I just read a great guest post on DiabetesMine about the Continuous Glucose Monitor. Mine is still in the box, but hopefully I’ll be using it soon!

On a non-diabetes note, it looks like I’m back on the home buyer wagon. I fell off of it about a month or so ago when my husband and I were in the attorney review process for a townhouse we had just put an offer on. Long story short, the deal fell through, which actually ended up being a good thing for us. After that situation, we decided to take a break from all the hassles of house hunting. As of yesterday, it looks like we’re back to looking! A house just came on the market for a great price and in a good location. It needs updating inside, but judging from the pictures, nothing that has to get done right away. Who knows what could happen after seeing it person though. I try not to get excited too soon anymore—I learned that anything could happen. I’m not going to talk anymore about it because I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ll see!

I have to be a nerd for a few minutes and post about the awesome time I had at a Hanson concert two days ago with my good friend, Jackie. I realize how silly that sounds, but they are still my favorite band and I have the best time at their shows! I’m not nearly as “obsessed” as I used to be in high school. There was a time when I would happily stand outside a venue for 12 hours waiting to get into a concert in order to be as close to the stage as possible. Nowadays, the thought of waiting on a line more than an hour completely turns me off. So instead, Jackie and I managed to cut almost the entire line at the last minute and somehow bypassed everybody. Not sure how we managed to do that without getting into fights—but we did! The show itself was obviously amazing! For whatever reason, I was nervous security was going to ask me about my pump at the door. I was afraid they were going to wonder what exactly I was trying to bring inside. Nobody cared. In fact, they didn’t care about anything. You could have brought in a video camera and it really didn’t matter!

Our little adventure before the show was so much fun. For a few years now, Hanson has been doing this charity to help fight AIDS and poverty in Africa. A few hours before each concert, they go on a one mile walk with their fans barefoot to honor those who are less fortunate in Africa. For every person that “takes the walk” with them, they donate a dollar to health care, clean water, etc. So that’s all very sweet and I love a good cause—but let’s be honest—it really didn’t matter to me why were walking, the fact that I could stand next to them for half an hour was reason enough haha. I was not barefoot. If I’m technically not supposed to be barefoot on the beach (even though I break that rule every time), I’m surely not going to walk around a dirty concert venue with rocks and nails on the ground, barefoot! Even with shoes on, the walk was awesome! I ended up getting a picture with Isaac, the oldest brother. =)

All and all, the day was great and luckily, I didn’t have to worry about any highs or lows during any of it. My blood sugar stayed level and I was able to focus on more important things!

Apparently, sniffing insulin can help memory loss in Alzheimer's patients. I find this very interesting! Here is a link to the article:


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66F01X20100716?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Health+News%29

As an official user of the pump, I have to say that I really love it. I don’t know why I was so over it a few years ago. I kind of wish I gave it more of a chance. Better late than never I guess. It really is awesome to be able to sit in a restaurant and not have to whip out needles in front of everyone. It’s great to be able to press a few buttons and start eating. I can’t wait to learn how to use the continuous glucose monitor---then I’ll really be set.

My sugar levels were great the first two days, but the last 2 days it’s been on I feel like I can’t calculate my carbs right. I keep underestimating the amount I actually need and I always end up too high. It’s making me a little frustrated actually. Hopefully that changes soon. I feel like a failure when my levels are high. The funny thing is, it doesn’t bother me when they’re too low. It just sucks, but I don’t feel bad about myself. It’s when they hit the 200s I feel like I just failed a big final. I’m sure my doctor may just have to make some adjustments with my basal rate or something. That, or I really just can’t calculate my food anymore. Either way.

Also---I was nervous to go kickboxing--I was scared my sweat would make the adhesive fall off and the stupid thing would fall out of me in the middle of doing push ups haha. Turns out it stays put no matter how long you are sweating or in water. Yay!

I can't believe Fourth of July Weekend is already over. This summer is flying by way too quickly. We went to a friends house on the 4th and watched illegal fireworks in his backyard. They were amazing. I thought they were going to be those lame small ones, but they were huge and completely lit the sky. I was positive the police were going to show up haha. Thankfully they didn't. I had to check my blood sugar at one point and another friend noticed. He let me know that a bunch of his relatives also have diabetes and his uncle lost his legs. I love when people tell me things like that. How am I supposed to respond? "yes, thank you, I love to hear about all the people in your life that have lost limbs and who have died...from the same disease I have!" I know I take care of myself and keep everything under control. It's still scary to hear horror stories like that. I know he meant no harm, and it doesn't anger me at all. I just think it's funny.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning to meet with my doctor so we can put insulin in my pump now instead of saline. Tomorrow I'll be an official user of the pump! Sweet.

Bikini or Tankini?

First of all--the new blog templates are really cool. I love this new design--it's so fun!

So I haven't given up on the pump yet. Even though it's still saline, I'm still wearing it and acting like it's insulin. Hopefully next week I'll be able to officially use it with insulin. I've adjusted to it pretty well. I'm still getting used to sleeping with it though. I'm not quite sure what to do with it. The other morning I woke up tangled up in the tubing. It's weird because I feel like I can't keep it clipped on my side because I'm going to crush it. I usually just place it next to me and hope it's in the same spot when I wake up. I guess I still have to get used to it. Either way, I'm really glad I decided to do this. I'm interested to see what my A1C will be like once I've been using the pump for a while. We'll see!

Next weekend I may be going to the beach with some friends. I'm contemplating whether I should continue to wear my bikini as usual while wearing the pump, or if I should get a tankini to try to cover it up a little bit. I don't necessarliy want to freak people out with this, but I also don't want to be forced to cover up if I don't want to. Decisions, decisions...

On a lighter note, I'm very excited because my husband finally let me open our gifts from our wedding (new towels, pots, pans, etc.) It's only been around nine months! We were planning on not opening anything until we moved into a house, but since that's been falling through we decided to just re-organize the apartment so we can use our new things. Thank God because now I actually want to cook--now that I have some sweet pots and pans to use haha.

Back on the Pump--Day 1

I’m back on the pump and it’s not as bad as I remembered it to be! This is my first full day on it, and I have to say, it’s not bothering me at all. I was down at the beach for a few days this week and on our way back home, my husband and I stopped at my doctor’s office to get my pump training started. The whole time I was on vacation I was thinking about my appointment and how much easier life is going to be with my new pump. It’s weird how different I felt about it four years ago. I was disgusted with the sight of it and it actually depressed me. Now I’m completely ok with it. I am a little nervous about taking it out for the first time. I hope history doesn’t repeat itself and I don’t end up with a giant bruise. I’m also a little nervous about inserting a new one—that should be interesting. Right now I’m practicing with saline, but hopefully next week I’ll be ready for insulin. I wish I would have started the pump before going down to the beach. It would have made it so much easier. It’s such a pain to bring the insulin pens in hot weather—I always have to remember the ice pack in my bag and it just takes up extra space, it drives me crazy! I’m looking forward to not having to worry about that!