Monthly Archives: July 2012
Weekly Grace, #30.
- Better blood glucose levels with the combination of metformin and various reduced stressors.
- A successful and productive telecommute day with good news from back home.
- Helpful, polite, and awesome customer service with the US Passport Agency to resolve an issue with my renewal and name change application.
- Olympics time again.
- Making my toenails look pretty with a new color (purplish-bluish-greyish).
Here I go again: Roche Social Media Summit.
Old faces and new faces will be representing the diabetes online community at the Roche’s Fourth Annual Social Media Summit beginning Sunday in Indianapolis.
To ensure the conversations do not turn repetitive, there is always fresh blood (no lancet humor intended). About third of this year’s invitations went to first time attendees. While people with type 1 diabetes are overwhelmingly represented, there are strong groups of people with type 2 diabetes as well as parents of type 1 children.
This summit allows diabetes advocates to come together with industry and with each other to talk about what matters to the greater online and offline community. It has allowed for brainstorming, leading to both formal programs partnered with Roche as well as smaller scale projects.
There are so few spots for an event like this, and so many great minds in the diabetes online community. Please believe this smaller group of attendees do what we can to ensure that little ideas we see around the community grab a big voice.
(p.s. Yes, I am attending this all-expense-paid trip to Indianapolis. Well, at least if I can get past security without a valid photo ID bearing my maiden name.)
(p.s.s.If you tweet on Twitter, please follow #dsummit12.)
Hope and Faith.
“You can’t go forcing something if it’s just not right.” – Green Day
At times, I wish I had half the faith my brother does. Or that of other family and friends. Or that so many around the diabetes online community and chronic illness communities do.
Hope is one thing, faith is another. Hope is the feeling that events will turn out for the best, faith is belief and trust that they will.
This summer has been rough – not only personally, but on a greater scale of all the bad news coming out of Colorado, this adopted state of mine.
Prayer has been an option for me as I have navigated some rough waters the past three years or so. I can find comfort in prayer at times like these, I can find hope in prayer at times like these. To grasp faith? That seems out of reach for me.
Does prayer mean anything without a strong faith behind it? Is it meant for those only seeking comfort and a sense of hope? Does it mean anything if church does not feel right?
Side effects.
The things we do, the things we endure, to manage blood glucose levels as people with diabetes…
For those with type 1 diabetes and insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes, there is always the possibility of too much or too little insulin, either of which becomes an emergency.
For those with type 2 diabetes treated by oral medications, many such meds come with gastrointestinal upset side effects. And often, the evil carbohydrates that are supposed to be limited are the only comfort for such upset, which seems entirely counter-productive. Not an emergency, but enough of a problem that it can impact daily life activities. Sometimes a temporary hassle, sometimes troublesome enough to switch to a different solution.
Due to a switch in insurance and some mix-ups in my endocrinologist’s office, I ended up going without metformin at the full prescribed dosage for a couple months as I stretched out what medication I did have.
This weekend, after a few weeks of weight gain and erratic blood glucose levels, I finally returned to the prescribed course of metformin. Complete with nausea, which I can only hope will subside after a few days. In the meantime, graham crackers and applesauce are my friends.
At least the weight will drop off quickly…right?
Weekly Grace, #29.
- Surviving an intimidating meeting at work.
- Treating myself to massage, wine, and barbecue on a bittersweet day.
- Hassle-free mail-order pharmacy with new insurance.
- Ben and Jerry’s gift cards.
- Grande iced green tea, unsweetened, please.
The rambly fifteen, #19.
Fifteen minutes straight writing…begin…right…now.
Coffee. I do believe it is starting to tear up my tummy, even though I rarely have more than a cup per day anymore. Sigh.
Cats. They make me laugh. This is not a huge place, and they’re both considered “senior”, but they still manage to run around like wild women.
Challenges. Work (in a good way), name change and finding my next apartment (frustrating), health stuff (always).
Cooking. Not doing enough of it, buying lots of Whole Paycheck prepared foods for during the work (and workout) week.
Watching Andre Dawson visiting the WGN broadcast booth at a Cubs game. Why am I watching baseball? Ahh, the memories of pre-steroid and pre-strike era baseball.
Why am I watching television? I hardly ever turn it on anymore and wondering why I bother paying for cable. Football season will remind me, I suppose.
There are tales to tell, but they need conclusions. Stuff like getting prescriptions through my new mail order pharmacy and whether I’ll have sufficient identification in new name to travel in less than two weeks.
Rambly, indeed.
Weekly Grace, #28.
- Blowing a deadline out of the water at work.
- Giggling over less than ideally worded e-mail subject lines.
- Shedding the past with a little reward.
- Ordering clothes in my new size.
- Cats who make their way into serious videotaping ventures.
Always bouncing back.
I wish I could say that every single workout leaves me feeling refreshed, leaves me feeling relaxed, leaves me feeling awesome.
Because, for the past couple weeks, nothing really made me feel refreshed or relaxed or awesome. Even as I worked out regularly and ate decently and reignited a spark in diabetes advocacy, anxiety was on the verge of swallowing me.
But tonight…
Finally. Finally. Finally.
Tonight’s workout kicked ass.
Weekly Grace, #27.
- Spending time reading and writing poolside.
- Cute workout clothes that make me feel physically strong.
- Making something happen for a co-worker at the last minute.
- Hanging out in coffee shops.
- Falling asleep to the sound of rain.
Friday cat blogging: Birthday.
Happy fifteenth birthday to Kari-cat…
(Neppie-girl, you are still very missed on your birthday, too.)
