Type 1/Type 2: A Moment That Made Me Proud

As many of you know, I have often been upset by the public's lack of knowledge concerning diabetes and the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. I have often been disturbed by lack of knowledge among diabetics themselves, such as Ms. Berry. In fact, I get upset and frustrated by it so often, that I could probably write a blog post for every day of the year, just focusing on the above

Christmas Under the Bridge

Yesterday was Christmas. And it was a very special Christmas for me. Christmas Eve, I spent with my dad and his side of the family. We had a wonderful time. Christmas morning I went to my mom's. I was truly blessed there also. I got a fiddle for Christmas (or a violin; I guess it depends on how you want to play it!). I don't play. I don't ready music. But I have said for years that I would some

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas has already started! I had Christmas Eve dinner and exchanging of presents with my dad and his side of the family earlier this evening. Tomorrow morning I head to my mom's and tomorrow afternoon I am going with my church to Nashville to deliver Christmas dinner to the homeless population that lives under Jefferson Street Bridge. Along with dinner, we will be ministering and handing

Pharmacy Hopping!

Okay. As most of you who check out my blog on a pretty regular basis know, I have been having trouble with my insurance company & my prescriptions. I went to get a couple of other prescriptions filled today. One for my insulin and for my cholesterol medicine and I was running out of some vitamins that I also needed to pick up.About 2 months ago I switched pharmacies because the one I was at took

For These Times

I experienced my first bit of sussy from the Diabetes OC late last week. I hadn't yet posted about it because I've been really busy this weekend and simply haven't had time.I have to give my heartfelt thanks to Bernard, who read my impassioned rant about test strips and the current cost of my diabetes life. He contacted me and offered to send me a box of test strips, an extra meter, and the

Picking My Battles

Last time I posted, I was discussing going into battle with my insurance company over the cost of test strips. I had intended on calling Monday, but got busy and work and forgot. Tuesday, I planned to call on my lunch hour. As I was walking through the door to my apartment for lunch, my phone rang. It was a representative from MiniMed calling me to discuss my CGMS. My doctor's office had

Test Strip Wars

I went to check with my pharmacy today about my test strips. I kind of guessed that I was going to have to pay another $40 for the rest of my test strips, but I was hoping to just go ahead and get my 90 day supply. I was just going to let it go and pray that Medtronic switches to the One Touch meter A.S.A.P. Right now it is saying Spring 2008. So I am hoping before May... but you know how

Endo Appointment and the Crazy A1c

Yesterday I had my check-up with my endo. I got all my prescriptions straightened out. That's a plus. I also got some good news about my CGMS. They are going to have to re-submit the letter as it did not have the correct codes, but the nurse in charge of the whole CGMS thing said that she's had another patient in the office with the same insurance that I have and he was approved. This gives me

How You Know You've Been Testing Too Often....

Sorry about the bad quality of the picture. It was taken with my camera phone.

Endo Office Screw Up.

I was running out of test strips. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. I knew I couldn't make it until then to get another prescription for my strips, so I called my doctor's office to ask them to call in some test strips. I didn't recognize the lady I spoke with. I'm not sure if she was new or just not someone with whom I normally deal. Either way, I gave her my name & told her I needed

Happy Thanksgiving.

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all you blog readers out there. It is a time for family and friends and remembering what's important in life. I am currently decorating a cake & preparing to cook Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow to celebrate with my dad and his family. We are very thankful this year that my Grandmother is out of the nursing home. While she's not doing as well as we'd like,

Tagged

Beth at In Search of Balance, had tagged me with the lovely seven meme. This is a first for me. So, here are the rules:The Rules:1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.2. Post these rules on your blog.3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by

Weekend of Shopping

I went shopping on Saturday in Knoxville, which is about an hour and a half from where I live. I went with a dear friend of mine, whom I will call D, who is a Type 2 diabetic. We were friend before her diagnosis, but since then, there are things that I can discuss with her that we couldn't talk about before. It brings to light different things in our friendship. Even though I am Type 1 & she is

World Diabetes Day 2007

Today is World Diabetes Day 2007. I didn't do anything special on this day. I should have, and feel like others may have done more than I. It passed, just like any other day for me. My hope, however, is that others that don't have to live with diabetes every day, had their eyes opened to the struggle that so many in the world make every single day. Some of you were in another country, watching

The Bee & Me

I have discussed my diagnosis before. I talked about how my mother found out I was diabetic and what bits and pieces that I remember from that awful time in my life. But I don't think I have ever talked about this little guy: This is a bee. I think. Actually I'm not sure that it isn't the love child of a bee and a troll. It's been through a lot of stuff. A four year old can do that to a toy. He (

Happy D-Blog Day!!!

Happy D-Blog Day! This is my first year to celebrate D-Blog Day. And I have to say that I am so very happy that I am here, in this great community, to share with you in our hurts, our fears, our triumphs, and our every day lives. I came to the OC when I felt like I didn't have anyone who understood what I was going through. I had spent time trying to explain my fears and frustrations with

Head in the Sand: The Morning After

Last night I made chicken vegetable soup. It's just starting to cool down here in Tennessee and soup was the perfect meal for the weather. Not to mention the fact that I am running dangerously low on groceries and I'm too lazy to go to the supermarket until I absolutely have to. I had all the ingredients to to make this soup last night and I have to say, it was delicious. I always find it a

Hamburger Meat

That's what my mother always said my fingertips looked like when I was little. She didn't say it in a mean way. But she always said it sympathetically. Like she felt so sorry for me. Which I know she did. She felt so helpless to not be able to fix her little girl.When I was diagnosed in 1985, testing was so much different. We didn't have the luxury of micro fine lancets, or lancet devices with

Why are people so stupid?

Seriously? Why? I was reading in Countdown Magazine, that I picked up at the Middle TN JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes, that 7% of the population is affected by diabetes. They say by 2020 that the number will be 33%. That's one-third. One third of the nation that has Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Why do people not seem concerned by this? Why do people not want to learn about this disease that affects so

Another Example of Ignorance

I was visiting Kerri's site today, as I do most days, and she had posted on her page a comment on the sidebar relating to Halle Berry. We have all known that Halle Berry was a diabetic, but I know most of us couldn't figure out whether she was a Type 1 or a Type 2. Apparently, she doesn't know either! The page stated that Ms. Berry was diagnosed as a Type 1 but had "weaned myself off insulin" and

He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named

Those of you who read Harry Potter know that name Voldemort strikes fear in the hearts of Wizards and Witches everywhere. The word being spoken caused people to cringe and shudder. I have found a word that is the equivalent of Voldemort in my world: CANCER. I have very little experience with cancer, thank God! I have known people to have cancer. I have an aunt that survived breast cancer, My

The Craziest Hobby Ever (For a Diabetic)

There are people who's names fit them. Like the dentist named Moller. Or the teacher named Learner. It happens. Sometimes people and things just fit together. I am a little bit different than that. I have a lot of different hobbies. I love, love, love to scrapbook! I like to sew, and have been learning to knit. I also like to cook. I read everything I can get my hands on. But I have this one

No Delivery

I changed my infusion set yesterday morning. Nothing different about the change. No weird feelings or anything like that. My blood sugar even ran pretty normal all day long. I didn't have any insane spikes or crazy readings. Then last night I got my dinner made and was just sitting down to eat. I tested my blood sugar. It was 73. Not terribly low, but it was certainly time to eat. I bolused and

Diabetes Crazy

The past few days have been absolutely crazy in my world. I had family in from out of state, my grandmother was put into the hospital and is now, temporarily, residing in the nursing home, and I have been dealing with blood sugar readings that are driving me NUTS!! I think that the crazy readings are partially due to the stress and also have to do with me not being as careful about what I eat &

Meter Comparison

While I was at the JDRF Walk last Saturday I picked up two meters from booths. I have been thinking about getting a new meter, not to mention the fact that I did not have a spare meter on hand. The meters that I got were the Accu-Chek Aviva and the Bayer Ascensia Contour. I am currently using the Paradim Link from BD that is linked with my MiniMed Pump.This is what I found about each of the

JDRF Walk!

September 29th, 2007 was the Nashville Walk to Cure Diabetes. I went with my mom & sister & we had a wonderful day. Lots of free stuff (I got 2 new meters to try out!) and free food. And just in general spent some time around others wanting the same thing I do: A CURE!It was the first time I had ever attended an even like this. I was highly impressed & had a lot of fun. I am hoping to go back

Follow-up for CGMS

I went to the doctor's office yesterday to talk with my doctor about the results from my trial with the CGMS. It was very good, I think. We talked about the fact that it wasn't always correct with my meter results. But he was still very happy with my "graph" for the 3 days. He said that it looked like I had very few spikes in my blood sugars. The only things he seemed concerned about were my low

Diabetes: The Invisible Disease

This weekend was a long weekend for me. I left work early on Thursday and took Friday off. It was like a min-vacation. I really needed a break, so it was very nice. A friend and I went to Savannah, Tennessee to go to Darryl Worley's Tennessee River Run. Basically it was a festival-like concert on the Tennessee River at Pickwick State Park. It featured Savannah local Darryl Worley, the legendary

Adventures in Constant Glucose Monitoring

Okay, so I went on Friday to pick up the MiniMed minilink CGMS from my doctor's office. It was basically a loaner for 3 days. I left work at noon and headed, with a friend, out of town to go to my endo's office. My endo is about an hour from my house. My friend wanted to get some shopping in and needed to go to Verizon. I just needed to stop by my doctor's office and get "hooked-up" to the sensor

A Long Weekend and CGMS News

So, it was a long weekend. No work yesterday. And I think I am more tired now than when I left work on Friday. So here's how my weekend went:Friday I left work early. I went to meet a friend's sister to catch a ride to Shelbyville, Tennessee. Locals know that the last week in August through the first Saturday in September is the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. It is 11 days of horse

The little victories and little defeats

I had my doctor's appointment today. Before I went I downloaded all my pump information & printed off the results for my doctor. I made a list of things that I needed a prescription for and made a list of all the things that I wanted to ask my doctor about. I was ready to face my doctor, get my A1c results, and find out what I needed to do to get a CGMS for my pump. Of course when I got to the

I finally did it!

Okay, after having my diabetic melt down the other day I decided that I needed to get off my tail and download my pump & meter to see how much damage has truly been done. When I posted last, I said I hadn't downloaded in almost a week. In fact, as of today, it had been 9 days. More than a week. I didn't realize how far off I was. But I did it. I downloaded all the information. And as it was

Frustrations in General

I have to say the the past several day have not been the best diabetes wise. I have been continually fighting lows or highs. I will have some readings that are great (Like my 2 hr post breakfast of 120 today), but the majority of readings have not been so kind. A couple of nights ago I was waking myself up every 3 hours to check my blood sugar and bolus some insulin. That made for a very sleepy

New Friends

Those of you out there in diabetic-land know what I am about to say.... No one but another diabetic can really understand all that we go through. This is something that I have a hard time with sometimes. Even though my friends listen, and can have some idea of how I'm feeling, it takes another diabetic to understand when you say, "I feel like crap. My blood sugar is getting to me." I go to

Every Day, Every Hour, Every Minute

I have had this blog for several months now. It is a way of release for me. I am able to talk, to no one in particular, about my diabetes. I get to share my views, my frustrations, and other areas of my life that are continually effected by diabetes. I started this blog after reading Kerri's blog over at Six Until Me. When I was trying to think of a title, I put on my "Kerri brain". This would be

Hope for a Cure

I have been thinking quite a bit lately, about a cure for diabetes. More & more I am reading about scientists trying to delay the onset of diabetes and saving the beta cells when Type 1 is first detected. I think this is a WONDERFUL thing! To not have any more children have to live through what I did would be such a blessing. And those that are diagnosed later in life with Type 1, to know there

I love you Mom & Dad

I love my mother. My Mom is one of my best friends. I say this, not to be cheesy, but as part of a fact of my life. There is little in my life that I don't share with her. She has been my supporter and I have been hers. Over the years, we have shared many experiences that I believe has made us much closer than we might have been. I called my mother this afternoon. I talk to her almost every day.

A Beautiful and Very True Look at Diabetes....

This video was e-mailed to me and is NOT my work. But I love it because it so accurately displays what my life has been like for the past 22 years...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2uE0TlBZGc

My Life (Without Diabetes)

I was thinking today about what life would be like without diabetes. It is hard to imagine. For the past 22 years of my life I have lived with watching what I eat, checking my blood sugar, and going to the doctor. Shots went from 2 a day, to 4, and finally to the pump. Each time I hear about new developments in diabetes research, they always say "a cure is just around the corner." But they've

A Weird BG Reading & A New Toy!

I have really been trying to check my blood sugar more often than I used to. I want the records & I want to be more knowledgeable with what I need to do for my overall health. Some days I find it easier than other days. Some days I end up with 10 or more readings. Other days I end up with around 5 or 6. It depends on how busy I get at work, or with whatever I am doing that day. I was trying to

Woman Almost Dies After Bikini Wax

Below is just another reason that we should better control our type 1 (or type 2) diabetes. This article was found on FOXNews.comWednesday, July 11, 2007By Katherine Tweed'Brazilian' bikini waxes are increasingly popular among women who live nowhere near the bikini-clad beaches of Rio de Janeiro. For one 20-year-old woman in Melbourne, Australia, this routine procedure nearly took her life.The

Pumps, Interviews, and Being Discreet

So I had a job interview today for a new job. I took the morning off from my current job to do this interview. The job is located about two hours from where I currently live. I have friends in this town, so I left work early yesterday and went to stay with them last night. This was so I didn't have to get up at 5 am this morning to make it down there in time for the interview. I usually carry my

It happens to everyone...

I hope all have had a good Fourth of July. One filled with lots of friends and family, food, fireworks, & fun. I spent the holiday at a friends house with her family. Although we didn't set off fireworks, we had fun and cooked out. I took today off work so it would feel a little bit more like a holiday, instead of just a random day off during the week. But, alas, I must go back to work tomorrow

The Knoxville Zoo

A last minute trip was made last weekend. My mother, my baby sister (she's 11), & myself took a trip to Knoxville to the zoo. I hadn't been since I was about 8 and I didn't remember anything about the zoo, other than the gift shop. That would be what an 8 year old would remember. This impromptu trip was a lot of fun, but I was having a few diabetes crazy days. My blood sugar on Friday, Saturday,

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

Well, I've done it... I have registered to do the Walk for Diabetes on September 29th in Nashville, Tennessee. I am excited and scared and a little bit stressed! This will be the first walk I have done. I have never tried anything like this. I set my goal a little high. I want to raise $1000. I think I can do it, but I have my doubts sometimes. This will be something that I can do for diabetes.

My Profile Picture

The picture on this page was taken of me in January of this year. I was a the famed Sardi's in New York City, after spending a wonderful evening watching Mary Poppins on Broadway! This was most definitely a wonderful evening with a good friend, the most expensive food I've ever eaten in my life, a wonderful play that I would recommend to anyone, and a night

Update on the New Infusion Site

So, I wanted to give an update on my new infusion site. The thigh site is working wonderfully. I am actually working on my third thigh site now & am loving them! I can see why people would want to use their stomach (I'm sure I will again), but being able to rotate to my thighs, and giving my stomach a much needed break, is wonderful! It makes me wonder why I waited so long. On another note, I am

Can you eat that?

What is it about diabetes that makes people think we aren't normal? Is it the occasional low blood sugar? Is it the need to put your health ahead of whatever other insignificant thing might be going on at the moment? Although I haven't had any recent experiences with people thinking I am strange, I have been dealing a whole lot more lately with the "Can you eat that?" thing. It is frustrating. I

Public Awareness

I am kind of on a rant today. I worry about the state of Type 1 diabetes when it comes to public awareness. I realize that around 90% of diabetics are Type 2. I am not ignorant to that fact. But I think that the public is not well educated on diabetes in general, but in particular when it comes to the differences between Type 1 & Type 2.I think that the public in general, including a lot of Type

A New Site!

Okay, so I have been hearing since I started this whole pump deal, nearly 13 months ago, about using different infusion sites other than the stomach. I have toyed with the idea many times, but couldn't really decide what to do. I know from experience that if I put the infusion set too far away from my bellybutton, then the cannula gets bent and I have to rip out the set and start over. There have

A Scary Moment

I had an interesting day yesterday. I woke up with a headache that felt surprisingly like a migraine I had one time. I was feeling like crap & took some headache medicine to try to keep it from getting any worse. About 2 hours after I took the medicine, the headache eased off. Thank God. But then severe heartburn set in right before my lunch. I am not sure why. I rarely, if ever, have heartburn.

Unexpected Road Trips....

This cute little guy is a baby Pygmy Hippo. It's bigger now than it was in this picture, but I got to see it yesterday at the zoo in Louisville, Kentucky. He was all cute and lying next to his mother while she watched all the patrons of the zoo carefully. Now, you ask, how did I end up at the Zoo this weekend? Well, it was most certainly and unexpected road trip. Since my car accident a couple

I love my friends.

I usually post at night, but while I am home on lunch I just thought I would quickly give all my millions of readers (imagine me rolling my eyes on that one!) a few reasons why I love my friends. This weekend I had a friend come to Tennessee from Washington, DC. She was visiting her brother for the weekend and with her only being a few hours from me, of course I had to go visit. I also took

Midnight & 3 AM

So, I went to bed last night with a wonderful blood sugar reading of 99. I decided this would be the perfect night to do a midnight test and a 3 am test. I set my phone to go off at both of these times, put my glucometer next to my pillow and laid the flashlight next to that. I do this because I am usually too out of it to get up and turn on the light to check my blood sugar. I have found it