It is definitely a right of passage to share your Diabetic diagnosis experience…So here is my story. I remember when I was first diagnosed back in 2003 after coming back from my Honeymoon in Mexico. Halfway through my vacation I had noticed taking frequent trips to the bathroom and constantly feeling dehydrated. I brushed it off as maybe I had caught a urinary tract infection. After 2 weeks of these constant symptoms I succumbed to my wife telling me to go see a doctor for my symptoms. What had really scared me to go see a doctor was the rapid loss of weight I was experiencing. Originally I weighed around 180lbs and in excellent physical shape as I went to the gym 5-6 days a week. Within those 2 weeks i had gone from 180lbs down to 165lbs which  is pretty fast for me. After going for my full physical with the doctor no more than 2 days later I get a phone call while I was at work. My doctor noticed my blood glucose levels were above 600 so he had me come in for a second blood draw. Sure enough 1 day later it was confirmed that I was diabetic and was treated with Metformin as my initial treatment. My glucose numbers did respond well to pills at first but I kept on losing weight. My weight had gone even lower down to 130lbs. At this point I looked very sick and felt very weak. My doctor then proceeded to have my take antibody blood tests which came back positive. I was then diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic and started on insulin. Anyone who uses insulin knows its a big learning curve but eventually I found the algorithm that worked for me. This took me years to achieve and it was definitely not easy. 

One thing about me is that I am big tech guy. If there was some type of new technology that would help me manage my diabetes I was willing to try. This is when I first found out about the Dexcom blood glucose monitoring system. I thought to myself if I can watch my numbers all day without having to stick my fingers constantly I would be able to better manage my diabetes. If you ever seen the early version of the Dexcom then you know it was a handheld injector and boy did it hurt unlike todays auto injector versions of the Dexcom. From here on I began to experiment with foods and insulin doses. I wrote everything down on how much to bolus and even weighed my food(a little excessive). With everything recorded I felt like I was ready to take on the Diabetes world….boy was I humbled! One thing ive learned about Type 1 diabetes is that it is a constant experiment that goes on a life time. The same dose that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Over time I learned not to be so hard on myself for perfect numbers because no one is perfect and just enjoy the ride of life. I will provide some links to a few options of continuous glucose meters and some pros and cons of each. I personally am using currently the Dexcom 6 cgm and will give a full breakdown of it with my own experience. Thank you for joining me on my first blog of AllThings4Diabetes!