Am I low, or is this "just a bad dream"...

I woke up during the middle of the night Tuesday night around 2:00 am, from a dream with my heart beating really fast.  Most people would just say "bad dream" and go back to sleep.  However, bad dreams and fast heartbeat are signs of a low blood sugar, and I really didn't want to get out of bed to check it. I have this inner dialog with myself, kind of like Lizzie McGuire. I thought to myself, is this a low blood sugar or "just a bad dream". Something about being wakened in the middle of the night makes a person not so rational, I tell myself its just a dream.  I pull out a memory from my lamaze classes, "if it's real labor it won't go away and you won't be able to fall back to sleep" and tell myself, "if it is a low blood sugar it won't stop, and I won't fall back to sleep".  Stupid right, but I just didn't want to get out of bed.  Well I woke up at 6:00 am, inner dialogue again "must not have been my blood sugar, but then I started thinking, what if it was and my liver decided to do it's job and produce glucose, well then you dummy you will wake up with a high blood sugar which is no way to start the day".  Got up, checked, it was 80, WOW great number. Guess it was "just a bad dream".  I wish this all was "just a bad dream".

Happy Birthday You Can Do This Project

You Can Do This Project Happy Birthday!!!

I'm a little late, but yesterday was the 1 year birthday of the You Can Do This Project.  What is this you might ask?  This was created by the awesome Kim Vlasnik at Texting My Pancreas.  It is a website where many many people living with diabetes, adults, children and the parents of those children posted videos talking about their lives with diabetes.  Some may have been recently diagnosed, some had been living with this condition for 40 years.

 My connection with the YCDTP started with my diagnoses with Type 1 Diabetes February 2, 2011.  I muddled through the first 4 months of my diagnosis, learning everything I needed to know to live with this condition.  Carb counting, insulin delivery just everything (and there is a lot to learn).  I was going through all the phases of grief, about 4 months into it I started going through a little depression, and as supportive as my family was, I just felt the need to find other people with diabetes.  The only person I knew in real life was the teenage son of a friend, whom I had kind of lost touch with when we moved.  I was looking for people near my age, a local support group, so I turned to the internet.  Well, I didn't find any local groups but what I did find was the You Can Do This Project, and there they were people.  People who knew what I was dealing with.

At that time there were probably around 70 videos.  I decided to watch 10 per day, 5 in the morning then 5 more in the evening.  It took me about a week to go through all the videos. I cried, laughed, my heart ached for the children living with this condition, but mostly I was totally encouraged that I could do this, it was going to be a long hard road, there were going to be great days and some not so great days, but I could live with diabetes.

I noticed there was a running theme in the videos, the DOC, Diabetic Online Community, I thought "I'm diabetic, I want to check out this online community.  All the videos mentioned the DOC and Twitter, so I finally started a Twitter account, and "voila" there they were, the people I had seen in all the videos.  They were amazing, they welcomed me into "the club", and have been so supportive since.  When I ask "is this just me" I usually get a resounding "no it's not just you".

This past spring Kim decided to do a group video of people who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as adults and, to my amazement, she asked me to contribute.  I was so honored to participate in this project that had helped me through a particular difficult time in my life.  Along with Sara, Brian, Chris and Dayle Kim produced a great group video answering some questions about our lives.  It was great to be able to give back to this awesome project, and as Kim said "see it come full circle".

Following is the link to that video, have a look.  Be warned I have a crazy habit of touching my hair and face, and some crazy eye twitch.  I tried to figure out how to attach the video, but I can be a little tech challenged.  Just copy and past in your browser, it's worth the effort.

Thank you so much Kim!!!

http://youcandothisproject.com/2012/04/17/we-can-do-this-vol-1/

Blanket Creations

Christmas brought yet another opportunity for me to create!!!!

In November, my daughter and I help our church make these cute knotted fleece blankets to be given to the families in our community they adopt, for Christmas. This is my daughter helping.

When we were done that day, she told me she would like a blanket like that. So I told her that Santa could possibly bring her one. So here it is.

You start with 2 yards of 2 different types of fleece. Lay them out together cut of the salvage edge and trim them up so that they are fairly even. Then you cut a 4 inch square in each of the corners.

With the use of a ruler cut 1 inch wide strips, 4 inches long, being sure to cut through both layers of fabric. Follow this step all the way around the fabric.

Then tie alternate strips (every other one), in a double knot. Follow this step all the way around the fabric.

Then flip the blanket over and tie the remaining strips in a double knot. Follow this step all the way around the fabric.

This is the finished project. She loves black, white and teal.

It was Christmas... So Grammie Created!!

It's been so long since I have created anything, I've missed it. Thankfully Christmas always brings the occasion to do so. We have a grandson that absolutely loves Toy Story and Woody. I went to the fabric store to see if I could find a pattern to make him a sheriff's vest, well I didn't find anything I liked so I decided to hop on the internet on my new favorite toy, my iPhone to see what I could find, I struck gold I found this site and there it was Woody's vest made from felt and I didn't even have to sew, (which worked out well since my daughter had my sewing machine). I bought all the supplies and here is the end product.

I was so excited to get it done, I forgot to take pictures of the process

His momma told me he carried it around all day :-) success.

So, if you have a Toy Story fan in your life and you can use a hot glue gun you should make this, it is sooooo cute.

30 Years Ago Today...

I married the love of my life.

I was 19 years old when I met him. He was 26. I met him through his sister. He was used to taking his dates out for drinks, he wanted to date me but didn't know where to take me. His sister told him, "she likes to watch movies." So that's where it all began. Our first date was in May, he asked me to marry him in August, and we got married in December, that's what I call a whirlwind romance. He had been divorced for a year, and his family asked him, "what's the hurry?" He told them that he had found the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, so why wait.

We have been together more than half of my life. I can't imagine life without him. We've had tough times, but we have faced them together. If there is a secret, I believe that is it. No matter what happened throughout our lives, we have lived, struggled, and rejoiced "together". We have been so blessed, even through our most recent trials, we are blessed to still be together and still very much in love.

He is my best friend.

Michael, I love you more than life it's self. Marrying you was the absolute best thing I ever did.

Happy Veteran's Day Michael!!

From the Archives originally posted November 17, 2009.

This is the Veteran in our lives. Isn't he handsome? He served during the Vietnam Era, but thankfully never got deployed over there. He was in the Army for 6 years. His decorations were, National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Sharpshooter (Rifle). He was 18 when this picture was taken, if I'd known him then he probably wouldn't have given me the time of day, I would have been 12. Praise the Lord I met him much later, he is the love of my life.

Turning the Big 5-0

Let's start with some pictures.







I was around 11 months old here. What a cutie, looks just like my girls at that age.

This is my Kindergarten picture. My daddy used to say this was his favorite picture of me.

This is my senior picture. You can tell it was the 70's with my Farrah Fawcett hair style.

This is obviously taken at my wedding. The day I married Michael, the love of my life, I was 20.

Can't write a post about my life, and not put these 2 girls in it, as they are my life. These are the awesome, beautiful daughters God blessed me with. I love them more than life it's self. I was 25 when I had Amanda (right), and 35 when I had Hannah (left). I also have a step-son and daughter-in-law, who have 2 little boys.

This was taken at Michael's 20 year high school reunion, I think I was 31.

This was taken on a cruise the summer before our 20th anniversary, so I was 39.

My wonderful photographer daughter, Amanda took this picture of us in June of this year, I am 49.

This was last month, still 49 but close enough to 50.

50, 50, 50, yes I said it 50. How do I feel about that? I'm actually very excited about my birthday this year. My niece (who turned 50 in October, yes I said niece, that's a whole other blog about growing up with nieces and nephews), described turning 50 as "monumental". So I looked up the definition of monumental, this is what I found; Merriam Webster says, "Massive; highly significant; outstanding". Dictionary dot com says, "That of historical or enduring significance: a monumental victory. I like that, "highly significant, or monumental victory". It's a huge significance and victory to reach this age. When you're a kid, you don't really think about age in numbers, you just want to grow up, and 50 year olds are your parents.

I've had a very blessed life. I was the youngest of 5 children. We were considered poor, both my parents became disabled when I was young. My dad had a heart attack, and my mom had rheumatoid arthritis, we lived on a fixed income. However I remember I always had food, and clothes and a roof over my head. I got what I needed. It helped that I had older sisters who were married and an older brother, who was able to give me things that I wanted every now and then that my parents weren't able to provide. I always got a new dress or outfit for high school dances. I was a cheerleader. I'm sure my mom & dad did without to provide me with these things. I grew up with my sister who is 6 years older than me, as well as nieces, and nephews.

I married the love of my life when I was 20, I was so young but I trusted he would be here for me forever. We have had good times, and some rough times , but no matter what we knew that if we just worked things out together, everything would be ok, because above all else we love each other. My oldest daughter got married a year ago. One day we were listening to a Taylor Swift song that says "We've got nothin' figured out". I told her "your daddy and I don't have everything figured out, just when you think you do, something either bad or good happens, then you have to figure it out all over again, but what's important is to keep figuring it out together". And through all the years, that is what Michael and I have done.

When one of my brothers-in-law turned 50 I asked him how he felt he said this, "it's better than the alternative". The alternative, that almost came for me 2/2/11. I wrote a post about it here. That was the day I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I was in full blown DKA, Diabetes ketoacidosis. I was severely dehydrated, losing weight like none other. I had all the classic symptoms, that I didn't realize were symptoms then, I got to the point before my husband called 911 that I was gasping for every breath I took, and in sever pain in my rib cage. I was dieing, and I didn't even know it. By the grace of God I got to the ER in time, (guess he wasn't ready to take me home yet). I didn't realize how close I came to dieing until after I was released from the hospital and my doctor (who was my neighbor) came over and told me that was what was happening to me.

How do I feel about being 50 and having diabetes? I have had a great diabetes free life, I'd go back to my pre-diabetes life in a heartbeat. However, that won't happen. I'm glad that I don't have to worry about getting pregnant. I know, women do get pregnant with diabetes, but it's just one less thing I have to think about. Having read a lot of blogs of parents of children with diabetes, one common thyme is they wished they could take the diabetes on and not have their child have it. Being the mom, I'm sooo grateful that this illness was given to me and not one of my daughters, and I pray everyday that it doesn't ever happen to them or one of my grandchildren.

I wanted to grow old gracefully, requiring as little help as possible. At some point in my life I may get to where I am not able to see well or lose my dexterity, and I will need some else to give me my insulin. Someone else will be in control of my meals, and making sure they meet my needs, that scares me to death.

This little post about my 50th birthday took a dark turn, but when you're talking about diabetes it's hard not to go there. I couldn't write about my life without talking about diabetes, it is my life now. I've always been the kind to find the glass half full, and I don't wallow in self-pitty, it's too depressing, however once in a great while I do mourn for my lost life.

In closing, I have had a great life, full of love and blessings. I live a great life in spite of diabetes, and I'm extremely excited to be turning 50. In Jill's word "it's MONUMENTAL"!

What Diabetes Decisions do I make in a Day???

In an attempt to bring more awareness to Diabetes and how it affects our daily lives the, Diabetic Social Media Advocasy, DSMA for short, does a monthly Blog Carnival with posts from people with diabetes, or taking care of someone with diabetes, asking thought provoking questions.



This month’s Blog Carnival question is, “What types of decisions and frequency of diabetes related decisions do you make in any given day?”






I read someones post that was in a timeline format and I liked it so that's what I'm going to do as well. So here goes my day ; )





6:30 am This is when my alarm goes off to make sure my daughter's alarm went off. Though before I walk upstairs to her room I first must evaluate how I feel, do I feel low? I don't want to trapes upstairs with a low blood sugar and make it worse. Today I was good so I went to make sure she was up. Crawled back in bed for 30 minutes or so then got up to make her some breakfast and to see her and my husband off.





To go back a little I woke up at 4:00am for no reason, which is unusual, before my diagnosis it happened all the time, but once I got diagnosed and started getting the insulin I needed I started sleeping through most nights. I didn't feel low so I didn't check my blood, so I laid there for a while trying to go back to sleep, more about this later.





7:30 am Got on the computer, to go on Twitter and read some blogs, totally a diabetes decision, since most of the people I follow are diabetics. In the back of my mind is the fact that sitting still will raise my blood sugar. My mouth was already feeling a little dry so I knew I was probably already a little above my range of 70-150.





8:22 am Started feeling hungry, yes actual hunger not that low blood sugar feeling. I think my stomach might have actually growled so I got up and started deciding what I wanted for breakfast. First what do I want, I decided on 1/2 a Whole Wheat English Muffin w/Smart Balance margarine, 1 slice bacon, 1 fried egg, 1 c fat free milk, and 2 ozs strawberries, total carbs 30.





8:40 am Wait, don't forget to wash hands, the juice from the strawberries could cause the test to be inaccurate. I tested my blood sugar, just as I suspected a little high 171, I figure I woke up a little on the high side because of waking up at 4:00 am. I think my liver decided to produce a little extra glucose to get myself up and going. Anyway back to breakfast, I injected 1 unit of Novolog, fast acting insulin for the 30 carbs I was about to eat, as that is my current approximate insulin to carb ratio, and I also gave an additional .5 unit to correct the 171 and bring it down to 80-100 hopefully. I only correct at meal times. I don't correct in between, as I don't want to stack insulin doses, and without a pump it's too much math to try to figure out how much insulin I have on board. And besides that would be more shots, who wants that. Breakfast was delish by the way.





9:40 am Getting ready for a walk, is this a diabetes decision, yes and no. I should walk anyway whether I had diabetes or not, it's good for me and my dog, however the diabetes is what gives me the kick in the pants to actually go do it. I decide not to check my blood sugar because I just ate, my insulin hasn't had time to peak, and for me history shows that if I'm going to go low due to my insulin, it will happen at about the 2 hour mark when my insulin should be peaking and I will be home before that. Now having said that I do pack a backpack with my blood glucose meter, glucose tablets, glycogen kits just in case. Also, some non-diabetic items, plastic bag for Bentley's business, iphone set on Pandora, and off I go.







10:47 am My 2 hour post meal blood sugar check, it was 130 yeah!!!!! Between the extra insulin and the walk it is coming down. Ok, I'm off to go do some housework. I'll be back, you can count on that.






12:30 pm YEAH, my husband came home for lunch. Oh sorry, guess that's not d-related, stay focused ; )







1:15 pm What's for lunch? Decided on a grilled ham and cheese w/tomato sandwich on whole wheat, with 1 slice American cheese and one wedge of Laughing Cow spread on both slices of bread, the Laughing Cow makes it so creamy, 1 c salad w/1 T Newman's Own Light Balsamic, and 48 grams of diced apples w/some Smart Balance margarine, cinnamon and Splenda, warmed in the micro, ooohhh it is so good, reminds me of apple pie. Total carbs 42.







1:40 pm Tested my blood sugar, as I have no idea what to do till I know what that number is. It's a good number 119, no need to correct, just bolus for the carbs I'm going to eat. I injected 1.5 units of fast acting insulin, since I am going to eat 12 carbs over my insulin to carb ratio of 30. After all that rigamarol, now I can eat. Sandwich was awesome.







3:48 pm My 2 hour post meal blood sugar test is 152, great number only a 33 point spike, that's great.







4:00 pm I have to go do some errands and pick my daughter up from cheer leading practice, I normally would be doing a blood sugar test before I drive anytime, anywhere, but I just did one 10 minutes ago so I should be fine. However I must remember to take my testing meter, glucose tablets just in case I happen to go low while I'm gone, a little carb and protein snack to eat after said low, glycogen kit, and my insulin. No I won't be eating while I'm out, but everyone in the world takes their insulin with them where ever they go, mine is just in my huge purse, not my pancreas.

5:30 pm Time to decide what's for dinner and start making it. Decided on talapia rolled in whole wheat bread crumbs, 1/2 c cous cous, broccoli and cauliflower. Total carbs 31. In the grand scheme of things 1 extra carb isn't going to make that much difference.

6:33 pm Tested my blood sugar 121, another good number, no need to correct again, just inject 1 unit of fast acting insulin for the carbs I'm about to eat. Might I say dinner was delicious ; )

7:41 pm I had to go pick my daughter up from an activity she was doing after cheer leading practice. Since it had been an hour after I had eaten and I was driving I did a blood sugar test, my number was 176, not where I would like it to be only and hour after I ate, but it's a good driving number. Also, don't forget all the necessary d supplies.

8:39 pm My 2 hour post meal number is 165, better than an hour ago, (fickle diabetes) this kind of crazy stuff happens a lot in the evenings. I tend to go up a little in the evening, maybe because I'm not as active after dinner dishes are done. Or maybe because I'm approaching the time that my 24 hour long acting insulin I take before bed is beginning to wind down, hmm.

9:50 pm Time for my bedtime blood sugar test and bedtime shot. My number is 167, I'd prefer to be under 150 but it's ok. Between 9:30 and 10:00 pm every night, I take a 24 hour slow acting insulin called Lantus. Since it will be several hours till I eat breakfast and I don't want to have a low blood sugar during the night, I eat approximately 30 carbs with a little protein before I go to bed. Some nights I will eat dessert, something nice and sweet, like ice cream or cookies with milk other times not. Tonight I decided I wanted something simple, I had a graham cracker, peanut butter and light coconut and pineapple flavored yogurt. It was tropical and good.

This has actually been a really good day, as far as my blood sugar numbers. It's not always that way, sometimes I do all these same things and I have numbers up in the 200's. It has been a rather uneventful day. I pretty much stayed home and did housework. If it had been Wednesday, I would have volunteered at the church, which means I would have had to pack a lunch just in case I was there through lunch time.

You might have noticed there is a lot of time between my diabetes decisions. Partly because I stayed home most of the day and I didn't do a lot of driving. Also, I don't have a job outside of my home, so I don't have all the stresses that come along with that. Which in itself was a huge decision my husband and I made because of diabetes. In between all those D decisions I made today I did laundry, got my Halloween decorations out so I can figure out how I'm decorating my car for Trunk or Treat, scanned some pictures for a future blog, wrote a thank you note to a lovely lady I have known forever. Yes, I live with diabetes, it's a day in day out condition. Yes, I have great days, and I have days that are crappy, but you know what, I can say 8 months into my diagnosis, I live a great life in spite of diabetes.

“This post is my October entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2011/october-dsma-blog-carnival/

30 Things About My Invisible Illness

Better late than never. Last week was Invisible Illness Week, and several people on the Diabetic Online Community have been doing these posts helping people to be aware of the Invisible Illness they or they along with their children live with. After reading several, I decided I would do one, I think I will revisit this in 6 months or so to see if any of my answers change.

1. The illness I live with is: Type 1 Diabetes

2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2/2/2011

3. But I had symptoms since: 2010 several months before diagnosis

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: There are so many, but I think the biggest is giving myself a shot before every meal and at bedtime.

5. Most people assume: I have Type 2 because of my age 49

6. The hardest part about mornings are: Mornings are fine, especially now that my basal insulin is set at a good dose. In the beginning when I was taking too much insulin, I was frantic to eat breakfast before I went low.

7. My favorite medical TV show is: If I had to pick one I would say House.

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My meter, and If you can call them gadgets, syringes. There I called them gadgets.

9. The hardest part about nights are: I worry a little about undetected lows, however I don't take a lot of insulin, and I eat carbs before I go to bed. I actually kind of charish nights because when I'm sleeping is the only time my mind is free and at peace from all the numbers going on in my head, you know blood sugars, carb counts etc.

10. Each day I take 1 pills & 0 vitamins: I take a thyroid pill, don't think I mentioned I had Graves Disease and had radiation treatment 15 years ago. I take a cholesterol pill, an iron supplement, a mult-vitamin, a low dose asprin, and 4 insulin injections per day.

11. Regarding alternative treatments I: Pray. Other than that I eat healthy well balanced meals the majority of the time and take insulin shots. I think that's pretty much all I can do.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: Vanity tells me invisible.

13. Regarding working and career: My previous position was eliminated and the last week I was supposed to work was the week I wound up in ICU, did I mention I went into DKA . We have decided that I will not work for now.

14. People would be surprised to know: that giving yourself a shot isn't that difficult, you do what you have to do to live.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: That it is reality, that I'm not going to wake up from this nightmare, and have God say JK, here's your life back.

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: I never thought I could give myself a shot, but again, you do what you have to do to live.

17. The commercials about my illness: I don't pay much attention to them anymore. I can't get the free cookbooks because I have insurance, I use the meter that is prescribed for me and paid for by my insurance.

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Just eating without any thought other than "What do I want". Instead of, "What do I want, how many carbs, what's my blood sugar, how much insulin do I need, will this spike my blood sugar through the roof " yada, yada, yada. Oh yeah, don't forget the shot!!!


19. It was really hard to have to give up: White rice, it is one of those foods that sends my blood sugar through the roof, but also one that I really like.


20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: I have started walking more, is that a hobby. I have some hobbies I haven't done a lot since my diagnosis, like reading and sewing, if I sit still for any extended amount of time my blood sugar rises.


21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: I feel normal, it's being normal, that's the question. I would love a day of eating without all the rigamaroll I described in #18.

22. My illness has taught me: How many carbs are in foods, if that is really important to anyone besides a diabetic. How a pancreas is supposed to work, and how to try to be one. On the downer side, it has taught me that I'm not as tough as I thought I was. I know, I know you have to be a strong person to live with a chronic condition, I just still have momments when I cry about my lost life.


23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: "It's just diabetes, it's not cancer". It's "my" cancer, that is slowly going to kill me if I don't do everything I can to control my blood sugars, and it still will probably kill me. My mortality hits me square in the face everytime I have a low blood sugar.


24. But I love it when people: Ask me "how are your blood sugars today?" To ask me how I am, well I'm fine, but it's all about my blood sugar #'s that's specific to my condition, so it feels like they are actually interested. I also love it when people just listen to me, without getting that blank look on their faces. This condition consumes my whole being and I know I talk about it a lot.


25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: You Can Do This.

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: learn and read everything you can about how your pancreas used to work, and how you now have to be the pancreas, the sooner you do that the better.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: How all consuming it is. Also, learning about how foods affect my blood sugar, obviously I never gave that any thought before. Also, how eating well balanced meals actually keeps the weight off, I know, who would have thunk it. I have dieted most my life. DKA took off 20 pounds I've been trying to lose forever, but I'm finding that by eating well balanced meals, lower glycemic indexed foods most of the time it hasn't been too difficult to keep it off. (Knock on wood)


28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: I went low on a walk one time, my husband was with me, so he went and got the car so I wouldn't have to sit there on the curb for 15 minutes waiting for my blood sugar to come up. Oh, he does have pretty good hugs too.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: Well, I am little late, but lots of others are doing it, and I thought it would be good for me to put my feelings and thoughts down this way, maybe I will revisit in a few months to see if my answers would be the same.


30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: You care.

If you would like to read more of these posts go to these sites, Bab's Blog, Ninjabetic, Six Until Me, Our Diabetic Life, Beta Buddies If I missed any, I'm sorry I just haven't read them yet. Leave me a comment and I will read them.

Unexpected inspiration

I have mentioned in other posts about the fact that we have moved. We lived in our home for 7 years. My baby was in second grade when we moved there, now she is a freshman in high school, and not the high school she expected to go to for most of her life, which I'm sure you can understand is quite a change in her life and 14 year olds don't do change well. So, when we looked at the house that we wound up renting, the previous tenants had stenciled some inspirational words on a couple walls. Our first thought was to paint over them, because I thought it was weird to have words on the wall. However the day we moved in she and I both decided that maybe we will keep them for a while.

This is what is painted on the wall in her bedroom. "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies" totally appropriate to help her through the change she is going through right now.

This is what is painted in the breakfast area of the family room. Besides the change of our move, I have mentioned my recent diagnosis of diabetes in previous posts, therefore I have decided that I might keep this as well, because I need a reminder now and then that "Life is beautiful".

I never win any blog giveaways...

Until now.

Several weeks ago I see this plee on Facebook from Kim at Texting My Pancreas looking for "Grammie" who had won the medical id bracelet. I thought to myself, "I'm Grammie, does my google screen name say Grammie" so I went back to my entry, and sure enough it was me. I totally forgot that I had entered the contest on the You Can Do This Project site, and like I said I never win anything, so I didn't really give it another thought. With the help if Kim and the wonderful folks at Hope Paige Medical, I ordered this really nice medical id bracelet.

It's sweet and simple. It is called the Sweet Heart, look the links are shaped like hearts, they are soooo cute. I love it. Thank you to Kim for hosting this giveaway, and to the people at Hope Paige.

Bag Lady Strikes Again!!

I love cute bags of all kinds, so much so my girls call me the bag lady. Before we moved I went to one of my favorite little businesses and bought this yummy cupcake, well while I was there I spotted this cute little bag. I pointed it out to my daughter (who by the way shares my affinity for bags), but I asked her and myself, "what would I use it for?"
I left without purchasing it. When I started packing to move it came to me what I would use it for. Now that I have diabetes, when I go on vacation I feel like I'm packing a diaper bag again. I have to have all my supplies (extra syringes, test strips, glucose tablets, lancets all that jazz), and food. I told my daughter, "wouldn't that "Cupcake" bag be cute and kind of ironic to carry my diabetes supplies", she said "yes" so I bought it. It makes me happy just looking at it, can't wait to use it again.

My favorite new gadget

I bought this scale about 20 years ago, when I went on Weight Watchers for the first time, back when they used exchanges instead of points. I've used it off and on during all those years when I have dieted. It works pretty well. But now that I have diabetes my food weights need to be much more accurate so I bought a new scale.

Bought this handy dandy digital scale that not only weighs ounces it weighs grams as well. Pretty thrilled with this one right now, but I still have to either look up or know how many carbs are in the food I just weighed. Therefore, my next scale (when money allows) will be the kind that you enter in the type of food you are weighing and it calculates based on the food and weight how many carbs are in it. That will make life alot easier, and I'm all for an easier life right now.

Disclaimer...

I started this blog a couple years ago, mostly with the intention of showcasing my creations. Then I decided I had stuff I wanted to say so I added the "& Such part". Six months ago my life changed forever with my Type 1 diabetes diagnosis, so now my "such" isn't always sunshine and roses. If you have come to my blog for my creations I truly hope to be back to creating soon. We have also moved so it's hard to sit down at the sewing machine when I have so many boxes to unpack. Thank you for your patience and please stay with me till I get back to creating.

Sometimes you just have to say "What the Heck"

We moved recently, however there was one place I just had to visit before that happened. In the town we lived in there is this little local cupcake shop that has the best cupcakes. My favorite is this Chocolate Chip cupcake. The teeny tiny chocolate chips on the top are just too cute, and the cake is chocolate chip as well, I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Anyway, I did some research in my Calorie King book and discovered a frosted cupcake has 64 grams of carbs, so I decided to eat half of this cupcake, one quarter as dessert with my lunch and the other quarter at my bedtime snack, this way I didn't have to take any extra insulin in order to enjoy it. Here is another post about a yummy bedtime snack. I gave the other half to my daughter who had to put it in milk to soften it so she could eat it after her oral surgery. I know, eating half, one quarter at a time isn't exactly saying "What the Heck" but I'm not really the "What the Heck" kind of girl, and each little quarter was the best thing I'd eaten in a very long time.

My two patients

July 11 Michael went to the dr with pains in his lower abdomen, thought he strained something. She referred him to the ER to do some tests to rule out appendicitis, well the tests confirmed it and by 11:30 pm he was having an appendectomy. The good thing was they let him go home right after the surgery, we were asleep in our own bed by 2:15 am, alot better than trying to sleep in a hospital room and waiting all day to be discharged.

On July 14 we had already scheduled oral surgery for Hannah. She had her wisdom teeth surgically removed. She did well, she did swell up alot and her jaws bruised, but she has a pretty high pain tolerance so she wanted to go somewhere the same afternoon of the surgery. Her big sister slept for days after her surgery. So for a few days there I was the house nurse.

Does this remind you of something???

A week ago we moved to a town near the Bay Area, and it is windy most of the time. Here is Bentley.

Reminds me of this. Falcor from The Neverending Story

This was me...

two nights ago. Sitting on a curb with low blood sugar.

a couple weeks ago I was having high blood sugars at bedtime so my diabetic educator recommended taking a walk more vigorous than a casual walk, about an hour after I eat my dinner. Twice this week I have gone low, once after the walk when I got home and the second time was during my walk. So I sat on the curb tested my blood sugar it was 51, I ate four glucose tablets (yes, I take these things with me for this very reason, I have posted about these things before here). Luckily Michael was on this walk with Bentley and I, so he walked back to the house and got the car to come back and pick me up, otherwise I would have been sitting there for 15 minutes for my blood sugar to come back up. It's so frustrating, I haven't cried about my condition in a while, but I did sitting there.

In Loving Memory...The Fat House Cat aka Peanut Butter

He was named Peanut Butter by the folks that owned the mama cat because he looked like he had a shmear of peanut butter on his lip. We loved it so we kept the name.

This is the day we brought him and his brother home they were 6 weeks old. They were so cute

by the looks of Sam in this picture, I should have known he would grow up to be a crazy psycho cat.

I have posted several blogs about the Fat House Cat, this is one of my favorite pictures of him. He was looking at the birds outside. Pets bring such joy to your lives, but having to make the decision to put your loving pet down has to be one of the hardest decisions a person will ever make, and I've now had to do it 3 times.

I suspect you are chasing birds in kitty heaven right now, or curled up in a box. I will miss you my Fat House Cat.

Diabetic S'more

LOVE THIS SNACK. One thing that I get to do, now that I have diabetes, is eat a bedtime snack. I should have around 30 grams of carbs with a little protein (milk is carb and protein at the same time) before I go to bed to keep me from having a low blood sugar while I sleep. I have dieted most of my teen and adult life, eating right before bed was always a no, no.

I got a portion of this recipe here. I put 2 tablespoons of cool whip between a graham cracker broken in half, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer and let it freeze. I thought it was yummy just as it was. I told my daughters it tasted like a s'more without the chocolate. My oldest told me to try shmearing a little Nutella on it. So I looked at the number of carbs in the Nutella, I could put a 1/4 tablespoon on it. so the next time I made them I did. It is sooooo good, it has a total of 17 carbs, the original version with one marshmallow and 1/2 hershey bar has 31 carbs. There is 30 total carbs (including the milk) in this bedtime snack.