Meeting up with another T1D in my own town!

I met up the other night with a T1D who has had diabetes as long as I have.  She had contacted me through Tudiabetes (and I found out she follows me in Twitter as well).  She wanted information on insulin pumping (she’s still on the wall about being hooked up to a “machine”) and had come to Tudiabetes to find out more and found me there.  I don’t blame her with feeling this way, about going onto a pump, since I was the same when my friend Harold had kept on egging me into trying out a pump, despite my having good results with MDI (Multiple Dosage Injections).  So, I told her to take the plunge, just for the experimental bit (she's got really good work coverage for the pump - that it makes me envious of her).  We’ll see what happens, as it is difficult to break out of your comfort zone after so many years of being MDI (for myself – it was 41 years of MDI – before going onto the pump.  I had never intended to purchase - I was pretty adamant about not being wired up to a pump (and as I told her - now in Canada we have the Omnipod which is a tubeless pump).

What was so amazing is that I have this feeling that folks that have been on the juice of life (aka insulin) for so long - somehow age gracefully.  She looked like she was in her 30's (she had a laugh at this but I’m not lying!!). One thing she taught me, which was new to me, I didn't realise that gastroparesis was part of the neuropathy problem related to diabetes!  She's on the a “semi-Dr. Bernstein diet” - but due to some of the foods you are supposed to eat with his way of eating - they don't sit well with her gastro - but she does try to eat no more than 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. 

The other great thing she showed me was that she is now using the Freestyle InsuLinx blood meter .... that I'd blogged about last year.  There's a few things about it that she doesn't like - and technical support seems abit iffy (it's still new here in North America and even I had trouble getting my questions answered when I was doing research on it for my blog).  I personally found the screen difficult to read when she was showing it to me - and Joan from Cornwall in my blog I wrote - had said the same thing - so hopefully that will be changed over time (e.g. make the screen similar to my Animas pump screen).  Still, it's a great device to use to keep track of your insulin coverage, blood sugars, similar to what a pump does, without the expense OR tubing.

I can’t wait to meet up with her again since I rarely get to meet up with T1D’s in person – especially here in Montreal (remember – T1D’s are only 10% according to word of mouth – as I can’t seem to find any concise statistics – even at WHO website or  NDIC).  

Oh, and because of the way she looks - I today used Equal in my coffee (yes - the chemical stuff that I have for so many years refused to use).  She was quite surprised that I used sugar in my coffee when I met up because she thought I was a good diabetic.  Good?  Moi.  Never - I live on the edge .... in my mind!

So, I’m on a high today (not in the BG (blood sugar) area – woke up to 4.6 mmol/l – 83 mg/dl) after meeting up with my new friend here in Montreal (hoping I did not scare her off with my overzealous ways)!!!