Arden's Big Blue Test

The walk begins, CGM says 183

We decided to do the Big Blue Test during Arden's 7th Jdrf Walk. Arden woke up in the morning after being a little low overnight, she ate a banana as we were packing for the walk and then bolused appropriately. Normally I wouldn't treat a morning low with such a carbtastic food choice, but we were in a hurry and needed to get Arden's BG up so we could get out the door for the walk. With no pre-bolus to help battle the banana I expected a BG rise to happen in a short time, and as you can see on the DexCom graph (above), that's exactly what happened.

The next BG hurdle came as we waited for the rest of our walk team, and the soft pretzel table beckoned our son Cole. We Cole returned, I watched as Arden's eyes became fixed on the doughy confection. "Dad, can I get a pretzel?". Arden returned with a giant, carb infused, pretzel. I didn't even bother trying to pre-bolus because Arden couldn't decide how much she may eat. I told her to just go at it, and I'd figure it out when she was finished. At 10 AM, just as the walk was beginning, Arden announced that she had eaten as much as she could, which was well over half of the pretzel. I took my best guess at how many carbs she had, closed my eyes, and bolused away. Then we walked...

One hour and fifteen minutes later we stopped on the last leg of the walk to play by the water... Arden's CGM read 189 (image below). I know you are seeing a ton of people holding up their CGMs and meters before and after their Big Blue Test work outs. I know most show a decrease in their BG from just 15 minutes of activity, but this is even more amazing then that, and I'll show you why. I can almost guarantee that without the exercise that Arden did her BG would have been in the mid 300's, if we were lucky. Look again at the few hours prior to the end of the walk. A banana with no pre-bolus, a soft pretzel only 30-45 minutes later, again with no pre-bolus. These two food choices should not only have driven up Arden's BG, but decimated her BGs for the rest of the day. But look what happened...

 CGM says 189 after 75 minutes of walking, even with all of those carbs

The rest of the day and night followed suit.

Before lunch, 2 hours since walk start.

12.5 hours since walk began and after Chinese food at 7PM!

Check out the overnight graph that goes from Chinese food to waking. I made no overnight basal adjustments and gave no bolus.

Arden took The Big Blue Test to help The Diabetes Hands Foundation in their effort to send $100,000 in diabetes relief to places in need. In the process we learned that not only does moderate exercise help to control Arden's blood glucose, but it can provide a full day and night of BG stability. The experience also gave me a lot to think about regarding my own activity level.

I hope you take the Big Blue Test right now, you don't have to be a person living with diabetes to benifit from the activity or help the effort, just click the link. I'm very glad that I did!

JDRF T1D4ADAY

On Thursday, August 16, 2007 I posted for the first time on Arden's Day in a post titled, "Decided to Share". At the time I wasn't trying to 'launch a blog', I didn't really know what a blog was. Here's proof that I didn't know what I was doing, the image from the first post, the one shown above, it was named "1.jpg" - I was more then a novice. All I wanted was a way to explain what a day in Arden's life was like to the people in my immediate circle of family and friends. So I decided to post something each and every time that diabetes entered our day for one day. 

I was so moved by what I was about to do that I, uninvited, emailed (Geez, I'm embarrassed to say this)... emailed everyone in my address book at each diabetes moment. I think that I did that for the first few of the morning and then invited people to follow along for the remainder of the day at a link. I did send a note first, though that doesn't make it much better, announcing my plan. Looking back, people must have thought that I was nuts, and mabe I was. It was a few days before Arden's first diaversary and I was probably extra emotional because I had some lofty and unrealistic expectations about what I imagined the first anniversary would bring. I expected clarity to arrive on that day, strangely I thought the keys to diabetes knowledge were about to be dropped at my door. Anyway, I just put it out there in a big bad way and people responded, and many told me how impactful the experiance was. After that I just kept going...

The JDRF has just announced a program called 'T14ADAY', that invites people to sign up for text messages that will arrive over a twenty-four hour period with the intention of showing someone the extent to which type I is involved in our days. I really think that this is a great idea! Here's more info directly from the JDRF:

Throughout November, we're asking people to better appreciate what people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience every day, every hour by taking part in a unique mobile-based challenge: T1D for a Day.

When you sign up for the T1D for a Day text challenge, you agree to receive as many as 24 text messages over a 24-hour period that simulate the constant blood sugar testing, insulin injections, and dietary decisions that confront people with T1D.

While no virtual campaign can recreate the many needles required or the physical and financial tolls of this serious disease, T1D for a Day seeks to deepen understanding of the many heroic steps our friends and loved ones with T1D take each day.

Please sign up for the T1D for a Day challenge now!

There is more information at the this link including how to get started online or with your cell phone. I'm spotlighting this effort from the JDRF becasue I know first-hand how much of an impact what I did all those years ago had on the people in my family and our friends. This is a great oppurtunity for the people in your life, the ones that may be struggling to understand type I, to get a closer look at why you look so tired. 

You can find all of my DayOne posts from 2007 here or by clicking on the DayOne tag.

Arden's 2012 JDRF Walk

Later this month Arden will be walking for the seventh consecutive year to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She has walked every year since her diagnosis in 2006 and her efforts have raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the JDRF!

Arden's First JDRF Walk 2006

Making Walk Shirts 2008

In addition to walking for the past six years, Arden has attended multiple Promise Meetings, appeared in a local JDRF commercial and more to support the good work that the JDRF does. If you would like to walk with Arden this year or make a donation in honor of her efforts, please see the information below.

We would be ever grateful if you were moved to make a donation, but it would be even more wonderful if you are able to join us for the walk.

You can make a donation or join our walk team at this link. 

Walk Date: October 28

Location: Bucks County Community College - Newtown, PA - Google Maps Link

Time: Walk begins at 10, we usually arrive between 9:15 and 9:30

Please let me know in the comments if you plan on walking so I can contact you the day before with meet up details.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for your love and advocacy!

Scott

Bring Your Child to Work Day 2012

My wife's company, Novartis, does an amazing job every year with Bring Your Child to Work Day, they put a lot of resources and manpower into creating an informative and fun day for the kids. This year the focus was on how products are imagined, marketed, and brought to a store near you. People from all different parts of the company spoke to the children and explained what their department did and why it was important to the process. After each "talk" the kids performed different tasks with the goal of producing a cookie that they could sell at the end of the day.

All of the proceeds from the cookie sales are being donated to our JDRF chapter so the last talk of the day was from me and Arden. We explained the difference between type I and type 2 diabetes, gave an overview of the JDRF and had a hands-on look at Arden's OmniPod insulin pump and her DexCom CGM. Insulet was kind enough to send me some non working or dummy OmniPods so that the kids could try them on if they wanted to.

The day was a wonderful success raising $1,100 for the JDRF, an amount that will be matched by Novartis 100% for a grand total of $2,200! 

One of the best parts of the day was watching the kids work so hard on their cookie ideas, boxes and then seeing the hustle they all showed selling the cookies. It was while they were selling that I began to really notice all of the OmniPods on their arms and I have to admit that it was a very warming experience to see the children so enthusiastic and excepting of it. If I had enough pods I think every kid in the room would have been wearing one.

Arden and her team sold chocolate chip cookies and their marketing hook was that they had a celebrity endorsement, if you look closely at the boxes you'll see, "Arden's Favorite Cookies" on the sides.

Big thanks to Novartis, my lovely wife Kelly for suggesting that the JDRF would be a great place to send the funds collected and Insulet for sending the pods for the kids to wear. 

I explained to the children that advocacy and awareness is what people with type I need the most from them and that I hoped they would tell someone about the good work that they did. I was very proud of all of them for the attention, effort and concern that they displayed throughout the day... it was a great experiance for everyone!

JDRF Announces Research Collaboration with Dexcom, Inc. to Develop

I love the varied ways that the JDRF supports diabetes research. Getting behind a company like DexCom and assisting them with their search for better CGM technology is forward thinking philanthropy. I can't wait to see what great devices are born from this union.

NEW YORK, April 24, 2012 - JDRF, the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, announced today that it has partnered with Dexcom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM), a San Diego, CA-based medical device company focused on developing and marketing continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems. The goal of the partnership is to accelerate the development of a novel wireless "smart transmitter" that would allow a CGM system to communicate directly with an artificial pancreas control device currently being used for research studies, instead of only with a CGM receiver. 

JDRF will provide Dexcom up to $500,000 over 12 months in milestone-based funding to complete the development, testing, and manufacturing of a custom "smart transmitter" prototype, which will be used for studies within JDRF's Artificial Pancreas Project academic research consortium.  The direct communication capability enabled by the smart transmitter will be an important feature for artificial pancreas trials in outpatient (real-world) settings, as it would eliminate the need for a trial participant to carry multiple devices all wired together while testing an artificial pancreas system's ability to manage glucose levels. 

People with T1D are burdened with constantly having to determine the right amount of insulin to dose at the right time, multiple times every day. Yet even with diligent monitoring, a significant portion of the day is still spent with either high or low blood sugar, placing them at risk for devastating complications. The artificial pancreas under development will be an external device that people with T1D could use to do what their bodies cannot-automatically control their blood sugar around the clock. It will work by combining an insulin pump and a CGM, which provides glucose readings every 1-5 minutes, with sophisticated computer software that allows the two devices to "talk to each other" to determine and provide automatically the right amount of insulin at the right time. Currently, all in-hospital artificial pancreas studies use wires and cables to connect a CGM system and an insulin pump to laptop computers or smartphones, which act as the artificial pancreas controllers.

In current CGM systems, the transmitter sends real-time glucose levels from the sensor to a receiver. In comparison, Dexcom's next generation of "smart transmitters" will have the ability to wirelessly transmit a glucose value directly to multiple devices, including several versions of an artificial pancreas controller.

"This robust wireless capability could greatly enhance the performance of closed-loop algorithms in outpatient studies, and we are proud to be working with JDRF on this exciting venture," said Terrance Gregg, chief executive officer of Dexcom. 

"In order for us to truly achieve real-life outpatient studies of artificial pancreas systems, we need systems that will allow people the freedom and ability to move around while also providing safety, monitoring, and data collection," said Aaron Kowalski, Ph.D., assistant vice president of treatment therapies for JDRF. "Dexcom's 'smart transmitter' will allow the sensor to talk directly to multiple artificial pancreas control devices, and essentially eliminate the hassle of being encumbered by wires and other devices while trying to be active. Now that the first outpatient studies have started, the development of robust wireless connection capability is a key step toward accelerating the delivery of an artificial pancreas to all patients with T1D."