The Corner Booth

You may have noticed a lack of posts in the past week, with Christmas here and all. Things have been crazy busy, and the holiday brings more to do at work in less time on deadline, so that's been somewhat consuming this week. I was pondering a post about my online absence recently, as our own NinjaBetic G has done. I still might in the coming days. (so stay tuned!) I've also written some other, non-timely blog posts for the future, with little revision needed. But it's not the time for any of that. Today, I was inspired by Crystal (CALpumper) at Randomly Capitalized, who wrote a blog appropriately called Targets . That inspired me to nod my head in agreement, and follow suit with my own along the same lines. See, what we and many other Diabetic Pumpers share, is a common Lack of Real Estate . We're frequently forced to scour the land for more sites. We scar easily, particularly at times when we simply don't want to change a site within 2-3 days because it's wor...

In honor of the current test-run of the Navigator CGMs for a few days (courtesy of Mom Hoskins who's in town visiting and parted with her monitor briefly, we pay tribute to those Christmas Carbs on hand to combat any late night nosedives. My first day of using this device has been interesting, revealing, frustrating, and frantic all at the same time. A couple crashes were diverted, and I was able to witness the post-overbolusing rising blood sugars after inhaling apple juice, glucose tabs, cheezy dogs, and a fruit cup. As Christmas Eve comes to a close and paves the way for Christmas Day, I thought it would be appropriate to set out some Christmas Cookies. You know, in case a Big Jolly Fat Man in a White Beard and Red Attire shows up for a visit. Or, more to the point: In case that CGM decides to start beeping loudly on that bedstand near my head to warn of a plummetting blood sugar. So, we have some cookies, gingersnaps (for GingerNinjas????), a glass of white milk, and of course ...

News of Brittany Murphy's death lit up the blogosphere and online community (in December), especially with reports in the first day that diabetes may have played a part in some capacity. The ever-so-wonderful tabloid reporting of TMZ has told us that Brittany's mother told paramedics her daughter suffered from Type 2, but the coronor in LA says this isn't believed to be a factor in her death. Instead, it's more "natural" and likely related to flu-like symptoms she appears to have had in the last days of her life; a final cause could take weeks or more to pinpoint. UPDATED: Cardiac arrest apparently was the immediate cause. We can only assume diabetes played a part in this, in some degree. Adding to this was the news Jan. 4 that the 30-year-old Casey Johnson, a great-great-granddaughter of the Johnson & Johnson co-founder, was found dead. Apparently, also related to her Type 1 somehow - she was apparently out of control in managing it and had issues wit...

Tis' the Season. Not only are my newspaper sources not returning calls and being ever-so non-responsive in this week before Christmas, but yes the holiday festivities are coming in full force. All of that is a preview to the carb craziness and seasonal sugary ride that's about to engulf my Christmas week. The past couple days have been a little off, as it seems I may be fighting off some sort of illness that's invaded my body. Nothing serious, just feel "off." And some unexplained jumps and dips in my #bgnows could be to blame, aside from the fussy leg site or whatever way the wind happens to be blowing. That leads up to today's preview, which came with the Office Holiday Party. For the past few years, we'd been off-site at a local restaurant in a private room with their own food and snacks. This year, we stayed in-house and gathered together for a large pitch-in festival. It began about 11:30 a.m. and lasted for a couple hours, with the desserts still lin...

Anyone who loves classic rock from the Summer of 69 knows of the acoustic song Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells, a song that inspires some great groovy relaxation. Historically, James' manager once said that the songwriter was inspired by a reading of several Bible Book passages speaking of a bright future where everyone lives in peace and harmony. Well, in my never-ending quest for Better Diabetes Control, I've decided that's how I want to live my D-Life - peaceful, harmoneous, without complication. In striving for that balance, I am convinced that the best way to achieve that goal is by using a Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor. I have been pursuaded by recent rocky ups and downs in my diabetes care, and it's time to make the move. We're talking Crystal CGMS Persuasion, here. Sing it. Groove with it. Be one with the melody of knowing you'll always be aware of where your blood sugar levels are at, and which way they're going. All in t...

I have a date on Thursday. (Sshhh... Don't tell my wife.) Don't worry, I'm not pulling a Tiger Woods. Actually, my wife knows about my date and is anticipating it, much as I am. She isn't sporting any golf clubs and I don't plan to have a low while driving down my driveway, leading me to crash into a tree. No, there's none of that. This isn't the PGA. It's Diabetes Land - Hoskins style. This encounter is with Dr. P, my trusted endo who's the crucial third leg of my three-legged diabetes care team stool. My wife and I stand sturdy, but we always welcome her support and feedback so the stool doesn't tip in any direction once the huge rear-end of Mr. Diabetes comes crashing down to sit on our life. She's like milk, making us stronger so that we can be better stool legs (stooleys???) and keep this stool standing. The past month has been a time of greater diabetes control in my life, where I've had many fewer examples of high sugars (I write a...

It's 3 a.m., and this isn't a Matchbox 20 song. It's reality. My reality, as I sit up and watch the clock and fumble around online. Sleep beckons, tugging at my eyelids and forcing yawns every few minutes, but yet... I cannot sleep. I won't. Instead, I wait.... And wait..... And wait some more. For the time to do another blood test. You see, the D-monitoring has trumped my sleepy-time tonight. That metaphoric kick in the head to get my health under control seems to have finally happened, and it's kept me awake tonight and many anight recently. It's addicting, wanting to get a that line to be as flat as possible without having the CGMS at your disposal. "Hey, if a DexCom can do it, SO CAN I." And so, I'm a Human CGMS. Monitoring constantly to stay on key. Every half-hour seems a little much, but the couple-hour break is too long.... The compromise is every hour. It's worth it. My readings have been outstanding. Like wicked-sweet outstanding. The...

We all have those Diabetic Horror Stories, tales of what happens when our blood sugars fall so incredibly low that we cease to recognize reality and enter a diabetes-induced drunk-like state. They aren't a common occurrence, but they do happen as we venture on this D-ride together. I've had my share through the 25 years of living with the D, and I've tried to share some of those more recent stories here at The Corner Booth, in an effort to not only share my experiences but also help educate others with a touch of humor. In elementary I recall screaming in class and trying to punch the teacher or fellow students. Luckily in those days, I was smaller and could be held down and force-fed juice or candy. In high school, I recall passing out in the pool during practice and having a teammate come to the rescue. On the job, I once passed out in a newsroom while sitting in front of a computer - awaking, I was sprawled out on the floor with my boss and paramedics hovering above. The...

Those who read The Corner Booth regularly know that I've been on a tight control kick recently. It's not that I've necessarily been in "poor" control, just that I haven't monitored my sugars as closely as is needed and that carb-counting and bolusing has sometimes fallen to the backburner. My last A1C was 8.8, which is too high but not nearly into the higher double digits I've seen throughout my 25 years of living with the D. Anyhow, being 30 years old now and wanting overall better control for a variety of reasons, I have begun closely monitoring my blood sugars once again and getting to where I need to be. The goal: 8 by my mid-December appointment when I get more bloodwork done; by the next visit in early March, I hope to have that down as low as possible. With this tight-control comes more communication and work with my all-knowing Endo. Through the years, I've had three endos - in addition to my two pediatric-focused ones who were part of the pack...

Long before we committed to being lifelong partners in marriage, I had already committed to a different lifelong partner. Not by choice, but by necessity. Diabetes and I had been together since my 5th year, and we'd been through a lot together. Schools. Camp. Daily injenctions, when there were 2 and times when there were 4. T-ball, baseball, high school swimming. College. Fraternity life. Newspapering. A1C results that hovered around 13 and went into the high teens at times during those "rebellion" years before falling closer to where they should be in the non-double digits. We'd been through a rollercoaster ride, and I was only in my early 20s then. Then, came Suzi. Despite my D-partner who often interrupted our time and was always there in the background, hovering on dates and anywhere we went, this woman fell in love and decided to spend her life with us despite all the quirks, flaws, and frustrations. Now, we've been through much in almost a decade: college gr...

I've finally done it. After eight years of pumping, I have finally tapped some new, unused diabetes real estate. This has meant moving away from the traditional tummy, abdomen, thigh and leg sites for infusion sets that I've mostly relied on during my pumping years. Now, my right arm is proud to be the new four-day home of an infusion site. Earlier in the day, a surprising out-of-the-blue 536 blood sugar nearly floored me. It came about three hours after lunch, which I had dosed for accurately, so I assumed it could be a site issue. Took a bolus to correct, waited an hour, and did another: It ballooned up another 30 points, to 580 mg/dL. I was evil-clown-afraid when seeing these results, and set out to bring them down. I yanked the abdomen site and readied myself for a new one, but finding the spot would take me to new places. Investigating options, I turned to the online diabetes community and bloggers who've tackled this topic, such as Six Until Me - which helped greatly ...

Beware: This is a longer blog post inspired by recent events, and it delves into a few happenings during the past couple years. In the end, it all comes together. So please: Bear with me... It was with great shock and sadness I recently read a blog from a fellow D-Blogger Kelly, about her recent eye issue. That post can be read here . We all have wished her well and she's doing great, despite losing vision in her right eye, and it's down-right inspirational to see the kind of fiber she continues on with. Her attitude is quite simply, outstanding and something we should all look up to. Though her eye issue had nothing to do with diabetes and was a "one in a million" scenario, her ordeal and a combination of other events prompted me to reflect on my own diabetic, eye, and overall health.... And it brought up some thoughts ranging from a recent D-focused nightmare, eye scares both my parents have endured, the overall state of diabetes and retinopathy standard of care...

Well, this year marked a change in the Hoskins Household. Rather than following my motto that we must wait until December to put any Christmas decorations up, we opted to put up the tree and everything on Thanksgiving night. By the end of the weekend, everything was up. We even moved it around and opted to place things in different places this year. And we even painted the kitchen. All around productive four-day weekend. Of course, in the true diabetic spirit, our tree also sports everything a great diabetic tree should: A sugar-free chocoloate M&M, next to a sugar-free candy cane (Suzi may argue that this is a good ole-fashioned sugar-saturated candy delight and she may win that one, as there are two other M&Ms that can rightfully be claimed as no-sugars.) Pump tubing tinsel, hanging without worry of being yanked loose by a jumping dog or sneaky doorknob. A Mug O' Beer , in honor of my Oaken Barrel mug. A light beer, which has fewer carbs to count. A Green Pickle , a trib...