Farewell, minus one.

Yep. Tomorrow is going to be my last post. Oh stop your blubbering. You’ll all do just fine without me. You’ve got Amy for info, Kerri for emotion and poetry, Allison for the glass half full and Scott for the glass half empty and deep thought. And you have so many others in the OC. There is almost too much to read!

I’ve decided to wrap this up because I’m running out of things to say. I’m sure I could go on a bit longer, but I think it would be redundant.

I've covered the reasons for wanting a Guardian and the adventures in acquiring one. I've covered the nuts and bolts in great detail and the discovery process of getting to know the system. I've showed what daily life is like living with her. I think I've shown how incredibly valuable a Guardian can be, and what a pain in the ass it can be at the same time.

Mission accomplished? It seems to me there are a healthy supply of excellent "life with diabetes" type of blogs out there, so there is no need for this one to evolve in that direction.

What? Ah, Ok. Well, I must wrap this up for today. Rio wants Daddy pancakes. Daddy pancakes are a tradition in my family for three generations, well four if you count Rio. They originated with my Dad's Dad. On the maid's day off Grandfather had to cook for the youngest son (Grandmother was killed in an accident when my father was little). Yes, I did say the maid. My family has gotten poorer with every generation for at least five generations. If Rio doesn't turn this trend around we will have de-evolved from leading citizens to trailer trash.

The story goes that my Grandfather asked the little boy what he wanted for breakfast and Father asked for pancakes. Grandfather got out a cook book and found a crepe recipe and made them as pancakes.

I grew up on them as a weekend staple. The are very thin, and golden brown. You put a light coating of butter on them, a thin veneer of maple syrup, and then roll them up like a burrito using only your knife and fork. Well, except for my Mother. She uses her fingers. That's OK. Different gene pool.

The two main ingredients in the original recipe are flour and powdered sugar and then you cover them with maple syrup. All around this just doesn't seem to be a good idea for diabetics. But one day, determined to make the old family recipe diabetes friendly I subbed Splenda for powdered sugar. I had my doubts, but Splenda is pretty fly away...

Any way, it came out great. Eaten in reasonable quantities, served with high-fat sausage and sugar-free syrup, it treats my BG pretty well. Deb and Rio have put their own mark on the family favorite by adding a generous dollop of various jams before they roll them up.
Serve with a cup of very dark coffee. But I digress....

Where was I? Oh, yes. I’ve felt really good about being able to provide a pile of important information to the diabetes community about a new product that we all had such a thirst for information about, but I think it is time to close up shop and move on to other challenges.

I’m behind on my reading: both photography/lab and diabetes; and I’ve been neglecting my friends over at Diabetes Talkfest where this all began. There are also new blogs for me to discover and read. So many talented writers out there! Does diabetes cause good writing or does good writing cause diabetes? Hmmmmm.....

A word on writing, I've had two photography books published and two text books, but I got to say, this has been by far the most satisfying writing experience I've ever had. I think bloging is so cool, 'cause you get feed back from your readers.

But I've also got two other writing projects that are wallowing (not to mention bike ridding!). I've got a three-quarters written novel, my fist foray into fiction, that I personally feel is the best stuff I've ever written. Need to get that puppy finished.

I've also been asked to review software for one of the diabetes websites, and the first product to be victim of my pen is lying on my desk. Waiting, waiting, waiting....Don’t worry, David, I promise I’ll get to work on it right away!

I'm sure the one question left on everyone's mind is: after wearing the Guardian for three months, would you recommend it to others?

Yes. Absolutely. Double absolutely. Triple absolutely. OK, I've had my ups and downs as you’ve all seen. But I think that the ups far, far, far out weight the downs. I think a lot of the “downs” have had more to do with my expectations, miss-understandings, and ignorance about the technology.

Once my brain grasped the possibilities and how different continuous monitoring is, once I matured in my understanding of how the system could be used, I really started to benefit from it. I truly wish that all of you could have one too.

The girl has been promoted from flashy mistress to partner. At first, I viewed her as nothing more than a easy finger stick and an expensive alarm system. Sigh...what a waste in hindsight. I wasted too much time obsessing over the percentage difference between any one given finger stick and the Guardian reading at the same time. Now I realize that is so feeble and unnecessary.

Once I woke up, shifted mental gears, stepped outside of the box and realized the possibilities things all fell into place. And my health is better for it. My crazy BG’s have stabilized.

For me at least, there is never any going back. Rio’s new “word” is Never. He draws it out like this: “Neeeeeeevvvvver!” He uses it like most three-year-olds use “No.” I think it is cute. My wife less so, but she hears it more than I do.

Come on, Rio, time for a bath. “Neeeeeeevvvvver!”

Let’s get dressed. “Neeeeeeevvvvver!”

Put away your toys. “Neeeeeeevvvvver!”

Dinner, time to go, time for bed: “Neeeeeeevvvvver!”

You get the idea. If he really wants to add emphasis he’ll add “Ever, ever, ever.” to the end.
So will I ever live my life without continuous monitoring? Neeeeeeevvvvver! Ever, ever, ever.

Not until the cure.

Tomorrow I’m leaving you with a final gift: a users guide of sorts. My most important thoughts on how to use continuous monitoring.