Jun 9, 2021

Not Calling Names...Developing Grace and Beauty

   I'm trying really hard not to call people names...it just feels wrong somehow. trying to be more dare I say "Christlike"..???

One thing I think is my business is my business and yours is your business...I have a hard enough time taking care of my stuff...much less trying to regulate yours.

I never understood how...not why but How anyone would even have the energy to try to regulate the behavior or choices of another human.....If I haven't gotten control of my behavior, I have no business trying to regulate another's.....

I used to think: Well they aren't thinking of me anyway so why worry about it...so I didn't...and then I was cold and unfeeling...but its just practicality....

One of my friends was my walking partner for 6 months and she never understood why I never wanted to talk about diabetes. Then in January her 5 yr old was diagnosed. I got a text..."I now understand"....I would never wish this on my worst enemy...I try not to have enemies...but it's sooo hard.....It's really easy to get down....but...if you do get down---how do you lift others up? Sometimes I have to put on my big Girl panties and deal.....


Sometimes Life is HARD---and sometimes we have hard choices to make...if we choose to avoid--the choice gets made for us.


I always have a choice what to say....and then I go low and that choice seems to disappear....I always have a choice how to behave and then I have high blood sugars and I will say or do things that if my glucose is in the normal range I would be horrified...

Life is about knocking of my rough edges and being smoother.....fixing my stuff, dealing with my stuff and finding a way to live and age with grace and beauty.

Remember: Grace and Beauty...beauty in the body, the soul, the actions and the behavior. Grace in the demeanor, the comradery, the forgiveness....

Don't let life live you....make deliberate choices and live your life...your way.

OK: enough said...

Chrystal

May 18, 2021

Just Do You

Just some advice I would give to someone wanting to know if they can really do this. 

Just because you are missing your Beta Cells in your pancreas doesn't mean you are not enough. Sometimes the dragon gets the better of you and sometimes you kick the dragon out of the castle. Learning how to manage your life with diabetes is about kicking butt and taking names.


One time I was complaining about being diabetic to my husband and he said: well, don't be diabetic right now....only be diabetic when you have to check or take insulin..the rest of the time, live (ie: kick butt and take names. )


You are better than you think, stronger than you know and loved more than you thought possible. Remember...you are you and not diabetes.


Try to live in the moment. Don't live in the past: it can't be changed, only learned from. Don't live in the future...let the worries take care of themselves.


Get really good at doing YOU...find out who you are...this disease will show you all day every day...so will any other challenge. You get to choose ......there is always a choice. Make good ones.

May 15, 2021

How's it Goin'?

So I made a decision to get my blood sugars under control better than I have in the last few years.

It requires more checking where I am, using CGM, and using some new strategies for bringing them into contol when high or low.

My challenges are: When I take insulin for food or high BG, I go low or it does nothing.  I have a pretty high ratio of BG to Insulin.

When I eat, I have an almost instant rise in Blood Sugar that I have a really hard time bringing back down, even with a super bolus.


What I have been experimenting with is using my pump to take insulin at a different rate than all at once.  All at once has served me well for many, many years but lately it hasn't been serving me at all...


A Little Bit Off Today (Five Finger Death Punch reference)

                     A Little Bit Off Today

Every Night I go low, it screws up my equilibrium the next day.   This video says it well...

Explicit wording--but everybody says it....I'm just trying to eliminate that word from my vocabulary...sometimes it's the perfect word. 


A Little Bit Off Today by Five Finger Death Punch


That's all.  Now to the rest of the day.  I will try to pick up the pieces and make it a better day.  A little more complicated when dealing with Diabetes. 


Thanks for Listening!!!

SkiTwo

Oct 9, 2016

Hitting a Vein

The Speed of DKA and how hitting a vein can create all kinds of chaos in the life of a Type 1 Diabetic using an insulin pump (written Jan 9 2015)


When I have put a site in and hit a vein...I have super high blood sugars even though my cannula isn't kinked and the only thing I can think is the pressure of the blood is preventing the insulin from absorbing...I don't know because my pump never alarms...

It happened today and I went 3 hours without insulin....I woke up at 7:30 at 86...ate breakfast at 9.  Breakfast was nuts, seeds, an orange and some dried coconut...all of which I took insulin for..and changed my site at 9:30 (due to a low reservoir warning),  just before leaving for 3 hours.  When I got done and checked my blood sugar at Noon before going home, I was 343....I started to bolus and the pain was incredible...I suspended the pump to stop the bolus.......

---I was picking up my daughter and said we needed to hurry home so I could change my site again because it was bad....when I got home my blood sugar was 431....it was only a 20 min drive....


I pulled the site out as soon as I got home...my site started gushing blood....crap...hit a vein...changed site, took a shot with all the insulin my pump called for plus the extra percentage that my doctor and I have worked out for situations just like this.

I drank water and did the whole high bg thing of water, relieve, water, relieve---

2 hours later I ate lunch of salad with only veggies and took no insulin for it...those 3 extra units can cover that too...checked my blood an hour later and was :  gasp....106---the site change worked...   

then I talked to my husband about going back to shots and he reminded me how much of a hassle it was doing that...didn't I remember?  Nope...all I remember now is how easy it was to come down and how it only took one shot....

Aug 13, 2016

Sometimes the Slow way is the Best Way

I absolutely hate having a low blood sugar.  I have been looking for a way to avoid it ...
Here is a method I have been having some success with

I'm on a pump so it makes it really easy for me to do this

I have a blood sugar of 300 .  My pump calculates I need 4 units to bring my blood sugars down to 100....

My basal rate is  1.0 u/hr

I want to bring my blood sugar down in 3 hours.

I know that if I give the bolus insulin of 4 units all at once, I won't stop at 100, I will go low...under 70 or even 60

So I want to come down with an increased temporary drip over 3 hours.

In order for this to work, I have discovered that I canreduce the amount of total delivery by 25 percent by just increasing my basal delivery for a few hours. 

Here is what I program into my pump

Temporary basal for 3 hours
Rate of increase by percentage
175% for the 3 hours.

Check my blood sugars at 1.5 hours and 3 hours and 4.5 hours.

Results are steady and more level and I never go low.  At least I haven't yet.

I would love a chart to calculate all of this for me.  Maybe I can get my husband to make me a spreadsheet that spits out the answer.   That is a conversation for another day....




Jun 15, 2015

Sugar surfing


9 months ago I was reading some of the posts on a Facebook diabetes group I follow and the name of Stephen Ponder started coming up a lot more.
Someone posted a link to a Facebook page he ran and I clicked through to learn more about him.  He coined the phrase Sugar Surfing to talk about tight dynamic glucose control that helped him to achieve an a1c in the 5% range without the accompanying dangerous low blood sugars.
I'm at the nitty gritty part with all of the cool info and i am loving it.....

Oct 29, 2014

The WAY to Freedom


  I know the consequences of having diabetes--and I went through about 5 years of being non compliant...since I was an adult it wasn't give that term because who am I going to be compliant to?  I wasn't taking care of myself and I would go to the doctor and express my depression because I couldn't change that I had diabetes and the highs and lows were taking a toll on my body.  I was lethargic, emotionally stressed and tight wound all at the same time.

 My doctor would express his disappointment that he couldn't help me because he didn't have the information necessary because I wasn't testing or taking insulin or eating regularly.   My husband started teaching my kids coping skills and how to deal with a mom with high blood sugars.  We have done rules where they have to say mom check your blood, they have walked out on me because I was screaming because my sugars were 400 and I was having a hot flash of anger...

To TELL THE TRUTH---DIABETES SUCKS and BLOWs at the same time...it is a vortex of living hell (if you don't take care of it)  Everyone who has diabetes knows this---we all want to be free...There is only one way I have found to actually be free of the hassle that is diabetes---The hassle of worry that comes with: wounds that wont heal, organs that won't work right because of damage from Highs, Nerves that are destroyed, eyes that are blind because of highs, brains that are damaged because of highs and lows, etc, etc, etc---basically dying one body part at a time in the most painful way possible and putting my family through that pain also of losing me one body part at a time...

That WAY is ---Testing, bolusing, testing, bolusing, eating, testing, celebrating because the number was amazing and you don't have any insulin on board and you haven't eaten in more than 2 hours.---coming back from not testing or bolusing is a process that takes time.   To actually be in control, I have to do it all the time.  Even when you don't want to, even when you are rushed, even when you are late, even when.....fill in the blank.  Testing and bolusing or celebrating...period.

This is a simple, easy not complicated thing to do that we don't want to because we might be afraid of the number or the result, because we know we ate that donut...or that extra piece of pizza and forgot to bolus.

People have been asking how to get an A1C below 7% on a T1D Facebook group that I am a member of.  When I was pregnant with one of my kids(yes I have more than one--to the chagrin of a certain endocrinologist from my last Pregnancy)  my routine was: wake up, test, bolus, eat  a couple hours later, test, bolus, eat    bolus eat, eat bolus, eat bolus ( this was the time I was so nauseated that if I didn't eat I would be sick, sick, sick; you learn really quickly that eating = good, fasting = bad.  That's not a good scenario with a diabetic because I had to bolus every time I ate something, cuz my baby would have "birth defects" if my blood sugars were uncontrolled,,, etc etc etc.

Needless to say, all of my kids are happy, healthy, and growing and NORMAL.....well--I think Exceptional....




My first Introduction to DoTERRA and what happened

Almost 4 years ago I was introduced to a new Essential Oil Company...Have you heard of it?  It's called DoTERRA...I fell in love with the first drop I experienced.   The oil was Balance and the presenter at the class I attended asked if she could put a drop on the back of my neck...

I don't know why I attended that class...I am glad that I did attend though.

I knew it was a sales presentation.  I was really hoping it wasn't high pressure...I hate those.  I never take any money to these kinds of things in case of the high pressure tactics that I have experienced.  I was super resistant to any suggestion that I might want to buy anything.

The home smelled amazing, I thought it was just because it was really clean, which it should have been; there were a lot of people coming over.  I was really glad I wasn't the one hosting the event.

About 10 people showed up at that class and we squeezed into the formal sitting room to hear about "essential oils".  I knew what they were and had experienced some before but I hadn't liked the way they smelled or felt on my skin.  My friends' description of her oils was so positive, I was interested.

And then Jenn put that drop of  Balance on the back of my neck.  At first I didn't notice anything.  She went right on teaching the class and passing around oils that she was talking about .  Then I started to really pay attention.  The best way I can describe my experience was, it was like someone had come in and carried me away to a really peaceful place where it was quiet and still.  My senses were clear and the noise in my head had stopped within 30 sec.

You know the noise we always have?  The negative back comments about everything under the sun.  The judgments about everything and everyone we come into contact with.  The self judgement that we don't want to address or pay attention to and hope everyone else isn't thinking about us?  That noise---it was GONE....

Then Jen Garrett passed around Peppermint Oil.  I thought I had died and gone to Christmas Heaven.  Everything (well almost everything--Melaleuca still doesn't smell very good) smelled so good...so much different from the blend I had purchased a dozen years before to help my child fall asleep...it didn't work and it smelled yucky.

I knew I wanted to buy...of course I wanted to buy but there wasn't any high pressure selling going on...Just a  presentation about what the oils did, some of their properties and an invitation to come and do what Jen was doing.  

So Simple...So Awesome. .....

To Be Continuued.....

Forgot -- Forget --- The Cure

I don't want to test.  I don't want to test.  I don't want to test...I forget to test...I forget....

What about you...is this you?  What is the cure?

Jul 14, 2012

How do I shorten this?

The Chiropractor told me my spine was not where it should be --no surprise; and that it would take many appointments for my back to heal and there to be no pain--no surprise.

I was expecting to hear lots of visits and long time healing because of my husbands back issues and the result  of all the visits and the pain and the extended healing time.  I decided that I would try using my oils to deal with the pain and speed the healing time.  I had experienced accelerated healing already and my thoughts to myself were: "Why Not?  Why can't I heal faster?  If I don't experience faster healing, well there is always the chiropractic to fall back on.

I mentioned I wasn't using any pills to help the pain and he commented I must be in a lot of pain and asked how I was dealing with the pain.  I told him about Deep Blue and Aroma Touch and a couple of other oils for pain.  He seemed like he was just kind of listening and thinking...ooh--voodoo!

His reaction was what I was expecting.  I bet you think you are going to do this but I have been in this business for a very long time and you won't heal that fast.  You will be coming to me for a very long time; because he kept telling me I needed to come to him 3 times per week so he could help the healing. ---My husband did the whole go to the chiropractor 3 times a week and still has issues with his back.  (Maybe I should treat his back too! )

When I got home, I started reading about what oils I could use to nip this injury in the bud.  I have a book called Modern Essentials that I use to learn about how I can use my oil medicine cabinet.  My goal was to find some way to blend my oils into one oil to make it faster and easier to apply; and then I wanted it to be all in one bottle; kind of like a "one stop shop".

I knew Lemongrass, Myrrh, Lavender, Frankincense,  Cypress, White Fir, Cinnamon, Lime, Deep Blue, Marjoram, Wintergreen.  I know this sounds like many oils.  Not all of these went into my blend but I had learned oils are so adaptogenic or "smart", that I can have any of the listed oils in my blend.

I looked for anything that had that first common use as analgesic, then anti-inflammatory. From there I pulled out the oils in my bag that I found listed and looked at what the book said about them with my focus.  I finally settled on 10 oils to put into my blend.  They are:  Peppermint, Wintergreen, Cypress, Lemongrass  Marjoram, White Fir, Lavender, Lemon, Frankincense, Cinnamon.

I made sure they were oils that would bring oxygen to the tissues healing, helped with circulation, pain, helped enhance the use of other oils, lessened inflammation etc.  All of these oils work very well doing most of these things but together they made a blend that was so powerful that my pain and healing began immediately.

I filled a page full of information about oils that I thought might affect my decision and characteristics of the oils that would help me know where to place them in the recipe.  I studied about their properties and the blending technique that would be required.  The ratios that needed to be in the blend so that the oils could all work synergistically together to affect the healing process and the time required to heal my body back to perfect.  That was my goal---Complete healing and freedom from the pain, ache, soreness and discomfort.

Being a diabetic, I am very well versed about how long my body takes to heal from any kind of injury.  I am counting time in weeks and months; like a few years ago when I got a simple infection from a piece of toenail that had snagged and broken and was just hanging off and I clipped it off.  It got infected and I got 3 rounds of increasingly powerful antibiotics from my Dr. and the infection just would not go away.  It just kept reinfecting.  I got x-rays to make sure the infection hadn't spread to the bone.  I am sure they would start checking my blood to make sure the bacteria hadn't spread....etc, etc, etc.

I decided I would use the blend I came up with Morning, Noon and Night and anytime I needed help with the pain because it was too intense to bear.  At first I was using the oils every hour--just a few drops--if the pain was intense, I would use more drops.  If the pain was less but annoying, I would use less drops.  It was completely customizable to my situation.  I wasn't worried about overdose or timing to make sure I took the correct amount at the right time so I didn't over dose.

I knew I wouldn't be able to overdose with this blend, and I could use it as much or as little as I wanted, and it would help with the pain.  the first dose I used I got pain relief for 2 hours.  I reapplied and got pain relief for 2 hours 15 min.  and so on.

I was working up to only having to apply it in the morning before getting out of bed, sometime in the middle of the day and before bed at night.

Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain and I would just pull out my bottle of oil and apply 3-5 drops to my hand and rub in onto the area of my back that hurt.

At this time I also started to double and triple my intake of liquids.  Oils use water to work effectively in the body and if there isn't enough water, I got dehydrated very quickly.  I was up to a gallon and 1/2 a day.

My activity levels went down considerably--I didn't move for the first few days and just did what I felt I could do on any given day.

After about a week of this I needed another adjustment and went back to the doctor.  He commented that I was looking really good and there wasn't very much adjustment needed and to come and see him again when I needed it.   I visited him one more time after that and after that adjustment I wasn't hurting at all--the pain just wasn't there and I was able to walk really well.  That was 2 weeks into my healing.

I had mentioned to a friend that I had shared oils with earlier that I expected it would take me 3 weeks to heal.  At the 2 week mark, I was starting to wonder if what I had boasted would actually come true.  I stepped up my application of the oils and added a little more to each application and that seemed to be the deciding factor.

At the 3 week mark--all of my pain was completely gone.  I didn't ache, I didn't lose any flexibility--I felt back to normal--AWESOME!  That is how I felt...AWESOME.









Jun 13, 2012

The Food Chain

when i was first diagnosed I was dismayed to realize I had to think about food all the time.  I had never thought about what I was going to eat from one minute to the next and now it had to be my life...I hated that part--the other part that was hard was as I got older I realized that I had to cook or eat raw most of the food that I eat because my body is so sensitive to HFC's, Soy, corn syrup, preservatives etc that I can't eat any of that stuff...HFC's mean blood sugars that won't come down ---preservatives and soy turn my gut into a war zone and I haven't ever been able to drink soda and when I did the war zone was multiplied by 10...I don't have anything else but Diabetes---no gluten intolerance but when I eat white flour my blood sugars rise so fast I have a hard time bringing them into normal ranges without bottoming out.

When I got married, my husbands parents gave us some Diabetic cookbooks...Month of Meals...some of you may be familiar with them.   I didn't cook out of them for a very long time.--I didn't know how to cook.  I didn't start really cooking until we had been married for 6 months.  My husband had been cooking a lot and when he told me I would have to cook, I said: how?  His response was: you can follow a recipe can't you?  I hadn't ever tried except making chocolate Chip cookies when I was ten...too much salt--ruined the whole batter....nuf said.

So I started cooking and learning.  After I had cooked for a few years I tried making bread...many times I would try and fail.  I had a friend that I worked with who brought a couple of loaves his wife had made.  The bread was really good...still made with processed flour.  I tried for a few years to add a little whole wheat with mixed results.

Then I was reading about flax...Did you know it can slow down absorption of glucose in the body from wheat?  The ratio is 3:1 for fat added to a recipe.

Of course I had to try it and put it in some chocolate chip cookies that I made.  I ate a couple of cookies and took the insulin I would need and within 20 mins was low.

I really hate going low...

May 5, 2012

Blessings Continued....

When I got home, my children were still up and I gave them the things they needed and they went to bed after our routine.  I in the meantime tried to call my husband and finally got him on the phone and we decided to make an appointment to go to the chiropractor first thing in the morning.

I applied some Essential Oils to my back to dull the pain and when my husband got home from work he helped me apply some more for good measure.  After the application, the pain was gone but since I was hurting so much before the oils, I knew it was bad.   I talked to my husband about broken bones and he said if it were broken I wouldn't even be able to walk and reassured me it was probably just bruised.

I slept, surprisingly well, especially since I don't move at all when I am sleeping and wake up in the same position I fall asleep in.  When I woke up, I didn't feel any pain because I wasn't moving.  What I did feel was the full bladder sensation (so glad I can still feel that right?).  This is a normal thing, it happens every morning without fail.

The PAIN came when I started to move to get out of bed.  Suddenly I recalled the night before and the trip to the bathroom seemed enormous.  Not only did I have to get out of a bed that is 4 feet off the floor; that is a good thing, really, but I also had to climb 25 stairs to get to the main floor of my home.  No I don't want to talk about it, except it was really slow and painful.  It wasn't slow because of the pain, just the pressure on my bladder.

At this point I was grateful for some of my other "blessings" of having the body I have cuz my bladder was trained just for a time like this, when I would have to empty it but wouldn't be able to right away.

I started dry-heaving because I was so nauseated from the pain and I had to remind myself to breathe several times.

My husband had called his chiropractor, and we had an early appointment.  He helped me find some clothes and then left me to get dressed and help the kids get going on their day.   Looking back at that now, I wish I had asked him to help me because I woke up on the floor screaming from the pain.  

We went to the doctor and I won't bore you with the details of getting there etc.  

Now I am getting to the really cool part about having diabetes and taking care of my body and healthy eating:  When the Dr. took the Xray of my back, he showed where the back was out and also pointed out how there wasn't a break, crack or anything of that nature on my spinal column.  He also commented how dense the bone tissue looked and how beautiful the xray was.   I asked him what he meant and he said  for my age, my bones looked beautiful.

What is so cool about this is since I have diabetes, I have been more concerned about what I put in my mouth than before I was diagnosed.  I have focused mainly on blood sugars and eating healthy foods.  Recently I had started transitioning to whole foods almost entirely to include whole grains, raw and fresh fruits and vegetables and very little processed foods.

 I avoid foods that contain ingredients that I can't pronounce or don't know the reason for them being in the food.  As I have gotten more information about healthy eating, I have worked on implementing it in my eating habits.  I had in the past 6 months begun phasing out products containing soy, high fructose corn syrup, and corn.

I have also been avoiding drinking anything other than water and the occasional fruit smoothie.

I had learned a month prior to this injury, the effect of drinking soda on your bones and I had mentally patted myself on the back multiple times for avoiding drinking it for the last 30 odd years as it has always made my stomach upset after drinking it.





May 4, 2012

A Blessing of having Diabetes

I have a blessing that I can say right now is the result of having diabetes and taking care of my body.  A couple of weeks ago, just before the weekend, I made a few bad choices that day and ended up getting an injury of my lower spine.---OK: the story is: I left my keys in my husbands vehicle, my bike wasn't rideable and I wasn't about to call a neighbor to help me.  I chose to rollerblade and since I grew up rollerblading and rollerskating, I thought it was a little like riding a bike....you never forget how to do it.  Right?

Wrong....I turned from my road going to the main road and there is a little steepness to the road.  I started putting on speed and tried to slow down.  Not being used to the feel of the rollerblades,  I didn't slow down but slid the wheels right out from under me.

I honestly haven't rollerbladed since I was teenager, and a young teenager at that.  I don't remember the wheels being so smooth and "slippery".  That was to my detriment because the end result was I kinda did that oh no, there go my feet...kind of action and before I knew it I was on my back on the road.  I was so glad I wasn't riding them in the middle of the road...

When I came down I landed straight on my lower lumbar spine just above the sitting muscles and the tailbone.  I estimate I was going about 10-15 miles per hour and weighing in at 155 lbs. the impact was quite heavy.  I don't know the math but I would love to know the force of the impact.

I remember just feeling PAIN and panic.  Oh no: I broke something, Ouch, Ouch , Ouch--you can substitute some swear words in there...a few bombs passed my lips...and I just laid there in agony trying to figure out how I was going to be able to solve this problem.

As it turned out, a neighbor was out checking the lights on their home and saw the accident and came over to me and asked me if I was ok and all I could do was cry because it hurt so much.  She asked me if I could move and I moaned no, please just let me be--

I was finally able to roll over onto my side and sit up but the pain was excruciating.  The neighbor helped me up and offered to give me a ride home, because I was having a hard time walking.  I accepted and then asked her if she would help me run my errand, which she did and then dropped me home.  I thanked her and went into my home.  (She was a lifesaver and I will be forever grateful that she listened to that nudge to just check her lights one last time.) THANK YOU J'AMAIS.

Check back tomorrow for more of the story.

May 3, 2012

Neuropathy and a Hint of Blessings

Yep--I have been kinda busy--I don't have a habit of posting--I don't even think about it.   The last three sentences make me think about that line in the Princess Diaries where she says: and just look at all the times I use the word I....

I woke up this morning with a pinched nerve in my lower back that made my legs feel like they were just waking up from a long sleep...It scared me--I thought--oh no--neuropathy!  Crap!

A visit to the Chiropractor helped get the bone off of the nerve and I have had lingering numbness all day.  I am going to my neck doctor tomorrow to complete the move because my upper spine is out too...I hope this takes care of the problem.

It made me think about how having neuropathy would seriously mess up someone's quality of life.  If you can't feel your feet or the condition of your skin on your toes or you nails, how will you know when there is a problem?  Would your feet die? --

Even worse--if your blood sugars are not controlled enough to cause end stage neuropathy, they are also bad enough to cause nephropathy (kidney damage)--I don't know the -opathy word for liver damage...

I have thought about what having diabetes actually means in a real sense for an extended lifetime, if you live that long.  The negative thinking way to see this is:  a disease where your body dies one body part at a time and it's just a matter of time.

The positive way to look at it is:  I am not Diabetes and I can overcome it--I can choose my actions and my responses to the things happening in my life and I can be proactive in taking care of my blood sugars and doing something about them immediately. I am smarter than diabetes.

I tend to be positive--but I have had periods in the time I have had diabetes that I have been very negative about it; yes it has blessed me in my life, but.....That is what I sometimes--well maybe--a lot more than sometimes...think.  Tomorrow I will tell you about a blessing I experienced a couple of weeks ago that was a direct result of how I have taken care of my body because I have diabetes.


Apr 2, 2011

Where did I go? And what have I been doing all this time?

Hi everyone:
I just thought I would start over and introduce myself because I have been gone for over a year and haven't written anything.


What do you say to someone you haven't seen in more than a year?  Hi? How have things been?  What's new in your life?  Those are really great questions and how would you answer them?
Well: here goes:

Hi to you too.  Things have been pretty crazy.  I have been getting going on my sensor, my husband and I started a new business investing in Real Estate last October and I just signed on to be a product consultant at Doterra.  I even got a website for interested people.  It is doterragift dot com.

Personally, I am loving life right now and hating the diabetes end of it, but since I get to deal with it a while longer I decided to put the best spin that I can on it.  I am having more success than ever before controlling my blood sugars.

I have found out that I am intolerant to : Wheat, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, and Thanksgiving Turkey.  What this means is:  Wheat makes me skyrocket on my bloodsugars as do all the other ingredients I listed. 

gotta go now but I will be seeing you later.  Catch a Hug.

Oct 14, 2009

Trends

I just love Running.  Have I mentioned that before?  Well now I have.

I am not fast and I cannot at this point run a full 3 miles straight.  I don't expect that I ever will because that is not my goal.

The reason why I love running among other things like runner's high, great legs, better breathing capacity, etc, is my blood glucose control is EXCEPTIONAL when I run.  Not just good, not great--EXCEPTIONAL.

Here is an example:
This morning I woke (rest day for me so no running) and my BG was 73--I thought I would wake up high because I checked last night before going to bed and my BG was 138 and I didn't do anything about it--usually I will give a 50% normal dose of insulin for something like this because I am going to sleep and I don't want to wake up low in the middle of the night.  Now that will really bring out the bear.

My fasting blood sugars have been awesome since I started running again a couple of weeks ago; not one or two but every single one is great!

I wake up between 70-90 every day.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, I am just trying to share my happiness...

Happiness vs. Unhappiness

So let's talk about being happy for just a second. Am I happy about having Diabetes? Am I happy about all the work that goes into taking care of myself? Am I happy when I do a great job and my body responds the way I expect it to?

You could probably guess the answers to all of those questions--just by putting yourself in my shoes.

Now I am going to share a quote I just read for the second time from a book I am reading to my kids. They love Arthur and the Invisibles. We have never seen the movie but Luc Besson is a good writer for kids. The words are not too easy and the storyline is exceptional; especially when reading it out loud to your kids. The more emphasis you add the better they sit on the edge of their seats and gobble it up. I am not kidding and I mean all ages.

So I read the book first to make sure it was going to be ok for the kids if I read it to them and in the second book there is a page where the author is making a statement about life. It is in Chapter 8 of "Arthur and The Forbidden City". My book says: page 295 but yours may be different: I have both books combined.

The quote is this, think about it and then answer the questions above while you are in my shoes.
"It is often only when we are experiencing unhappiness that we realize how valuable little day-to-day things really are: a great stretch upon waking, a ray of sunlight on your face, someone you love smiling at you. IT'S AS IF UNHAPPINESS IS SIMPLY A WAY TO MEASURE HAPPINESS"

Both time I read this quote and was hit by a thunderbolt in the chest. Its very powerful the force of this quote.

Did you come up with different answers? I sure did when I applied that quote. I have a choice whether to choose unhappiness or happiness in my life and no matter what I choose, I attract that to my life.

So even though I don't love having Diabetes, I recognize the little happinesses it has brought into my life and has given me a measure for how great my life really is; and I have to say for myself: I have a great life in spite of the trial of having Diabetes and I can always find happiness in everything I experience and do.
Now Go Choose Your Consequences!
Chrystal

Oct 12, 2009

Running is GOOD for you so they say

Today I ran almost 5 miles in about an hour. That doesn't sound very fast and it really isn't by running standards but I am just ecstatic about the fact that I actually got up before the sun and ran--I even got home before the sun came up and that was really fun to do...

I thought I was going 7 miles today but then again I guess I can do that tomorrow but the whole reason I am writing this post is to say: my basal rate is right on during this time of the day.

So here is my example:
I woke up and my blood sugar was: 93--great for a fasting if I say so myself.
I went running and came back 1 hour later--I have been sweating and working my body not on flats but hills: up and down so I really worked.--anyway

my post exercise blood sugar was: 90---Yay! if I say so myself--of course I had to eat and drink water which I am due for again--brb--ok so I ate some green beans and a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread--which I made last week--gotta make more of that--so good. and I forgot to take insulin for the sandwich -- which I shouldn't have done but I wasn't really thinking about: oh I need to take insulin--I was thinking: oh I need to eat something with protein to recover from that run...and I forgot my insulin

so when I checked about an hour later--maybe it was more my blood sugar was: 237--oops go take insulin---roller coaster notwithstanding--I liked my run so much I want to go do it again and it's a good thing as the Halloween Half is less than 3 weeks away---so my focus the next 3 weeks is rest and run, rest and run, rest and run--oh and check my blood sugars...don't forget that -- and take insulin--especially when eating-=-really don't forget that. :)

Oct 9, 2009

CGMS--Finally!

So last year I was getting a sensor and then the whole insurance company debacle and not being able to afford it---go back and read if you must.

We have pooled our money together and have decided that we are getting it--Today! I just have to do the following things:

1. Get a copy of the letter or medical necessity from the doctor for the IRS. Because they won't allow me to use FSA funds without that OH and

2. get a copy of the prescription from my doctor to back ourselves up to the IRS to spend our money for our medical bills (that is so depressing--but I don't want to get into any political or government biases in this blog)

3. Oh and let me not forget: get a copy of the receipt to avoid allegations of fraud...using FSA money for purposes other than medical necessities...

--BUT----

YAY: I get a sensor, I get a sensor, and need I say it one more time? I get a sensor!!!! Steph we can be new sensor buddies!!! YAY!