No, this is not a reference to Ozzy Osbourne. This is actually about my blog. I have been rather unhappy with the address of my blog. I don’t feel that canddbishop.com/blog is a good representation of what my blog is about. For that reason, I have gone ahead and purchased a new domain name and am moving my blog over to the new name. So, for those of you who follow me, either by just making the occasional visit or through one of the many RSS readers, you can now follow me at the following address:

http://livinwithdiabetes.com

For those who follow me through twitter, nothing will change, you will just be directed to the new site. Other than the actual web address, you will not notice anything different. I love the design of my blog so I am not changing it.

In addition to my move, I am also developing a new site all about famous and influential Diabetics. This is still a work in progress, but you are welcome to stop by and see what I am working on and what it contains to this point. Like I said, it still needs some work do the layout is not there yet but it will be. So feel free to to check it out:

http://livinwithdiabetes.com/people

So, this will be my last post here. You are always welcome to come back here but the same content that is here will be at my new site.

So it has been 30 days since I had jumped through the proverbial “hoops” of my CGMS claim fiasco. I was told by Angel, the nicest and most helpful of the BC / BS support staff, that the claim would take up to 30 days before I would likely hear anything. Well, today is exactly 30 days since my claim was submitted for probably the 100th time, so it was time to call them up and see what other excuses they could give me for not telling me if I was approved or denied.

After rummaging through my things to find the number for the BlueCross/ BlueShield office that has had to deal with me (I should have the number memorized by now) I played the game with the automated system and waited for a live person to jump on the line. A few moments later, I was giving my information to someone to verify my existence. “How can I help you today Mr. Bishop?” Not exactly the question she wanted to be asking me but I was not about to get into it with here, at least not yet. I told her I was just checking on a claim that I have been dealing with FOR ALMOST A YEAR! (in a lowercase voice.) she asked for the date of service, which I gave her and she began researching this in the system. This is where I expected a LONG delay followed by a “Please hold on a moment while I check on a few things.” To my surprise, it was just the opposite.

“Well, it looks like your claim has been denied due to Experimental, not medically necessary.” At this point, I wasn’t sure if I was upset because I had now officially been denied coverage or happy because I had now OFFICIALLY been denied coverage. She then asked me what exactly this claim was for. I laughed a little inside because I find it a little funny that these people working a “support” are unaware of what their company is approving and / or denying coverage for. I let her know that it was coverage for a Continuous Glucose monitor and supplies for my Diabetes. I then asked her what my next step was because I know of a number of people who had been approved for this and I was not going to stop until I was approved for this. She told me that she would be happy to send out the appeal paperwork for me to fill out and then submit. She also informed me that if I had any documentation to support my claim, that I should include that as well. She also let me know that it could take up to 60 days once my appeal is submitted before a decision is made. If I am denied again, I could then file for a second appeal in which I would come to their office in person.

I thanked her for the info and hung up the phone. Well, as much as it sucks that I was denied on my claim, I am not surprised at all. I am glad that the first step is finally over and I can move on to my appeal. I just hope and prey that I don’t have as many issues with my appeal as I did with the initial claim. If I do, they will likely have a cure for Diabetes before I get approved. Well, time to move on and fight my next battle.

Being Diabetic, you have a lot that is on your plate and a lot of things to remember everyday. Unfortunately, when you forget something, it is not as simple as “Darn, I forgot my phone at home. Guess I’ll just have to do without for today.” Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy. Well, it definitely is not, especially when it is something that dictates your health. The reason I bring this up is because a few days ago, I forgot something very important at home when I was leaving for work: My bag. You may wonder why this is so important, especially considering that I have Hans N Franz (my Pump) attached to my hip (literally) 24/7. Well, One thing that is not attached to me but is almost as important is my test kits, which resides in my bag.

This would normally be a very simple fix. Just jump in the car and drive back home and then drive back to work. The kink in this idea is that I carpool on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and this just happened to be a Wednesday. So, that option is out. I also keep an extra test kit and strips in my office at work. Great! I’ll just use that today. Problem there is that I had just run out of strips last week and I had a new bottle of test strips in my bag that I was bringing in that day. Yes, the same bag that is sitting on my desk at my house with my other test kits.  The last option would be to borrow some from another person. Fortunately, there is another Type 1 Diabetic that works at the company and who I know but luck would have it, he uses a BD meter and strips. So, strike 1, strike 2 and strike 3, I’m out!

At this point, I really had no other options: I was going to have to fly blind today and just guess my blood sugars when I ate, bolus and hope for the best. Not really the best plan of action when it is your life and health you are dealing with. Now, if you have read my Bio page, you will know that I went for over 10 years with rarely ever testing my blood. You would think that if I could doing for that long without batting an eye, doing it for 8 hours would be a piece of cake. Two big differences: 1) I am very serious about my diabetes and how well I manage it, so not being able to know my BG levels really gets under my skin and kind of freaks me out. 2) I am now have Hans N Franz and it is much more of a fine-tunes science to managing Diabetes with an insulin pump, so slight miscalculations have a bigger effect than when you are on MDI (multiple daily injections.) Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do, so I was just going to have to do my best.

Well,  I am happy to report that I got through the day with no complications. I imagine that I had both some highs and lows but overall, I felt good and didn’t have any episodes of any type. There were a few times when I though I could feels some signs of a high and a low, so I did the best I could to try and correct. I guess my feelings we fairly on track because my corrections seemed to do the trick. When I did finally get home, the first thing I did was pull out my test kit and test. the result was a 57, kind of low, but for me, my danger zone is when I get into the 40s. So I went into the kitch and grabbed a glass of juice and went about the rest of my evening.

All in all, the day went without complications but it was a bit of a sketchy day for me since I really was flying blind when it came to Diabetes. I am hoping that I don’t have to run into a scenario like this again. Although, I do feel a little better knowing that if I do, I seem to be in tune enough with my own body to be able to ajust an deal with the situation. I couldn’t say the same if I was forced into a corner like this 5 years ago.

My Father-in-law is a big Chuck Norris Fan and so am I. Well, today on Twitter, Manny Hernandez of Tudiabetes twittered about a Hilarious David Letterman-esque 10 things post from a member on Tudiabetes. I thought it was so funny that I had to post it here. So read and enjoy!

Weekends are supposed to be a time off of work and a time to relax and / or be productive (At least that is my definition of a weekend.) So that was the plan for this past weekend. Clean the house, play with the kids, watch some football and just kick back and enjoy the weekend. Well, do you think that happened? Most of that did, but I didn’t remember that list including “dealing with my pain in the ass Diabetes.” I guess it wouldn’t be my life if I didn’t have some kind of interaction with the big “D”. I only wish it were figuring out how I kept such good control over the weekend.

So Saturday night, my wife and I sat down to watch a movie after putting the kids to sleep. Up to this point, I had been having really good numbers. No highs, no lows: I was in the Diabetes zone. Just before the movie started, I glanced down at Hans N Franz (My pump) to see what kind of reading I was getting from my CGM. I was at just over 111mg/dl. Now, my sensor normally runs 20-30 points from my actual bg reading but this was a good number regardless. I tested just to make sure and I was at 78mg/dl. I had this good fortune all day and was hoping that this would continue for the remainder of the weekend (at the very least.) So my wife and I went through our DVD collection, picked a movie and then settled into the couch. As a side note we watch the movie The Signal. I wasn’t sure how good it was going to be but I was surprised at how good it was. You can watch the trailer here.

After the movie, I was a little hungry so I figured I would grab a snack and then go to bed. So I glanced at Hans N Franz, fully expecting to see a flat line (or close to it) for my CGM reading. To my surprise, the trends graph looked less like the Salt Flats and more like Mount Everest. I was currently showing a 220mg/dl reading. So I pulled out my test kit to verify my reading. the result was a 243mg/dl. Now how in the hell did I go from an 80 to a 250 in 90 minutes without eating anything. Another one of the mysteries of Diabetes.

I figured that I must have misjudged carbs or fat content in one of my meals for the day and it was finally kicking in. So I dialed in 2 units to drop my bg level 144 points to somewhere in the range of 100mg/dl. After dialing that in, I let Hans N Franz go to work and pump me up. At this point, it was about 10:30 and I was getting tired so I figured that the 2 units would do the trick, so I went to bed. I probably should have stayed up to make sure it was going down but I was too tired.

At about 1:15am, I woke up and felt a little strange, so I figured I better test considering that my bg were a little strange that evening. I glanced at the screen to see what the changes were and I was surprised to see the trend staying steady at 220mg/dl since going to bed. So I tested again and I was at 245mg/dl. It had stayed at the same place even after taking 2 units of insulin. Well, I was tired and wanted to go back to sleep, so I decided to just repeat what I had given earlier. So I gave myself another 2 units and went back to bed. 3:15 rolls around and I wake up again either by the urge to use the bathroom or the vibrating of Hans N Franz and feeling even worse than when I woke up a few hours earlier. It doesn’t make any sense but I am pretty sure that I was even higher than I was 2 hours earlier. I look at my pump and figured I must be dreaming: It shows the graph off the screen and it was registering a 368! What the hell was going on. I go ahead and test again and I was now at 393mg/dl.

I am stubborn and a tightwad when it comes to prematurely changing my pump sites, especially when I had only changed it 24 hours before. So, in my half -awake state. I dialed in 4.3 units which should drop me about 300 points. This time, I had to stay awake otherwise I could get up into the 500s if my sugars didn’t start dropping. so I jumped on the computer just to keep myself busy. Finally about 4:15 I checked my blood again…. 415mg/dl! HOLY CRAP!!! Ok, I had put this off long enough. This had to be a bad site. So, I first decided that I better take care of this high the old fashion way. So I dug up a syringe for my box of supplies and gave myself a shot of 5 units. After that, I got my supplies out and did a site change. It was almost 4:30 at this point and I was not about to stay up any later, especially considering I didn’t think I would have to worry about my blood sugar getting any higher and my daughters would be up in the next hour or two.

Luckily, my daughters chose to sleep in a little on Sunday, so I got to sleep until 7:30. I finally got around to testing at about 8:30 and was down to 200mg/dl. Not where I wanted to be yet but at least I was getting there. After that, I stayed in range for the remainder of the day.

I realize that this has turned into more of a book than a post but I did want to add one thing. Sunday night was a repeat of the previous night. Yeah, another string of highs that would not go down. Luckily it did not get into the 400s but it definitely got into the 300s. This meant another middle of the night site change.

So this was quite the un-relaxing weekend but I am happy that it is over and that I have not had a repeat performance for the last two night. Lets just hope that Hans N Franz continue to pump me up and don’t become “Girlie Men” anytime soon.