5 am Meandering

-yawn- Hey, it's 5 in the morning I haven't slept since yesterday morning... Why don't I blog? ;) That should put me right to sleep.

Just some random meandering of thoughts. Not a lot has been going on since I last popped on here. Working, listening to music, attempting to study, keeping up with family and friends. Just got invited to one of my high school friend's wedding receptions. I think that's 7 of the people from my grade of 71 that are now married or are engaged. That's 10%, kind of impressed.

But I've just been keeping up with everything as best I can through Facebook. Love that place.

But sometimes I get to thinking about random things, like... do all my friends that I don't talk to understand those Facebook status' that say I'm so high I can't see straight? They all know I'd never do drugs but they've gotta be scratching their heads trying to figure out what the heck I mean.

I mean, if you ever spend any time with me, you can't help but know I'm diabetic. But these people on Facebook, most don't know word one about diabetes.

I often have to catch myself when talking to them. A frequent question is how are you feeling today? Well my autopilot response usually involves something about my blood sugar numbers in between all the drama and boring fluff. I forget that they don't live with diabetes, that they don't automatically know exactly what I'm talking about.

There are very few friends who actually know exactly what I mean when I say I'm 55. The normal response is, "Is that ok?" or "Oh, that's good, right?" Very few people understand why I let out a yippee when my meter reads anything between 90 and 100. They don't understand my urge to share such wonderful numbers. They're just numbers to them. To me, they're much more. I try to just see them as status reports but I usually worry about what each out-of-range number is doing to my future health. They don't get why I groan when I see anything over 150.

Though, I've gotta say, I really appreciate that people around me do try to learn. They'll ask for what the range of good numbers are, they'll ask what a certain number makes me feel like.

There is one person who knows what all my numbers almost as well as I do, and he's getting talented at carb counts too. Yeah, I'm talking about that person I never stop talking about. ;) Sweet Guy, my boyfriend and best friend. The guy picked up the diabetes learning curve from the day he met me and ran with it.

He cheers me on when I'm down because of a really bad d-day, he helps me study my blood sugar charts, helps me bounce ideas to figure out why my latest BS average is nothing but BS. I definitely earned my name Lucky when I ran into this guy. And he has never lost the Sweet part of his name.

And if you're really curious as to what you might see me doing if you peeked into my life, you'd most likely find me chatting with him on MSN. You know, I haven't seen him in two months now. And I really hope I'm not causing too much eye rolling in whoever may be reading this. But I don't have a ton of diabetes stuff right now.

I've finally found an infusion set site that hasn't melted off yet. Top butt cheek. -shrug- I couldn't tell you why, but it has definitely stayed the week instead of sweating off the first day.

Other diabetes stuff, in my Primary Sunday school classes, it has become an event to watch Jessica test her blood sugar. I needed to do it once in class and they've been forever fascinated since. They all want a turn to poke the teacher. ;) One of my little students has started watching me in sacrament to see if I test my blood sugar. And then when we get to our classes, she proudly tells me that she saw me.. And that it was so cool, but still gross because "You licked off your finger... again, that's just yucky Jess." I love these kids, I teach about five 5 year old girls in my little class. A while back, when they asked me to explain why I had to test my blood sugar, they all accused me of being a liar when I explained that they had a pancreas. "We do not!! That's gross!! You must be lying teacher. I can't have a pancreas." Oh well, they all know I have Type 1 Diabetes and that I have to test my blood sugar to make sure I'm feeling good and that I have to have my pump to keep me healthy. (that's what they tell all the other kids not in my class) And of course that it's all very gross. I don't understand that, but it still makes me laugh when they all gather around to watch me test and then it's just hilarious the way all ten eyes watch my finger as I bring it up to lick it off. And then the subsequent groan "Ewwww", I've never left that class with anything less than a huge grin plastered on my face.

What else. Hmm, well I'm making a trip up to Malad next weekend with Sweet Guy. Gonna stay at my parent's house for the weekend and then go to Logan on Monday for a doctor's appointment with a new doctor. (YAY for finally having a driver's license!!) My last doctor decided to focus entirely on pediatrics and dropped all of his internal medicine patients. I'm hoping this new Doctor is good. I can't wait until I actually have the means to see an Endocrinologist. My last A1c was 7.1%. Not bad, but I want better but I'm not exactly sure how to change what I do. But anyway, for now, I'll just keep going to the docs that are close by so I can get my prescriptions and such.

Anyway, I should probably make another attempt at getting a little sleep. If you got this far down the post, kudos to you. I'm impressed. If you have any comments or want to know something, leave me a comment or question. I'll get you an answer asap.

tata. ;)

Five for Adults, Four for Kids

"Hey Jess, you still want to go to breakfast?"

I grunted at Grandpa, something affirmative sounding. Heck, it 6:50 am.

So I rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes and tested real quick before I followed him out the door.

Last night we had decided that when he got home from his graveyard shift, we'd hit the breakfast Delta was putting on for Independence Day.

They were just starting to assemble everything as we got there, but the food was hot and ready.

We walked up to pay for our breakfasts.

"Hey guys, it's five dollars for adults and four dollars for kids." He said looking at the two of us.

"Well I'm the kid and she's the adult so here's 10 dollars. Keep the change." Grandpa said giving me a cheeky grin.

The man had already pulled out a dollar change and was trying to hand it to Grandpa. This is when I finally spoke up. "I am 19 and a sophomore in college, does that count as being an adult?"

He looked at me like I'd sprouted a set of whiskers. I just smiled at him before Grandpa and I turned to get our breakfasts.

He mumbled, "I guess that would qualify you." before he slipped the dollar back in the tray with a slight flush.

I'm starting to wonder if I'll be 40 before people actually think I'm even 18. It has been a couple of years since I was handed a 10 and under menu.

;)

{Edit: Like Grandma Specht emailed me, I am enjoying this. haha, I just found it quite funny and had to share.}

One Hot Diabetic

As it heats up here in Delta, I notice that my body reacts differently to my diabetes care. It is normal for me and Tasha to be working in 90 -100 degree weather for most of the day. Some changes I've had to make in my care and things I've learned:

• I have to be sure to use less insulin when the temperatures spike because the heat makes me warmer, causing the insulin to work faster. Coupled with the physical work, I only need half the insulin for most of my meals during the work day.


• Lows are almost inevitable when you are working your butt off in the high heat. I thought I'd just carry around a bottle of orange juice to treat lows. Well Jessica (me, obviously) learned that orange juice tastes REALLY bad if it is left opened in her backpack for a couple of days. Apparently it does go bad. I also learned, (I know this is gross but it was a learning experience) that orange juice that has gone bad will still raise a low blood sugar. (What? I didn't have anything else with me.) It'll just make your stomach churn as well.


• I learned that carrying a small 12 oz. re-closable bottle of pop is better, pop doesn't go bad, it just goes flat.


• When you are pulling hoses all day make sure your pump site is somewhere it'll not have hose dragging across it. The hose will rub it off no matter how much tape you put over top of it.


• On that same note, Make sure your pump is secure and inside your pocket. If it's hanging off your pocket or belt, the hose will catch it and tear it off, causing you to have a flying pump that loves to try to pull your site out again as it swings in and out of your reach.


• You cannot skip meals at all when working hard, it causes more lows. I've tried a few times and every time has ended with me having to stop and nurse my low.


• Another reason to have your pump secure: When scaling fences to reach the backyard, you don't want it flying out and landing underneath you as you fall flat on your butt because you are as graceful as me and have yet to land on your feet when jumping a fence.


• Water is incredibly critical, if I don't keep hydrated I've noticed my bloodsugars seem to swing with the stress. I haven't the slightest clue why but that's what happens.


• Since I walk everywhere all day, I make sure to check my feet carefully every night for any bruises or blisters. Also, in the morning I make extra certain that my socks aren't wrinkled so I can avoid having sore spots.


• Another one I don't know the reason for: Adequate sleep is critical. Swinging bloodsugars are directly affected by the amount of sleep gotten the night before. So I've found I need at least 7 hours of sleep.


• I've learned a lot more than this but the most important thing is that there is no set formula, every single day will throw something different at me. So checking my blood sugar every 2 hours is nearly essential.

So I've got to head back out and continue melting my pants right off my butt. Cy'all later.