giving blood

[Surfin'USA]

Its me again..doing much better in terms of coping with the D, although my a1c has gone up(8.1) just glad it wasn't worse. Resolved to work harder on my diabetes this next year( funny how that is always a resolution of mine, come Jan.1!) Will complete Cozmo training next week- really looking forward to it! Anyway, my post this evening is somewhat of another rant, I give blood frequently with the Red Cross/VA blood services and I wanted to do something differant, the whole blood donor guidelines are supposidly true for the other services. (in particular,apheresis donation)Apheresis is when they circulate/collect red blood cells through an IV line into a machine. Diabetes hasn't posed a problem with regular blood donations, and apheresis is supposed to be even quicker/more safe in terms of recovery.(2 days,and you've got back whatever you lost) So I signed up, over a month in advance- when I got there, went through the health history and then the tech tells me I can't give- why, because they run dextrose through the IV line. I was quite peeved, I could have easily adjusted for that with several extra units of insulin pumped in,but medical rules are written in stone. And I can understand why they do it, because most diabetics do not recieve very good training + making those adjustments would be significantly hazardous to their health. They said one day, they might change that rule but for now just live with it..Telling me I can't do something because of diabetes makes me all the more resolved to do it,wish more people in this world had some basic common sense.

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Hey, great to see you back AND to find another Cozmo pumper.  I've come to love this machine, if that's possible.  It helps reduce our burden of "mental math," but it does only what we teach it to do.  Be patient as you figure out what to teach it.  There's lotsa cool features (to me):

Different basal patterns (each one with diff rates thru the day)
Different insulin/carbo ratios (we can set up lots; I have 5)

and as you wrote, several alerts & reminders we can choose.  I activated an alert whenever my BG is below 70 ... to remind me in 15 minutes.  And another one to remind me in 1.5 hours if I'm above 200.

I'm using the Cozmonitor meter so the pump knows every time I test ...

Good luck!

[JDRF-Team-BL]

Sorry, you'll have to put up with my infantil two fingered typing which doiesn't allow me to look at what wrote. The first and second dentence should have said giving blood is something they don't let diabetics do.

[Mr_Gatorade]

Dude,
You mentioned Cozmo training.  Are you getting a pump?
Nick

[Mr_Gatorade]

Dude, where ya' been?
Yea, I know, everybody's gone surfing.....surfing, USA.
Your A1C sucks!!!  Gotta get it under 7 just to meet
the ADA standard.   Better get it down to 5 if you like
your eyes.
I got rejected for giving blood to the Red Cross too,
because of IDDM.   BFD!  About ten years ago, when I
tried to give the Red Cross blood, they wanted my
Social Security number.  They weren't even paying for
it!!!! I walked.

Best wishes, and Happy New Year
Nick

[Surfin'USA]

Nick,
yeah I got it, just waiting on gettin' trained. On the 508 right now,but I have a terrible memory and forget to bolus, test(when its not before a meal) there was also a streak of rebellion in there.My doc did give me a chewing out, I know 8.1 really sucks it hasn't been this high in about 4 yrs! Hoping the Cozmo's reminders will help me take better care of myself.

Happy New Year all.

[Surfin'USA]

its ok bl lol

[JDRF-Team-BL]

Surfin' USA:
i use the VA also but diabetes has always been something they won't let diabetics do. Of course, i'm no Doctor, just another Type 1 diabetic. i can't even tell you about Type 2 diabetics (i'm sorry i referred to people with diabetes as diabetics because there are those who take offense with this saying you are treating them like diabetes is the only important thing in their lives. i refer to myself that way and don't think of it in terms of giving or taking offense. Please accept my apology if you were offended.)
The way i had it explained: is that even with the best control there are going to be moments when there is too much insulin or sugar present in the blood affecting the person getting the blood.That was many years ago i was told that, about 20 or so years.
i do agree with the comments in that you've got to do some work on reducing your A1C number. Don't take me wrong, Lord knows i've not always been perfect. But start to read a little more about accepted diabetes care and start to work towards that. Don't try to do everything at once. If you do it in steps it won't seem like such a difficult task.
i have even taken steps to improve my diabetes control since starting at this forum, because i felt i couldn't tell someone else to get good control if i weren't doing the same. But it did it in small steps, tackling those things that have the worst affect on blood sugars. Like when sitting down to a meal instead of thinking they can't tell me how to eat and then doing what i felt, though i know eating even too much of a good thing is bad. So i went little bits at a time.
good luck, bret