"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I hope you all have a relaxing and healthy holiday with your family and friends!

My husband and begin our trek from one end of California to the other (San Diego to Eureka) at noon today. Wish us luck!

Cycles

I've been thinking a lot lately about how diabetes is cyclical, at least for me it is. And I suspect that others have the same experience. I started my ultra tight diabetes care around mid-August and successfully lowered by A1C from 7.3 to 6.4 in just over three months. Man, I was feeling good about myself! Then, the flu shot I received in mid-November sent me for a week of highs, then of course the holidays kick in and now I find myself in a less than wonderful diabetes phase!

Maybe I let my guard down after learning I could and did lower my blood sugars. It's frustrating though. I guess I'm realizing that great diabetes care requires that intense level of focus and care all the time!

I've noticed this cycle of highs and lows on a smaller scale too. When I exercise for a couple days, I'll be low for awhile. Then, I must be tired of being low all the time, so I let myself go a little high, but then it's too high, so I correct and have a period of lows. It's not like swinging blood sugars, just one big overcorrection, but rather a few days of lows, followed by a few days of running a bit high, etc.

Does anyone else experience this? It's probably a symptom of not being as intense about my care as I was a couple of months ago. Time to get back on the wagon :)

Lowest Reading Ever!

This past weekend my husband and I went up to San Luis Obispo for my sister's graduation. On Friday night we went out to Japanese food, yummy! I had sake for the first time. Kinda like rubbing alcohol I have to say. Anyway, I don't know if it was the sake, overdosing for the bit of white rice I ate, or the excercise from the morning... but Friday night I woke up, felt low, tested and came in at: 25! Yes, you read that correctly. I know because I checked my meter memory three times! I just could not believe it.

I know our readings can be off by a certain range, but still... that's pretty low. The scary thing was I didn't feel that low. I've always been able to feel my lows and I always wake up at night. However, since I've been getting my blood sugars down into a better range, I notice that my lows feel differently. I used to feel shakey and kinda tipsy :) but now it's more like I zone out and feel spacey, then I realize I should test. My husband woke up with me and when I told him my number he grabbed my hand and held it while I chopped down a Snickers with Almonds. Three hours later I was only 82 and I proceeded to be kinda low all day.

So, that's my story of my lowest blood sugar reading ever! My previous "record" was 30, but that was at least 7 years ago. Let's hope this record stands up a lot longer! :)

Love-Hate Relationship with Pizza and other musings

Is there anyone that doesn't like pizza?! I mean, really it's delicious! My absolute favorite is Round Table's King Arthur Supreme. Luckily the closest one to our apartment is not within delivery range. Otherwise we'd have it weekly I'm sure!

So, yesterday I was covering for a co-worker and ordered pizza for the tax group. I didn't plan on having any, but... they insisted I take some as repayment for my organizing the meeting. It was really good pizza, so I decided to partake. My bg before was 172, darn already high! But here's the thing: I have this weird "insulin ceiling" in my brain. I rarely give myself more than 5 units of humalog at a time. Usually this is a good thing because it forces me to eat less carbs. However, sometimes it's just dumb! I had my two slices of pizza and gave myself 5 units. Now, this would have been fine if I'd worked out that morning, or had a particularly busy afternoon, but I hadn't and I didn't. So, before class I rang in at 288 and proceeded to be in the mid 200's for the rest of the day! I made the proper corrections, but somehow that pizza kept me up all day. Why did I even eat it?! I should have had my nice, low carb lunch and avoided the dreaded, yet delicious pizza! Just another reminder of why we don't eat those high carb meals, right Kelsey?!

In more fun news... I watched the sweetest, most touching movie last night. Those of you with kids probably saw it months ago: Because of Winn-Dixie! Oh, I loved it! My husband read the synopsis and thought it sounded like something we'd like. I cried my eyes out! I have been working so hard for the past month, I haven't allowed myself to "feel" much. I'm a very emotional person normally, so I guess I had a lot of stored up tears :) I recommend it highly though. It's just a very sweet, feel good (yes, despite the tears) movie.

This post is jumping all over the place! Tomorrow my husband and I are driving up to San Luis Obispo to celebrate my little sister's graduation from Cal Poly! She is receiving her degree in Animal Sciences with a concentration on Beef Production. I'm very proud. She's worked really hard! I'm also excited to see her engagement ring :) Sarah (that's my sister) has done so much for me, as I graduated college and got married in the last few years. It's my turn to celebrate and support her!!

Have a fun and healthy weekend everyone!!

My Story

At the end of 7th grade I started losing weight. I remember being all excited because my size 5 jeans were too big and my size 3 were even loose! I went to camp and ate Airheads like they were going out of style :) I left a campfire one night after drinking 3 diet sodas and refilled the can with water and drank a few of those. I even resorted to cupping my hands under the faucet in the bathroom and just drinking and drinking... oh the thirst! My parents picked me up and we spent a weekend at our neighbor's cabin. I spent the entire weekend lying on the couch while the other kids swam and played. Our neighbor mentioned to my dad that I might be anorexic. He was furious at the suggestion, but my parents didn't know what was going on.

Finally we got home and I started having flu symptoms... so off we went to see my dear pediatrician Dr. Joe. It took him all of two seconds to diagnose me. He told me that I had diabetes and would need to go to the hospital right away. I had ALL of the Babysitters Club books and Stacy, who had diabetes, was my favorite character. So I knew this meant I'd have to take shots! That was the worst, because I was scared to death of needles. I had passed out getting my ears pierced and when I had my MMR booster shot!!

My experience at the hospital was wonderful! My wonderful mom spent the entire five days sleeping on a cot beside me, I had tons of visitors and the nurses were saints. I loved being there! I felt so safe and well taken care of.

Getting used to the self-care was another matter. The injections were actually okay. I did them myself from the very beginning. I was 13 and my parents wanted me to retain my independence. Finger sticks for testing my blood was another matter. I remember sitting up in my bedroom with the "pricker" against my finger for nearly a half an hour before I'd have the nerve to hit the button! It's amazing how difficult something once was, which is now second nature to me.

Diabetes has profoundly shaped who I am. I think one of the best ways it has changed me is that I have to think of myself first. By nature I am a pleaser and I take on too much stuff. But being diabetic makes you have to take care of yourself first. I think that makes me a better wife, daughter, sister and friend because I'm not running around doing everything for someone else and then resenting it. I'm sure it'll make me a better mom too.

For many years I just dealt with diabetes, doing what I needed to to get by, but not really controlling it. I've altered my care a lot in the last year. It feels amazing to know that I can take excellent care of myself, instead of just "B- care."

It sounds silly, but I'm almost proud to have this disease. Only the strong survive the daily grind of diabetes management. Now that I've gotten to know other diabetics, mostly through the OC, I feel proud to be part of this group! Amazing people, with such strength and optimism.