My name is Douglas
Michael Scalia and I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on May 24, 1999. The winter prior to my diagnosis I started
losing weight, I was always thirsty, and using restroom constantly. At the time I didn’t have medical insurance so
I didn’t do anything about my condition.
Eventually I finally had insurance so I went to the doctor, I recall
telling the doctor the reason for my visit was because I thought I had
diabetes. After performing a blood test the doctor returned and he said “I have
good news, and bad news. The good news is we know what’s wrong, the bad news is
you were right.”
The doctor was
able to schedule me an appointment at The International Diabetes Center where I
would learn to manage diabetes and gain control over my life with diabetes. Some
of the things I learned were how to count carbs and dose for the food I would
eat. The original treatment plan was a combination of two kinds of insulin. NPH
and Regular, the NPH was a long lasting insulin otherwise known as a basal, and
the Regular was a fast acting or known as a bolus. For the longest time I
really didn’t have a full understanding of what I was doing, I was just going
through the motions and listening to the doctors, forced to eat when I wasn’t
hungry since I decided what I was going to eat at 7:00 a.m. instead of when I
wanted to eat.
A time came when I
was presented a new solution, Lantus and Humalog. I really enjoyed this program
because I could eat when I was hungry or skip meals if I wasn’t hungry. This
gave me a lot of additional freedom to live my life the way I wanted to. This
new treatment option made living with diabetes a lot easier.
When I was
diagnosed with diabetes I had made it down to 150 pounds, months after
diagnosis I made my way back up to a healthy 175 but suddenly I found myself at
190, then 205, and before I knew it I was 255. I read that a good way to lose weight would be
to sign up for a 5k and raise money for a charity but I skipped that idea and
somehow went right for the marathon and didn’t raise money for any charity. I still have the email from the moment I registered
for The Twin Cities Marathon in 2011. Registration opened at midnight but I
logged in and the site let me in, at 11:52 p.m. and the response read
“Congratulations! You are officially registered for the 30th Annual
Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 2nd 2011”
My first marathon
was difficult but I finished. I remember chewing about 50 glucose tablets along
the course, a lot of walking, but I finished. Probably the best part was around
mile 25.5 when my brother came up and asked me “are you ready to do this
because you’re going to have to lay it on the pavement to wrap things up, let’s
go” as he ran with me to the chute. Sitting on the ground as my other brother
showed me my unofficial time 6:00:05, had I finished or did I fail? I was told
you get 6 hours to be considered a finisher. Eventually race officials assured
me if I had a medal, finishers shirt, and my name was online as a finisher,
then I was a finisher.
March of the
following year I talked to my doctor about going on the insulin pump. Earlier
in my story I mentioned words like bolus or basal but it wasn’t until I was on
the pump that I knew what either of those words meant. Some other new terms I
would learn while on the pump are Dual Wave Bolus, Square Bolus, and Temp Basal
and Calibrate, and Active Insulin. Prior to being on the pump I really had no
idea what all those terms were and how things such as active insulin could
dramatically impact a run.
Running with an
insulin pump and continuous glucose meter has dramatically increased my success
rate of preventing a low while running and having the energy to continue. It
takes a lot of practice, documentation, and trying to go out the next time to
repeat what you did the previous time.
My second marathon
was a huge success but a disaster at the same time. I finished the run at
5:12:16, I had to walk for almost 3-4 miles because of a low blood glucose
reading. I did not carry my glucometer with me and I solely trusted my
continuous glucose monitor. The meter read above 400 and I over corrected and
met my fate around mile 16. I had brought plenty of glucose with me but because
my correction was so great I about lost it. At this time I turned my temp basal
to 5% and ate all that I could. I family was spectating and they had OJ on a
table, I was lucky and that was enough to put me back to where I needed to be
and I ran it out.
My third marathon
is where I had my first run in with a Medtronic Global Hero. This chance
meeting in line to use the restroom at the 31st Twin Cities Marathon
is where I learned how to calibrate my continuous glucose meter. In the past I
had calibrated it every single time I tested. The Global Hero was from Isrial
had taught me to wait until I saw a flat line on my pump, this was the best
time to calibrate. If it was shaped like a mountain it was a bad time to
calibrate. Ever since that moment I’ve had a ton of success with calibration
and improved awareness.
I don’t recall the
exact moment when I decided I wanted to be a Global Hero but I do recall the
moment when I decided I wanted to help change lives. If I can do this, anyone
can do this. I’m not the fastest runner and to be honest I’ve always been a
back of the crowd kind of finisher but I finish. I use running to tell the story
of life with diabetes. My endo once told me I should make a shirt that says “I’m
diabetic, what’s your excuse?”
