Don't fear the jinx . . .

I was making a desperate attempt at catching up on blog reading yesterday when I came across this post by Colleen. She talked about a post she had written about a "perfect diabetes day", and how she feared she was jinxing herself by writing about it.  I knew exactly what she meant - because if I even dare type a sentence like "my blood sugar has been stable" and hit the Publish button, I know my numbers will immediately start to roller coaster.  It's a proven fact.  It's the Diabetes Blog Curse.  Colleen said we shouldn't let that stop us.  We should blog the good as well as the bad.  And I agree.  So here's what I have to say . . .

The other evening, I talked Pete into stopping by Crumbs on the way home from our ballroom lesson.  I managed the tough task of picking out my cupcake (so many great choices).  As it turned out, I was high before dinner (a little over 200), but I bolused a correction along with my dinner dose and ate anyway.  And I came right back down into range!  Was I going to ruin it all by indulging in half of a cupcake for dessert?

You bet I was!!!  I swagged a bolus and ate my cupcake half.  (If you haven't had a Crumbs cupcake before, I need to mention that they are HUGE.  So eating half is really more like eating a whole regular sized cupcake.)  I watched my CGM graph slowly start climbing again . . . but it topped out around 150!  Then it headed gently back down!  It stayed flat all night long and my fasting was 93 the next morning!

And that, my friends, was my perfect cupcake night.  And yes, I blogged about it.  And yes, now when I eat the other half, I'll shoot way the heck up out of range.  Fine, Diabetes Bog Curse, it was worth it!!

Hurts so good . . .

Yesterday I was putting away some laundry when the hardwood floor bit me . . . right through my sock.  (I know, I know, always wear shoes.  But to be honest, I never wear anything but socks around my house.)  I sat right down and pulled the offending wood out of my foot.  But it still hurt.  So last night, I had Pete take a look.  And yes, a small splinter was still in there.

We grabbed my surgical instruments of choice, a new lancet and a pair of tweezers.   We pulled over the floor lamp and Pete began the extraction procedure.  And it hurt.  HURT!!!!  Hurt so bad that I cried out in pain and little K.C. came running over to see why I cried.  (I told you she was a sweet little cat.)  This little splinter was in deep, and Pete and I ended up doing a tag-team kind of thing until I finally got it out.

Okay, not exactly the bloody stump of a foot it feels like.

I hate splinters, especially in my feet.  It goes back to a childhood trauma involving a huge chunk of horse chestnut shell and the bottom of my foot.  Just the thought of it makes my stomach clench in terror.

But there is a silver lining.  There is always a silver lining.  Although this little splinter of wood and its extraction hurt, it sets my mind at ease.  I'm glad it hurt.  Because it means those little nerves in my feet are still working just fine.  It means for now, when someone tells me about their grandmother with diabetes who had to have her feet amputated, I can tell them that my feet are just fine.  My little cut hurts so good.

**** As an end note, I need to add that I do not recommend ignoring doctors' orders and walking around without shoes on.  Do as I say, not as I do.  I also want to assure you that Pete and I are checking this wound twice a day to be sure it's healing as it should. ****

MeMe Monday

It's been a while since I've done MeMe Monday, but I saw this one over at hand eye crafts and thought I'd grab it too.

What are your current obsessions?
Getting the house decluttered and reorganized seems to be my obsession de jour.  I'm sure that could change at any time - I tend to be fickle about my obsessions.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear the most often?
My flannel sock monkey jammies. Although you'll be glad to know I never wear them out in public.

What’s for dinner?
Tonight we are going to try Creamy Beef Over Noodles from my Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook.  I smells so awesome right now, I can't wait for dinner.

What is your greatest fear at the moment?
Well, ever since the roofer came on Friday and found that the rain coming through the ceiling was not a roof problem but caused by our chimney falling apart . . .  . my biggest fear is how much a mason will charge us to fix the chimney.  But long term greatest fear has been and always will be diabetes complications.

What are you listening to?
Silence . . . and loving it.

If you were a god/goddess what would you be?
Well, I took this quiz and here is what I got . . .
You Are the Greek Goddess Demeter
You are an Earth Mother, provider of delicious food and beautiful children. You prefer the company of the young, but you have a decided wanderlust, which makes being tied down lead to periods of depression. You are conscientious, law-abiding, and spiritual.
Hmmmm, I do like to cook.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Oh gosh, are you really going to make me admit it?  Okay, okay, I've been kind of watching ABCFamily reruns of The Gilmore Girls.  I know, I know, but there is knitting in some of the episodes.  And they always order out or eat hamburgers and pizza and candy and they still stay so stick skinny and have gorgeous clothes.  And Star's Hollow looks like a lovely place to live.  I want to go to there.

Who or what makes you laugh?
My husband.  My cat.  My friends.

What is your favorite spring thing to do?
Clean.  And start hanging laundry outside on the clothesline again.  And take walks outside.  Oh, and clean.

Where are you planning to travel next?
We're hoping to go to Cape May for our anniversary.

What is the best thing you ate or drank lately?
Coffee!!!!!

Who was your first ever crush?
A boy in kindergarten named Eric. He had black hair and light blue eyes.

What is you favorite ever film?
Gone with the Wind

What is the biggest life lesson you’ve learned from your kids?
Don't have kids, but can I count anything I've learned from my cat? In that case, never underestimate the value of napping.

What song can’t you get out of your head?
Usually the last song I listened to. Which today is a silly song called Ikea. It's catchy . . . sorry about that.

What book do you know you should read but refuse to?
Hmmmm, tough question. Pete reads a lot of non-fiction about American History. I should probably read more of that too . . . but I find is so boring.

What is your physical abnormality/abnormal physical ability?
I'm mega-klutzy. And I have a dead pancreas. But I can pop my jaw on cue!!

What is your favorite color?
It changes all the time, but I'm very into green at the moment.

Proof that I can bring knitting into anything!!

A short time ago, Cherise asked if I'd be interested in writing a guest post for her blog.  Not only was I interested, I was down-right honored!!  She graciously told me to write about anything I wanted to.  Hmmmm, anything?  Well, what about knitting?  Click on over to Cherise's blog to see how I "knit together" my favorite hobby and my chronic illness.

Not what you were hoping to find?

It's been a while since I took a look at my blog's traffic and stats.  The most amusing part, in my opinion, is the keyword searches that have brought some visitors here.  I'm quite sure most searchers are sorely disappointed when they arrive at my page and don't find quite what they expected.  This time there weren't too many weird searches that led readers to my blog, but I thought I'd share the more amusing ones.

• stop messing me about - I'm sure someone was looking for love advice and not chatter about how diabetes messes with me.
• of a picture of things that start with the letter d - Dogs? Dinosaurs?  Diamonds? Donuts?  Nope, just Diabetes-Supplies here.
• chris bowman skating show - You know you're a die-hard figure skating fan when skating searches bring people to your diabetes blog
• sweet diabetes - Or perhaps "bitter-sweet"??

While I was at it, I checked the stats on my knitting blog too.  Oh yes, there were some odd searches there as well.

• flabby arms and tummy - I know, I know, but you don't have to rub it in!!
• no one has been able to stay awake long enough - . . .  . to read my boring posts??
• what is the secret to making zeppole di san giuseppe - I wish I knew, because they might be my very favorite Italian pastry and they are 100% bolus-worthy!
• diabetes is a punishment - Really?  You mean my pancreas quit on me just because I misbehaved?  If I promise to be good, will it start working again?

What odd search terms have brought people to your blog?

Where did these cookbooks come from??

The fact that light snow is falling as I type this is a brutal reminder that spring has not yet arrived.  The only shred of a silver lining I can find is that if it isn't spring, then I don't have to start my Spring Cleaning!!  I have, however, begun to tackle some Pre-Spring Cleaning.  You know, working on that clutter that creeps in and needs to be sorted, weeded and reorganized.  First up are the bookcases, which tend to become overstuffed pretty quickly.

I worked on bookcase #1 yesterday.  The second shelf down is dedicated to my cookbooks.  I like to cook and bake, so I'm not surprised that a single shelf no longer contains my collection.  What did surprise me was how many "diabetic cookbooks" I've acquired. You see, I don't really believe in cooking "special" foods for Type 1 diabetes.  The bolus options on my pump do a pretty good job of accommodating what I eat.  Of course, I do believe in healthy eating and all things in moderation for those with diabetes or without (even if I don't always practice these beliefs).  But cooking special dishes, especially desserts, which are a sad knock-off of the "real thing"?  I don't really see the point.  In my experience, the knock-off is somewhat nasty and just leaves me wanting to indulge in the real thing anyway.

In the end, a couple of my diabetes cookbooks did make their way back onto my book shelf.  I kept the Splenda book, which I have used and which does have some really good recipes.  I like the ones that use real sugar along with Splenda (which I sometimes swap out for Stevia).  I also kept some of the Low GI books, because my post-meal spike is smaller and easier to control with foods that are lower on the Glycemic Index.  The rest of the books were donated to our local library's book sale.  I know I haven't used those and probably never will - but someone else might enjoy them.

What are your thoughts on diabetic cooking?  Do you own any Diabetes Cookbooks?  Do you use them?

Diabetes in my dreams . . .

When dreams enter my slumber, they are often extremely vivid and fairly weird.  I used to make my former co-workers laugh with stories of the odd dreams I had about them the night before.  Last night, my dreams were ruled by diabetes.

The first one was about blogging.  To be honest, the raging case of Blog Block I'm currently cursed with has been on my mind a lot.  I've been wanting to blog but can't think of a single topic worth the time you'd spend to read my post.  So it didn't surprise me that blogging worked it's way into my dreams.  In the dream, I had the perfect blog topic.  I was going to reveal my deepest, darkest diabetes secret to you all.  It would be hard.  It would be a gut-wrenching post.  But I was ready to take the plunge.  Anyone who came across my post would be shocked by my confession, but I was going to lay it all out for the world to see.  The topic?  I have no idea.  In the light of day, I really don't have a deep dark diabetes secret to reveal to you.  I do know in the dream, I was going to talk about my non-compliant days.  The time during college when I never tested my blood, when I ate whatever I wanted in the cafeteria, when I went to parties and drank the mystery punch with who knows what alcohol.  But I know I've admitted that before.  I don't really consider it a deep dark diabetes secret.  I more consider it a rite of passage for those of us diagnosed at a young age.

My second diabetes dream last night was about a meet up with another D-OC member. Again, this dream came up short.  We were on the phone making our plans.  We would meet later that day, and we got our meeting time all squared away.  Then I realized I had no idea WHERE we were meeting.  Panic ensued.  And the dream ended - long before I even set out to meet my friend.  Quite a let-down, no?

And that's it.  A couple of weird diabetes dreams.  Neither of which gave me much to work with in the light of day.  Once again, diabetes is just messing with me.  At least I got a blog post out of it this time.  I'd say that's a win for me!