Tuesday, May 30, 2017

I Don't Care What Others Say....It Does Lose Potency

I've been doing my own little experiment. I've heard people say they've left Afrezza in their car for months in 100 degree weather, and it worked perfectly. How on earth does one person have enough insulin of any kind to leave it UNUSED in their car for months? I've had people say they've opened theirs, forgot one was opened, then opened another one and then months later found the original one and it worked great.

Well....I'm the weird one. Mine doesn't work "great" all the time when left out like that. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I follow Afrezza directions for refrigeration, etc perfectly. OH MY-LANTA NO WAY. BUT, I have discovered that it does lose its potency. Surely I can't be the only one who has discovered this. I don't have to take more, but what I have noticed is this......

If I eat Baked Chicken, Steamed zucchini and broccoli and baked beans, I would take 4 units. My starting level would be 80. 2 hours later it'd be 101-120ish IF IF IF I use a fresh unit.

IF I eat the same meal with the same starting level and use a unit that has been out of the refrigerator for over a week then my level 2 hours later is around 180-190. That level certainly doesn't warrant me increasing the amount to 8 units, but it doesn't make me aware.

I don't say this as a "negative" per say, just to say that people need to be aware that refrigeration could make a difference and new users need to be aware. It's not life threatening, but awareness and education are key to controlling this nasty disease.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Vacation and Time Change....Tresiba.....

Well, it's been over a week since my last post simply because my husband took me to Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversary! How fabulous was that? I was ready-except-UGH-I never thought about the 6 hour time difference, which meant I didn't know how to calculate the difference with the Tresiba. Now, normally I wouldn't be concerned because I take it at the same time each day.

However, I remembered my Endo saying I needed to take it at the same time each day and be careful because it could affect my Afrezza. Well, I was concerned. I decided to "wing it." Pretty stupid of me; I know. The first day we arrived really made me stop and think. IN was 6 hours ahead of Oahu, so some calculating had to be done.

I decided 6 hours wasn't going to be enough time to worry about and to just take it the next morning like I would if I was in IN. It worked. Then when I got home.......fast forward 6 hours. I still kept the same schedule. It really worked. I'm thrilled to know that I can travel a few thousand miles and this evil disease will not be affected. WOOHOO

I did so much walking there that, honestly, I didn't have to take very much Afrezza. I actually had a few spells where my levels were LOW. As worried as I was about traveling before on my first trip to Maryland, I have ZERO worries now about traveling anywhere.

The dynamic duo proves to be excellent once again.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Faith & Afrezza

Many question, since I'm a Christian, why I'm not healed if the God I serve is truly a healer. Let's stop a minute and put it into perspective. Shall we? God didn't say He would heal INSTANTLY like we want. We are a world of NOW. We want 'fast' food, instant text responses, answers immediately. If someone doesn't respond to a text or email within seconds, we think the worst. We think they're mad; they're ignoring us; they don't want to answer, etc and we become angry. Have you ever just stopped and thought that maybe, just maybe, they were actually busy and their lives didn't revolve around answering YOU?


Well we treat God that way. "OH NO. He didn't do what I prayed for immediately. Well, it must not be His will. He doesn't want me to have that blessing. Well, he must not be a true healer." RIDICULOUS. Stop it. My faith doesn't depend upon what God does for me. He owes me nothing including healing. Though it's promised, and He won't go back on His Word. Whether I'm healed here or in Heaven, I'll be healed. T1D does not define me; my faith does.

T1D is what I endure. I've realized it has allowed me to witness to others about how God has blessed my health through this. I'm sure all of you know someone who has had complications due to diabetes. I've had to endure this for 23 years now, and I do not have one single side effect or complication from it. NOT ONE. Now that's God.

God gives us wisdom to use. We need to spread the word about how great Afrezza is, because it can help many people. Now here's a challenge, spread the word about Afrezza while spreading the Word of God and how great and mighty He is. Yes, I'm believing one day soon God will take this away from me-absolutely. But I will not become discouraged by it-NEVER. We must consistently put the Word of God in our hearts so when difficulties, such as diabetes, arise, our faith will be ready.

We need to stop being a generation of NOW, and we need to start being a generation of Your Will Lord. My faith isn't wavered. My health is sound. My faith is like a seed being planted in dirt and refreshed by the Lord's spirit-the water I need to drink that will enable the planted seed to grow and sprout. So, to answer my first rhetorical statement-I'm HEALED one way or another whether here on earth or in Heaven. I'm just waiting for the Lord to allow me to tell the world.

If God healed me this instant, I would be able to share it with all my dynamic church family, my friends, my earthly family, but I would not be able to share it with others enduring diabetes. I wouldn't have a need to go see Dr Asamoah again and talk to him about my faith (yes, he listens and we have great conversations). I wouldn't be able to share Afrezza AND the Good News with others. I wouldn't be able to share my testimony of how healthy I am-no high blood pressure, nothing wrong with my eyes, no neuropathy of any kind, NOTHING. ZIP. ZILCH. See, the world wouldn't care about my testimony. They would shut me down. So, I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged that God knows I will fight the good fight and grow not weary as the Word says. All the while, I'll share how great Afrezza is and how it helps me and continue to share how good God is and YES He's the one true and only healer!

So, let's make sure we pray daily for Mike Castagna. He has a lot on shoulders. Pray for the rest of MannKind. After all, we want Afrezza to continue, right?
















Thursday, May 4, 2017

What Is Vaping Anyway, and NO I'm Not Doing It?!

Have you ever been asking if you're vaping? What is that I wondered? I mean, I had heard of it, knew it dealt with smoking but wasn't super informed. I looked it up. WHAT??????? NO, thank you, I'm NOT vaping. I'm inhaling INSULIN. The devices are only similar in the fact each is inhaled. The devices do not even look the same.

Now that I'm aware of this, it's amazing to me how many people actually think I'm vaping. I do NOT, let me repeat myself, I do NOT smoke or vape. NO THANK YOU. I often wondered why people would stare at me as I inhaled Afrezza. H-E-L-L-O, Robyn. That's what they've been thinking about me. OH MY-LANTA, talk about needing to educate people.

It's so sad that more education has been done on this horrible thing than on Afrezza, and more know about it. So sad that people are not knowledgable in the very things that can save their physical life, yet are fully knowledgable in the things that can kill them. Afrezza users, we MUST start making it our daily mission in life to 1. Tell people about the Lord, his crucification and resurrection and how Heaven AND Hell are real, and 2. Educate folks about Afrezza.

If we do not do both of these, people's lives are in jeopardy. I, for one, do not want to be held account for these. Yes, there are struggles in both.

Since this is primarily my Afrezza blog, let me focus on that. I was contacted on Twitter recently from a guy who clearly stated Afrezza wouldn't make it, the company will be going bankrupt, etc. I went to his page. He's making it his daily mission to alert the Twitter world about how horrible it is. I then decided to start checking out others' pages who are pro-Afrezza. I was amazed. There are some who are like me-they don't post daily. There are some who post about everything from politics, religion, health, finances, you name it. They post about it. Then there are a FEW, a rare few, who are dedicated to daily Afrezza posts. Let's face (I'm stepping on my own toes here too), we need to be more like the latter folks.

We need to start being like the dude who hates Afrezza and posts continuously about it, and the folks who post nonstop about it. Is Afrezza perfect? NOPE. Are injectable? NOPE. Which would I prefer? Inhaled any day.

People will continue to think we are vaping if they do not become educated. Yes, there will always be a few people who are uneducated on both but have maybe heard about vaping and will think we are doing it. That's ok. A few are ok, but a majority is NOT ok.

We're failing our fellow diabetics and others out there. So, diabetics-unite. We need more than a few events to educate medical professionals and others. I've repeatedly asked MannKind to allow me to help them in IN and have heard nothing. If we (meaning ME TOO) do not start being more demanding with this, we will be out of an insulin, folks. Funding will not be there for the production of it.

EDUCATION is KEY. What a great day it'll be when people recognize Afrezza as easily as they do injectables.