Hi y’all!

Let’s start with my current favorite Patty photo:

So I promised you a health update and it’s been awhile in writing it, because there hasn’t been much going on so I felt like, “why write?” But then I remembered I owed you this. So!

There really isn’t much to say. Which is nice. The gallbladder surgery went well, I’m healing nicely (because of the prednisone and the diabetes stuff it will take longer for the incision spots to totally heal, but that’s OK, I don’t care.). Eye survived the corneal abrasion!

This week I am being trained by endo in using my InPen. An InPen is a “smart” insulin pen. It has an app, it communicated with my continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and it also does math for me. I am really looking forward to that feature, you better believe it. It can be nuts to try to figure things out.

It also has a nifty little feature where it tells you how much insulin is “on board”, meaning “active” in your body. For people with normal pancreas function, your pancreas just pumps out insulin when it needs to. You don't have to worry about supply. Diabetics do. One of the things that is frustrating—at least for me—is not knowing how long insulin “lasts” in the body. So basically every time I’m eating a meal I’m dosing based on my CGM numbers, but that’s not entirely accurate, because we don’t know how much insulin is still floating around in my body. (and if you give yourself too much insulin, that causes….weight gain. How fun. I mean it can also cause other not fun things, but…..yeah, I’m focusing on the weight bit.)

With the InPen, I should—I think—know how much is in my body already and then be able to do more accurately. I can also does partially. So, right now, if I should give myself 5.5 units of insulin, I can’t do that with a regular pen. I have to either do 5 or 6. With this pen I can give the 5.5 dose. So being able to do half doses doesn’t sound big, but it adds up in the long run to create better control.

So that’s all on Wednesday. I’m looking forward to it. (Also the InPen is bright pink so it’ll be easy to find in my bag, but it also comes in blue and gray.)

So, weight and insulin, we can talk about it briefly.

When you’re not getting enough insulin, you lose weight really easily. That was me last Christmas. I was like, wow, I lost all his weight without trying! HOW AWESOME!

And then we realized, oh, Emily needs insulin.
When you start insulin, you gain weight. That’s how it goes. Sometimes you need to gain that weight. In my case I …..really didn’t. But them’s the breaks.

Now that I’ve been on insulin for almost a year, we’re reaching good therapeutic levels so I think we’re done with large adjustments, and I’m hoping that I can start to drop some weight because I won’t be giving myself crazy amounts of insulin (because insulin you don’t need? Stored by the body as fat. Yeah, FUN TIMES.).

I have been working out during the pandemic by doing an at home program, which I have actually liked. So that’s helped and that’s made my doctors really happy. My PFTs are good, so that’s also happiness causing. But right now I’m hoping I can turn a corner on weight and start to drop some pounds, even though with COVID I think we’re all realizing that’s easier said than done….I haven’t been in a grocery store since early March. Yikes. (That sort of activity—that daily stuff? Not having that has been an issue. Also an issue—being subjected to what APN has in stock.)

In December I see my dentist, my ENT, and my dermatologist, so hopefully those will all be good. I’m anticipating they will be. The dermatologist is always sort of iffy because you never know what she’ll see that I don’t think is an issue or that I can’t see (like, things on my scalp or my back). But from what I can tell things are OK and it’s not like I was going out in the sun a lot this year anyway. :)

So that’s the health update! :) I’m still alive and kicking, which is good!