My Headboard

   Most people will have normal things on their bed's headboard. They'll have tissues, books, lotion and a clock. If your crazy like me, you might even have 3 lotion bottles on yours! While I have all these things, I have much more and if your a diabetic, you probably do too.
   My headboard always has things on it to treat a low blood sugar. I used to have them there and they would just be there "in case". I had never gone lower then 50's and usually 60's in bed and then sometimes I would choose to just get up and treat it. Recently though, I've dropped to 30 and 31 and 2:30 am so I am now a firm believer in keeping these things on my headboard. Both of the nights that I went so low I had a juice box and a granola bar on my headboard and I used them both. Right now I'm out of juice boxes so I have a Quick stick, a glucose drink and a granola bar there. Here's a pic of what my headboard looks like at night:

 
   So there you see it all! from left to right: My diabetes bag is on top of my tissues box, my phone is there, and an empty candle where I've been throwing all my used test strip and lancets in in an attempt to keep them from missing the trash can and covering my floor :) In the next section is all the important stuff! My alarm clock (which I don't used for my alarm, only for the time), my testing supplies, all my low supplies and my 3 fabulous bottles of lotion! if its actually night time my glasses would be there too. In the last section are my books.
   Maybe the amount of low things I keep right there is overkill but I hate night time lows and want to be ready for them. I also want to know what all you guys keep right by your bed? are you as overly prepared as I am or are you more relaxed about it?

Love and hugs, Leanna

Struggling with food journaling

   Hey people! so this post comes at you this morning cause I thought maybe writing about something that I'm struggling with would help.
 
   So today is day 5 of keeping a food journal. My goal is to see it not only affect my blood sugars in a great way but also to help me lose weight. By writing everything down I am also only eating at meals, except for low bg's and my meals will be eating a few, specific foods rather then eating whatever I feel like. I think this will help me lose weight for two reasons. Because of writing everything down I'm eating less and since doing this give me great blood sugars, along with eating less, I'm using less insulin. So far I've been doing pretty good. Blood sugars are a lot better when you know exactly how much food is going into you rather then allowing yourself that half of a cookie or handful of chips.

   This morning is the first that I'm really struggling to stick with it. I woke up with a bg (blood glucose) of 125 so I'm at the perfect spot to bolus for breakfast and be ready for more great numbers. But this morning the cookies my sister baked the other day are soooo temping. The bag of chips on the table are begging me to eat just a few. I've made it almost 2 hours into my awake time this morning having eaten nothing but my breakfast and I'm determined to be stronger then by urges to eat the food that is teasing me!!

Wordless Wednesday

This speaks for itself. My meter at 2:30 am.

Bad day....

   This is probably not a good time to write since I'm feeling pretty emotional and I almost didn't but then reminded myself that since life with diabetes isn't all rosy and happy, I don't want my blog to make it look like it is so here goes.
   So yesterday I woke up with a bg of 149. Not what I like but I figured it could be much worse. Lunchtime was 143 so I thought I was doing okay. Dinnertime came and I had a huge 326. I knew I'd been picking at stuff while my mom was baking and shouldn't have so I thought that was all it was but was still upset because I haven't tested 300+ it probably a month. I prebolused and considering we had pizza for dinner when I had a 170 awhile before bed I was happy. By an hour and a half later when I was ready for bed it had gone up to 257. Mind you that was with NO carbs and having drank like 20 oz of water. I thought maybe it was a very delayed high from the pizza. I corrected and went to bed. This mornings fasting was 175 :( Tried to be pretty careful with my breakfast bolus and 2.5 hours later with NO snacking I was 279. My frustration was going up big time. I gave more correction then my pump was going to. Did that work? Nope! 1.5 hours later with no real amount of food, I was only down to 258. Our Sunday lunch was brown rice, chicken (no breading), green beans and an Oreo cheese cake. I ate plenty of chicken and beans, just a little bit rice and then I did something that took a lot of willpower. I got up and left the table when my family was gonna have the cheesecake. I am proud I had the strength to do it even though I'm not gonna lie that it hit me pretty hard emotionally. Why should diabetes dictate what I eat to the point it drives me to tears? I know its just silly cheesecake but to me its not about the actual food that I couldn't eat but the fact that the last day has been soooo frustrating :( I feel drained and just want my blood sugars to act the way they should! :(
   So to wrap up the last bit of what there is to say, I'm gonna say that while I have lots of homework to do and its already 2:30 in the afternoon, I'm giving in to a little nap before I tackle it to see if I feel more like doing it then.
   So now that I'm done venting all my frustration about cheesecake and crying on all your shoulders, which I felt was needed since you guys get it like my family, well meaning as they are, don't, I'll sum it up by saying this is what a hard day of diabetes looks like. Its frustrating and most importantly, its okay to be frustrated. I don't often come to the point of tears over stuff like this but today it is really bothering me. Maybe after my nap my bgs will be better.

Hope everyone's Sunday is going better then mine.

Leanna

Living&Loving is now on Facebook! :)

Hey guys! I have met some great diabetics in facebook groups but I keep my personal fb private for my personal friends and family so I started a fb page to connect all my social networking sites! :) please like my page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/LivingLoving/216006278543096

Love and hugs! Leanna

Two things a diabetic should never let someone tell them...

   Just sharing a thought that has been on my mind lately. There are two main things a diabetic should never listen to if someone tells them.
    1.) Never let someone tell you its gonna be easy. Diabetes will bring you to tears out of frustration from not knowing what you did wrong that's giving you bad numbers. Its gonna do things that it shouldn't even if you didn't do anything wrong. It is a 24/7 part of your life that does not always make sense but.....
    2.) Never let someone tell you you can't do everything you want to in life. You can have good control of your diabetes AND live a VERY normal life. The keys thing is that it is a PART of your life, not your life. If someone questions you doing something and managing your diabetes at the same time, set out to prove you can do it!

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday and remember, you CAN DO IT!!

Love and hugs, Leanna

Insulin Pump Cozzy

   Hey everyone! This post is to show you the pump cozzy/case my sister crochet for me. I told her I want her to design me a case since I haven't really found one I really like. Some people who have been affected by diabetes have designed some really cool ones BUT I'm a college student who works part time and sadly many of the cool cases out there are out of my price range. I had in mind that she could sew me one but that's not what the first one turned out to be :) She sat down and was messing around with knitting and crocheting and came up with what we're calling a pump cozzy. Someone asked for the pattern and sadly there is none, however she is interested in selling them if people are interested! She would be selling them through Ebay but please let me know if your interested so she'll know if its worth making some and getting them posted! :) They will be very inexpensive.
   I really like mine so far and hope someone else is interested :)