Search Results

It really is the little things in life that make everything worthwhile. It's a productive day at work or an awesome fasting number. It's the fact that payday is tomorrow or a movie with the boyfriend.

Sometimes I have to take a moment and remind myself of all these tiny things that make my life great and worth living. It's so easy to get pulled under with all the negativity around you. The news, work, and other people's problems. It's easy to get pulled under with my own negativity about diabetes or PCOS or whatever it is.

Today, I'm taking a moment to remind myself of these little things in my life and the moments that make me stop and smile:

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

Last Thursday, I checked the mail to find my latest test strip order in my box. At first, I wasn't even sure what the package was as it was more an envelope and felt extremely light. When I usually get strips, I receive a pretty good sized box.

As I opened it, I saw three OneTouch boxes smushed and open. Good thing that strips aren't fragile. Three boxes shocked me. Generally, I get six to eight boxes for my three month supply. I thought that the prescription was for one month at first.

Then I looked at it more closely and noticed that it'd been filled for "3 blood sugar checks per day" and I could reorder on March 16 (meaning I'd get the order early April). I couldn't believe it. I still can't really even though I've been dealing with it for a week now.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (4)

Good news.  Bad news.  Ain't that the way it always goes?

Good news.  On Monday, I received my Mini-Link CGM from Minimed.  Thanks to a blessing from people who don't even really know me.  Cool, right?  

It's been pretty fantastic to be able to see my bloodsugars in real time.  I've had no problems with calibration and I've been consistently within 5-15 mg/dl points of the CGM for each meter reading.  The swings I've been having are easier to catch before they happen and I haven't had even one low or extreme high since I hooked up on Monday.  Even with three boxing classes this week - tough 900 calorie burning - hour plus work outs.  And I've stayed in range throughout every one of them, since I've known my bloodsugar and the direction it's headed in well in advance.  

I honestly couldn't be more thankful.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (1)

To everything there is a level of precision, a degree of reliability, or a standard beyond which improvement is either unachievable, or requires huge investments of time and money well beyond the benefit of that improvement. Companies may refer to this point as "zero return on investment". Most of us just call it "good enough for jazz", "good enough for government work", or simply, "good enough".

It has been said that our ideal blood glucose levels "should" never vary outside the range of 80-126, ever -- but most of us don't have CGMs, none of us have glucose measurement technology with accuracy of greater than 5% (expanding that range out to 76-132) and even if we had them, we'd need infinitesimally-small amounts of ultra-fast acting insulin to keep it there every time it budged a point or two. For most of us, a two-hour postprandial reading of 140 is "good enough".

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

I was diagnosed in June of 1982.  In those days, home blood glucose monitoring was about as common and as advanced as listening to music on the go.  In other words, think no ipod, but plenty of cassette player walkmans.  Home blood glucose monitoring was primitive and expensive. 

For the first two years of my life with diabetes, we used various forms of urine testing to track my levels and determine dosing.  First, in the form of tablets dropped into glass tubing filled with pee that heated and turned colors - then in the form of nifty sticks that turned colors after being dipped in urine based on the amount of sugar you were carrying.  Since you weren't actually testing bloodsugar, management was largely a guessing game.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (1)

In observance of D-Blog Day, diabetes bloggers all over the world have been asked to identify six things they'd like people to know about diabetes. The following are mine:

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)

I'm not much of a talk radio person, but The Mr. and my dad are. And one of the main reasons I know about this guy is because of The Mr. and my dad.

There's a radio talk show host in St. Louis with the pseudonym Frank O. Pinion. At some point in his career he stopped earning a salary from the radio station from which he broadcasts. His earnings come completely from endorsements/advertisements that he reads on his show.

So my blunt question to you is this: Does this make him any less of a radio show host? Is Frank's credibility as a talk show host diminished in any way?

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (1)

Being a tightly controlled diabetic can sometimes mean lots of low blood sugars. They usually aren't convenient. And they are never that fun. Although getting to eat whatever you want is a definite perk. But it doesn't make up for the shaking, sweating, slurring, and slowness.

All those lows really add up over the years. Some are definitely more memorable than others. The times we push too hard. Or the times where we just can't take it anymore. So many stories locked away. Of things that we've done or been through while low. Here are a few of mine. Got any good ones of your own?

• Take English finals.

• Go on dates...

• and get interrupted at the most inopportune times.

• Deny, deny, deny. "I'm not low, I'm not low...okay, I'm not THAT low."

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (10)

I've always been a quote collector. Each year in high school I wrote down all of the senior quotes in a notebook. I think I occasionally looked back at them. I had a gigantic book of quotes at one point, too, and I'm pretty sure I went through it with a highlighter. (Oh, wait. Looking over my shoulder at my bookcase I see I still have "Words of Wisdom.")

While I've since trashed that notebook, I am still a connoisseur of quotes. I think for the entire seven years we lived in that little town in Missouri, I had a quote (I think by Kenny Rogers) on a post-it note (that interestingly never lost its stickiness) attached to a kitchen cabinet: Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (1)

As a young twenty-something, I'm very in tune with my inner Facebook(er). So I've noticed the trend of posting 25 random things about yourself, although I haven't quite given into it yet. However, I decided after this 25 random things post to create my own 25 random diabetes things.

So here's my 25 Random Things About My Life With Diabetes:

1. Diabetes is sometimes the best thing that's happened to me.

2. It's also often the worst.

3. I rarely follow any type of diabetes diet, although I'm sure it'd help my control.

Rating (0) 0

Email this Comments (0)