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.

Well, hello there.

Hi. I know I haven't been on in over a month and that really stinks. School started last Thursday and before that I was on vacation. I am extremely busy now-I am in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) program at my school, so that means a lot of extra homework. I’m taking AP Biology, Honors Chemistry, Accelerated Math III, Introduction to Healthcare and Biotechnology, AP World History, Spanish III, and 10th Grade Honors Literature. In addition to those classes, I also participate in robotics (FIRST, mainly), academic team, and math team. So basically, I have very little free time now. I promise I'm taking all of these classes because I love school and learning, so don't think I have been forced into this situation.

Because I have so little free time, I don't have a lot of time to blog. *sad face* I really want to try to post at least once a week; I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but I have an average of at least 2 hours of homework nightly, including weeknights and I also have to go to my extracurriculars and I don't get home until 6 PM on Mondays through Thursdays and I have robotics on Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM. So, I'm sure you would agree that once a week is plenty for me.

Gerome in his home, AKA the Jack Daniel's glass. (No, I don't drink Jack Daniel's; I am only 15.)

Now that I have given you excuses and have already typed something, I might as well update you on my joyous diabetes.

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm dropping whenever I am 150-200. I have no clue why and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I have also been getting headaches at around 250 rather than the 300s, lately. This is extremely annoying and I do not like it at all. We are sending charts to the endocrinologist on Monday and we shall ask them about this then. I am also wondering if it could be from me getting a lack of some vitamin or mineral because of being a vegan. I want to ask them about that as well in the e-mail. I really hope we find an explanation to this strange phenomenon.

Moral of the Story: School has brought me another fun phenomenon!

Field Trips

Field trips are hard enough for teachers and parents just because going to a new place with a bunch of kids/ teenagers isn't most people's cup of tea. (Except for the other kids/ teenagers on the trip.) If you throw diabetes into the mix, you have a recipe for disaster.

Elementary school was full of so many restrictions when it came to my diabetes. I couldn't carry around my blood tester or insulin, I had to go to the nurse every time before and after meals, and if I needed to check my blood sugar because I felt low or high. I probably lost at least 24 hours of the school year sitting in the nurse's office. (Needless to say, I was friends with all of the nurses I had in elementary school. They still remember me when they see me out in public...)Whenever we went on field trips, a parent had to go because the nurse couldn't just take time out of her day to go with the one diabetic child on the trip. (Obviously, this makes sense because there were tons of other kids at school.) On the 5th grade field trip, my mom had to go with me because we were going to the Tennessee Aquarium, and elementary school kids with diabetes were NEVER going to go out of state without a parent.

In middle school, I got more freedom. I could carry around my supplies, but I still had to go to the nurse's office for lows, highs, and after lunch to cover it. BUT, for the first two weeks of school, I had to go to the nurse's office for every test, and etc, so she knew I could be trusted. I wasn't in the nurse's office nearly as much anymore, and the nurse and I weren't exactly friends. (I'll save the story behind that for another time.) I still wasn't allowed to go any overnight trips without my parents because I was diabetic. (SURPRISE! I bet you didn't see that one coming.) I went on two field trips during the day without a parent, and that was it.

High school came, and now I have tons of freedom. I met the nurse at the beginning of the year and I only go to the nurse's office when my blood sugar is really low, or if I need to do a site/CGM change in school. This year was also the first year that I went on an overnight field trip without a parent chaperoning, and it made me nervous at night. (It didn't help my worrying when my mom told me to pack a glucagon, for the first time ever, to bring with me on the trip.)  I was rooming with my friend I've had since 6th grade, so she knew I was diabetic, but she didn't know all about my diabetes like my parents do. I packed eight site changes for a three day, two night vacation. I only used one of them. I took a full bottle of glucose tabs and a box of clif bars everywhere I went. When my blood sugar was low, I would have mini panic attacks because of all of the possible things that could have gone wrong. "What if I faint and no one finds me?" "What if I need a glucagon and no one knows how?" Those were thoughts I had during my lows; they were obviously invalid because I was in a room full of people, so someone would see me. I had also told my friend how to use the glucagon, so that was irrational as well. I obviously made it through the trip and came back alive; it ended up being lots of fun. (I went to the FIRST Robotics regional competition in my state. I had tons of fun and cannot wait to go back next year.)

I guess the moral of this story is: I wish the schools gave me more freedom when I was younger, so I didn't freak out as a high schooler on an overnight trip only an hour away from home. I'm not sure how anyone can prepare for this, but I feel like if I had experienced leaving my parents overnight beforehand, I wouldn't have freaked out as much.