One Pathetic Peanut Butter Cup - Diabetes 365 Day 26 - Oct 31, 2007
I really hate Halloween. It’s a long story, but long story short, there’s all that candy, and I get exactly one, count them, ONE piece. It’s the saddest thing in the world. Well, maybe not the saddest, but pretty darn close.
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!
Really Tired of Pharmacies
Truthfully, I’m really tired of Walgreens. I’ve pharmacied with Walgreens for 19 years. They’ve taken care of all my diabetes supplies for 15 of those years. And in the past 2 or so years, they frustrate the hell out of me. Every since my doctor changed my prescription for test strips to 300 a month the pharmacists little people (the trainees, the up and coming pharmacists) they’re dumb.
My insurance will only automatically pay for 250 strips, to get the 300 strips, the pharmacist has to do a manual override. You’d think that after over a year they’d remember that they had to do the manual override. But NO! Every month I call them in, the refill for my test strips and I talk to someone in the pharmacy and I let them know that they’ll have to do a manual override. And every month, I get a phone call about how they can’t fill my prescription. And every month I have to call and ask for the pharmacist that has taken care of filling my families prescriptions for the last 19 years. It’s the same conversation everytime, all I have to do is say my name and she fixes it.
It amazes me that the new people can’t take care of it right off the bat, that I have to go in and tell them what to do (me the customer telling them what to do, it’s a manual override #2) and they’re the ones that work there. There’s all of like 3 people that just do it for me, but unfortunately, I never get to talk to them the first time around and the losers that I do talk to they obviously don’t listen when I tell them before they fill it that it’s a #2 manual override. I’ve had it with Walgreens to the point where I’m looking at following through on the mail-in things I get. I can get all my prescriptions though the mail, and it’s cheaper, but I haven’t done it because the idea of my prescriptions sitting in the mail scares me. But since it’s directly through my insurance company, surely they’d get it right, right?
In a Moment of Complete Insanity
2 nights ago I was lying in bed because I had far too much caffiene (read: diet mountain dew) running through my viens and I was wide awake.
A few hours prior to crawling into bed, I had registered for NaBloPoMo and of course, with the mention of NaBloPoMo was the mention of NaNoWriMo (which happens to be the writing marathon that NaBloPoMo is based on).
So, as I’m lying in bed, I think to myself, I have a lot to say. And I crawl back out of bed and grab my notebook and I start jotting topics down. They all have to do with diabetes of course. And so I decided that even though I may not be able to write what would be considered a “novel” I could write 50,000 words about me and diabetes and what I think of it and how it’s affected me and how it’s a terrible disease, blah blah blah.
My moment of insanity lasted through the night onto yesterday morning where I actually went and registered for NaNoWriMo (because I truly am crazy). I think there were 2 things that caused me to seal the deal:
1) “If you believe you’re writing a novel, we believe you’re writing a novel too.”
2) “quantity over quality”
Here’s the thing about me and writing, I hate it. I really do, I vehemently hate writing. It’s the worse thing in the world. The muttering of the words “you need to write a paper” killed me in school, all the way from elementary school through the end of college. Papers made me cry, even when I enjoyed the topic they weren’t easy.
You’re probably settling into a state of deep confusion, because as you read this, you’re probably thinking “she writes, blogging is writing”. You’re right, blogging is writing, but it’s not serious, I mean, it can be, but it’s on the fly, it’s usually not premediated, it’s a dumping of my thoughts. I don’t categorize blogging as writing. And there’s a lot of things that I don’t blog because I don’t want to feel that in my writing my readers can see a vulnerability in me. But there are things that have happened in my 15 years of diabetes that I haven’t written about because they’re emotional, because they scare me, because I was incredibly stupid, all kinds of reasons. NaNoWriMo, is for that, I’m going to write my 50,000 words and much of it will be stuff that I normally wouldn’t blog about, but you know what, it’s time, I’ve been thinking about blogging about some of the stuff I’m going to write about for a few weeks now, and NaNoWriMo just gave me the push I need.
Tomorrow’s the day…writing begins…and if I wasn’t completely insane before the writing began, I will be by the end of Nov…Wanna join me on this journey? You can, here on Ride to Remedy, or on my NaNoWriMo page…
Healthy, Expensive, Fast Food - Diabetes 365 Day 25 - Oct 30, 2007
Chicken salad sandwich on 9 grain bread with lettuce and tomatoes and a small fruit cup. Healthy goodness that I’ve guesstimated to come in around 60 carbs. And it’s oh so yummy…For eating out, fast food, it couldn’t get better than this, or perhaps maybe it could, the only complaint I have is the $10 price tag on it…but then again on some days I’m too lazy to pack a lunch…
The things we diabetics do for a good meal…
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!
Darn Ketones
I woke up this morning, my blood sugar was 78 and I was nauseous. Nauseation is not a good thing. It’s especially not a good thing given my history of being nauseous and vomiting just a mere 2 months ago. Even though I was low I went ahead and checked for ketones. I was so not impressed to see that not only did I have ketones, but that they were hovering dangerously close to medium ketones. That was so not a good sign.
Of course, that was my only moment of sensibility today. Because shortly after I checked my ketones, I ate breakfast, took insulin, and instead of drinking water and going potty, I pumped myself full of diet mountain dew, waited about 4 hours went potty and oh, damn, didn’t check my ketones…
See, here’s the thing about ketones, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I’m healthy, my blood sugars are normal, I wasn’t fasting, and I wasn’t on an all meat diet. I shouldn’t have had ketones. And its the frustrations of the things that appear when I’m taking care of myself for no good reason that cause me to really hate diabetes.
If I’m as healthy as can be, I shouldn’t be encountering unexplainables…and it’s the unexplainables that really make me not want to take care of myself, because then, at a minimum, in the midsts of what would otherwise be unexplainables, I can explain them…
And they wonder why diabetes is so frustrating…
NaBloPoMo
Last night I stepped out and did something that I usually try to avoid…although, me stepping out and doing these seems to be a theme this month. I made another commitment. I’ve committed to make a post on this blog every day during November. Which is a step up from where I currently am with my back-dating my photos for the Diabetes 365 project that I’ve signed myself up for earlier this month (which just happens to be the other commitment I made this month).
So, the goal, to post something everyday for the whole month of November. I can easily do this if I’d not be so lazy and keep up on my Diabetes 365 photos. If I post them in Flickr daily it’d be no problem for me to move them over to my blog…but I also have other stuff that’s been nagging me from the back of my mind concerning my diabetes that I really need to write about so if I miss a day on the Diabetes 365 deal, I can blog about the other stuff. The point being that I have to blog daily. And I’m going to do it…I am…for reals…
Do The Dew - Diabetes 365 Day 24 - Oct 29, 2007
A day worth of diet drinks. This is on a bad day. Usually I’m looking at twice that many water bottles. It probably wouldn’t be too bad if I’d just had one soda and my normal amount of water, but some days it just gets out of control. I don’t want to drink just water, I want freedom in my drinks…
Although, I must admit, this is probably one place where diabetes has been good for me. If I didn’t have diabetes I’d probably drink sodas like this all day every day and not ever drink water…
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!
A Trip To WalMart Earns A Treat - Diabetes 365 Day 23 - Oct 28, 2007
Every now and then, as a diabetic, I need to feed the craving for sweetness (since I can’t eat sweets all the time). Usually, I feed that craving whenever I go to Wal-Mart, I take a moment to decide what treat it is that I really want and I pick it out.
Today’s treat was Pocky Sticks. They’re these biscuit sticks and the particular ones that I like have a strawberry coating. They’re not too sweet, but sweet enough to take the edge off my craving for sugar. The whole box only has 27 carbs.
The joys of diabetes. We can eat sweet stuff, just not all the time, and when we do we just count the carbs and take some insulin. It’s a myth that we can’t eat sugary treats…
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!
Fighting Infection - Diabetes 365 Day 22 - Oct 27, 2007
Whenever I get sick or there’s some kind of infection (other than sickness, i.e. infected cut) running through my body I have a tendency to start rejecting my pump sites. At which point I have to change them every other day instead of every 3rd day. If I don’t change them, they get all nasty and infected themselves and there’s discomfort and wearing a pump becomes no longer fun.
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!
Traveling With Diabetes - Diabetes 365 Day 21 - Oct 26, 2007
Having not been on a plane in 5 years I have no clue what to expect when I go to the airport in a couple weeks. I was really hoping this book would give me some insight but it really didn’t point out anything that I didn’t already know. Carry all your supplies on the plane vs checking them in. Have a note from your doctor (which my doctor told me I didn’t need). Have copies of your prescriptions. Since I’m not traveling abroad, much of this book was a waste…
There is no cure for diabetes…
Yet!