2011 Recap

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Moved to Pittsburgh and got a 5.0 A1C!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I never make them

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Steph and Chris had Emma on March 30th and Sarah and Trevor had Katherine on October 27th.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Shockingly my cousin Michael

5. What countries did you visit? Stayed in the US again

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? A baby, a dog and a house, easy enough

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? September 26th when Mike turned 30!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Quitting a job I hated and not being afraid of what would happen next

9. What was your biggest failure? Not looking hard enough for a new job

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Luckily no.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our new Nikon 1 Camera

12. Where did most of your money go? Getting the credit cards paid off, hope to see that happen in 2012.

13. What did you get really excited about? Trip to San Franciso and going to Sonoma!

14. What song will always remind you of 2011? Anything Michael Buble as we went to his concert this year in Pittsburgh with Dad and Annette.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? Sadder I think actually.
– thinner or fatter? Thinner, the running has gotten better.
– richer or poorer? Richer, thanks to our cheap rent now!

16. What do you wish you’d done more of? Ran more and took more trips.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sat around and done nothing.

18. How did you spend Christmas? In Erie and Warren seeing both families.

19. What was your favorite TV program? Nothing beats NCIS for us.

20. What were your favorite books of the year? Lets be honest, I dont read.

21. What was your favorite music from this year? Anything on the radio.

22. What were your favorite films of the year? Cant remember the last movie we went to.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my 29th birthday Mike made a cake for me and we went to a wine bar in Arlington, VA with Aaron, Em, Laura, Nathan and Erin.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Knowing we were moving to Pittsburgh earlier in the year.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Getting better!

26. What kept you sane? Mike, my Dad and brother.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011: "No reward comes without risk"

Cakes

It is hard being a diabetic and wanting to bake something. It does not matter what it is, but everytime I even begin to think about baking I am hit with a pang of guilt over if I should be eating that sort of food or not. I enjoy the show Cake Boss and often wonder how hard it really is to make something similar to what is seen on that show. Recently I had more and more friends putting pictures up on Facebook of some fantastic fondant cake they had made. So I started thinking about if I could make some sort of creation using fondant on a cake that is similar to what is seen on TV.

Once again though I had to stop and think about the consequences of baking, because if it is made it has to be eaten. And did I really need to have an unnecessary cake lying around to mess up my blood sugars and give me unnecessary calories?

The answer was yes and I am glad I did it because after spending a few hours putting this cake together I realized that first of all fondant does not taste that good and second of all it was way too tiring and time consuming than I want to ever spend making a cake again for just a random Thursday!

26 years

I cannot remember a life not being diabetic. There might be some sadness in that statement for some people, but not to me. I would rather not remember the freedom of not being diabetic and be able to compare it to life as it is today. But when you get acknowledgement, no matter how small, it always feels good. Joslin Diabetes Center formally recognized me for having diabetes for 25 years or more. It has not been easy and a certificate is not a million dollars, but I will take it. And I will go forward waiting for my next award in another 25 years.

How Many?

This picture reminds me of that game where they ask you to guess how many jellybeans are in a container to win some prize. I never did well at that game! I have been saving my test strips in this container for months now. It was supposed to help so they did not end up all over the floor, but yet that still seems to happen quite frequently. It is crazy though to see all of these strips and think that my fingers have been pricked that many times in a short amount of time! Yet alone how many times they have been pricked in twenty six years time of being diabetic!

Stress

It is interesting how stress comes into your life when you dont see it coming. It is also interesting how you have to make an extra effort when you are diabetic to not let it ruin your diabetes control. In recent days there has been some stuff going on that makes it harder to stay on top of my diabetes management. Just things that need to be figured out and decisions that have to made. All the while I have to remember to keep doing what I have to do everyday and check my blood sugar as often as I always do. I have never been one to notice stress making a huge difference in my blood sugars, but some people say that this happens to them. I guess I am lucky in that regard, but trying to exercise, eat right and check blood sugars seems to tedious when all you want to do lay on the couch and watch Teen Mom 2 on MTV. Yay!

“The most awesome thing I have done in spite of diabetes is . . . . “

That is the theme of the website DSMA (http://diabetessocmed.com/2011/introducing-the-dsma-blog-carnival/) this month and they have asked people to answer that question on their own blogs.

I think the most awesome thing I have done in spite of diabetes is run. I have ran 2 mile races, 5K races, 8K's, 6 miles, 10 miles, and the most important 3 half marathons or 13.1 miles. The best of these races was the Richmond Half Marathon in November of 2010. I ran it the quickest I have ever ran before (2:13) and I felt good doing it. My blood sugar was stable all during this race as well. And the end of the race I got engaged. None of these events were affected by diabetes and it was not even a thought that day. I cannot believe I can run these races and I am looking forward to doing it again soon!

5.1 and counting

I spoke to my doctor's office today and the nurse told me that my A1C was a 5.1. Um what? How did it go from 6.1 in November to 5.1 in 3 short months? She said not to worry and to enjoy the fact that it was so good! I asked her if that was too low and she said it was not and that it was a great thing. She had to tell me a few times. Of course it is a great thing, it is amazing and wonderful and the lowest number I can ever recall seeing in all my 25 years as a diabetic. But it does make me wonder how it got to a 5.1. I see a lot of blood sugars that are well within the normal range they should. Though I do also see a lot that are in the 200's or even very low in the 40's and 50's. It is just so amazing that even though that does happen now and again that your A1C can still shine through at a good number and occasionally hitting a high or a low does not ruin your overall goal of good control. I think after some initial shock I am going to enjoy this number and embrace it!

Superbowl XLV

At the beginning of this season it seemed that Big Ben going to another Superbowl would never happen. I had thought about it before and decided that it was not even worth thinking about. Yet somehow they still made it there amidst all the controversy. They had a shot, but they just did not play well enough. You cant turn the ball over as many times as they did and win a Superbowl. People on Facebook who are not Steelers fans are going crazy with their comments and hatred on the Steelers. It is interesting to me, because even if they did not win and even if they did not play the greatest, at least they were there. That is more than we can say for some of the other teams out there, such as the god awful Cleveland Browns!

Maybe CGM?

I met with my new doctor, Dr Briggs, in Columbia this week. She was great and I really liked her. She gave me some helpful tips, but she also brought up the discussion of a Continuous Glucose Monitor. I had thought about it before, but did not really see the point. My A1C's have always been in the 5's and 6's and if I could do it that well alone, what help could the CGM really have for me. She explained that I do seem to have a lot of lows, which is true, and she feels that having a CGM would alert me to these lows, especially if they go too low during the night. She talked about if I ever got pregnant and how sometimes there is nothing you can do to predict extreme lows until it is too late because of all the hormones involved. Basically she convinced me that I should at least try it. So I am going to set up an appointment to do a seven day trial with the Dexcom CGM. I picked that one mostly because I have heard the best reviews about it and it is the smallest. Plus when I look at my fingers, though could use a break from checking my blood sugar 15 plus times a day and maybe only checking it ten times!

So Low

I took a nice weekend trip to Philadelphia to see Leslie and Jill. We had a great time and I cannot wait to see them both again. But I was not prepared for this trip in a diabetic sense. It was freezing cold and with a large warm coat on I would go from freezing to hot in a matter of minutes. We did a lot of walking, which should have included a lot of basal lowering but I did not get around to ever doing that. We went to the mall and we drove in the car in stressful bumper to bumper traffic. These are all conditions I should have been better prepared for, but I was not. I was not thinking of those things, I was thinking of getting in the car and going to see friends. I should have had better snacks with me, I should have brought more test strips and I should have had a better lunch and eaten dinner earlier. All of this did not occur and I ended up with a blood sugar of 24. That is the lowest I have seen it ever as far as my memory goes back. Now who knows how accurate that number, but I never want to see it again. One low blood sugar can cause havoc on my system. I felt horrible, I had a splitting headache and I felt like I was getting a fever at one point. My friends were more than supportive and did all they could to help. But sometimes you just want to lay down in bed and watch tv when this happens, and yet when you are visiting friends you cannot always do that. Diabetes never goes away, but sometimes you forget about if for just a moment too long and then pay the price later.

Pharmacy issues again

I am sure every diabetic has issues with their pharmacy at least three times a year. I don't know why it has to be so complicated. It is like you get punished for actually having it all together. I have always gone to CVS, mostly b/c it is convenient and they have all my prescriptions on file. So when we moved a few months back I thought it would be easy to go to the closest CVS in our new city. Well it was, until I went to get my prescriptions refilled. I was told that because the prescriptions were newly "transferred" that they do not have the original prescription on file and hence they do not know how many refills are on file. So they will not refill my test strips until I get a new prescription from my doctor. This is preposterous. I went to the doctor in July and she wrote a year long prescription for test strips that should go until July 2011, not January 2011. What is the point of CVS "keeping my prescriptions on file" if they don't keep the original prescription on file?! So here goes another round of annoying phone calls to the doctors office to make sure they send the prescription and then calling the CVS to make sure they got it and are actually filling it. Its always something and it is the most irritating thing in the world when all you want to do is test your blood sugar, with your test strips, so you can stay healthy. It should not be this difficult.