I'm a Cheater!!!

    Guess what I am a cheater. But it is really okay with me you can tell everyone you want to. And guess what else you are too. Well, you are if you have diabetes. In the past decade we have cheated what people since aroud 1557 BC and probably before have never benn able to overcome or live through.
Have you ever coonsidered how lucky you are to have what we have ,a disease that doesn't have to kill us but in fact make us better representatives of human life.   By that I mean how precious it is to be a healthy person even if we struggle every day with what you want to do and what you need to do. Some people have chioces and others don't this involves all kinds of people not just with those with diabetes but those with cancer, celiac, heart disease just to name a very few.
   If you think about it less than a hundred years ago people would die from the very disease that has taken our country by storm one that gave children a few days to live and adults a few months. We have over come so much in a short period of time; we can binge on ice cream at coldstones, we can simply wake up in the mornings test our blood sugars and know that we are still here.  If you go into a comma  there is advanced medical treatments to bring us out of it so we can continue to be part of the lives of those we so dearly cherish. Nevermind the fact that some of us will not be able to have a child, some will have kidney failure, and some will have complications despite how hard we try  to control our disease. We have overcome a disease that even though it is not cured we have the will to ensure it is during our life time and the ability to live a long life.

My A1c problem

   Okay confession time! For the past severaly years my A1c has slowly crept up to the 13.0's. I know I could even hear you gasps through cyberspace. But really I feel so burnt out right know and even though it is my upmost desire to be in full control but something holds me back something keeps me from it.
   It like in my head I feel like a person who has it down but everyone else sees the rebeelion I really don't have. I want control I want healthy, I want fear of infertility, kidney failure, heart damage, and death to go away but I feel lost.
   Do you ever feel burned out?

JDRF Atlanta

    Woohoo it is summer; time to get summer jobs (if you are a teenager) or just keep doing your normal thing with a nice vacation scheduled at a beach far from the office soon. As for me I am sticking it out I have a job :) and wouldn't mind having a second one, everyone tells me I'm crazy for wanting a second job along with my 45 hr. week already but hey I need to buy things to live and really need a car when I get my permit in June. But of course I am an over achiever and well I signed up to raise five hundred dollars for JDRF Atlanta and get a team together to run for a cure. Oh yeah my schedule for the next school year is scary and volunteered for my churches children's choir
     But we all deserve to be busy it is more interesting that way. I would love to go to Tybee or Jekyll sometime hopefully save for climbing gear and make stuff to sell on etsy. I like busy summer it keeps me ready for school plus my mom won't let me work during the school year. Bummer cause those climbing ropes are darn expensive. Oh well who has time for being relaxed and being bored out of their mind, not me.  But I am super excited about the Walk to cure IT. I can't wait to see who walks with me.  And of course I am already thinking of t-shirts. Hmmmmm navy and lime green sounds good to me.Have an amazing day.

Reason you can be glad you have diabetes.

Reasons we can be glad that we have Diabetes
Plato once said that “attention to health is life's greatest hindrance”.  A lot of the time it's easy to think about and focus on the negative side of life with IDDM.  Really easy.  But I also try really hard to think of the positive aspects.  Come on, you know, there are just great things about the big D that make you get up on the morning and say "thank GOD I have THIS!"

Here are just a few I came up with:

• In a group hostage situation you can be sure you'll be among the first to be released, faster than you can jingle your MedicAlert bracelet and say "hey, does anyone have a dink? I'm feeling thirsty ..."
• You can speak with some authority on the subject of diabetes - unlike say, the subject of the current up-to-date situation in the Middle East - and wow friends and family with statistics and lots of complex, polysyllabic words like "hypoglycaemia"
• Rort the system and use it to get out of tricky university exams
• When friends are arguing about where to go out to eat, you can say "I have to eat NOW" loudly - which usually means that they will exchange worried looks and hurry to the restaurant of your choice, little knowing that really you were just hungry and didn't feel like Thai
• Who wants a fully functional pancreas anyway? It's so common.
• Even though you may have no letters from that secret admirer, you'll always have diabetes-related junk mail so you can know at least that you'll have something to pull out of the mailbox in case neighbours are watching
• You get to finely hone your swearing abilities with all those times when your BSL isn't what you expected
• Enjoy the giddy feeling of living dangerously ALL THE TIME: "Bungy-jumping? A walking tour in Zaire? PAH! I have DIABETES!"
• Always good emotional blackmail in a family fight (I've heard other people do this ...)
• When annoying men ask you "why do you always drink Diet Coke? You’re so image- conscious.  Girls are always worried about their weight.." you can reply with "I have diabetes" and watch in delight as they turn bright red and mumble an apology.
• Thanks to (occasional of course) hypos and very high blood sugars, you can experience unique body sensations and hallucinatory adventures without the use of illegal, expensive drugs: a cheaper night out!
• Should you ever meet that special someone and s/he happens to have diabetes, you'll always have something to talk about during those Awkward Silences.  You can also employ unique flirting techniques: "I'll show you my injection bruises if you show me yours ..."
• Should you ever NOT meet that special someone on a blind date or otherwise, just pull out your handy drug kit and excuse yourself for a well needed "fix" in the toilet.
• Getting a tattoo is a breeze - it just feels like a few more injections than normal (and yes I do have one!)
• Amuse yourself by trying to predict exactly what your BSL will be after that piece of sugar-coated mud cake, with honey and ice cream on the side.

Courtesy of a 1997 issue of HypoCaust – newsletter of the NSW Young People’s Group

These really made me laugh hope you enjoy them. Have an amazing summer.
                                                                                                                 

Happiness

What makes you happy?

I sometime like to think of what makes me the most happy, but often I honestly can't think of it. I think it is seeing the sunrise, freshly painted rooms, strawberries, or just a day of blessedly good blood sugars all day. it has been a while but when that happens I am so happy mostly because there is nothing to make me feel bad it makes me wonder why everyone else looks sad for no reason, I bet they never had to deal with high blood sugar after a cup of coffee or waking up with a thirty blood sugar. Ithink what makes me happy is knowing I won't live with this forever.
                                                                                                  Till next time................

What's Up!!!!

   How is it going? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Well for me it as been crazy But I love spring and love the beautiful warm weather we have been having here in the south. I love sitting on the porch doing homework, laying out in the sun. or doing some photography.
   In a little less than a month is my birthday and I'm so excited about getting my liscenes. Yes I am going to be seventeen (not sixteen, I wait a whole year to get my learners crazy right.) and can not wait to dig into birthday cake and get tons of cards in the mail, this is my most favorite part. I am very happy that my doctor got me on track with my sugars before I hop onto the road solo. I feel far more confident knowing I won't go crazy on the road and hurt someone because of my blood sugar.
  Would you mind sharing some experiences and advice for a new Diabetic Driver.
                                                                                                    - Sarah

Diabetes and Natural disasters

    OK it happen, you never, ever expect it to happen to you but I guess we all kinda imagine ourselves kind of invincible and nothing can go wrong. And even if your a diabetic, if your blood sugar is in control, and you have time to plan you feel like a superhero; ready to take on the world with the mind set nothing can go wrong without me being prepared first.
     WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! It happened to me the other day all of those tornado's touching down all over the south  my town was one of them. Me and mom were sitting on the couch watching television and my aunt Rhonda (also a diabetic) texted my mom telling her that "J" had tornado warning till 10:30.
     It hadn't begun raining yet but the cloud suggested otherwise. Dark and dooming, moving fast and the wind was quick and warm. I wasn't scared but soon (6:30) it started lighting. The lights were so bright the lite up the whole house like a t.v. on in the dark. We sit around thinking we are safe; we had tornado warnings before and it wasn't uncommon. My mom a little uneasy flipped open her laptop to check the weather she stood up and scurried to the front door and opened it and the  Rain was  falling hard and fast and loud winds, the dog scurried between her legs trying to get inside.
     "Sarah go turn on the radio and check the weather ( we don't have cable or anything to watch news)."
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! The loud sounds filled my mind with dread. All counties in north and north east Ga. Had tornado warnings and were advising people to take cover. Everyone, except me and my mom were in bed.
    " Sarah get dressed and wake up your brother."
I grab my sweat pants and a hoodie and wake up my brother. But wait I need to grab my stuff. I go into my room rummaging through my bags to find one to carry all my stuff in. I grab my meter, strips, and pricker. I hesitate, what about my insulin, I grab my apidra and a handful of syringes. I then realize I need something for lows. So I grab my tablets and a glucogon.
After panic, tornado sirens and everyone huddled around the radio for about two hours. The closest they ever got was about thirty minutes away. Still scary and a lot of scary bad weather. We all went to bed to sleep through the ground shaking thunder.
      Ironically a few days later I went to see my endo and she gave me some papers to catch up on care and other stuff which involved a pamphlet about diabetes during a natural disaster . I haven't put it together yet but at least I have an idea of what I would need to get together if I have to run out to shelter in the middle of a tornado. Overall the experience was amazing I loved seeing the lighting and even hearing the sirens from town (yea I know it is a bit morbid.) and now I am prepared for anything mother nature throws at me.