One Word Meme

Why yes, apparently if everyone else jumped off a bridge, I would too.  :)

Only Type One Word .. first word that comes to mind

1. Where is your cell phone? Upstairs
2. Your significant other? Sweetpea
3. Your Hair? Short
4. Your Skin? Pale
5. Your mother? Awesome
6. Your favorite thing? Knitting
7. Your dream last night?  Robbery
8. Your favorite drink? Martini  :)
9. Your dream/goal?  Happiness
10. The room you’re in? Livingroom
11. Your ex?  Mistake
12. Your fear? Complications
13.Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
14.Where were you last night? Couch
15.What you’re not? Judgemental
16.Muffins?  Yummy
17.One of your wish list items? Yarn
18.Where you grew up?  Here
19.The last thing you did?  Yawn
20.What are you wearing? Hanknits
21.Your TV?  Soaps
22.Your pets? Passed
23. Your computer? Laptop
24. Your life? Off-track
25. Your mood? Mixed
26. Missing someone?  Always
27. Your car?  Old
28. Something you’re not wearing?  Jewelry
29. Favorite Store?  Many
30. Your summer?  Fun
31. Like someone?  Friends
32. Your favorite color?  Green
33. When is the last time you laughed?  Today
34. Last time you cried?  Hhhhmmmmm
35. Who will respond to this? Someone
36. Who’s Answers are you anxious to see?  Everyone



Happy Halloween to all!  Remember to count and bolus!

Be Prepared

"Be Prepared" is the official Boy Scout Motto.  As far as I'm concerned, it should be the official People With Diabetes Motto too.

Right now my family and I are getting prepared.  Prepared for some bad news about my uncle as the end of his battle with cancer draws to a close.

When the dreaded call comes in, we'll need to be on the soonest flight we can catch to Louisiana for the services.  For me, that means being as prepared diabetes-wise as I can.  I've gathered all of the D-supplies I'll need on the trip - and then some.  Insulin (short and long acting), extra infusion sets, quick-serter, alcohol swipes, IV prep pads, meter, lancets, extra test strips, syringes, ketone strips, and more Smarties, Sweet-Tarts and gummies than I could possibly need.

I have to admit, I don't look forward to going through security.  I haven't flown in almost four years, and I've never flown as a pumper.  I've done some homework on how to make it through security with as little delay as possible.  I will have all of my supplies in a (large) Zip-Loc bag - although cramming in all of the stuff listed above will be quite a feat!  I will have it out and ready as I approach the security checkpoint, and will let them know immediately that I am diabetic.  My insulin will be in it's original boxes, with the prescription printed on the front.  I will show them my insulin pump, and explain what it is and that I need to stay connected to it.  I believe the security checkpoints are extremely important, and my goal is to make their job as easy as possible.  I'll try to be prepared with everything I need to show them I am not a risky passenger.  I'm just a person managing a disease.

Be Prepared.  We live by those words every day, don't we?

Have you flown recently?  Do you have any more tips I might need?

(P.S. And for those wondering - yes, I checked and yes, knitting needles are still allowed on the plane.  I've got mine all ready to go.)

DRI Conference - Fun, Informative, Inspiring!!

I was one of the lucky people in the New York City area who was able to attend the Diabetes Research Institute's day-long conference, DIABETES 2.0 -Harnessing New Technologies in Research and Treatment. There is probably no way to actually sum up this experience in words. Although it was a very long day, starting with a 6 am train ride and ending with a 6:30 pm blogger dinner and a 9 pm train ride home, the hours flew by. The sessions were very informative and the first two took away some of my cynical doubting attitude about the chance of a cure in my life-time. (I do believe a cure for diabetes will be found.  I just sometimes doubt that it will be found in my life-time.  But the information I saw on Saturday made me more hopeful). Another session inspired me to get back on track with my exercising, and had me on the treadmill this morning before 7 am - and before the excuses for skipping my workout cropped up. The last session, about Diabetes Burn-Out, left us with lots of laughs and good tips.

Equally as important as the information was the social aspect of the day. I was fortunate enough to meet a whole gang of fellow diabetes bloggers. It was awesome to spend the day with a bunch of people who really get what I live with every day, because they do too. Some people I "knew" from their blogs, and it was great to put real-life faces and personalities to their on-line ones. Others were new friends who's blogs have quickly been added to my feed reader. All were delightful! I was battling high blood sugars all day, but my frustration was lessened when several others admitted theirs wouldn't come down either. I think maybe the conference center was pumping a sugar-mist into the air! (Just kidding.)

So, who did I meet? Well, it's easy to remember because my Event Photographer was on hand to take some group shots. In this first one, we are striking our best Rockette pose - but I obviously missed the announcement that our pumps were supposed to be on display.

We quickly realized we had left out a few key people and gathered again for another group shot.

From left to right: Scott (who it turns out I went to college with), Fran, Gina, me, Lee Ann,

Val, Kelly, Allison, Amy and Bernard (who Pea and I were fortunate to spend the train ride home with).

If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event like this, I would highly recommend it. As my post title stated, it was fun, it was informative and it was inspiring.

I thought I'd end this post with a little video that was mistakenly taken as we were lined up for pictures. It seems my camera was on the wrong setting, so we got some inadvertent video footage. There isn't much to it, but I think you can hear our laughter and the fun we were having.

So yeah, I guess the red light really means the camera is recording video!

Funny site

Nope, I'm not directing you to a web-site that will make you giggle.  I don't have one of those to share today.  Although I did get quite an eyeful yesterday when I Googled "tighty whities" in an attempt to check my spelling for a post over on my knitting blog.  (Do you use Google to check your spelling sometimes?  Usually it works out really well . . . . except for yesterday when it lead me to a blog that I'm not even going to link.  I'll let you use your imagination, or Google it yourself.)

Anyway, when I say "funny site", I mean my pump site feels a little funny.  It doesn't hurt, but it just doesn't feel quite right.  Kind of like it's pulling at my skin.   I've never had a site feel that way before.

My blood sugars have been okay.  Not great, not terrible, but okay.  I woke up a little high the past two mornings (109 and 122).  After breakfast yesterday I needed a .2u correction Yeah, that's point-two units.  Not bad, but I usually don't need any post-breakfast correction.  Then again, I punched in that my yogurt has 10g of carbs and I think they changed there recipe and it might be 12g now.  Today's post-breakfast was perfect - and I didn't have a yogurt.

My highest high since putting this site in was 175.  So I guess I'll let it ride.  It will be time to change it out tomorrow anyway.  So unless I start hitting 200's, I'll leave it in.

At what point do you decided a site isn't right and put in a new one?  Now that finances are on everyone's mind, do you give your site a little more leeway before deciding it's bad and changing it out?

Dancing with the Amateurs

I'm going to make a confession.  I don't really like to exercise.  I go in spurts where I'm all into it - logging miles on my treadmill and pumping iron along with my strength training DVDs.  But before I know it, the laziness hits.  I decide I've earned a day of rest.  The next week, I take two days.  Soon I'm happily spending my exercise time lounging on the couch knitting.  And as much as I've tried, there's no way knitting on the couch counts as a workout.

I think the key in sticking to a workout routine is to find things that feel like fun, not exercise.   No matter how lazy I get, I know I'm guaranteed a 45 minute workout each week.  How, you ask?

Dancing!!
(That's me and Pea at a team competition between our dance studios.
Not the best picture, but the only one I have of us dancing together.)

In 2004, when Pea and I were planning our wedding, we decided to take ballroom dancing classes.  To our surprise, when the 6-week program was finished, we both liked it so much we decided to continue.  The more dance technique we learn, the better the workout is.  Obviously, fast dances like my personal favorites, swing and cha-cha, really get the blood pumping.  But surprisingly, smooth dances are also a real workout if you do them correctly.  (Not that we do - but we're trying.)  The rise-and-fall of a good waltz takes a lot of muscle control in your legs and core.  Just holding the proper dance frame takes strength - head back and left, shoulders back, chest lifted,  back arched (but not arched too much), weight on one foot, and arms extended to open the frame.  Then you've got to really reach with your legs to create the big, swoopy movement - which gets your heart-rate pumping as much as a walk on the treadmill.  Oh, and do this in four-inch heels without letting any part of that crazy dance frame crumble.  Yeah, not so easy!!

Not so easy . . . but so much fun!  And so much exercise.  My blood sugars following a dance lesson always rock!  And when Dancing with the Star hit the air-waves a year after we started our lessons, dancing ballroom became almost cool!  So, if you are struggling to get motivated for your workouts, why not think about what activities you can do that feel like fun instead of exercise?  It's a sneaky way to trick your body into a workout without even realizing it.

Petition for a Doodle

November 14th is World Diabetes Day, a day to raise awareness of diabetes. I'm sure most of you have seen the great logos Google uses to mark holidays and events. They call them doodles, and the diabetes community is hoping Google will put one up for World Dabetes Day.

Here's how you can help. Please go sign a petition that will be presented to Google on November 1st. We're hoping to have more than 20,000 signatures, so we need your help!!

Juggling Life

In the past week, my normal routine has been completely shot to hell. Pea took some days off so we could finish a bathroom re-do project we started far too long ago. Many balls were dropped while trying to juggle a home improvement project along with my normal daily routine. Sure, spackling and sanding, priming and painting, ripping out old cabinets and installing new ones is quite a work-out - but it's very different from my normal exercise routine. Our meals were off schedule and consisted of take out or easy to cook foods that weren't all that healthy. We couldn't get all the work finished, and I'm left with mounds of unwashed laundry, piles of neglected chapters, assignments and quizzes for my on-line class, and blogs that have been sorely neglected. Along with a week of blood sugars that have seen both higher highs and lower lows than normal. It's pretty stressful.

How do you cope when life has you juggling things outside of your normal routine? When you find yourself starting to drop balls, is diabetes one of the first ones to fall off track? I found it hard to make healthy food choices when I was too exhausted to care. I found that the combination of hard physical labor and being totally engrossing in our project made me less likely to feel a low coming on. I'm left feeling like I'm behind on everything and completely off track, which doesn't help keep my stress levels down. It annoys me that a home improvement project can throw my disease and control so far off track.

But I guess the thing to do now is stop dwelling on the past week and start moving forward. The hardest work in the bathroom is done, and we should be able to finish things up over the next few weekends. It's time to stop juggling and get back to the normal routine. Trade bathroom demolition for walks on the treadmill. Stock back up on healthy snacks and make nutritious meals. Stop feeling overwhelmed by my school work and just get it done. Hopefully these efforts will get those blood sugars back in line.

How do you keep from dropping the diabetes ball when life causes you to start juggling your routine? I'm determined to do better on our next home improvement project!