As promised here is the story about what I have been up to lately!
This all started last January when I came across a site that advertised diabetic alert dogs. I am thinking I was doing some sort of search on service dogs but I can't really remember. Anyway, I knew that this would be a perfect thing for me. I really love dogs and have been wanting on for, well... forever, and my diabetes has gotten very dangerous since my transplant. Dangerous because as I have mentioned in previous posts (see here) I don't notice when I get low until I am super low, which could lead to me passing out. If no one is around when this happens I could die because I don't get sugar to my body soon enough. At the time I did't know about continuous glucose monitors. The dog seemed like the best solution. Unfortunately these dogs can run many many thousands of dollars, in fact a low priced dog is around 20,000. YIKES!!!! After learning the cost I moved on realizing that this life saving pal was beyond my reach.
Enter October:
I began searching again for a Diabetic Alert Dog (DAD). This time I came across some information about how you can train your own, which greatly reduces the cost!!!! What this meant for me: I could actually afford one! Although I had gotten my CGM (check my blood sugar and warns me when it is going low) I was finding I still had lows that went unnoticed for a long time. My alarm might go off, but I would either sleep through it or not hear it. It was then that I realized that a dog would help me live independently which is what I have been wanting to do. I began looking for a dog to begin training and came across my little Pepper!
She was the last dog left from a litter of Aussiedoodles (australian shepherd poodle mix) and best of all she was being tested for her service dog (specifically a DAD) potential. How perfect! One thing lead to another. The papers were signed and Pepper became mine!
I picked her up the day after learning my fate. She is awesome! Very well behaved and learns quickly. She is super sweet and loves to snuggle. I am enjoying the training and am so glad that a service dog was a possibility for me!
What is a DAD?
A diabetic alert dog is a dog that can smell the changes in blood sugar a person goes through. They are trained to give an alert to the handler when their (the person's) blood sugar either rises too high or drops too low. These dogs can also be trained to do additional tasks ranging from getting juice for a low to alerting others of the danger. What is awesome about these dogs is that they often pick up on the blood sugar change 15 minutes or more before it is picked up on the monitor. This allows the person to deal with their blood sugar and fix it before it becomes a problem. In my case Pepper will be able to alert me to a low, much earlier than I would feel it, preventing my sugar level from getting low enough to be dangerous!
It has finally happened!!!
I have my insulin pump and my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) hooked up and working! I love them. The CGM is great since I don't notice when my blood sugar is low until it is REALLY low (we're talking in the 30s or lower here :O ) For those lucky readers who know nothing about diabetes, your blood sugar is supposed to be from about 70 or 80 to about 140. You may have experienced what I like to call hungry feeling. If you experience this you often get hot, unable to think hard or focus, shaky, and of course super hungry, usually for sugary foods. This feeling means your body is experiencing a low blood sugar. Your body can usually correct this and most healthy people would not pass out or die from this, however a person with diabetes takes insulin to bring blood sugar down, which when too much is taken can result in an extreme low causing the person to pass out and even die. In fact we (diabetics) have to carry a special syringe with us incase we pass out from a low, kind of like an EPI pen only ours gives our body the quick burst of energy it needs. I have never passed out (knock on wood!) though I have been as low as 27 :O (yikes!) Like I mentioned above I don't notice my lows until I am really low, this feels awful and isn't good either. Enter Dex, my continuous glucose meter. This handy little invention goes under my skin and sends a blood sugar reading to a hand held device every 5 minutes. It shows me trends which are helpful in adjusting my insulin doses as well as to know when I must eat. Twice my CGM has alerted me of an impending low before the symptoms hit, allowing me to eat some quick carbs and fix the problem before I started to feel like crap!
Dex
My next new "toy" is pumpie, my lovely insulin pump. The pump has a little tube that goes into me and stays there, hooked up to a little device that has insulin in it and can give me insulin throughout the day without any pokes! I also have the ability to enter my carbs that I eat to get insulin for my food. Before my pump I used to have to give myself a shot every time I ate, this tended to drive me away from food. For instance with dinner say we are having pasta, I would have to decide at the beginning how much I would eat and then give myself the insulin needed. inevitably I would wind up still hungry and want another serving or "surprise" there is super yummie chocolate cake for desert. When this would happen I would either have to deny myself the delicious food (not a great idea when you are trying to gain weight) or give myself yet another shot. (not a whole lot of fun) With the pump all of that is gone, I can now eat and eat and eat without a single shot, just a few pushes of buttons on pumpie and boom more insulin is sent right into me!
Chocolate cake you say? Bring it on!!!!
How my pump hooks into me
