easy for people who always eat foods that come with a nutrition label (I'm not promoting this, but knowing exactly what you're eating from a carb counting stand point is much more convenient) but for someone like myself who eats A LOT of veggies and fruits, it's hard to know exactly how many carbohydrates you're eating at a meal. My last dietician had me buy a food scale that also calculated the amount of carbs in the food based on a preset record of foods in the little computer system. The only problem with this is that you have to weigh each individual type of veggie or fruit in order to get the exact number of carbs. This is super time consuming and super annoying and most of the time I just find myself "guestimating" the amount of carbs in a smoothie or in my lunch because I don't have enough time to weigh it all out.
Guestimating isn't exactly the best thing to do when your medication relies on the exact number of carbs that you're eating, so that's part of the reason why my blood sugars have been running a bit high. Carolyn gave me some forms and basically told me to count my food based on the forms and tables she provided (basically saying there's 15 grams of carbs in these veggies, or these fruits, or these grains) so instead of weighing, I can just quickly measure and have a good sense of what I'm eating. I'm then going to be food journaling for 4 days over the course of the week and weekend so she can see how I eat in a 4-day span and how the foods I'm eating relates to the blood sugars I have as well. Whew.. diabetes is a lot of work.
Next up I saw Dr. Perkins. Basically he pointed out the obvious.. "Let's get these blood sugars down!" but he is also very nice and understands that life does get in the way sometimes, so he's told me to wait to do all of this until I'm done work and my life is a little less hectic than it is now. We actually talked a little bit about how he recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a bunch of other Type 1 Diabetics and how it was a great experience. A girl I know, Kayla, actually climbed it with him so it was fun to talk about that for a little while.
After I was done with Dr. Perkins (he only stays in the room for about 5-10 minutes) I met with nurse... Kathy? I think that was her name. I have her card, I'll look at it later. Anyways.. Nurse and I had a good chat about the game plan that Dietician and I discussed earlier in the day. She's super nice, we changed some of my insulin pump settings and decided that a couple of my goals right now are:
1. Always fill my canula when I change the insertion site of my pump (this probably doesn't make sense, but the canula is the little tube that stays under my skin. Not filling it is almost like missing an hour of insulin which results in higher blood sugars... I didn't think it was a big deal until I realized that today!)
2. Always put my blood sugar readings into my pump, even if I don't need to take insulin for it. Instead of keeping manual records now, they just upload all the information from my pump, so if I don't put a blood sugar reading in there, it will look like I didn't test my blood for a long time. Which isn't true.. so I have to remember to do that.
3. If I eat before bed to prevent having hypoglycaemia in the middle of the night, put that into my pump as well, even if I don't take insulin for it. Then they can see when I ate and evaluate how it's helping me through the night, or to know if that's why I'm waking up with higher blood sugars or if I didn't eat, they know that is maybe a reason why my blood sugars are low.
Yayeeee I love goals! It actually gives me something to work towards, and I love that! If you don't know me in person, or if you do and you've never seen my pump, here are some photos.
I never actually like to show people this stuff, so I'm stepping out of my box a little bit. I'm normally really private when it comes to my diabetes, which is weird, because I'm not at all shy about most things. My pump is always on me, and no one hardly ever sees it..!
Do you know anyone who is diabetic? Do you know much about diabetes in general? Would you like if I talked about it more?