Creative Diabetes

My endo isn't a fan of my diabetes shenanigans.When settings are off I find my own way to deal with the problem.Breakfast spike?  I add an extra 20 carbs to the breakfast pre-bolus.  My endo says, "Change the ratios and let the pump do the work for you."I say.  "Why fix it if it isn't broken?  Besides, on the weekends I add 30."Post lunchtime lows?I just deduct 15 carbs from the total carbs consumed to counteract the energy exerted on the playground.My endo says, "Change the lunchtime ratios."I say.  "I don't do this for the weekends.  It's so easy to do.  Why make changes?"Nighttime ratios off?  I compensate.I...

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What he did right.

Last week was one of reflection for me, mostly thinking of Ryan...and missing him.It was a tough week.  Every song burned my heart. Despite the words, the melodies lingered in my head as background music to my story.  It was one eternal round of melancholy.And then in the store the other day I saw a couple arguing.  No, they weren't yelling...but their body language was.They were miserable.And I just wanted to take their hands and say, "Appreciate what you have right next to you."But I walked away instead and began to think about the times that Ryan and I would fight.  And why it was so when we did.I do realize Ryan and...

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Pink Floyd

I'm pretty sure if the last week was set to a soundtrack, Pink Floyd would be a big part of it.I woke up last Wednesday with pain in my mandibular joint that was so far off the charts of hurt, I can't even properly express it here.I Advil-ed up and made it through the day, but noticed a peculiar thing.  When I sat down, the pain was infinitely worse.  Like, unendurable.  As I laid down for bed that night, lamenting all my outdated, empty prescriptions that usually help me through such problems, I realized that sleep would be impossible.  I leaned against my headboard with my back straight up, trying to get the shut eye I needed,...

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Carry on.

Powerful words."Carry on."Move forward.  Keep going.  You can do this.Carry on.I find myself uttering those words to myself to get me through the day.  An anthem I march to as the day sinks onto my body.I get heavy.  The worry weighs on me.  My journey's baggage is dredged behind me.  I'm barely able to move.And then, "Carry on."Enduring is so misunderstood.Enduring doesn't get the accolades it should.  Our life has so much to do with enduring and yet we act surprised when it is so."Oh my goodness!  So and so lost their job!  I can't believe it.""Oh no!  So and so lost the love of their life! ...

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Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World of Diabetes Support and Education

Nature often plays a delicate balance,like these two bugs holding on against the wind, behind these delicate, white blooms.  It's a rainy, cold, and wet day, in Iowa.  Fall is just around the corner. (September 11, 2008)One of the biggest challenges, when helping newly diagnosed persons with diabetes, is finding balance in the information provided. Helping create a positive environment, which encourages a person to learn the scope of the disease and its complications, but still keeping their heads above water. No matter the diabetes community -- this is a struggle that I have found almost everywhere. Even in my own diabetes groups.Whenever...

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This one's important.

It all started with a mole.A mole that turned into cancer.Melanoma.That is what took my husband's life.  Melanoma.Many people think that the absence of a black mole means they don't have cancer.That isn't true.Melanoma doesn't need a mole.  Melanoma doesn't even need to see the light of day.  It can crop up anywhere, at anytime, and look completely innocent.  In between your toes?  It can go there.  Armpit?  It can go there too.  It can be a small pink bump.  Don't let those disgusting pictures of asymmetrical oozing black moles fool you.  Melanoma doesn't always look like that.   ...

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Forgetting myself this Valentine's Day

  Tomorrow's Valentine's Day, and honestly, I don't want to think about it. But it's coming whether I want to think about it or not. Ryan was a super romantic, sweet guy.  He always found a way to make the day special.  He didn't spend a lot of money, but instead he would do small, simple things to make me swoon. His constant texts were my favorite. "I'm thinking of you." "I can't get you off my mind." "Hey, beautiful!  I miss you." "I'll be home in 2 hours and 10 minutes.  You will be tackled." But even so, Ryan made every day like Valentine's Day.  (I 110% know how completely corny that sounds.)  But the...

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The Moldy Cupcake Awards: Yahoo! Shine Alarmist Crap

Copyright © 2010 Julie King / Gleeful Things. All Rights Reserved.*Re-edited* Now with 30% more gripe. So, today, a new diabetes alarmist article is making it's rounds on Yahoo! Shine, earning it a Moldy Cupcake Award. The article makes some tremendously sweeping generalizations, about some supposed research from France, showing that diet soda causes diabetes, and that high consumption of sugar causes diabetes. #1 Where is the link for this research? I'd like to read it for myself, thank you. I don't need someone else interpreting it for me. As readers, and advocates, we deserve to be able to double check your sources. #2. Sugar, nor...

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That hope thing again...

I was talking to my friend today and I asked, "Why am I always so damn hopeful?"  (I apologize for the swearing...it's a phase I'm going through so please bear with me.)Every time something crappy happens, (which this week, the crap overfloweth,) I inevitably think..."It will be ok, Meri!  Everything will turn out as it should."And the devil sitting on my shoulder, who looks unabashedly like Robert Dinero, says, "That hope thing is going to bite you in the butt, Meri.  It might not be ok."Am I setting myself up for disappointment?  OrAm I setting myself up to win?There is something to be said for putting your intentions...

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