Want to win a free Ipod Shuffle?

I know, it's been forever since I've been here. No apologies though; It is what it is.

BUT I did want to promote a website and an opportunity to win a free IPOD shuffle.

Here's the link: http://technewsmadesimple.com/2009/04/02/ipod-shuffles-promotion/

The promotion ends April 15th -- Tomorrow.

So, go take the short survey and then get back to doing your taxes!

I was reading another d-blog and actually clicked on the link to my blog to see if I still existed in on the internet and I do.

Things have been entirely too stressful. Work, diabetes crap, work, did I mention work?!

The exciting diabetes news (I'm not ready to share the bad) is that I got my One Touch Ultra Link. I love it. The only two things I'd change would be to make it smaller... it's pouch is the size of a small purse. I went to the cosmetic aisle at target and bought a small make up bag to store it in instead of that huge black pouch.

And, I wish there were an option from the meter to tell the pump to bolus. Like a remote option. That would be sweet. I like that there's one less step to get my blood sugar in for a bolus though.

I'm off again... as if anyone reads this, but oh well. I don't blame ya, nothing new ever happens here!

Mel needs...

You have probably seen others who have googled "[their name] needs" and reported the results. Here are mine... (I had to ignore a few that refered to Mel Gibson in particular; who knew, the man needs help!)

Mel needs help.
Sure... if you can cook, clean, and pay my bills. wonderful!

Mel needs to handle the sales end while some one else runs the company.
um, ok. no thanks?

Mel needs to relax.
Amen! However, I need to get a ton of stuff done too (see above--Mel needs help)

Mel needs to focus on herself and heal.
Probably not extremely relevant currently as I'm not sick.

Mel needs to learn from Martha.
I don't know any Marthas except for the Biblical Martha, but she was kind of the negative example in the story, so maybe not so much.

Mel needs a blog.
Have one, thanks.

Mel needs a laptop computer.
Again, have one, but if someone's giving away a new mac laptop, that's be amazing.

Mel needs to sit the ---- down and shut the hell up.
ouch. Don't really know how to respond to that!

Mel needs your prayers.
Certainly wouldn't hurt at this point--ridiculous early morning blood sugars and stressful life right now!

Mel needs an English class.
Well, I don't think so, but I'd love to learn Spanish. Close, I guess.

6 word meme

I was tagged by Lili for the 6 word memoir.

I'm just getting around to it now. I really had no idea what to say.

Here are my 6 words:

Much I know; But don't wanna.

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I've been having a rough week. Haven't been feeling well and am feeling a little stressed.
Tuesday's dinner was going to be an english muffin from Dunkin' Donuts. As I pulled up to the drive thru it struck me a little differently--I know how many carbs are in an english muffin. I don't want to. I wish I didn't.

Tonight it occurred to me that I don't want to know about pumps and infusion sets as I changed mine.
Many of us in the OC have complained about the ignorance of diabetes and especially type 1 that we encounter in others. I have a confession to make: I wish I were one of the ignorant people pissing you all off with my questions and wrong assumptions.

I suppose this phase will pass soon enough. Perhaps after a good night's sleep--or a couple of nights. I can only hope.

silence and my trip

Well, there's been a silence over here. I was posting quite a bit, but then I was sidetracked by a project and an upcoming trip. I leave today for Honduras for a week. I'm a bit more nervous about the diabetes element of this trip than any of the other places that I've been, so wish me luck. If you'd like to know more about the trip, you can see the other project I was working on here.

Happy St. Patty's Day! (I'll be far away at that point and missing the corned beef dinner I love so much. However, I did suggest we have corned beef for Easter when I return and was told that wasn't an option! We'll be having a clam boil--so much more traditional!)

whoa.

Long time. I've been working on another project and have been so busy with that, that I haven't gotten to post here at all!

I put a site in my leg for the very first time tonight! If you haven't tried it, I have no complaints so far. I'm pretty much betting that I'll rip it out very very soon... but I'm hopeful.

I had an endo appt recently and it went much better than my last few visits with her. She was pleasant and I didn't feel like a failure or disappointment. I'm even considering weight watchers like she suggests EVERY appointment! Does anyone have experience with the online program?!
My A1C went down from 8 to 7.8 or was it 7.6... I think it was 7.6...7.8 was my guess before my appt. Anywho, the logs I showed her were HORRIBLE, but due to her illness my appt was bumped back two days, so I was able to correct the issues and go into the appt with some better numbers. She suggested I print my logs every two weeks in order to see these issues and be able to motivate myself to get back on track. I think that's exactly what I need.

Lows and Basal Testing

Doing things "one day at a time" is not just about losing weight, but about overall health and accomplishing things that I've just put aside in life.

I've done fairly well to be disciplined and not eat after 8pm, BUT like all things I've been thrown some curves. Namely, A TON OF LOWS. I went through my meter's history and 16 out of my last 50 readings were under 90. I woke up last night at 2 am with a reading of 37! The night before 40. And the night before that 3 readings in the 60s before my head even hit the pillow. OH and I'm sitting here sipping a half glass of OJ because I'm clocking in at 91 after 2 hours of volleyball and my track record doesn't exactly indicate that I'm going to hold steady!

This all means that, while I've not eaten between 8pm and bedtime (most nights), I've been eating sometime between midnight and 7am most mornings!! One seems to negate the other, no? So, this week I'm aiming to get in two overnight basal tests. Tomorrow night (Wed) and hopefully Friday or Saturday night. Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm exercising after dinner, so it's really hard to gauge and I think I can only take one night of up every hour and still make it to work on time! Hopefully, since I'll still be keeping up with the absence of food after 8pm, having my basals in order will make it a little more fruitful!

I really hope I can wake up to each alarm tomorrow night... getting half way through the night and having to do it again just isn't going to work for me!!

How often do you do basal tests?

My job can be pretty exciting...

when we're up to stuff like this. Scroll down the page to the video player and then choose "Fitness Challenge" from the list of videos.

The kickoff was today and we saw over 150 people join the challenge! That's 150+ people either controlling or preventing Type 2 diabetes (There may be a few T1s in the mix as well). That's 150+ people trying to improve their health and a city joining together to get healthy! The community that I work in has the third highest incidence of Type 2 diabetes in the Commonwealth, which is staggering. Our programs aim to lower this rate, by teaching people to be healthy and work to prevent T2 diabetes. (We offer programs for T1s as well).

There should be a rule against food commercials after 8pm! It certainly would help!! I'm trying not to be really really hungry, but I think I should probably crawl into bed if I expect to make it the rest of the night!
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Bernard commented on my last post and reminded me of our meet up with Allison in Boston. I never blogged about it and wanted to share this photo of Bernard and Allison at Harvard!

Better late than never...

This blog's changing :)

To track the changes I'm making this year, I've added three columns to my blog. The left-hand column will contain the usual blog stuff, such as links and previous posts, etc. The right hand column is for my One Day at a Time progress.

I thought about this and wondered, "Why do I feel the need to share this info?" And I don't really, but I think it's a good way to keep myself somewhat accountable--because this community is really great about commenting and encouraging each other. I also think it's a great way to look back and see what I've been able to do. So, I won't replace the information to the right each time, but instead I'm going to add to it each time and keep a running list of what's been changed.

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If it hasn't already become clear, I'm also attempting to be a little more present here too. This means more commenting and more posts. To those of you who are still reading despite my long absence and irregular posts, thanks for sticking with me! Leave a comment and let me know you're still here!

The how...

But first, on a diabetes related note:

Has anyone heard of Monogenic Diabetes? A client's father just recently came to the office with an article from a People magazine about this. I'm unbelievably skeptical. I think it comes with the territory-- you know loads of pills to reverse diabetes, that don't reverse diabetes. But, they seemingly have a legitimate website and JDRF's support? So, check it out, let me know if it's bogus, etc.

**********

One day at a time. What does that look like? For me, right now, it's making one change at a time. I started yesterday and for the next week and a half or so (depending on how well I do, I guess) I'll be cutting out all eating after 8pm. I don't think I really ever thought about what time it was when I wanted a snack. I am hoping that this will teach me to be more aware of that and to really cut back on some of those calories and carbs that slip in after dinner. Exceptions will have to be made. For instance, yesterday I didn't really manage to get dinner or lunch, but instead three small snacks leaving me somewhat unsatisfied when I got home around 10, so I had a small piece of chocolate before watching an hour of tv. This wasn't a failure to me. So, I'll be taking things into consideration and of course, being reasonable where diabetes is concerned (Last night, I did end up low in the middle of the night).

This is my strategy. Small changes; one at a time. Other changes will include portion sizing and types of food that I'm eating as well as packing lunches and eating more veggies, BUT now is not the time to think about those things.

One thing that I am trying to curb right from the beginning is to eat when I'm hungry and not just because it's lunch time or dinner time. I think having this attitude towards food throughout, will really help me in the long run.

A little Help, please

A client called the office today and she was looking to purchase a pin for a mother whose son was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and couldn't find any high quality pins. She is specifically looking for the gray/silver ribbon with the drop of blood. Does anyone know where one could be found? She and I have both searched the internet. I thought someone might have purchased one in the past. Thanks in advance!

One day at a time

I tried to lose weight in 2007 and failed, so why not give it another go?

My attitude this year has to be, "One day at a time." I don't see how else it's going to work for me. I'm overwhelmed with loads of changes I'd love to make, but I know that I'm not going to be able to do everything. I just need to take it slow and not give up.

Happy New Year!

I've been silent again and am just popping in to say, Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoys celebrating safely!

I'll be back in 2008.

post number eighty

I changed my site today; 5pm to be exact.

Site just ripped out; 6 hours later.

Hurt a lot. Bled some.

I'm not cool with putting another site in.

I miss NPH and syringes.

I'm temped to call my doctor and switch. She'd probably kill me and not know what to do. I've never been on anything but the pump with her and as far as I know I have an allergy to Lantus.

Maybe I should try Levemir.

I really don't care to be thinking about these things. I want to go to bed without another poke in the @$$. I'm afraid of it hurting; of it bleeding; of it coming out again. Two years and two months is a long time to stick with something.

Twenty years is a long time to wait for a cure.

I hate you, diabetes; more. than. anything. even onions

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a wonderful day with family and friends and the best of luck guessing the carbs! :)

The pastor showed this cartoon last night at church--I thought it was pretty funny.

D-Blog Day

I've been absent from blogging for the most part and almost completely absent from commenting. Even so, I've been reading consistently and am still inspired, challenged, encouraged, saddened, angered... every day by the posts of the DOC. Regardless of how faithfully I post and comment, I am thankful to be a part of this community.

Thank you.

juice!

I'm not sure if it's the low blood sugar or the fact that this is my first post since Sept. 12th, but I had trouble logging in. :) Honestly, it's been a while and I wasn't going to post tonight, but I am sharing my low blood sugar story.

First, I wish I had some one who understood handy for lows. I felt particularly blindsided and crappy all at once from this low. As I pull a strip from the vial, I ask my dad, "Dad, do we have juice in the fridge?" (I'm used to treating with glucose tabs, although I dislike them). He responded that we did in fact have juice, but didn't get up to get me any or even ask. Sometimes it'd just be nice to have some one ask. That's all.

I went to the fridge on my own to get the juice and pull out the bottle in the front. Oh, look at that, the purchase of this juice helps find a cure for diabetes through JDRF. Wonderful. I'll just poor me a glass. But wait, 75% less sugar. Uh oh. The irony isn't lost on me though. That bottle of juice can help cure diabetes, but didn't do a whole lot for treating my low :) Thankfully, hiding behind it was a perfectly sugary bottle of apple juice.

My banner was broken, so I changed my template and things were looking a little boring around here at Orsa Aetas. I fixed that by adding a new banner. Get your own and spread the word about World Diabetes Day!

The Blogging Scholarship

I'm not sure what my readership is for the college age group, but if you are in college and you have a blog, you might want to take a look at this scholarship and apply. Applications are due Oct. 6.