I struggle to find the right doctor

Does this person exist?
A Type 1 Diabetic Endocrinologist who dabbles in all forms of diabetes management and is VERY active (races, etc.) who is not only on top of the latest research and technology but is a part of it?



This is my dream dr. and I need help finding him ( or maybe her?)

Diabetes is my friend

I normally have great control over my blood sugar. I rarely have readings over 200 and the most severe hypo I have had lately has been about 60. The past few days I have been super high. Almost every reading is in the 300's. I'm not sure what is going on. It may be bad insulin? It usually doesn't bother me. I just correct and move on. Yesterday, not so much. I am training for the Ragner Del Sol 24 hour relay so I am very committed to running at least 3 days per week. I had one really good run this week on Tuesday, I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. I was to sore to run on Wednesday from my Monday strength training workout. My readings were so high on Thursday it just wiped me out. I was to tired to workout. On Friday I fought through it and decided to run outside. About a mile into it I had to stop because my insertion was burning and irritating me. So, yesterday (Saturday) I had a lot to make up. I was over 300 all day which means I really should not be doing very intense exercise. I took more insulin and went to the gym. I got there and started running at 286. I figured it would come down. Well not only did it not come down, I started getting a horrible headache. I stopped running and jumped into a yoga class. BAD IDEA. The first 10 minutes we were inverted, which made my head hurt worse. I had to leave, I was almost in tears.

I went home and loaded up on insulin and Advil. Eventually I came down. Exerciseless:(

I had a football watching party that I went to last night. By the time I got there I was around 130ish. Pretty good. Finally. I pumped every little thing that I put in my mouth. I took in a total of 7 units during that party. That's a lot. I usually average about 15 units per day! When I left I was 308. I pumped more. Went to bed. Woke up at 2:30 a.m. and was 383. I pumped more. I woke up at 8:00a.m. and was 286. I pumped more. I woke up at 10:30 a.m. and was 60.

Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

When this happens it puts me in such a bad mood. I try so hard to be in control and do the right thing but sometimes no matter what I do, my body is not on my side.

I'm not mad at my Diabetes. I know this sounds weird but I feel like Diabetes is my friend. We are on the same side. She (diabetes) doesn't want to be here either. She is out of place. It is my body that I am mad at. For someone reason my body is the one that got Diabetes so it's my bodies fault. It is my body that I want to punish. That is why I fight it. Running sucks. It hurts my body to run, but I do it to get back at my body. When my readings are normal, I feel like Diabetes and I are a team, working against my body. But when I am 300 and can't fix it, I feel like we are losing and it pisses me off. It makes me not want to correct my 60 so my body will feel like crap. I know that's not the right thing to do. And no I didn't do that. But I did fix my cup of coffee first. :) So, diabetes is my friend.

I can work out for 4 hours!

Yesterday, Saturday, October 4th, I had trainings all day at Lifetime Fitness. I am going to be teaching group fitness classes there. The trainings were more like workshops on the class formats. Each workshop is an hour long workout and then about 30 minutes of lecturing on the class afterwards. So, I did an hour of cycle, an hour of advanced weight training and an hour of Hip Hop. I was very fatigued and tired afterwards but I felt great. My blood sugars were great all day. I didn't even wear my pump unless I was eating and then I would take it off. I think I took in a total of 9 units of insulin the WHOLE DAY! Normally I take about 16-20. Anyway, after those 3 classes we had a 2 hour lecture to attend on heart rate training. The instructor asked if I would volunteer and I said yes. I didn't know what I was volunteering for. Well, I had to get up on a bike in front of everyone with a heart rate monitor on. She wanted to show everyone what their participants are going to look like in each zone. Zone 1 is easy- Zone 5 extreamley hard (only athletes go here). So I started riding the bike in Zone 1. Every couple minutes she would add resistance to my bike to make it harder. Eventually I got to Zone 4. I was dying! I could feel my blood sugar dropping. I was in front of about 60 people. I calmly asked the lady to hand me my black bag that was on the floor. I took out my glucose tabs and ate a couple. No big deal, I was fine. It came back up and I was able to finish this demo. It felt soooo good to have diabetes and prove to myself that I can do all of those things. I can workout for 4 hours and then do more. All the while managing my diabetes perfectly. BUT THEN, after I was done a bunch of instructors were like, "Rachel, whay did you volunteer for that! That was stupid, you can't do that to yourself, your gonna get sick." I wanted to punch them in the face! What do people think because I have diabetes I can't do anything. I want to tell them that I can probably do more than you can do because I'm 25 and your 40...ha! But one day I will be 40 with diabetes so I can't really say that, it will come back and bite me later. Anyway, it's just frustrating how uneducated people are about diabetes. It really put me down afterwards. I was on this high and enjoying that feeling of acomplishment and they just brought me down. So, when I got home I was inspired to put them in their place. I found this youtube video that I am going to send out to all of the instructors of several triathletes that do iron mans and they have type 1 diabetes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYI1fe7RMzQ I am also going to do this.. http://www.insulindependence.org/ragnar_2009.asp I am motivated to prove to people that I can do anything you can do... BETTER!

I make crazy decisions

Well, I did it! Whoo! It feels so good to be home. I have no job, no money, no place to live. I moved in with one of my best friends at her moms house. I'm 24 years old with a college degree and I feel like I'm 17 again. The funny thing is, I am so happy. I am so happy to be home. I would rather be here in this situation surrounded by my friends then back in the hell hole of Lubbock. I feel like I can breathe. Things are going to get better.

I picked up some of my old classes at the gym. I taught my first class in almost 8 months this morning. I am on such a high. I didn't realize how much I love teaching. Everyone at the gym was so happy to see me. I felt so wanted. I miss this feeling. I miss all of these people, such a difference from Lubbock.