Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Weird food combos - Yummy Snacks

My husband has always given me a hard time about the various food combinations I used to eat. I will admit, some of them were a bit odd. Bread and butter pickles with Cool Whip was the weirdest, in my opinion. The toasted cinnamon raisin bread with butter and sliced avocado was.. and is.. really good. So is the sloppy-joe mix served on cinnamon graham crackers.  These gourmet combos were brought to me by cravings.  Not pregnancy cravings.  I craved "normal" food while pregnant, bbq ribs and baked potatoes was my go to meal during my incubating days.

Last night I ended up eating another weird food combination, accidentally.  I had a small bowl of snack mix (Chex mix like but from Costco) and a couple large marshmallows.  I was in the middle of treating my low (45) when I noticed what I had in my hand.  I must admit, it tasted pretty darn good.  I tweeted it out.  I heard back from ThePerfectDBlog that it sounded delicious.. then she went to check her own bgnow.  Then Bennet commented that it would make some "kicked up treats that would put rice crispys to shame".  Now I must admit, I seriously thought about stopping my dinner making, and whipping up some Snack-Mix Marshmallow Treats.  The only thing stopping me was the lack of anymore snack mix.  Don't worry though, it is on the grocery list for this week.

What is the weirdest food combination you've ever eaten?

Monday, July 22, 2013

Out of towels to throw in? Be thankful.

There are times when life gets the best of you and you just want to throw in the towel. That's when you look around and realize you're out of towels. You could complain about no towels, or the fact that you have laundry to add to your list of things to grump about. Or you could be thankful.

It's hard to be thankful when everything is going yucky. When you realize it is 11:30 at night and you still have 4 things to do before you can even head to bed all the while knowing that the 5:30am alarm is just around the corner. When you have family that is getting on your last nerve and making no sense. When you have a day of high blood sugars and nothing you do seems to help bring them down. When you know you have a lab request buried somewhere on your desk but can't find it and you need to have blood drawn before next month's endo appointment. These can get the best of anyone.. me included.

When I get to that point I *try* to step back, take a deep breath and think of something positive in each circumstance. True, that 5:30am alarm is early, but that means I have a job. True, family can be the most irritating and make the least sense, but that means you're at least still talking with them. True, an entire day of unexplained high blood sugars is frustrating beyond belief, but that means you're still functioning well enough to check and that you have the necessary items needed to check and treat. True, you have lost paperwork, but you know if you call your doctor for a new order they will gladly give you one. 

It is hard to be thankful in everything.. trust me, I know.. but I am trying..it is a work in progress. 

What are you thankful for?

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Adventures in Surgery

This post talks about my recent foot surgery.  I have refrained from posting any graphic pictures, and tried to not be to graphically descriptive.  However, if you have a weak stomach and vivid imagination, consider this fair warning. 

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This last Thursday I had foot surgery. It was supposed to be for ganglion cyst removal, nerve un-strangling, hardware removal, and possible tendon repair. A blue light special as my podiatrist put it.

It started a few months ago. I couldn't wiggle my big toe, by itself without it hurting. I could manually move it.. wiggle it with my hand.. just not on it's own. The ultra-sound showed a rather large cyst with floaties in it. Dr. Foot suspected a ganglion cyst. He tried one shot of cortisone..much to the dismay of my blood sugars, but that didn't help at all. The next option was to go in and remove it, especially since it also appear to be pinching off a nerve. Have you ever had a hair wrapped around your toe? Imagine that feeling all the time.

So we set the date for July 11.

I got my time to report for surgery... 2pm. I was NOT a happy camper. Everyone knows that before surgery you stop eating at midnight. How in the world was I supposed to go from midnight to 2pm without food?! Having Type 1 diabetes is no fun, but it does allow silver linings sometimes. Being scheduled first for surgeries is one of them. I tried to argue and get an earlier time, but I had no luck. I was, however, allowed to eat breakfast and clear fluids.

Thursday afternoon finally arrived and I show up at the surgical center. My podiatrist came in and informed me that he'd been talking with my anesthesiologist about my CGM and he was fascinated. Dr. Sleep came in and wanted to know exactly how it worked and what to expect. I gave him the full low down. He was excited! He said being able to see what was going on, so he knew what needed to be done and to help the others in the OR with IV fluids was going to be so nice. Everyone was a bit concerned about one part of the surgery and how it would interact with my CGM. At one point, I get hooked up to a "zappy *" machine that "melts *" the ends of blood vessels to help control bleeding (*Dr. Foot terms). They put an additional pad near the site for the electrical current to go to. It was on my upper leg and my CGM was on my OTHER leg. It shouldn't have been a problem.

Surgery went very well. Come to find out, there was no cyst at all. My tendon was severely damaged and the screws from my previous surgery were very much stuck in the bone. To repair the tendon, Dr. Foot took another tendon from the same foot and moved it over. This relieved the nerve at the same time. The nerve immediately sprung back, almost like it took a deep breath. Yay for no neuropathy! He was able to remove the screws, but it took a bit more work.

Anesthesia and I don't get along very well.  I normally take quite a while to wake up, and it likes me to revisit anything I may have eaten on the sly.  I was given a dose of anti-nausea medicine to help.  I was told it wouldn't spike my blood sugars like the one normally used.  So I was hopeful that my night would be good.  No such luck.

When I was fully awake, I look at my CGM graph and was hovering around 160.  I was content.  The odd part was the approximate 30-45 minutes of no reads.  I wondered if Dr. Sleep had wandered away too far, or if all the other equipment interfered with the signal.  I was hoping for interference.  Come to find out, the screen went blank mere seconds after the "zappy" machine was used.  Oops.. no permanent damage done though.

When I got home I was STARVING!  The funny thing is, I don't remember what I ate.  I do remember how rough a night it was bg-wise.  That anti-nausea medicine that wasn't supposed to spike me?  Well, it failed at that.  I climbed the whole evening.  I had corrected and still didn't come down.  At one point, I think it was about 1:30 in the morning, my level was 439.  UGH!!  I switched out insulin, cartridge, and site in hopes to help.  It brought me down to upper 100's as long as I didn't eat.  First food brought me to 300+ in no time.  I was frustrated.

Friday was doing better.  I was walking around.  I hadn't had to take any pain meds.  My numbers were still high.  This is where the love of the DOC comes in.  Sugarfreesweety checked in on me and suggested increasing my basal.  Now, why I never think of that myself, I'll never know.  I increased basal, and that helped budge my numbers.. but I was still running high.  Doughuss popped in and reminded me that surgery will do that, and it could be a couple days.  *sigh*  Thankfully, by Saturday I was pretty much back to normal.  I was exhausted, but doing decently. 


I don't think I'll be running any marathons anytime soon.
 
Now, if I can only remember all the extra steps needed for when/if I have surgery again.   

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

An inspiration to me

One thing I know about life is that we are all dealt a hand that we don't always like. There are days when it would be easier to throw all the cards away and ask for new ones. Then there are days that we look at what we have and couldn't be more thankful.

Living with Type 1 diabetes is exactly that. Some days the cards are different and some days the cards are the same, but the outcome can be different.

Another thing I know is that if you look around you will always find someone who inspires you. Katie is one of those people for me. I met her a few years ago through my daughter. They went to the same high school. In fact, Katie's dad was the commander of my daughter's JROTC class.

Confession time: When I first saw Katie I noticed she looked different, but I also noticed that it didn't slow her down.. I didn't know what had caused her physical difference, but I learned. Katie has Treacher Collins Syndrome. Here is a description of what Treacher Collins Syndrome is.

Over the last couple years Katie has been through more surgeries than I can count (somewhere upwards of 30+ if I remember correctly). I've kept up on them the best I could and have been amazed at her positive attitude and strength. It has truly inspired me.

Now I don't know about you guys, but before Katie I had never heard of Treacher Collins Syndrome, have you? I know she would love to spread awareness for TCS. I hope that this post has done just a little bit of that.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Twice in one month

I should have known better. After all, I dealt with hot insulin once this month already. But no.. I have a thick skull.

This past weekend, and through this week, my area of the world has been super hot. I know there are other areas that are a lot hotter than here, Phoenix for example. Yes.. yes.. "it's a dry heat". I will agree that dry and hot is better than humid and hot, but 115 is hot no matter how you look at it.

This was taken at about 4pm

Saturday morning, while getting ready for the day, I debated preparing my Frio pouch for my insulin pump. I knew I would be in and out of buildings, but figured I would be fine.

My post church lunch was delayed due to an extra sermon (very good sermon..totally worth the extended time), so instead of eating at the park with friends my hubby and I stopped by my office to eat. It was already hot outside, and I figured the coolness of my office would be good. We ate a quick lunch, and headed to a funeral for the dad of a dear friend.

The service was good, hugs were given, and tears were shed, then we were off to the cemetery. This dear gentleman had served in the Army during the Korean war and therefore had a full military burial. I truly felt for the honor guard as they were in full uniform. Those uniforms are not cool by any means. Talking with one of them afterwards I found out that ours was their third of the day.

The graveside service took maybe 15-20 minutes. There was a little bit of wait time, but not bad. All in all, I was outside for maybe 30 minutes. I made sure my pump was on my shaded side, and kept it covered with my clothes. When we got back in our car I checked my CGM and noticed I was climbing, two arrows straight up. That's when I knew I should have brought, and used, my Frio. We went back to my office for me to switch out everything. Thank heavens for spare supplies at work, right? I corrected, even with a syringe, and it still took a few hours to come back down.


Yup.. it was a rough day.
Needless to say, I've been using my Frio every day since.  It is a little bulky, but workable...  especially when compared to cooking insulin.