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Andy Stuckey
Andy Stuckey is originally from Alabama and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. He makes money working in television as a producer, writer, and director. His free time is spent playing the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and ukulele. If you stop him on the street, it is likely that he will refer to himself in the third person, as he is doing here. His pancreas does not work. He has Type 1 diabetes.
Good-bye, and a Surprise Ending
This week in diabetes, I say good-bye to my Diabetes Self-Management blog. I’ve been writing weekly now for about a year, and for those who read regularly and commented, thanks. I hope you learned and laughed a little at some of my insights—or lack thereof. It certainly is an ongoing process.
Tales from Nicaragua
Since I was away last week, I have a double entry for you here. Enjoy.
Last week I was in Nicaragua with my wife, visiting some friends who had moved there after Hurricane Katrina. They lived in New Orleans for a while after Katrina, but then decided to pack up and drive to Nicaragua, a place they had visited a fair number of times but never actually resided.
Low Blood Glucose Story of the Week
I have a little confession to make this week. Yesterday evening, Murray and I were out shooting a fake commercial that we will use as part of one of our shows soon. (The phony product is an adult beverage.) Anyway, we were getting some “beauty shots”—it’s an industry term—in the Brooklyn Bridge Park at sunset yesterday and were in a bit of a hurry. The sun was setting fast and we were losing light. We set up the fake bottle and a pint glass on the rocks looking out over the city. I was filming the whole thing and as we finished our last slow-mo shot, I felt my blood glucose sinking.
Checking Makes My Blood Glucose Feel Lower?
When I feel like my blood glucose is a little low and then check it and it is, let’s say, 82 mg/dl like it was the other morning, all of a sudden the shakiness and low-blood-glucose feeling that wasn’t so dramatic to begin with immediately heightens. It’s as if a trigger has been pulled telling my body that, yes, the levels are off. What started off as a routine check all of sudden becomes a scrambling panic to raise my blood glucose level.
Distracted in Canada?
This week was a big one for Stuckey and Murray. We secured a flat for the month of August for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and we are performing with our employer Heavy.com at the Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in the middle of July. Montreal will hopefully be good preparation for our trip to Scotland, assuming I’m not too distracted in Canada. I hope I meet another person with diabetes on Lantus (insulin glargine) while in Canada so we can compare insulin prices.
Diabetic Superheroes and Villians
Yesterday, I went on an audition for a Trident commercial, and the whole gist of the audition was improvising on the topic of gum. The script I received had a few paragraphs of ideas, but you were told you could take it in any direction you wanted. However, as I scanned the page, one of the ideas caught my eye. The premise was a standup comic talking about gum in a classic, brick-wall comedy club. The script talked about how normal it was to ask for a piece of gum and contained the line, “It’s rare you hear someone say ‘can I have some insulin?’”
How Much Lantus Should You Take?
Well, I never thought I’d say this, but it’s a great week to be a person with Type 1 diabetes. With all of the bad news surrounding the Type 2 drug Avandia (rosiglitazone), it’s a relief to know I don’t have to worry about it. I recommended you read my colleague Tara’s blog entry (“Type 2 Drug Avandia Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Attacks”) for the full story.
Dilated and Dealing With It
Yesterday was a great day of circumstance in my little world of diabetes. I started the morning off rehearsing a brand new dirty song that Murray and I wrote and that will be performed at our next show. I’m curious to see how audiences react. I left our rehearsal at 1 PM and headed up to the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center for the second time in a month. This time, I was going to visit the ophthalmologist.
Which Insulin Pen is Mightier than the Sword?
I made it back from the tour with my Lantus (insulin glargine) bottle in check and I didn’t run out of FlexPen needles before I made it home to Brooklyn to refill my prescription. My pharmacist, meanwhile, has been having quite a battle finding NovoPen Junior cartridges. I’ve received two phone calls in a matter of hours from the pharmacist with questions and one phone call from my endocrinologist asking if there was a problem with the pharmacy. Good to know that they are looking out for me.
On the Road with "The Brimley"
So this week I’ve been a traveling diabetic. Our tour started Monday night in Auburn, Alabama, and from there we went to Nashville and last night played in Birmingham. We have a long drive today to Savannah and we plan to do what we always do on long road trips: Anytime we stop for gas, we check and see if the gas station sells compact discs, and if they do, we purchase the worst-looking one.
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