Illegal Underground Diabetes Black Market

Last Sunday my good diabetic buddy Jeff was in a pinch.  He is on the Omnipod system and for anyone who uses an Omnipod knows of the dreaded errors and such.  Jeff's Omnipod was going crazy and he was three days out from getting a replacement.  The thing is Jeff didn't have any long acting insulin on hand so he could go onto shots while he waited by the mailbox for his replacement.  So what do we do in these situations?  Of course we do what all good diabetics do, and that is break the law!  Jeff called me and asked if I had any Lantus on hand, which I had two bottles on hand.  We met up and I also gave him my old Omnipod thingy and one old pod I had left over from when I was on that goofy system that breaks down all the time.  I like to refer to these transactions as "The illegal underground diabetes black market" because, it is against the law to share prescriptions with another person but us highly effective diabetics do it because on a weekend about half of the supplies we use is not found at your local pharmacy so when an issue arises and no matter how much planning you do all the time you will have an issue someday, and that is why we rely on each other to get us through.  This is just the diabetes code!  Recently another diabetic friend of mine was traveling but was going to be gone when his shipment of CGM sensors were to arrive at his house and he was on his last sensor.  He contacted me to see if he could borrow one of mine and give me one of his when he got back.  We didn't have to make this exchange because he found another diabetic that was closer to him (we live like 40 miles apart) and did the same exchange.  This is why I will keep telling each and every one of you, diabetic or not.  You need to have a good network of people around you at all times weather it be car issues, or illegal underground diabetes black market needs.  A solid network of friends, coworkers, and diabetic elves will always get you out of a bind.

Always have a backup plan.

The www.insulindependence.org symposium saturday before last was great and one of the gentlemen (I forgot his name at this time but I will give it to you later, or just go to the link above) had a great discussion about training diabetic athletes.  He said to always have a valid back up plan for your medications.  Then he was talking about how one time a student of his forgot their backup and the good doctors message was "Then you don't do the activity."  I really liked this and preach it to every diabetic I know.  One thing I have had an issue with while training for the philadelphia marathon was that about halfway through my body turns into a turkey in an oven and pops out all my medical devices.  So what I have done is put multiple sites on for my insulin pump.  I also learned some of this with my good buddy Vic who sunday before last sunday finished another ironman.  He is such a beast.  Lucky for me I had both sites in at the finish line and for over 5 hours my BG's were between 130 and 180.  If I just could always run I would be cured!  Back to the moral of the story is not only to have a backup plan but you need to test it as well.  Just like having a spare tire means nothing if you don't know how to jack your car up, a backup diabetes plan needs to be tested and used in a safe control environment.  I would say go somewhere a safe distance from everything and cut the line to your pump and see if you can switch to lantis and humalog injections for an afternoon.  Practice makes us diabetics look perfect so you have to be ready for anything.

A whole bunch of naked diabetes!

 Last week I was battling this horrible cold from Sunday night through basically still today (I know I need to see a doctor for a cold lasting this long).  So the Philadelphia marathon was last Sunday and my only goal was to finish, if that meant to walk half or crawl, I was going to do it.  You can see in the picture above my pre-race look.  The weather was great and I was feeling the best I had felt all week.

 So the gun went off at 7:00am and I crossed the starting line at 7:33am or so at a solid slow pace, but I was feeling good and the course was so beautiful.  The thing though with me is I talk to myself way to much.  you know that angel on one shoulder and the diabetic devil on the other shoulder?  That is exactly what I have just for some reason I lever listen to the angel side.  At about mile 20 I started to think about things to make this marathon memorable.  The thought entered my mind to streak the finish line.  The idea first was to take off my long sleeve under shirt and cross the finish line in just my tank-top and undies, but that just didn't seem like a streak to me.   Then I thought to just take all my shirts off and my shorts and cross the finish line in just my undies and hold my clothes as I crossed the line to get an official time and everything.  From the picture above you can guess that I decided on just my undies.

 Once I crossed the finish line, Oh yeah before I forget to tell you that yes I stripped down right next to the cops stationed at mile marker 26 and they could have cared less that I was going to to my skivies to finish the race.  Then once I was done and I felt good because I had my sweaty clothes off I walked around for about 30 minutes just with my undies and finisher medal on.  It felt so great, and now I know that I am a true amateur nudist.  Above is me sitting next to the "Thinker" statue near the finish line.

I was a bit disappointed they didn't have "finisher" shirts at the end but the "finisher" medals were cooler than cool.  This was my favorite marathon to date and I can't wait till next year and to see what I come up with to top my streaking the finish line.  Sometimes I think I use diabetes as an excuse to be over the top crazy.  Would I be this over the top if I weren't diabetic?  Who knows because I am a diabetic and this is how I roll.