Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I am not a number

My value is not defined by any number; not my age, not the number on the scale, or the number on the tag of my clothes and most certainly not my A1c results.

I've seen so many posts recently in the DOC obsessing over A1c results. I understand, I do, this number tells you so much about how your diabetes is responding to "treatment." But, please hear me, it does not represent your skill as an artificial pancreas. 

That silly little number does not take into account the time and effort spent dealing with diabetes. The A1c doesn't know the difference between numbers that ping from 30-300 constantly or even "perfect" numbers.

I, for one will, not continue to allow this test result rule my life. Yes, I want to be healthy and I want my A1c to reflect that. However I am not going to quibble if I'am 6.5 or 7.8 or anywhere in between. Heck even an 8 is equal to running about 185mg/dl. 

The ADA recently did a study that correlates A1c results and Depression in Type 1 diabetes. You can read the report here. Basically they discovered that Type 1's who take good care of themselves are less depressed no matter what their A1c's are, but those Type 1's who slack off and don't bother with the in's and outs of diabetes management are depressed.

Interesting stuff......


Monday, November 29, 2010

What I Wore Today - Monday Edition

Bette Page Clothing: Jazmin Circle Dress (front)

Bette Page Clothing: Jazmin Circle Dress


New York and Company: Argyle Cardigan Pink Pearl
Rhinestone Monogram Brooch: thrifted
Sofft: Veronica pump

I know you were probably expecting to see me in the outfits. That is what I had planned, but I couldn't figure out the self-timer thing on the fancy SLR camera, and our little point and shoot is missing. So until Mr. Harer is around to take the pictures, this is the best I can do. But, I will try to post the actual outfit photos ASAP.


Sunday, November 28, 2010

D'sibs Day


It is still Diabetes Month and today has been set aside as "Special Sibling of a Diabetic Day." As I have mentioned previously I have 5 younger siblings.

Ms. C was only 4 months old, when I was diagnosed. Since my mom was busy taking care of a newborn my grandparents took over caring for my diabetes. As young kids there was a lot of animosity between Ms. C and I because of all the attention the adults gave me, since I wasn't really around much for her so see why I needed the extra attention, she didn't understand it. In our adolescent years Ms. C discovered she could tease and torment me about my diabetes. It got to a point that as punishment for harassing me they made Ms. C take shots of saline. However, in so many many many ways Ms. C supported me, I ♥ her (most of the time.)


Big B, my step brother and I didn't really spend much time around one another, except for the occasional family vacation. I'm not sure he even knows I have diabetes.

J, is by fat the most sympathetic to my diabetes. As a kid he liked to help me put new infusion sets in. He volunteered to test every time I did, as part of my 8th grade science project. (I just realized I don't have a photo of just J and I. Next time I see him I will have to fix this.)

Little Miss B, is very sensitive to how I am feeling. She just knows when I am low or high and is always willing to help in any way necessary to make me feel better.



Miss S, is my diabetes champion. She is also the only one in the family with D-related autoantibodies. Miss S will latch on to any diabetes related event or fundraiser and put every effort into it. She has such a giving heart and once gave all the money in her piggy bank to buy a JDRF sneaker.


I am so thankful to all my siblings for their support and sacrifices over the years. I know, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that sometimes my diabetes made your lives suck, but somehow you love me anyway. I couldn't ask for more.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Way to go!


Welcome to my 100th post this year! It is traditional in the blogosphere to celebrate the 100th post with a contest or giveaway, but my blog isn't really that sort of a place, sorry if that disappoints anyone. Another tradition is to complete a 100 things you didn't know about me post, but no one needs to know that much about me? I'd much rather celebrate this little milestone, quietly amongst my small group of followers, family and friends.

PS. Thanks Matthew, I think your A+++ too! Since you gave me such a nice compliment, I feel I need to live up to it, so next week I will be posting daily, what I wore posts. Fun!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Riverside's Festival of Lights

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love all the events that lead up to Christmas Day.

When I was younger the block my grandparent's lived on all put up huge light displays for Christmas. The closest thing I've found here is the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn.

I've gone every year for the past 5 years to see the lights, but never attended the switch on ceremony; so today I went to watch them turn on nearly 3 million lights and begin the Christmas season. 


It was a great event, crowded, but fun. The lights will remain on until January 2nd, along with the Inland Empire's only outdoor ice rink. Kids can also visit Santa's and his reindeer, and decorate their own cupcake from Casey's Cupcakes.

For more information about the Festival of Lights visit here.


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

I am thankful for my husband, who understands me or at least pretends too.

I am thankful for a job I love and the people I work with. I could not ask for a more delightful group of coworkers.

I am thankful for my friends at Macy's, have fun tomorrow with all those customers, I am soooo thankful I do not have to be there!

I am thankful for my family, they are wacky and insane and completely nuts and God knew exactly what he was doing when he picked them for me.

I am thankful that despite having diabetes for 25 years, I can call myself healthy.

I am thankful for the DOC, who make me laugh, make me cry and sometimes hold my hand without knowing it.

I am thankful for the people who care enough about what I have to say to be reading my blog.

I am thankful that I have a Savior who loves me unconditionally.

I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter his courts with praise.
 I will say this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

If it weren't for Camp....

There has been a lot of talk lately in the DOC about our diabetes camp experiences. One thing we can all agree on is that summers at Camp were the best summers ever.




If it weren't for my summers at Camp Conrad-Chinnock, I would never have learned to give my own injections.

If it weren't for Camp Conrad-Chinnock, I would not have a nearly endless supplies of annoying campfire songs or the Big Mouth Blue Frog story.

I met one of my best friends at Camp.

I had my first slow dance at Camp (you better believe I still remember the song.)

I discovered I hate canoeing at Camp.

I have great memories of climbing the dining hall fireplace and repelling back down.

I would probably not have survived my "rebellious" teen years without Camp.

As a camper I learned that I am not the only person on the planet with diabetes and as camp staff I learned that I have an impact on the lives of younger kids with diabetes.

I still have all the yearly Camp t-shirts, but my favorite is the year that Camp was Western themed and the shirts had a cowboy riding a syringe shaped bull. It was my first year on staff and several of us needed to be fingerprinted, so the Camp director drove us up into Big Bear to have our fingerprints done at the police station. I was last of 12 staff members to get fingerprinted and the sweet female officer says to me, "is that a syringe on your shirt?" I might have been slightly low (I think it was near dinner time); we were all wearing the same shirt, but somehow she didn't notice it until me? I don't remember what I said but suddenly I was escorted back to the front of the station in a total hysterical giggle fit.

As camp staff you don't have the option of putting diabetes on the back burner when your frustrated, because there are hundreds of kids looking up to you.

I tore the belt loops of a friend's pants walking thru the Camp haunted house one year. No, not just one loop, like 3 of them, oops. Guess I was scared.

We used to stand on the dining hall benches and sing "grace" at the top of our lungs, about 10 years ago someone complained about it being a "religious" act and we had to stop, but it was fun.

The first year I was a cabin counselor, my girls made a Captain Underpants Flag and we ran it up the flag pole one night, so the whole Camp saw it the next morning. That was fun.

Oh and every morning during the staff meetings, campers are supposed to clean the cabins, but they don't. They actually are busy filling water balloons and squirt guns, because the staff meeting always ends with a water fight, no matter how cold it is.

okay I guess I wandered of into memory land there, but you get the point. Camp is good. If you haven't sent your D-kid to Camp, you are depriving them.

And I think we need a D-Camp for grown ups.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I need to write

My posts have been heavily photo laden recently and I just realized I need to write. A very smart english teacher once told me that you need to write frequently or you'll forget how to write. I am not sure if that is true, but I better not risk it. The problem is I am not sure what I'd like to write about, so I am asking for suggestions. Please post in the comments the topics you'd like us to talk about here at the Hollow. Thank you.

Okay, got that out of the way.
Now, I do want to talk about Skating with the Stars (which I will refer to as SWTS). You all did watch it yesterday on ABC right? If not, go here and watch it now, i'll wait.



Did you watch it? Great! I, for one loved, the pairing of Johnny Moseley (Olympic Skier) and Brooke Castile (Pro pairs skater), they are adorable together.


I thought that Bethany Frankel was just tragic, poor girl and Ethan Burgess tried his darndest to make the best of her abilities, but I think she is going home.


One last note about SWTS, isn't Johnny Weir so pretty?


Moving on.....

We have been on an emergency lockdown at the Heart Institute since last Friday. Apparently some irate patient threatened us with violent action. Security is patrolling our hallways more frequently, we are required to keep the office door locked and wear our ID badges (duh).  I am all for safety, but the keeping the doors locked has been really really inconvenient. I can only hope the situation is resolved soon.



Next item of business;

Do you ever wonder about David? The psalmist?
I was pondering David today; I mean he had an extraordinary life right? Killed a giant, became king, united Israel, and was a talent musician. When you look at the big picture of David's life though, he is a lot like us. Even when his life was in shambles, David had the wisdom to rely on God. I pray for that type of wisdom, a lot.

Today Employee Health and Wellness sent this Psalm in our Spirit Lifter e-mail; As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday I think this Psalm is so appropriate.

Let all that I am praise the Lord; 
with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins and heal all my diseases.
He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. 
He fills my life with good things.
Psalm 103:1-5

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sorry Excuse for a Post

I had planned on writing a lovely post on gray hairs today, but the darn thing won't photograph right, so until I can get it fixed, I am forced to post this instead.


Thankfully my gray hair was not quite that obvious. 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sunday Seven



The Sunday Seven
a recap of the week and other serendipitous moments









  • Congratulations to my good friend Jamie Shere, who won the Miss California American Rose title today. You totally deserve it and I can't wait to see all you accomplish with your new title. Miss American Rose is an awesome achievement based mail-in pageant. They are taking pre-registrations for 2011. 

  • If you like baby animals, you need to check out Zooborns

  • I've got a lovely pick for my D'family Secret Santa (but shhhh it's a secret), I am having a heck of a time deciding on a gift for them. 
  • As of today I have finished my family's Christmas shopping. I may need to pick up a few stocking stuffers here or there, but otherwise it's done!
  • It is Thanksgiving week, that also means it's Nationals week for The Miss American Coed Pageant, so good luck to all the So Cal queens, have fun, enjoy Disney World and remember you are always representing the pageant! It is definitely Southern California's year to bring home the national title. 
  • I love Virgil's Diet Vanilla Cream soda.

  • Please remember to keep voting for the sled hockey team. They're so close to the top ten, but can't do it without your votes. 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N



But what does that mean?  How do I act like one?

Pastor Zinn mentioned in church recently that all christians, no matter their denomination share a few characteristics. They have;

  • love for the Lord 
  • Commitment to His word 
  • Affection for His people
  • Separation from all that is ungodly and worldly. 
Have you ever heard someone say something like this "if they were really christian, they wouldn't do that." or "I can't believe she did that and calls herself a christian." Doesn't it seem like we, as christians, are held to a higher standard? Sometimes it feels like what the world wants from us is Christ-like perfection, and we know it is impossible for us to attain. 

God doesn't ask for perfection, heck he doesn't even ask us to try to be perfect. What he asks is that we rely on him to meet the "standards" that he has designed for us. We don't have to do it on our own, and when we mess up (because we all do), he expects us to confess our sins.

So to get back to what it means to be a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N, it means;

  • God chose you and called you to be his own
  • Jesus lived on earth and died on the cross to save you
  • God placed someone in your life taught you about God
  • You made the decision to receive the gift God offered.
  • God calls you his child and is working in your life for the better.
Do you notice that God has done most of the work here? If we are growing in our relationship with Christ, he will unfold the christian attitude and behavior in us. 






Friday, November 19, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like

Christmas.

Today we put up the Christmas decorations at work. It was a ton of fun. Last year the PACE group went Christmas caroling, I am looking forward to doing that again.













Thursday, November 18, 2010

Let me tell you a story

Once upon a time there was a pancreas.

Inside this pancreas lived some Islet Cells.


They were happy productive cells, until one day a villain took over all the islet cells and made them stop producing insulin.

After some time a few individual islet cells grew tired of the villain's oppression. They decided they would make insulin despite the villain. So our happy hero islet cell secreted a little insulin.

Meanwhile the sweet young type 1 girl who housed this pancreas and it's islet cell hampering villain, continued to pump insulin into her body via a Medtronic insulin pump.

All the extra insulin from our hero islet cell, made her blood sugar very very low. She ate glucose tabs,

She drank juice,

She ate candy,
But nothing would bring her blood sugar up. 

Then all of a sudden, the evil villain found out what the happy hero islet cell had done and punished him severely. Then the sweet young type 1 girl's blood sugars went back to normal. Now she may think this all happen for no good reason, but we know better. 









Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Dog Blog Day

Ummmmm.......


Sweetie, that is not a dog. 

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

CGM Tips and Tricks

First of all I use a Medtronic CGM, so I have no idea if any of these tips apply to Dexcom.


Tip 1 - During the 2 hour start up period if you get a sensor error, or two, or even three, just ignore them. In my experience 90% of the time at the end of the 2 hour start up, it will ask you to calibrate and work perfectly. No need to waste a sensor.

Tip 2 - I can't stand sticky stuff on my transmitter, but I need assistance in keeping the sensor in place for 3+ days. That is why I use Nexcare Tattoo Bandaids. They don't leave any residue and they have cute characters on them.

Tip 3 - I wear my sensors for longer than 3 days. The longest I've used on is 12 days. This however is against FDA and Medtronic's guidelines, so I do it at my own risk.

Tip 4 - Do not leave your transmitter on the charger for an extended period of time if you are not using it. Also if you are not using the transmitter, be sure to charge it every two weeks. If you do not the transmitter will die and you'll have to get a new one. Trust me.

I am sure there are more little tips, but this is all my brain is capable of right now, so I will update this post as I discover new tricks.

Just because I feel like sharing;

Pre-Skating BG - 167
Post Skating BG - 111

As if we needed more proof after the BIG Blue Test that exercise affects our numbers!

Have you seen this? It's kinda cool.

Medtronic's "M-Powered Concept Car" keeps a tab on your diabetes


Monday, November 15, 2010

Stop and smell the roses

Where flowers bloom so does hope. ~ Lady Bird Johnson