Dead Beat Tired

BG[CGM]: 130
BG[meter]: 182

Okay, so pregnancy is beating the you know what out of me. I just woke up from an hour and a half nap. I never nap. Maybe short little 15 minutes of shut eye... but you know.

I'm throwing masochistic regulations out the window and taking my preNatal vitamins pretty close to dinner, before bed and with a snack. That way, I don't spend the first half of the day worshipping the porcelain god, which I did twice this week. :D Not fun! I figure, it's a pill full of vitamins and a bunch of good stuff... it goes, it ought to get absorbed...at least partially. If there are other opinions on that matter, I don't care to hear them. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Oddly enough, I don't feel my diabetes is too off. Sugars aren't out of whack as can be expected. I've had a couple of weird highs, but otherwise they've stayed on the lower side. A good thing if you ask me. I've also been able to keep up with my exercise regimen except for those two days of worshipping.

Speaking of customer service, even though we weren't, I ended up changing my sensor and having some issues again then talked to another customer service rep. She was nice. It really pays to be nice.

It can be a rotten world out there. Nice gets you farther. Everyone should give it a try... [or get dismissed, anyway!]
Have a great week!!!
Take care of yourselves.
Bethanne

Finally seeing some results!

BG[CGM]: Below 40, the meter says 38

It is pretty low right now. Ugh. But I've drank juice and eaten, so it's a waiting game now.

I wanted to share that after two months of consistent exercise, I'm finally down ten pounds. I weighed in at 150 today.... YIPPEE!!!! I was jumping up and down and screaming and yelling. Now, I've got a tear in my eye, but that could be more the low sugar speaking than the actual emotion. :D

Thanks for hanging with me as I fight to stay healthy.
With Love,
Bethanne

Still Moving

BG[CGM]: 180 <-- sometimes I do stupid things, like forget to bolus. *eyeroll*

It's been three and a half weeks since I started my 5K training schedule. I've found that running takes a lot! I'm also proud to say, I've kept moving [this is to say, I'm not exactly always running] during that entire time, and before these scheduled weeks, I was doing some cross training [aerobics and stuff]. I've learned that I like to walk fast, that I'd much rather walk fast and keep up a sweat longer, than to try to run. When I run, I go a shorter distance and for a shorter time, too. :P Today was a rest day, but I did a mile anyway. It felt good.

In a related story...

Last night I left the house on a trip to the library. I made it ALMOST to the Wendy's [about 2ish miles?] and ran out of gas. Did you know, NO ONE HAS A PAY PHONE ANYMORE!!! Not Wendy's, not McDonald's. And me? I'm one of the last hold-outs. I don't own a cell phone. So, I walked about one mile to a friend's house--isn't it nice having friends? :D She drove me home. It wasn't that bad, and I wasn't even mad. I should have remembered that I needed gas, not becuase the gauge was on low. No, our dashboard zonked out weeks ago, but because I knew it had abeen a while since gas was put in there. I think I just felt lucky that I hadn't run out of gas that morning when I was driving 4 kindergarteners and their teacher to the PO for a fieldtrip. Can you imagine?!!?!? that would have been horrifyingly embarrassing!

Training

BG[CGM]: 111

Yes, I'm going to start training...
But not like that. -->
As a friend of mine would say, "He has bigger boobs than I do!"

No. I'm going for the 5K. I've been doing 15 minutes of too easy workouts everyday. It's not working... I mean, I feel a little better, but I want to look better and feel GREAT! I've been on my treadmill twice this weekend [it's lying. it really is when it says I've done a mile in 20 minutes! haha]. I've downloaded a training schedule and I'm hoping my measly practice with the 15 minutes a day will keep my head out of my ass on this venture...

Oh, and no pizza or ice cream anymore, either! I ate both of those over the weekend. Talk about feeling crappy... don't get me wrong. I enjoyed every bite of it, but it's no surprise that I'm feeling down[ish]. :D [The diabetes has waged well against my eating habits this weekend, and for that, I'm grateful.]

Plus, I've still got that wedding to go to in June. Whoot! Kitty Hawk here we come. If I lose 30 pounds, i'm rewarding myself with a new dress....

Jumping Jacks

BG[CGM]: 194 (and rising!!!) Over a teaspoon of brownsugar in my oatmeal?!?!?! ARGH. ...okay, fine. Whatever. No brownsugar in my oatmeal from now on. :P


I can't do 2 minutes of jumping jacks.
It sounds crazy to me. If you had asked me before I started on this Wii Fitness craze, I would have said "Yes, I can." I'm active and 2 minutes seems short.

It's NOT!!

Holy mackeral. The Wii wanted me to record my resting pulse then my pulse after exercising. Yikes. After a minute I ended up waving my arms while I ran in place. By the time I was finished, I was breathing so hard and loud, I couldn't hear to feel my pulse.... yes, I said that. Why does it need to be quiet to FEEL your pulse? :D

Here's to improvement! Cheers!

The waiting GAME

BG: 126 <-- ugh! just applied the blood too soon, Error 3 Retest!

Yes, I'm waiting for Dexcom to process my return. I gave them 2 weeks, then two more and when I contacted them, they said, OH, I guess they will process that return now. Oops. That was a week ago. I'm patiently waiting for the end of this week before I double check my insurance again. No point in wasting anyone's time, eh? Hopefully, though by the end of this week, things will be straight and I'll be able to call Minimed and get their CGMS on its way. I was going to hold off, but I've been really frustrated with my lows, especially in the morning.

I'm looking forward to my A1C this month. Anyone want to place a bet on what it will be? LOL Cold turkey, except to say that it was 6.5 in July. I've been tracking really strictly, and staying in range, 80-110, 50% of the time [according to my snapshot readings]. :D I'm going to throw 6.0 out there, but I wonder if it will be lower because I feel WAY better than I did in July, and I've been exercising on top of all this blood tracking. [sounds like i'm on a hunt]

So, Christmas is right around the corner....
What do you want?
I want a LAPTOP, which I'm not going to get, but a girl can dream, right?
Take care,
Bethanne

Health Insurance

BG: 107

You know I've been sick for a while... well, today I finally feel like I'm back on my feet for good, and tomorrow I will exercise. Yay!

Unfortunately, we are not going to see family for Thanksgiving. It's part okay and part disappointing. You know, after a good 5 days of being down, an 8 hour trip hardly sounds exciting. More than that, though, my brother-in-law is supposed to have surgery in December. It's a surgery he has rescheduled at least twice. Can you imagine if he caught something while we were there?!?!?! We'd never live it down! Not only that, but the've met all the deductibles for the year...and if they have to go next summer, they'll end up paying way more out-of-pocket.

Let me tell you, this is something I completely understand! I do not want my name on anything that may [or may not] hinder this surgery from happening. :D We're all praying for you, John! Maybe we'll see you after Christmas.

So, Matt has scheduled the first ever Annual Wii Tournament!! All day Thursday to battle the best in games like Wii Sport, Wii Ski, Mario Kart, and Lego Star Wars.
May the best Strasser win.
~Bethanne

I made Donuts

BG: 147

Yes, I did. And they are gooooood. So I gave about half of them away. What can a diabetic girl do? Right? Still, my family enjoyed them...and I find my time in the kitchen soothing, which I really need a lot of right now.

And praying helps. Remembering all the things I'm thankful for, how I'm blessed. Offering my crazy rantings up to God would be a good thing to do BEFORE I go off on my hubby... LOL

I skipped exercise this morning. WHY?! I wish I hadn't. Tomorrow will be a new day. Tomorrow, I'll exercise. Mall walking, anyone? :D

Exercise

BG [CGM]: 94

My new bike. Got it for my birthday and have ridden it a few times. Can't help but like it. It's a cruiser--and maybe that's not cool, but I don't care! It has a basket, great for carrying my snacks, water bottles, Dexcom reciever, keys, glucose monitor... you get the idea. I have a lot of baggage.

Today, my first BIG ride. I thought I was going to die! I might live in the middle of a corn field, but we do have a few significant hills through our parks. I had to walk my bike up the last one. But it felt good. I'll feel it more tomorrow, I'm sure. My ride started out a little on the high side, 168. I'd forgotten my glucometer, grrrr. Thank goodness for the CGMS. Without it, I would have gone home.

I had my reciever hooked to my basket........over my first big bump, I watched a few hundred dollars fly up off the basket. My heart stopped. I could just see the thing bouncing from the basket or my bike handle and catapulting into the woods. THANKFULLY, it jumped from my handle bars BACK into the basket. Sheesh. I left it there. It's neat clipped on the rim, but apparently NOT practical! Phew.

I snacked on a breakfast bar [19g carbs] on the way home (I'd forgotten a water bottle, too). When I got home, I was at 89... as you can see in the picture. :D


If you are looking really closely, you'll see the high in the graph from before I went on the bike ride, then it sloped down. Very cool technology. I wish I was comfortable with it, completely! Still on the fence, though I did go back to keeping it since my last post. *eyeroll*

Doing what you don't want to

Do you ever feel like you just want to throw your hands up and say, NO!

Although this sounds like an opening to a discussion about Diabetes, it's not. Haha. I'm supposed to make all these phone calls to people in my parish, inviting them to come to the Parish Mission next week. But I don't wanna!



This morning, I got up and really wanted to ride my bike. Rock Springs has this great trail running through it, with that in mind, I packed a bag and tossed my bike into the back of Matt's truck. [I think I bent the kickstand doing that] My sugars had been decent all morning, so I felt good to go. Then the truck didn't start, and remembering that my hubby needed to mess with the battery and possibly the starter, I [sighed first] then opted for just riding around the neighborhood. I pulled my bike from the truck bed and went back inside to let Matt know. Feeling kind of odd, I tested my sugar and it was 49. UGH! How frustrating! I was so mad, I just wanted to cry. But I ate something instead and waited about 15 minutes. I wasn't quite 100, but decide to head out anyway. I get about 3 pedal turns from the driveway and have to stop because the pedal is hitting the kickstand. I go back inside and Matt fixes it. Finally, I'm out on my bike...

And it was a good workout. Not too long, but long enough for these unworked muscles.

...now I just have to decide what to do about these phone calls. Maybe I should pay my kids to do it for me. Why? Why did I agree to this? I don't talk well to the people I do know! I am not the extrovert. *sigh*

Just so you know, I'm having some serious trouble with my CGMS. Not in the physical sense, but the mental. I wish I could report differently. Maybe it's because I've only just recently getting serious about my management. Maybe I need a buffer. I don't know...

Maybe it's just too much change for me at one time: diabetes therapy, cgms, a new job, military life... I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I don't know what to do with this continuous glucose data. I think my next step will be to silent all the alerts on this thing except for the low and high. That's not a bad idea. My biggest beef right now is wishing the cgms was linked to my pump... *sigh* I can be a fickle gal, can't I? :P

End of Day Report

BG: 126

Your finger is a pressurized can of fruit punch. You know how your mom used to puncture the top of the can, first on one side then on the other in order to pour the drink?

Sometimes, I prick my finger once, and nothing happens. When I prick it again, it bleeds in both spots. WTF? The phenomenon is only slightly less known that the geyser effect. We've all seen that... when blood spurts out unexpectedly--into your eye, all over your keyboard, the steering wheel. Ew.

Quiet day today, I changed out all the kid's clothing--summer for fall/winter. YAY! I love doing this! I love that for one to three days, my boy's dressers will be neat, that they will be pleased by the new clothes and WANT them to be neat. Everyone is covered for the winter months, thank goodness... We're short a few pairs of shoes. Ugh.

I got a bike for my birthday. I'm really excited about it. The rain hasn't stopped since I got it, so no big rides for me, yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Matt is also starting to work out. He ran today... or no, yesterday. I think he's nervous about the military physical and training. Not because he's a wimp. He's not!! But, he doesn't 'work out'... he just works. :) He'll do fine, I know it. I think we're going to get into shape together.

I look forward to getting my Salter Nutritional Scale this week. Not sure how it's going to work, but I think the effort will be worth it. Getting the numbers correct... less guessing on carb values. My sugars are excellent, but hovering on the lower side, and I wonder if I need to cut back again. Either go to the 1unit for 15 carbs or keep messing with the basals. I don't like eating just to raise my sugar levels. I would rather NOT be eating to keep it down. anyhoo...

I can't complain. I will have a CGMS soon and will be able to do basal tests without all the finger sticking!!!!!!!!! WHOOT! Yay!!!
Happy Sunday.
Love
Bethanne

Eating Out

is something I don't do very often. Matt and I, we just like being at home. But, occasionally, we splurge. Today, for my birthday we went to the Olive Garden. I didn't think to check the webpage for nutritional values, so I guesstimated. 79g Carbohydrates, actual Carbohydrates 106g!! 2hour post BG: 89

so the question is, who calculated the carbs? The menu values say a seving of salad w/ dressing is 22g CHO. 22g?? Where? Two little croutons?...okay big croutons, but still. 22g is like 2 peices of bread. dressing? That's mostly fat... some sugars. I don't know. I do know that if my sugar was 89 2hours later, taking insulin for 106g of carbs would have be the end! :D

It makes me feel a little frustrated, because the fact is, there are too many variables sometimes to get it right. The fat content was pretty high, totaling about 46 g. Sooo, that probably means I'll spike a little later. Fat slowing the sugar/carb absorption. I'll be interested to see what my sugar is in another two hours. I've tried the Dual Wave bolus--that gives me a boost of insulin but also a dose over a few hours--and I don't like it. My sugar is HIGH after the meal then back to normal in about two hours. I'll keep playing with it, hoping to get it right, but unless I have a high fat meal, which is rarely, I don't know that I see the point. :)

Am I making any sense?
What are we to do? How can we manage without hiccups when there are so many variables? From person to person, from food to food--X amount of carbs means nothing unless you know what the food is and how YOUR body will react to it. And how WILL your body react to it? Well, let's see....

Did I exercise? Did I just wake up? What time of the month is it? Am I sick? Do I have a cold? Yeah, it's that EASY. :P

A Clarification

In case yesterday's post came off with Matt in a bad light... it isn't that he ignores my diabetes or isn't knowledgable of it. He knows more than I think he knows, actually. He's very good about keeping up with my regimen and blood work and eating habits. I think the sleeping thing is probably more to do with the fact that I AM a heavy sleeper...and perhaps he didn't try that hard after the initial shake down. :D I have been pretty tired and cranky the last few days because my son Sean is waking up at 4:30 in the morning and wanting to play Wii Sports, boxing. Early morning, late nights...

I swear, I'm going to bed early tonight!!! :D

And tomorrow, getting kids to school then going to exercise. This morning was WONDERFUL...and a complete wash, as I spent my first official kid-free time, surfing the internet and commenting on facebook. *blush* Oops. Tomorrow, it's time for a routine.

I keep reading about other diabetics who are exercising 3-5 times a week. :P I may not be inactive--I do have 4 children--but, so help me God, I will do something regular even if it's just walking.

Bouncing Around

Did some up and down today. A little frustrating on the mental stability. PMS is sneaking up on me, and I think my body is out of whack. Know it, actually... just ask Matt. We got into it a couple of nights ago. I should have known.

Didn't complete the overnight basal test. Sugar was 169 when I wanted to start. Rules say to have it between 80-140 at the start. More frustrations. I think I will just wait a week or so, then do it.

Though I didn't walk this morning, I took the kids to Forsyth park for the afternoon and we walked and played on the swings. Good activity. The kids are washing the car with Dad while I make dinner... leftover steak... I don't know, PIE? Stew? Too hot!! What do I do with two steaks? LOL

I'll pop in for an end of the night report tonight...
Take care.
Bethane

Exercise and Food

Staples to the well-balanced Diabetic life.

This morning, after my pizza induced fat feelings, I walked over a mile (1.5?). That's nothing, I know. Most healthy people run at least twice that in the same amount of time. But as usual, I find myself working back up to exercise. It's a mode my body is used to... the sore muscles of not being used. Heck, I almost got up and did aerobics. That would have been KILLER on my unused legs. Sheesh, the way I'm talking you would think I'm 200+ pounds. I'm not. I'm a slightly overweight 160 pounds.

The exercise is good though, and I feel so much better today already. I had a bowl of cereal, Cheerios, which I could have taken less insulin for because of the walking. Cereal's another food that shoots my glucose up, so if I do eat it, I try to cover. Next time, when I'm exercising, I'll do less. 10:10am -- 41 -- ate a peach and yogurt.

I'm off to change a diaper...
and edit a manuscript...
and revise a sypnopsis...