Laddie:  In recognition of November as Diabetes Awareness Month, Sue from New York, Sue from Pennsylvania, and I have written blog posts which will be published this week.  Sue from New York has written about her appreciation for medical devices that help keep her out of harm’s way.  This is a companion post to her wonderful post about the families of people with diabetes.

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On August 19 I wrote a blog post titled The Saints We Call Our Family.  In this blog I praised the family members who vigilantly keep us type 1 diabetics safe. I failed to give recognition to the medical devices that also keep us safe.  I figured that there was no better time than Diabetes Awareness Month to give credit to the diabetes hardware that helps keep me healthy year-round.

My Dexcom G4 Platinum continuous glucose monitor is one of my guardian angel’s helping hands. It keeps me safe from rising and plunging blood sugar levels by giving out loud alerts that wake me in the middle of the night. It gives me constant feedback on how food and exercise affect my blood sugar. It is truly a life saver for insulin dependent diabetics.

My guardian angel’s other helping hand is my OmniPod pump. My pump has several useful purposes, one of which is calculating insulin on board so I don’t stack insulin when my blood sugar is high. My pump is also capable of giving me insulin in increments of five hundredths of a unit. That is an amazing thing, considering that insulin given by needle is measured by whole units.

Both of these devices have helped ward off the terrible hypoglycemic episodes that I used to have in the past. Emphasis on PAST. It has been three years since I have had a hypoglycemic episode when I needed external help.

My diabetes has been so much easier to handle since I’ve been blessed with these two miracles.