Nursing School

BG[meter]: 86
BG[CGM]: Sensor Error *shrug* I don't know. I just started the damn thing over again, and hope for a better run. I am on day 4, so calling the company would be pointless. Their sensors are tested for a 3 day run, no more. Anymore finagling is up to me.

After reading Holly's blog today, I got to thinking about when I was diagnosed and the upheaval/emotional rollercoaster it put into motion. Oh, I wouldn't ever look back and call it upheaval. I definitely remember ups and downs. I can easily commiserate with other d-bloggers who share my experience, but overall I had a pretty happy childhood.

Hind sight being 20/20, now that I've touched the d-community online, I can see how I missed out on sharing my disease, sharing who I was with people who really understood. No one really gets it unless they get it... you know? All the books in the world [like, I am not my Illness, which I never did read. Sorry Mom!] are not going to make a person feel less alone. God helps in that instance, but God also gave us to us...he gave us community, family, church, knowing that in our humanity we would need other people.

I had a lot of people in my life to support me and love me. I just didn't have diabetes people. I never did get to a diabetes camp. Hmm. Maybe I'm forgetting something. I do remember a gal in high school who had diabetes, but I went to a LARGE high school, and we never really connected. My neighbor friend was diagnosed with diabetes, but we moved. Pfft.

Now, I have my husband Matt who understands me when my disease is front and center. When my facial expressions are just a hair off because my sugars have dropped or my pump is beeping at me because my sugar is high. He keeps up with the new stuff and is interested in keeping me working correctly. It's like we were made one... oh that's right. We were. :D

Wow, there was a time, I never would have even admitted high sugars existed. I'm one of those people who didn't understand that it wasn't my fault. I would fudge logs, lie about numbers when asked... [it's amazing that I can't remember having any A1c's over 8 in my adult lifetime] Highs happen, even when I do everything right. It's freeing to admit that, and oddly enough it makes the highs that ARE my fault [forgetting to bolus, overeating] easier to be accountable for.

Time Flies

BG[CGM]: 96

BG: 176 -- haven't figured that one out yet, but I'll be keeping an eye on things to see if they don't even out. :D



I can't believe how fast time goes!! The Olympics are half over! February is eight days from ending! SPRING IS JUST A SHORT MONTH AWAY!

10 7 things I love about Spring.
1. flowers
2. baby rabbits
3. green leaves
4. bike riding
5. Easter
6. End of the school year right around the corner
7. Tax refunds

Have a great weekend!

~Bethanne

A day to myself

BG[CGM]: 108

Tomorrow is Monday and my hubby is off for St. Louis with the youngest, which means I'm home alone!! Until mid afternoon, I'll have the house to myself. :D :D :D

Time to exercise, to straighten, to read, to write! Write! Yay! A good six hours.... *sigh*

Are you a diabetic? Do you get time alone? Does your family worry with each occasion? So...what do we do to safeguard?

1) eat at regular intervals!
2) check often!
3) stay in contact with friends and family.

I'm looking forward to a day filled with peace and contemplation. ;-)
We all deserve it--diabetic or not.
Take care!
Bethanne

A Sugar Addict's Blog

My sister found this and I thought it was GREAT Vlogging for diabetics and [obviously] NONdiabetics, too.

I threw it AWAY!

BG: 69

First, I have to show you what's in my yard right now. We have these crazy landpeople who have filled our yard with a number of trees--cigar trees, elms, sycamores, maples, curly-leaved willows... They are on the verge of choking each other out [the trees, I mean], BUT right now, it's too pretty to complain. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of days ago, I woke up in the night after [another] nightmare. I swear, these crazy dreams keep coming to me. Anyway, I was headachy, crampy... it was awful. I had my CGMS in, the one with the Tylenol warning. So, I just got fed up and pulled the thing, took two Tylenol and went back to bed. This morning--don't ask me how--I woke from a sound sleep on a gasp. Matt rolled over and asked me what was wrong. "Oh no! I threw my transmitter away!" With a pounding heart, I sat for a minute to catch my breath and think. Think, think! Where was I when I took that thing out?

Thank God, after digging through the bathroom garbage, I found it. Seriously, I don't know how I thought of it... it really was Inspired. I'm about to send it back to Dexcom and without the transmitter, I'm sure I would NOT be getting any money back. :P Phew!

The Morning After

7am: BG: 107 <-- that is wonderful. Yesterday at seven, my sugar was probably closer to 150 and steadily rising. After messing with my basals and this is what I see...

I'm really happy this morning.
I'm going to eat breakfast and do my midday basal testing today.

I was over visiting Keri's blog [again] and she mentioned [in passing] that she had been flatlining at 98 mg/dl all day. And that stopped me. Because--and I'm horribly out-of-date in my education, even though I do have a pump--some lessons get stuck in your brain...and I'll have alzheimers and still know that my after meal glucose levels are going to be about 50 mg/dl higher. [crazy run on, i know] But the thing is, since I've been doing more research and talking to people and...stuff. That just doesn't ring true anymore. Does a nondiabetics bloodsugar rise by that much after a meal? I'm starting to doubt it. And all around me are diabetics with 5 A1Cs...and i'm sorry, but that's not possible if you're going up to 150 after every meal....

Wow, that was a long paragraph.
So, a couple of things I'm going to do in the near future.
1) finish my basal testing
2) find a diabetes education course for my family--I think my kids need to know what's going on... they know I have diabetes, and sometimes I act crazy, but they should take a class. :P Something family and/or kid oriented.
3) Get the Dexcom, have it ordered before the end of September when we have decided we are going to switch over to the Medicaid card for good, until Matt starts a new job.

OMG! CGMS

I just got the craziest call from Minimed, wanting to tell me that my doctor put in a request for the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System!!! WTF? Wow. Seems like something I'd remember talking to him about at my appointment last week.

...we did talk about basal testing...
...and getting together with the local Minimed rep...

nope. Can't remember any CGMS discussion.
NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING!

I've thought about it, but I just was waiting until I knew what was going on with my insurance.
Okay...so there's no definite yet, but wow. I'm a little pre-excited and hoping this goes through okay.

*breathe*

All I can see in my head is dollar signs...lots of dollar signs--and NO INSURANCE. I need to learn to contain my hopes.

Starting Numbers--Keeping Track

Lipid Panel
Cholesterol: 189
Triglyceride: 80
LDL (bad): 107
HDL (good): 66.4

Chemistries
Glucose: 129
BUN: 14
Creatinine: 1.0
Sodium: 140 -- a little on the high side but not out of the normal range
Potassium: 4.7
Calcium: 8.8
Alk Phos: 72
SGOT (AST): 33 -- wanna tell me wth this is? apparently mine is high...
SGPT (ALT): 12

Other
A1C: 6.5
TSH: .901

This is as good as it gets today. I have no idea what to blog about. My diabetes has always been a very private thing, well maintained yet never in the forefront. Will I change that now? I don't know. i sat down to blog about how this whole thing came about, and I didn't know what to say...

Go figure.