Diabetes

type 1, insulin pump, blood glucose

Cycling with Type-1 Diabetes: My Road to Mallorca Begins

I’m going to Mallorca. This is the first time I’ve announced this to the broader world, and I’m pretty excited. Almost two months ago I booked my spot in the 2027 Girls Get Strong Cycling Camp. I’d been eyeing this all-women’s camp for about 2 or 3 years now, and I finally hit the button. It’s a seven-day adventure, with five days of cycling, anywhere from 60-100 km per day, all throughout Mallorca, Spain. I’m excited. I’m nervous. The distances don’t worry me. But the sometimes unpredictability of my Dear Diabetes does. Good thing I’ve got more than a year to train both my legs and my T1D. I’m intending to blog my way through; I hope you’ll join me for the reading journey. And, if you’re navigating cycling with type-1 diabetes yourself, I hope sharing both the victories and challenges along the way will be helpful 🙂 For the […]

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Tandem in sport – the trials continue

The New Year has come and gone, and I’ve still got the Tandem t:slim X2 plugged in to my body. Today’s post is all about Tandem in sport. How does it fare? Within days of starting my Tandem Trials, I was ready to give this sucker the ultimate challenge: a ride on my bike. Now, because I am very much a fair weather cyclist, we did not go for a ride outside. Instead, we did an intense 60-minute Peloton bike ride. And we’ve continued to do many more Pelotons, as well as walks and weights. Here are my Peloton-Tandem reflections. Tandem in sport strategy My rides typically occur in the morning, after breakfast, or in the afternoon, after work. Both options require different strategies. The breakfast strategy: With the help of my super supportive Tandem ally, I created a sport-specific profile to use when I’m planning a ride around the

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Tandem trial part 2 – the struggles

Welcome to part 2 of my Tandem t:slim X2 trial experience. Although the Tandem t:slim X2 automated insulin delivery (AID) pump showed great strengths right away, there were still some struggles. Honestly, the struggles were a bit hard for me to accept at first. After reading the research and going to the American Diabetes Association Conference last spring, and hearing all the positives about these AID systems, no matter how dubious I was going in, I really wanted this pump to be the “magic” tool  to reduce all diabetes burnout and micromanaging. Based on my experience over the last couple of months, though, it’s not the be all end all magic device – yet. Am I surprised? No. We have to recognize that insulin pumps, including the AID ones, are not pancreases. They have incredible features that keep getting better and better, but they’re still a hybrid, and hybrids don’t have

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Tandem t:slim trial part 1

Tandem t:slim X2 with Control IQ has recently become a well known name in the Katie T1D household – and a bit of a tongue twister 😉 Hi friends! Remember about two months ago when my old-school Omnipod kicked the bucket? I was in a bit of a pickle, and it forced me to start figuring out alternate insulin pump options. Because I work in diabetes care, both Tandem and Medtronic offered me a trial of their automated insulin delivery (AID) systems. I was thrilled! And yes, I very much acknowledge my privilege. Tandem was first up. Tandem Trial – the preamble Honestly, I was impressed by some of Tandem’s outcomes. Ever since the AID pumps came onto the market, I had been somewhat dubious on how they would respond to my diabetes. This is an important component to consider. I’ve done extensive research into these systems over the years,

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Diabetes Awareness Month – let’s advocate

Today is December 1st, which means we’ve just left the month of November – Diabetes Awareness Month. This post is a reflection on this year’s Diabetes Awareness Month, and the role that I – as a person with T1D, and as a person working in T1D – played in it. Diabetes Awareness Month: the preamble Two days before our diabetes month began, I shared a short story to a large group of T1D researchers and influencers on a day in the life of T1D – my T1D. I am a member of the Breakthrough T1D Lived Experience Advisory Group. And this presentation was part of the Breakthrough T1D Centre of Excellence annual meeting. For my part, I talked about how diabetes tech is amazing, super amazing … until it isn’t. This was the story of the day both my insulin pumps spontaneously combusted (okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that extreme,

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