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.

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.