College vs. the Omnipod

Hey everybody!

Sorry for the long delay between posts. College has started back up again and I have been so busy. It has been far too long since I posted though so I figured it was time.

I think I have finally found the right way to keep my Omnipod attached during any Quidditch practice. I have been using clear medical tape and my sleeve from Bands4Life. During the last several practices I have not had a single problem with it falling off.

To continue with the Quidditch update, we had a match against FSU a week ago and we beat them in 2 out of 3 games and we all had a lot of fun. This coming weekend we will be traveling to FGCU to play against all of the teams in the FQC. We have had a lot of new and excited people come and join our team and I think the team is going to have a good year this Quidditch season.

Also, at our matches against FSU, this cuteness called Kidditch broke out.

So far my classes haven't been all too terrible, but the year is still young and I haven't had tests in several of my classes. I think my hardest class so far is Physical Chemistry and it is supposed to be the hardest class.

NEW TECHNOLOGY! Yes, I now have a DexCom CGM! I was so happy to get it in the mail the other day. So far it has been working really well. It helps to catch some lows and highs I otherwise would not have noticed.

My beautiful DexCom

I will hopefully be able to update again after my upcoming matches. Until then,

-Keep flying steady

Brooms (and BG levels) Up at Ascendio!

Brooms down before the second game.

This past weekend I went to Orlando to take place in some demo Quidditch matches at Ascendio, a Harry Potter Convention at the Portofino Bay Hotel by Universal. It was another scorcher of a day in Florida, but we were all excited to show these Harry Potter fans how muggles play Quidditch.

Before playing the matches I checked my BG level and it came up with 301. I have recently been having problems with going high after lunch so this wasn't too bad. (I've since been fixing these problems). I did a temp basal of -50% knowing that my BG would be heading down soon after I started playing. However, after 1 game my it was up to 341. I thought this was because of the temp basal and decide to not set one for the next game. After playing that game I tested again and realized I was 565. I think that was the highest BG reading I had ever had, including right after my diagnosis. As I had been instructed by my doctor I checked for ketones next. They registered with a reading of 0.9! Trying to remain calm I gathered all of my supplies and then proceeded to first give myself a shot of fast-acitng insulin and then replace my pod. Within 45 minutes I had dropped over 100 and was headed in the right direction again.

Cruising down the field with Bridget, the ref,
giving me a weird look.

Since it was now 3 o'clock and I hadn't eaten lunch yet I went with a group to Citywalk to get some food. In order to bolus the food and the high blood sugar I was still experiencing I had to go over my bolus limit. This was one of the scariest experiences I've had with an out of whack blood sugar. I know now I must be more careful and pay closer attention to my pods when I'm playing quidditch.

To get away from all of the bad parts of the day I really enjoyed the rest of my day at Ascendio especially a part of the winning team for both games! I also bought myself a Hufflepuff sweater that is designed like the ones worn by the Quidditch players in the Harry Potter movies and an awesome bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be playing Quidditch." So overall it was a fantastic day with a bit of a hiccup thanks to the beetus, but one that I will certainly learn from.

-Keep flying steady

(I think I flew a tad too high...)

Quidditch vs. the Omnipod: Round 1

Last Saturday was the first time since I started pumping insulin that I had played Quidditch. I had the pod on while playing Quidditch before, but I just had saline solution in then so if anything went wrong it wasn't a big deal. However, I also recently got my new band from bands4life.net so I was ready to try it out and hope for the best.

Me with my omnipod on my left arm and the band over it.

I tried a mix of a temp basal and gatorade to prevent my numbers from dropping too low or going too high from overcompensating and the temp basal seemed to work the best. I started out with a blood glucose at 160 mg/dl and after an hour of playing and an hour of a -50% temp basal I was 117. I then drank I little bit of gatorade and continued playing. I was 134 less than an hour later and 153 an hour after that. So it seemed the gatorade was bringing me up too high while the temp basal kept me where I needed to be. However, since I didn't use it the whole time and didn't extend it past the time I was exercising my bg levels dropped the rest of the night.

The best part of this day of playing Quidditch was that the omnipod never fell off of my arm. The band served it's purpose in keeping it on and I would really recommend to anyone playing sports to where it and keep you omnipod safe from contact and safe from sweating off of your arm.

I had a great 4th of July yesterday complete with fireworks and a cookout. It was one of the largest boluses I've done since starting with the omnipod, but it was worth all of the delicious food.

-Keep flying steady

Quidditch World Cup 2011

My first appointment for my omnipod is coming up tomorrow so I don't have much to update on that right now. However, I would like to talk about my trip to New York last November for the Quidditch World Cup.

We had been preparing for this trip since the beginning of the school year in August. After many, many practices we had finally made it to our destination: The Quidditch World Cup. This years cup was held on Randall's Island in New York City. Since this was in November it was really cold. Everyone came bundle up and tried to stay as warm as possible.

We got into New York two days early so that we could see some of the city while we were there. We ventured through time square and a very small portion of central park. We went to the zoo. We went and saw Avenue Q off-broadway. We went to the 9/11 memorial site. We went shopping at various stores, even one that had a Harry Potter/Quidditch section! To say the least, it was a lot of fun.

Through these two days in the city I always had to make sure that I had enough insulin and test supplies with me at all time and, since I'm a guy and don't have a purse, I had to carry a backpack around in which to carry this stuff. This was my first trip to a big city with just a group of my friends so it was exciting and yet a bit scary since I wasn't sure what would happen if my blood sugars went to high or too low.  However, the first two days of the journey passed without incident.

The next day we were up early for breakfast and then off to Randall's Island for the start of the World Cup.  We were all very excited and nervous since we really had no idea what to expect. Our first game of the day was versus the University of Ottawa. It was a morning game so I knew my bg levels were still good from breakfast but I had snacks in my bag just in case. We started off the world cup with a win over Ottawa. Our next game wasn't for a few hours but I had to referee a different game soon so I took off to grab some lunch before heading to that. However, this was the lunch line of doom because it went on for miles it seemed. Luckily, my blood sugar wasn't low and I didn't need the food right away. 

Our second game of the day was against the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo. We again won in a well fought battle and my blood sugars seemed to be behaving. With two wins under our belt we were feeling good going into the final game of the day that night versus Arizona State University (ASU). After having a dinner of Hamburgers and chips (not the best meal for a diabetic, but it was probably better than the waffles), I was ready for this game. This was the hardest opponent we had faced and they really held their own against us. At one point I managed to wrestle the quaffle enough out of the opponents hand that the ball was awarded to me. We ended up beating ASU after our seeker's third consecutive snitch grab. We were ecstatic having gone 3-0 on the first day. Back at the hotel my numbers were starting to decline from all of the activity. I got some food into me and went to bed.

Our first opponent of the second day was the final for our pool: The Delaware Valley Dragons. They had gone 0-3 on their first day and knew they could no longer advance. They were out for blood. However, we would not stoop to their level and easily destroyed them. I scored twice myself and had two other goals that should have counted but did not due to poor refereeing. It was a good start to the day. While we waited to find out our seed going into the finals we found time to relax a little bit and eat some food. We found out that we were seeded second.

Our first team to play was Ohio State University and then we would keep playing through the bracket, game after game until the semifinals. We beat Ohio State and then McGill and then University of Pittsburgh. We were on a roll. We had made it into the semifinals. My blood sugars were somewhat good and we couldn't be happier. There was one problem though. The food place had closed and relocated to the stadium for the semifinals and finals. This meant that I had no access to food really. Luckily, while they had us waiting I was able to eat some of the snack food I had brought as my meal. I then took a much reduced insulin shot and prepared myself for our final games.

Our opponent in the semifinals was the University of Minnesota. They were the underdogs of the cup at this point having been ranked very low coming in. After a very close game we ended up winning on the snitch grab. Our seeker was now 8-0 on snitch pulls. He had won us some of our games, but we knew going into the finals that we could not rely on this fact. Our final opponent: Middlebury. They were the undefeated champions of the world cup. We were the first time participants of the world cup. The stadium cheered for both sides. It felt amazing to have a stadium cheering for you.

The game started with one final "Brooms up!" The game up early for Middlebury. Then we started to come back. I came in and scored twice with quick passes to me as I waited by the hoops. But, alas, we were not quick enough in scoring when the snitch was caught be middle bury we were only 10 points ahead of them and then succeeded in winning yet again with a final score of 100-80.

My blood sugars and I had survived a tumultuous day (and weekend) that ended with with me being a part of the second best team in the International Quidditch Association's league. We were proud of ourselves for making it so far, but we hungered for more as we knew we would be returning to the next cup.

(On a side note, traveling to and from New York I had no problems with TSA so I'm very grateful for that.)

- Keep flying steady

Summer Quidditch: Round 1

Yesterday we the Florida Quidditch Conference had its first meet up of the summer. About 30 FQC players gathered at USF to play the sport we all love. We played many games and kept switching up the teams. We played until we physically couldn't stand the heat and were entirely exhausted.

While others were downing waters and gatorades throughout the day I had to keep checking my blood sugars to see if I needed to drink gatorade or just stick with the water.  After playing 2 games I checked and my BG level was 302, which may seem rather high for having just ran up and down the pitch many, many times, but I made sure my numbers started a bit higher to counteract the inevitable drop that was coming. After playing a another game or two I was down to 236. And finally at the end of all of the games I had hit 182, which was a decent place to end, but the drop was still coming. While driving home I was still drinking some of the gatorade, but by the time I reached home I had dropped to 67. Though my numbers started too high they ended too low. I'm still trying to find the best way to keep them just right the whole time.

Besides the slowly declining numbers, the day was a lot of fun and we all won at some point during the day. My favorite moment was during the first game where while I was falling off of my broom and having a bludger hit me in the face, I scored the winning goal.

If anyone wants to know the full rules of the game they can be found at internationalquidditch.org or feel free to ask me!