Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I Just Might Make It

It seems like a long time ago that I signed up for the Diabetic Runner Challenge (see emblem on the lower right side of my BLOG). The challenge was to run 500 miles this year. I know the emblem says 1000 miles, but I picked the wrong emblem :(.

The last 6 months has not been a stellar time for me in terms of logging a lot of miles, but I did enjoy a few 5K's in the spring with progressive personal records, and have been doing a few shorter runs per week. Now it's mid-year, so figured I'd check my mileage total. Total miles logged on my Garmin....284. Woooohoooo, I just might make it!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Keep on Keepin' On

Is it just me, or have others of you searched the news from the ADA conference looking for something to get excited about and come up lacking anything of substance?

Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful for the tools that I have to manage my diabetes and realize how far things have come. I'm also grateful for the researchers who take a long term view and are patient enough to conduct their studies. But taking a shorter term view, say of the last 5 years, I just don't see anything that changes the way I LIVE with this disease. None of the studies and none of the devices. There still is not a closed loop pump/monitor. Continuous glucose monitors are not finding favor with insurance companies. There is continuing debate about the costs/benefits of tight vs. supertight control of blood glucose. I'm still not sure if the variability of my BG or the average is more important in preventing long term complications, and I don't know if it's more important to avoid the lows (other than to make myself not feel horrible in the moment and avoid passing out). I exercise because I like the way it makes me feel, but still don't know if the surrounding BG excursions do more harm than good. I haven't even seen meter sizes shrinking to smaller than my current Flash, or a pump that makes it worth ditching my Cozmo.

I guess I'll just keep on keepin' on! I'll admit I haven't read everything that has come out of the conference, so maybe I'm missing something big. How about you, anything coming out of the conference going to change the way you LIVE? Maybe I'll ask my endoc the same thing tomorrow.

p.s. I almost forgot, I did like the study that suggested it might be a good thing that I have gained a little weight since diagnosis. Still don't find it to be particularly useful though.