Junk Food Frustrations

This post is going to be me venting.

This past week, I have had an awful time with controlling my blood sugars....and I'm pretty sure it's all diet related. Actually, I know it is and it's the most frustrating thing ever.

All year, my friends and I have had "Teen Mom Night." I know. It sounds weird. For those of you that don't know, Teen Mom is a show on MTV. They document the struggles of four different Teen Moms. Well, every Tuesday at 10pm, we all get together to watch it. Someone always makes a fantastic snack. Most of these snacks are high fat, high carb....not too good for you. We've had: monkey bread, ice cream sundaes, popcorn loaded with butter and M&Ms, cheesy bread, chocolate chip cookies stuffed with double stuffed oreos.....
This used to be a once-a-week type of thing, which I was completely fine with. I was fine with extreme carb guessing, getting up at 3am to test my blood sugar and correcting. It's not just once a week anymore though. It's now more like 5 out of 7 nights of the week. I've been going to bed high, miss my 3am alarm every night, wake up high....then I'm usually fine for the rest of the day. It's not like my friends are forcing this food down my throat...but how the heck can someone resist eating it?!? It's so good! I think I'm going to have to figure out a way to resist the temptation and go back to indulging once a week. I don't want to lose that great A1c I had back in March! Ughhh! Sometimes I wish I could just eat like everyone else without the pain of carb counting, bolusing, and worrying about whether I covered it all or not.
It's exhausting. I'm overtired. I'm stressed from end-of-the-semester projects.
I just want summer to come......

This is a picture of the best cookie I have ever put into my mouth: an oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie.

Goodbye Summer!

Hello!

I just wanted to update everyone on how I'm doing!
I had my endo appointment at the beginning of July and am doing GREAT! My doctor didn't have to make many changes except for a better way to manage my pump while at work. I've finally worked up the courage to keep the basal rate at around 80% and the lowest I've gone with that was about 80. yay! My A1c has finally started going down too! I'm down to about 7.8! woooo! That's way better than the 9.something or other I had only about a year ago!

On Thursday, I'll be attending the Circle of Life Camp For Children with Diabetes as a counselor! I'll be working with 8-12 year olds! I'm sooooo excited! I've never been to a diabetes camp before and can't wait to see what the experience is like! I get a little nervous once I start reading the things to pack though...
It says you don't have to bring a meter, no syringes, no insulin, and absolutely no food. Not even low food! They're providing everything for us. It's scary because I ALWAYS carry my meter and low food! ahhh! I've never been to a place where the majority of people are diabetic just like me. It's definatley going to be a new and exciting experience!

I can't believe this summer is almost over! In 13 days I'll be heading back to Keene! Once I'm back, I'm planning on doing a lot more blogging! I feel like I've completely neglected it this summer. =[

I can't wait to let everyone know how camp goes!

I'm Back!

I haven't posted anything for over a month! ahhh! But don't worry, I've been keeping myself busy!

Working at the retirment home has gotten a lot better....they've finally stopped pestering me about my medical ID bracelet. My boss found out I was a nutrition major and actually approached me about helping out at the resident's farmer's market wanting me to provide education materials about nutrition and diseases....especially about diabetes! I was really excited, but the farmer's market got cancelled as they couldn't get enough farmers to participate. Oh well.

I also have a newly diagnosed diabetic living with me.....my mom. She's a nurse at a long-term care facility. One day, she decided to test her BG with one of their glucometers just for fun...her fasting glucose was 285. ahhh! After that she started testing with one of my old meters and she continually hovered in the 200s. Well, I guess she hasn't been formally diagnosed yet, but we're pretty positive that she's a type 2 diabetic. She's meeting with her doctor tomorrow so I'll keep eveyrone posted!


On June 13th, my sister and I participated in the Tour de Cure! We ended up doing the 50K...which was a bit ambitious for two girls who did literally NO training all summer. Well, we took our bikes out once in May.....but not for 30 miles. I ended up finishing the ride with no lows! Yay!
My sister had quite a different experience. She has a bad knee....she messed it up swimming breastroke. I lost her within the first 3 minutes. When I got to the first rest stop, I waiting 15 minutes for her...she never came. I tried calling her...my mom had her phone! ahhhhh! So I just continued the ride.
I guess my mom got a call from a random number......my sister was at a nail salon! What?! I guess she accidently started following the 100 mile route. We she realized this she basically said screw it, saw a nail salon, and sat in there for two hours until someone came to pick her up. LOL. That's Christi for ya!
Well, we ended up raising more money than we thought we would! I can't wait to do it again next year!



There's Christi and I before the ride! Being diabetic, I got a snazzy shirt, bandana, and bracelet. =]

I have my 3 month endo checkup tomorrow and am anxious to see how it goes. I've been having much tighter control with my numbers, so hopefully my A1c has gone down some!

Oh, and here's a fun pic. I went to a dairy farm with my mom and sister a few weeks ago and saw a bunch of cows with what looked like Dexcom sensors, so I took a pic for all to see. They're for the farmers to tell if any of the cows have been trying to mate. I guess the sensor breaks off or cracks or something....but I'm just going to pretend that the cow is a diabetic just like me. =]


Happy hump day everyone!

Work.

My teeth are FINALLY feeling better. A little sore...but nothing too terrible.
Now, I'm back to work. ahhhh. Work always does me in blood sugar-wise. I'm a waitress/dietary aide at a retirement home. I've been working there for 3 years and have tried everything to get my blood sugars within range without going low and too high. I run around like a crazy person in this place! It's so hard to figure out how to handle my pump while I'm working. Yesterday was my first day back with the dexcom and it worked WONDERS! I caught every low and came home around 125. It was so happy.

One problem I have run into at work is with my supervisors. They always seem to forget that I have diabetes and use a pump to manage it...aka they think it's a cell phone, which are forbidden during work. Last summer was the first time they noticed it. Usually I have the tubing tucked into my pants, but it snuck out with all my running around. My boss saw it and told me I needed to start taping it to my skin. Uhhhh. NO.
Then on Tuesday, one of my supervisors told me I needed to take off my medical ID bracelet! I WAS HEATED! That's the second time this summer they've called me out on the medical ID bracelet. It's so embarrassing too. They argue with me (in front of everyone) that if the health inspectors came in and saw me wearing it, they would get a fine. UGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Well, anyways, I'm not taking it off and they can continue to bother me about it. =]

Wisdom Teeth

I have had the WORST two weeks of my life!
I got my wisdom teeth out on the 14th. My oral surgeon warned me that I probably wouldn't be in much on Saturday or Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday might be pretty painful. Well, he was right...but the pain continued to Wednesday....Thursday I was in complete agony. I left work early and went to see him. No dry socket, no infection, allllll muscular. I was in so so so much pain and he gave me a prescription for MOTRIN! MOTRIN! I'd been taking motrin...wayy too much motrin, for a week! I couldn't believe it!
Well, Friday I went to my cottage and rested all day. I barely talked to anyone in order to rest my jaw. I was feeling pretty good later that night so I decided to join some friends at the Cheesecake Factory in hopes that the pain really did subside. By the end of my meal, the pain was back! UGH!
I went home, flushed my sockets, took some motrin and benedril and passed out. When I woke up on Saturday morning....the pain was probably the worst pain I've ever experienced. I just fell on the floor and cried. My mom made me some scrambled eggs and I had a piece of bread...it was all I could chew. After breakfast, I felt like I was going to PUKE. My mom tested my blood sugar and it was a whopping 400! Great. I called out of work and attempted to sleep off the pain. My mom managed to talk the oral surgeon into prescribing me some vicodin and soma, so once I got those into my system I passed out and felt a little better. I've been taking those ever since with little relief. I just sleep all day. It's awful.
The worst part is my oral surgeon is in Europe for the week with no one to cover him! I talked to him on the phone yesterday and he told me that he doesn't think it has anything to do with the wisdom teeth and that I'm probably grinding my teeth at night. Maybe I am, but I've never had this problem until I got my wisdom teeth out. Ughhhh. Whatever the problem is, I hope it gets better within the next couple of days!

Diabetes Snapshots

My lifelines!



This has lots of great recipes and tips for people living with diabetes.




My friend's leg and mine! That was back in the day when I sported an Animas.

Exercise

Exercise has always been a pretty big part of my life. I've dabbled in various sports...basketball, softball, soccer, gymnastics, track and field. The two sports I loved the most were swimming and tennis. I was on a swim team for years and I played tennis for my high school. So, yeah, I never really had a problem getting exercise...until I got to college. I didn't have any commitments to teams, so it was a little hard to get into the habit of visiting the gym on a regular basis.
Then I realized how AWFUL I felt without physical activity and got moving. I now go to the gym everyday! I feel soooo much better too. The one problem I have is figuring out a good blood sugar to work out with. Lately I'm finding that if it's not in the mid 200s, I get low really fast. I just don't know if this is a safe number. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do about this??? My Dr. tells me to just bolus for half of my dinner, but even this causes me to go low!