I’m coming up on week two of my Symlin experiment, and I’ve got to say: I love it. Symlin, as you probably know, is a synthetic version of the human hormone amylin which — to quote the FDA — is “a naturally occurring neuroendocrine hormone synthesized by pancreatic beta cells that contributes to glucose control during the postprandial period.” Translation? It’s another hormone made by your pancreas (in addition to insulin) that helps control your blood sugar after you eat. You don’t...

So I took a little Symlin (15 mcg) with breakfast today and am eagerly waiting to see what’s going to happen. My breakfast was not a “major meal” as defined by the Symlin manufacturers (i.e. less than 250 calories and fewer than 30 grams carb). But since it routinely requires three times my normal insulin-to-carb ratio to cover it (perhaps because it’s yogurt and it’s morning) I figured I’d take 15 mcg, cut my insulin dose by two thirds, and see what happened. So far, I just feel a little funny...

Okay, so this is less about diabetes than it is about the Flight of Conchords. But it has the word “sugar” in its title. Ergo. . . .

I had my tri-monthly checkup at my endocrinologist’s today, and convinced him to let me try Symlin. They faxed in the prescription for me today, and I’m eager to receive it and start giving it a shot. (That pun was unintentional, I swear.) It’s strange — my doctor seems to think that Symlin is not worth trying, but I’ve heard from other doctors and read on other websites that it can really make a huge difference in blood sugar control. I’m one of those people whose stomachs seem to start emptying...

This weekend, I made an amazing discovery: if you want to control your blood sugar, you should dance. To elaborate: last week I decided that the best way to deal with the emotional mess that has been this summer, I should join a no audition dance troupe for 30+ year-old women. I mean, hell. I’ve been taking cardio hip hop classes for a year or so now and every once in a while I entertain fantasies of performing a dance on stage. It’s unclear what the motivation behind this fantasy is, since I don’t think I’m...

Many of you may already be aware of this, but a few weeks ago, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation launched a great new site — a searchable database of ongoing research trials. Called the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Trials Connection, it’s a one-stop shop for everything going on in the type 1 research world.  You can search by location so that you don’t end up wading through trials in Omaha when you live in Los Angeles. And better yet, once you set up your search preferences, you can have a list of relevant...

So, I just got back from a trip home to the east coast to see my family, and decided that while I was at it, I should try to visit my old endocrinologist, Kevan Herold, who’s currently at Yale. Right after I was diagnosed I was lucky enough to be a participant in a study Dr. Herold was helping conduct on an anti-cd3 antibody that ended up being big news in the diabetes research community — by using an antibody against my own antibodies, the drug helped “reprogram” my immune system so that I stopped killing...

So. Ever since going on my beloved CGM in January, I’ve run into a little problem: I’ve gained weight. I’ve basically been the same weight for the past 15 years, but starting a few months ago, the scale began to creep up. I’m now hovering around 150 and I am not happy about it. At all. Some of this excess poundage may actually be muscle — I’ve been going to a lot of kickboxing classes, and if all those pushups are doing anything, that may account for a bit of the gain. But I still wanted to check...

I just turned on my computer to work on a different project (see 101 Places Not To See Before You Die) and got an update from JDRF that I needed to share. According to this press release, NIH just released new guidelines for federally funded stem cell research that are great news for anyone hoping for a cure. To quote from the press release: We particularly want to commend the NIH for including in the guidelines a provision under which existing stem cell lines derived in an ethically-responsible manner would be eligible for federally...

It’s been a rough couple of days for the old diabetes. For reasons unbeknownst to me, my body has taken it upon itself to become ridiculously insulin resistant. For example: I just ate my usual breakfast of a low-fat greek yogurt with blueberries, which usually sends me to a max of 180, and my blood sugar is currently 249 and rising sharply. I keep taking insulin and punching my hip (where the pump is inserted) but to no avail — it’s going to keep climbing and climbing, and ain’t nothing I can do to stop it...