Saturday, January 11, 2014

Most Used Word in This Post: Whoa

I hope you weren't expecting anything magical or mind-blowing post-wise now that I've said I will attempt to start blogging again. Nothing astonishing is happening in my life diabetes-wise. I go low and high sometimes, but whats new? I'm finally getting a new medic alert bracelet. (Mine has rust on it, so it's probably time to get a new one...) Is that exciting enough for you? And while I'm on the topic of getting a new medic alert bracelet, do you think I should get the blue, purple, or black version of this bracelet? I'm leaning towards purple, but I'm always indecisive, so your opinion would be appreciated. (Unless you find a better bracelet that I don't have to take off in the pool or when doing physical activity. Then suggest that.)

I'm currently listening to music and attempting to figure out what important, relevant things I should type. So far I've come up with nothing. I'm currently flat lining at 167 and not covering it since my blood sugar ends to go done overnight and if I cover anything below 200, I tend to go low. I should probably either lower my nightly ISF or basal. Since it goes down even when I don't cover, I might lower my 12 AM to 6 AM basal. 

I also finally got a new pump clip for my pump. Animas's pump clips break a lot (at least for me,) so we have to order them frequently. You would think my dad would have ordering supplies from Animas down to science since I've been diabetic for ten years now. WHOA. WAIT. THAT'S WHAT I SHOULD TALK ABOUT.

I've been using all of this stuff for a long time.


I have been diabetic for 10 years. A decade. 2/3 of my life. WHOA. That is a long time. We don't remember the exact date I was diagnosed since I was diagnosed when I was 5 years old. I just remember that it was during winter break and I the one thing I remember is forcing the doctors to let my mom give me my first shot. It's ind of insane that I don't remember life without diabetes, but I think that is probably a good thing. After all, I can't remember what being "normal" feels like, so I have nothing to look back at a remember how great it was being non-diabetic. I guess diabetes is pretty much part of my personality since it's been around most of my life. 

If you do the math and assume that I test my blood 6 times per day (which isn't true, but works out for days when I tested more because of lows, which balances it all out,) I have tested my blood 18,980 times.I have changed my pump sites 1,096 times.That is a lot of plastic and needles. I guess you could say that diabetes isn't really helping America's excessive trash problem. 

It amazes me that during my ten years of being diabetic, I have only been to the hospital twice for diabetes. I was in the hospital once for my diagnosis in kindergarten and then in the hospital in fourth grade because I was throwing up and had ketones. (Thankfully I have zofran to avoid that situation now.) I remember a doctor or nurse telling me that she was impressed with me because I haven't been to the hospital as a teen for diabetes, since so many teens go to the hospital for having excessive highs and ketones. That has stick with me and makes me kind of proud. (But don't feel bad if you have been to the hospital as a teen for your diabetes; I completely understand the suckiness of diabetes burnout and sometimes diabetes is just really annoying.) That's all that I can really put into words for now.

Moral of the Story: WHOA

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Is Anyone Out There?

Hello! Is anyone out there? (Picture me on the top of a mountain yelling into the distance for the intended effect.)

Oh, did you hear someone yelling that in the distance? That's just me seeing if anyone is on my blog anymore, considering I haven't posted anything since, you know, November of last year. (!) After posting my rant, I realized that there was so much irony involved with that post because I was complaining the day before Thanksgiving. (Way to go, Sarah.) I've been thinking a lot (Sorry about that unrelated, but humorous link. My lit teacher showed us that in class one day and I just can't forget it.) about blogging lately.

I've realized that blogging about diabetes can get boring sometimes, so I tried blogging about clothes I like. That was boring because there is only so much you can say besides, "OMG! That is totally adorable."* about clothes and shoes and stuff. And it didn't seem really authentic or exciting to me because I don't actually own any of the clothes I liked, so I couldn't really post any pictures or original content. (sad face) I tried just blogging about my life. That's boring. My life isn't that exciting. I've been using Tumblr for posting Animal Crossing stuff. I love reblogging pictures and I do it when I have nothing else to do, but there is still a limited amount of stuff I can put on Tumblr. 9/10 of it is screenshots from the game. (Which is fun to do, but just doesn't satisfy the urge for me to actually blog.) So all of this experimental blogging has led me back here, to my baby, this blog.

I'm back, wearing a Camp Kudzu shirt, a Dexcom sensor on my left arm and a pump site on my right
arm. Bonus points for me because I'm also wearing my medic alert bracelet and my blue bracelet from
Camp Kudzu as well.
I've been blogging here, albeit kind of inconsistently, for 2 years now. I can tell how much I've changed since my first post back in December of 2011 after Anna (my sister) was diagnosed with diabetes. I can tell you that I cringe a little every time I read it, but I guess that is just a reminder of how different I am now. I am now a sophomore in high school, a self proclaimed science nerd, a person with actual friends, and just amazingly different from my eighth grade self. I guess I'm back here because this is my own little home on the internet.

I definitely want to work on being on here more often and participating in the #dsma chats on Wednesdays. (I'll be there tomorrow, I promise.) We'll have to see how long I can keep up with blogging on here consistently since the six week FRC build season has begun again! I'm going to be working on a website for our team and scouting, as usual. We're having a competition in late March, so I'll be busy at least until the last week of March, if not longer depending on how that competition goes. I'm also going to Disney with my school in February, which is going to be one of the best trips I will ever go on. It's pretty much 5 days of fun with my friends without parents. (I love you Mom and Dad, I promise!) Needless to say, I'm quite excited about that. Stay tuned for a blog post about that later.

Well I guess this means that I will be back in the swing of things, so I'll be back to post more soon!

Moral of the Story: I'm back. And once again, I'm still not wearing black.

* Not an actual quote, but look at this board on my Pinterest. It's the same comments over and over again.

P.S: If you have any tips for diabetics going to Disney or know about any blog posts talking about going to Disney, please tell me in the comments. I would really appreciate it.