Updates

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I've been MIA on the blog sphere lately... not too much to report diabetes-wise, after such a "diabetes focused" stretch a couple weeks ago. Here's what I've been up to:

My mom came to visit for a week over Thanksgiving! She lives in Eureka, CA which is 800 miles away from San Diego (it's on the coast, just south of Oregon). That's way too far away!! My mom and I are extremely close, and it's miserable only seeing her a few times a year. Her latest visit reaffirmed mine and my husband's resolve to move up north (probably not to Eureka though!) in the next few years.

Anyway, we have a very active week with Mom. We ate dinners out, went to an amazing exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. It was photos of migrants all over the world, with a huge section of Mexican immigrants in San Diego. It was a very somber experience and just incredible. Afterwards we ate In-n-Out Burger and checked out the new Bloomingdales. The irony of this juxtaposition was not lost on us.

We also did our share of shopping! We skipped out on Black Friday however, what a zoo! My mom figured she'd buy our Christmas presents while she visited, instead of trying to ship everything. Very fun :) The two of us (Dennis stayed home to watch football) went to the outlets on Sunday afternoon. They're right next to the Mexican border (literally there are signs that say "Left Turn- No US Return" right near the outlets. It's a very cool experience to be near an international border for the day. You'd think it would be a clear cut US/Mexico cultural change at the border, but actually San Ysidro, CA feels more like Mexico in many ways. Very interesting.

Instead of hitting the malls on Friday, we took a leisurely drive up to Julian. This is the same little town Dennis and I visited on our anniversary. We loved it so much and really wanted to share it with mom. So, after our typical Starbucks stop, we headed east.

I rode in the backseat. In hindsight, this was not a good idea.

When we arrived I definitely felt sick. We strolled around awhile and then I tested my blood. Uh oh, 70 mg/dl and 3 units still on board. Damn! I over bolused for the zucchini walnut muffin! I gobbled down some M&Ms and kept looking around. I was feeling worse by the minute.

Another test 25 minutes later yielded 43 mg/dl. Great! I consumed a whole bottle of apple juice while we sat on a bench. We'd only been in Julian for 40 minutes or so, and I felt terrible.

Once my blood sugar rose a bit, I tried to be a trooper and keep looking in the little shops. I felt awful. Finally, I told mom and Dennis, "I'm just going to sit in the car for awhile."

I laid down in the back seat with the windows open and just felt nauseous. When my loved ones returned about twenty minutes later they said, "You're sick, let's go home."

It's about an hour drive back to San Diego. When we arrived at the next town, Ramona, I asked Dennis to stop so I could get some gatorade. My blood sugar was still not over 100 mg/dl. At the Chevron station I emptied my stomach! Totally!

I'll spare you the details, but I threw up twice more that day. I took some Pepto and had some Campbell's Chicken Noodle (the best when you're sick!) and felt fine by 7 p.m.

What the heck was that?! We considered food poisoning, but I highly doubt that from baked goods... I guess it was just motion sickness from the drive up. The road is incredibly curvy and I haven't sat in the backseat for that kind of drive in years. I don't get motion sickness typically, but I do remember curvy roads getting to be as a child. How odd.

Speaking of illness, I've been taking Airborne like it's going out of style! My mom came down with a terrible cold during the last part of her visit. So far so good, Dennis and I aren't experiencing symptoms. But, my blood sugars have been slightly elevated, so I'm wondering if my body is trying to fight off the bug. Hmmm.

Well, it's almost December... the season of giving, and the season of runny noses, sore throats and coughing!