Of many unrelated things

It's starting to get cool, finally. I'm leaving the window wide open at night to let my room get nice and chilly so I can enjoy my big comforter. It's cool enough to bake bread again and not worry about heating up the kitchen. It's cool enough to start my new hobby of brewing beer. I've read through the best home brewing guide around and purchased all my equipment last night. I shall brew on Thursday, with the phone handy to call my friend (and experienced homebrewer) at a moments notice. I'm also planning on re-teaching myself how to knit. I knew how to knit a few years ago but tried to start again recently and realized I can't even start a scarf. Oops. In short, it's time for my fall and winter hobbies, which I love. Have I mentioned autumn is my favorite season?

This Sunday I'll wake up much too early for the weekend but am looking forward to it. I'll be walking with my brother, roommate and a few other friends in the JDRF walk. I'll wear my pump like a little badge of honor. Or perseverance.

I've also met someone that I find very interesting. And he's interested in me. I'd call him the Boy, but seeing as he's 31 it seems a bit false. Seven years age difference? Never done that before. But this is fun. I might like this.

I'll be bringing my camera on the walk with me. If I get a good shot I'll share it on Monday.

Over my goal!

I've still got two more weeks until the JDRF walk and as of today I've raised $1101 (my goal was $1000). Even more exciting is that I haven't donated yet, nor has my brother and his girlfriend. We are all pooling our money and my brother is donating it all through his company, which will match it all. In the end I will have raised almost $2000, which is way over my original goal of $400! 24 people, the majority of them friends, or even friends of friends, have donated, and everyone has been SO generous.

It's overwhelming really.

an hour of orange juice

This weekend about 10 of my friends met up at a cabin off on Lake Michigan. It was right off a beautiful beach on the east side of the lake. Friday night we shot off fireworks from the beach and had a bonfire. Saturday we went to a couple wineries for wine tasting, played bocce ball on the beach and swam. Around 9:00 p.m. dinner was ready. One of my friends had made jambalya and rice. I had one serving and it was great. I was still hungry so I ate more.

After dinner we are all giddy from wine and end up dancing around the house like fools. Around 10 I check my blood sugar. I can't figure out why I decided to check it then. I wasn't feeling low and I still had an hour to go before I normally check after eating. 49. shit. shit shit shit. Okay, don't panic. I just need some orange juice. Oh man, I'm going to need a shit ton of orange juice sine I'm at 49 right now and still have one hour or more that my insulin will be dropping my blood sugar. Once I realize this and realize how long it's taken me just from checking my blood sugar to determine this I grab my friend Amy. Amy is a doctor. I tell her I'm having a low and it's going to be an hour until my blood sugar will be stable. I needed someone to know what was going on, just in case. I grab a glass of orange juice (8 oz) and sit on the couch. And we begin the eating/waiting game. After the first glass of oj and 10 minutes later I check my blood sugar. 53. great. more orange juice, 10 minutes later 58. This is a really fun game. I end up drinking another glass of o.j., eating peanuts, half a pita with cheese and when i'm about to get sick from all this crap I've eaten (after two servings of jambalya too) it's been an hour and I'm at 99.

This was the worst experience I've had so far. The whole time I was coming up I felt horrible. Nauseous, tired, angry, scared. Trying to determine, with a foggy, low brain, what I had done to get this drastic of a low. Poor calculation on the dinner and then follow up with dancing. Scared about what would have happened if I hadn't checked. At a cabin in the woods in the middle of no where. The only thing that settled my mind was that I WAS with a doctor, tipsy as she was on wine. About 1.5 hours after the initial low I checked and I was at 132, after all the food I had eaten.

Also, when coming out of my low, in the 80's at this point, my friend Amy noted that I should really carry a glucagon kit around with me all the time. Well yeah, I do! She noted that it doesn't do any good if people don't know where it is. Well, my roommate Emily does (who I'm sitting next to). Emily looks at me with a blank face: No I don't. Gah! It's in my bag! It's always in my bag right next to my meter! In the bag I always carry around, with sugar tabs and a granola bar! It was frustrating to realize that while I've talked to her about all of this before she really doesn't remember. It was a scary realization.

I guess I just got scared. It's a wake up call of sorts. I haven't wanted diabetes to define me, so I didn't talk to all of my friends about what to do. They know I'm diabetic, but I think now they need to know what to do. In the midst of that low I was so confused and angry and I didn't WANT anymore juice. I didn't WANT any pita! While all the lows I've had previous to this I've handled fine on my own, I realize that my friends need to know for the times I can't handle it on my own.

stupid diabetes.

Not enough

I've donated but I still feel awful and miserable about what's happened in those states. It's devastating on so many levels.

And in the midst of all this my friend and co-worker (pregnant type 1 diabetic on the pump) had her baby this weekend. She was three weeks early but I guess mother and baby are just fine. Her and her husband didn't even have a name picked out for a girl, they just couldn't decide. They'll be deciding pretty fast now. :)

Fool

I got home from work and checked my blood sugar: 106. I grab the gatorade from the fridge, drink enough to bring me up to 150, change clothes and head to the gym. I get on the bike which I know won't drop my blood sugar as fast or as drastic as the other elliptical machines. I'm on for 25 minutes and then I feel it. Oh shit, I'm dropping fast. I get off the bike and walk out the door. I walk the two blocks to my apartment where I sit on the floor and check my blood sugar: 52. I drink some juice and bring it up just fine, but still.

First off, why didn't I check my blood sugar while at the gym? I had my meter and glucose tabs in my bag. Luckily I made it home okay.

Second: Why did I drop like that? Is my body just not used to physical activity so any amount of it will make me drop fast? I imagine it has something to do with my sedentary life style for the past month or more.

Third: I never, EVER, imagined that I would miss the ability to go workout like crazy. To just go to the gym and burn all that extra energy I had and have a painfully long workout. Back when I was a ND (non-diabetic, thank you!), I never would have considered that to be something I would miss. But I do.

Ah well, I'll do better today. More carbohydrates and more using my brain if I'm low!