Restarting My "Living In Milton" Blog

I think I've finally figured out how to get my Living In Milton blog re-activated. It was not easy to do. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. There have been a lot of changes with me since my last post and over a year + has gone by.

I had retired from State employment, my son turned 19 this year and started college and I moved from my home in Milton to Magnolia. I still want to keep my blog name, however, because I had some happy memories of living there. I might eventually change it, but haven't thought of a better name for it.

My intentions of what to use my blog for have not changed. I still love doing the same things: knitting, research, reading, books, libraries, bookstores, bookfolding, beaches and gardens.

I will develop more on these themes as I go along with this blog and keep it moving.

Laurette

Have a happy day, because a day is often what you make it.



Ebooks: "The Folded Book" and "Mama-Love"

WOW! How some things change and some things stay the same. It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog and I figured I'd try to start making posts again.


I am still "living in Milton" with my son who is now 17. Things are well. I am working full time and have started as Office Manager for a great new pilot program to help persons get training and jobs. It's fun to be working at what I love to do.


Life has been busy. I've written a couple of ebooks that I published on Amazon: "The Folded Book" and "Mama-Love" that I really enjoyed writing. They're' not long books. My birthday gift to me was to take a class at the local college on publishing on Amazon and I was researching the book folding niche I discovered online. It was captivating to me and since I had to have a book to publish for the class, I simply took the research I had done on the subject and wrote on that. Over 60 hours of research on the folded book market and what crafters were doing with them. The "Mama-Love" book are some poems I wrote about my mother. She was a wonderful woman who died almost 15 years ago. How she lived and what she was like inspired me to put some of it in writing. I thoroughly loved writing those poems. That was my memorial to her. We all miss her still.


Have to sign off, but I wanted to get some thoughts down.

Mr. Milton in Knits, Retired and Using My Nook

I retired from State employment on December 30, 2011 and I've been busy ever since. I had 25 years of service, but I felt with all the things going on in my life and all the travel to and from work and my diabetic ups-and-downs, that it would be the best thing for me to do. I'm going to have to make some changes, but I'm ready for that. I'm still currently living in Milton. My son and I just took a walk up to see Mr. Milton's statue. Some outfitted him in knitted accessories, and very colorful ones they are.

It's very cold today, about 40 degrees maybe. I was glad to get in. It has been relatively good weather thus far this winter. All I know is that I'm not ready for all the snow like we've had for the past couple years. Of course, I can't do anything about it.

Life has been good for us here in Milton this year. My son is progressing very nicely in school and socially. I think he's beginning to become a little popular in school. He's happy and that's all that counts.

I've been knitting a lot since before Christmas to make some gifts for family and friends. I knit myself a really nice hat but I can't find it. It would have been nice to wear today. I'm ready to settle in for the winter and enjoy my time at home. I may have to leave the Milton area to find a lower income apartment on place to live. I really don't want to do that, however. I'll need to find a part-time job close to home and see how things work out.

I'm leaving a short post today, but I thought it would be good to leave a comment for a change. I looking forward to browsing some of my knitting magazines and books I have and doing some reading on the Nook Simple Touch I got for Christmas.

Take care all.

Dawn Phenomenon and Food Consuming My Thoughts

I'm back to seeing my diabetes doctor a couple times a month. Still trying to get my numbers down. It's hard sometimes. I like to eat and drink. And I always seem to be hungry. They say using insulin will do that. I don't know. It seems a lot of times that food consumes my thoughts all the time. Food and insulin and my pump beeping at me throughout the night.

I apparently have what they call "dawn phenomenon" and my numbers go up a lot overnight. Numbers also shoot up when I unhook the pump to take my showers in the morning. Sometimes my numbers go up between 100+ in that 15 to 30 minutes I'm detached. My diabetes Dr. said that I should check my blood glucose before I suspend the pump and give myself a bolus of insulin if my numbers are high. That should sustain me a little during that period of time.

All these little things I'm learning about insulin and living with diabetes are interesting. Right now I'm about to fall asleep over this laptop. It seems that whenever I sit still for a few minutes I'm ready to go to bed. I'm a night owl at heart but I can only seem to stay alert enough to watch tv or look through knitting magazines and books. Oh well, such is life.

Minimed Paradigm Insulin Pump - Getting Used To It and Eating

I'm getting used to my new insulin pump. I've had it about two months now. It's a MiniMed Paradigm with Medtronic. The company has been terrific to deal with. It is getting easier to manage my diabetes, but I'm still not keeping it in a good range. That's my fault. I have to become more aggresive with my eatting and diet. I seem to stay hungry. They say the insulin will do that.

I remember I was having such a hard time making the choice between Medtronic's Minimed, the Omnipod and Insulet and another insulin pump company. I'm glad I chose the Minimed. It's hard though still remembering that the pump is attached to me and I have the tubing to deal with. It's great being able to keep track of my numbers, knowing how much insulin I have "on board" in my system and having the pump calculate my dosages for me. I still need to manage these numbers to keep in range. I've had some very low numbers (40's thru 60's) and still have the highs (300s and 400s). But, I do know that I can get them in better range if I do my part a lot better.

My problem is I love to snack and eat. My eating schedule is erratic and days are very long. I'm not real good at watching all I put into my body in a day. I'm not a 3 time a day eatter with a couple of snacks thrown in.

I check the web for interesting recipes and I watch my carbs.

I'm getting ready to order the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) that goes with the Minimed. It will help me with those lows and highs I've been having if I can see where I'm at at any time. I already feel like a pin cushion on my stomach and have been using alternate sites. It's getting better because I don't have to give insulin injections so much now. I still do a lot a fingerpricks (7-10 a day). It's good for me know where I'm at, so I don't mind so much.

Pumping Insulin

I've started using the Medtronic Minimed Insulin pump about 3 weeks ago. There are a lot of ups and down, especially my sugar. Now, for the first time, I'm having to deal with drops in my blood sugar more than highs. But, I'm actually loving the freedom that not having to give myself so many injections is freeing me from.

Don't get me wrong, I still have to check my blood sugar with needle sticks and put the numbers in my pump manually, but not the injections. They are delivered by the pump. Sometimes I forget that I have to check. It feels like I am forgetting to do something.

I'll keep you updated on my progress with the pump and getting a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). I really need to start blogging more. Sometimes just talking about the challenges of using an insulin pump, the hoops you jump through to be able to care for the medical costs and issues, trying to keep enough sick leave with my job, etc., is enough to drive me crazy and wondering if there wouldn't be an easier way. But, I'm also coming to think of the insulin pump as my lifeline, my external pancreas. I'll leave some of these issues to discuss another time.

Hopefully, I'll get followers somehow on my blog, and have other people contributing their comments and links. I know there are many sites on diabetes. Let me know where they are so I can link my blog to them.

Signing off, Laurette

Diabetes, Type 1: My Journey

I developed diabetes in January '09 and have since moved from a type 2 to type 1 diabetic. I have been on the oral meds and injections.

This past week I just started using insulin in my newly acquired insulin pump. This has been stressful, physically and mentally. I'm still getting the hang of things. Also, I've had so much help along the way to controlling my diabetes. It's good to see my numbers having come down from 560s to 80s. I've had many highs, but I'm now having numerous lows. The pump is helping to gete things in control.

I haven't updated my blogs for a while, but I want to include as many people as I can on my journey with diabetes. I'll working on making this blog more current. Let me know your story.