I've been tagged

Hi Guys. I know I have been gone forever, but this pumping thing is draining all the energy out of me. Turns out I am more insulin resistant than anyone before me. As an example my lowest basal rate is 1.5! Crazy I know. This sick thing is my Dawn phenomenon. I wake up at 130 and by the time I get to work 1.5 hours later I am a 220 without eating anything. I know I am still in the experiment phase, but it just makes me angry. I feel like I'm failing and I hate that.

The most dramatic thing that happened was I accidentally ripped my site out when pulling my pants down to us the restroom. Then I had to insert a new set with out the dohicky. Nightmare.

OK so here are some things about me, cause I am sure you are dying to know...

Four jobs I have had in mylife

1. Human collator
2. Server at a Overpriced Manhattan restaurant, and dozens of other places
3. Real Estate Broker
4. Theater Actress

Four Movies I can Watch Over and over again

1. Drop Dead Gorgeous
2. Waiting for Guffman
3. Zoolander
4. Best In Show

Four Places I have Lived

1. NYC
2. Philly
3. San Luis Obispo
4. San Diego

Four TV Shows I Love

1. Lost
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Arrested Development (God will punish Fox for the canceling of this comedic gem. It sickens me when people say they don't get this show!)
4. American Idol Auditions

Four Places I've been on vacation

1. Iowa (my WHOLE family lives there)
2. Europe
3. Conneticut (my NY escape)
4. I never take vacations...It is one of my biggest regrets

Four of my fav foods

1. PEANUT BUTTER
2. New York strip steak with mashed potatoes
3. English Muffin bread with real butter
4. Everything bagels with cream cheese

Four Websites I visit daily

1. Overheard in NY (I love one liner Wednesday)
2. The OC
3. Accuweather...I am obsessed with weather
4. Several Anti-Bush Blogs

Four Places I would rather be right now

1. Snuggled on the couch with Scott and the cats
2. A bungalow in St. Barts
3. My private villa in Tuscany
4. A place where I don't have to think about how many carbs I am about to eat for just 1 day

And as a special treat here are 5 random things about me because I never did that before.

1. I have a Freakish arm hair - I think while I was forming, a cell that was ment for my head ended up on my arm. This hair as grown as long as 5 inches. I tends to get a split end and then breaks off.

2. I had my nose done 3 years ago. Trust me it needed to be done. No one thought before hand that it looked bad, and most people say they really can't tell a difference. But when I show them the before pics they say it looked like someone had punched me in the face and look swollen.

3. I only walk on the left side of people. I have no explanation for this, it is just one of my OCD traits

4. I once ate nothing but toquitos and carne asada nachos for 6 months. I was is college and somehow never boke 125 lbs (those days are long gone) I get on food kicks and just can't stop. Once again it was an OCD thing. I am much better now.

5. I collect pink flamingos. I have even gone as far as commission a painting.

I don't know who to tag, but I will put a name up soon.

It's not so bad...it's kinda nice.

So I am hooked up and pumping saline. I had my "pump practice" appt today and it went really well. I was soo nervous going in there today, but Leigh walked me through it and it got a lot less scary as the hour went on.

The infusion site was sore for an hour or so, but now I don't really notice it. This Bolus Wizard thing is awesome, and I love how it tells you how much insulin is on board. I don't know how I lived before this thing.

I'm sure things will pop up and I will have many questions so keep the advice coming. More to follow...

Sleeping In

I am up at 7:15 on a Saturday and not happy about it. I don't even eake up this early on the weekdays. Luna and Nikita, my cats, generaly wake me up to be fed around this time, but after one of my meanie streaks this week Scott and I now trade off. Kinda happy about that one.

Today Scott was going to feed them, but without an alarm my eyes pop open at 7:00 and I feel fully rested and ready to take on the day. I would give my left toes to feel this way during the week! Instead I beg my alarm for five more minutes and feel like the walking dead.

So as I mentioned yesterday I love dumplings. If you don't eat them you should start. Scott and I went to this awesome hole in the wall resturant in the East Village last night called OG which has Pan Asian cuisine. (For those new yorkers reading it is on 6th between A and B. They have the best dumplings in town and my favorite server, Jay. What could be better. I also had seared Ahi Tuna. Wonderful

The only problem is that I can't figure out how much insulin to take for them. I am figuring about 18 per dumpling and they are steamed - not fried, but then I wake up at 281. So if any of my friends in the OC would like to enlighten me I am all ears. Another thing I need help with is uploading pictures to this blog...how does that work?

Well its off to a big day of saturday chores. I am going to try and con Scott into shopping for house stuff because I am in a HGTV mood today and I think I want a new duvet cover. He's not gonna like that. :)

Scotty Ryan

I have been so mean to him this week. Scotty I mean. I am so stressed at work, and so nervous about my pump appt on Monday, and I am taking it out on him. That is not nice and I am trying to stop, but it is not working so well.

I have been so annoyed this week by everything around me and I hate feeling that way. It has however inspired me to write a coffee table book about things that annoy me about NYC.

1. Bikes on Subways.
2. Tourists who stop in the middle of the street and stare at buildings
3. People who don't walk to the right
4. There are no good places to stop and test my blood sugar on the street
5. When people squeeze a seat on the subway at rush hour
6. That I can't figure out the carbs in great NY foods like dumplings and falafel

I have to stop because this isn't constructive.

I have been stressed and that means low after low after low. I was in tears at the grocery store the other night, tested and was at 54! Lows F-ing SUCK.

I wish I had more time to write here but I just can't find the energy at the end of the day. I hope that everyone is doing well so far this year.

This is my last pump free weekend. wow. I know I will be happy but I feel like I am about to be pushed out of a plane. BUT...every one I know who ever went sky diving had an awesome time!

A Resolution & the countdown begins...

In 3 weeks I will start pumping. I want to send a huge thank you to everyone for such encouraging words and great advice. I am still scared and nervous but it is getting better. I know I could not do this with out the O.C. It would just be a mountain that I could not face. I am so thankful for all of you.

I am still having mini panic attacks about the pump but I woke up on Saturday morning to feed my cats and take my Lantus and thought "I can wait to be on the pump so I can sleep in," so I guess that's a good sign. I have begun to read the owners manual but it makes my heart race so I do it a little at a time.

Like everyone else in America I have read "a million little pieces" and it has made me stop and think about many things. If you haven't read this book buy it asap. It is about a man's 6 weeks in a rehab center and it is not a pretty tale so you have been warned. Addiction is a topic that permeates our society and that touches everyone's life. Everyone on some level is addicted to something whether you care to admit it or not. Of course, not all of our addictions will land us in a rehab center but James comes to learn some very important lessons that I am trying to learn through him.

Taking responsibility for your actions, words, or thoughts is not something that is valued in our current culture. "The Blame Game" is something everyone plays in one way or another, and is destructive and divisive and is something you learn at a very young age. Who knows, maybe blaming others is inherent. At any rate one of my resolutions is to actively take responsibility for my life. To own up to it all.

I am making this decision to go on the pump, because I am choosing no complications. I am lucky enough to get this disease when the technology is the best it has ever been, it getting even better, and tons of money is going to find a cure. Complications will not happen to me because I choose to test my blood sugar 6-8 times a day, and pay attention to what goes into my mouth, and not let myself go.
I choose not to be lazy, which I find is way to easy to become.
I am going to be there with Scott as we grow up and hopefully grow old together and I am going to be healthy. I am a type 1 diabetic who is going to have beautiful children and I will set a healthy example for them from day one.

I have spent my entire life in fear that my father will die of a heart attack at any moment because he has been 50 to a current 100+ pounds over weight. I have begged him from the 1980's until and hour ago to do something about his weight so he will be around to see me grow up and walk me and my sister down the aisle and play with his grandchildren. He always says he will and he is always lying. I will not burden my family like that. I will not have a husband and children begging me to choose to live.

I choose not to be apathetic this year. It will start with my diabetes but I know it will spill over into other parts of my life. I have never been one to blame everyone else for my problems and am very pro-active in all that I do, so this is more of an attitude adjustment in my own head than something that will be seen by others. Diabetes is an easy disease to hide, and say "yeah my numbers are great" which I did for a long time, but I don't have the energy anymore. I want to know I am telling the truth.

This group of inspiring people that is the O.C. is a big part of this too. We keep each other accountable, encouraged, and lifted. We are there to complain to and rant at and to give words of comfort and advice. I used to let this disease own me, but I am starting to own it, and I can't explain how happy I am about that.

I have a feeling that 2006 is going to be a great year and I am looking forward to it.

The terrifying box in my living room

I ordered a pump. Its the MiniMed 715. The color is "clear" (PS it's not so clear). It came to my office yesterday afternoon and then spent the remainder of the day chillin under my desk, and I was going to rip that box open like I did all of my other presents just a week earlier, as soon as I got home.

But when I got home a put the box on the floor and Scott and I just looked at it. It looks innocent enough, but I had the overwhelming urge to clean (which usual spells bad news because it is not like "I need to pick this place up" cleaning, but more like OCD, "I need to re-fold all my sweaters and put them in order of color" cleaning) Instead, I proceed to make a delicious and healthy dinner with the recommendations of my new nutritionist, and it was awesome. Cooking can be fun. PS I think snow peas are my new favorite veggie.

So then I watch some TV...and stare at the box.

I poke at my cats while they are sleeping...and stare at the box.

I think what the hell and I open it with some excitement in my voice, and it is just full of things that make my head spin. I am digging through box upon box of foreign objects. Reservoir. Infusion Sets. Cords. Books. A new meter which looks huge and I like the meter I have. I'm thinking "where is the pump already" and then there it is.

I take it out, hold it in my hands, say "humph", then put it right back in it's plastic bed and put it away. I repacked the box exactly as it came, closed it up and went back to watching the ever numbing TV. It wasn't until the middle of Scrubs when I was safely nuzzled in Scott's arms did the tears start rolling down my cheeks. My heart was pounding so hard my shirt is pulsing above it.

My thoughts are swirling in my head so fast I can't even explain to Scott while I am so overwhelmed over something I have be waiting for.

I DON'T THINK I CAN DO THIS! In the outfit I am wearing today...where would I put it? What about in a slinky "going out" outfit? PJ's? What to you do when you sleep? What if I made the wrong decision and wasted tons of my parents money? This thing seems so much bigger than it did at the endo's office! I can not make the mental leap as to how it will feel to be tethered to something 24/7 for the rest of my life! I know people say you just detach it for a while, but what about the bump left on your skin from the infusion set? It's not like it's that tiny.

Scott had a good point. This is the 1st solid irrefutable piece of evidence that I have diabetes, and it is NOT going away. I can't honestly say I have grasped that yet.

I thought I had but then this small cardboard box came into my life and I can't get my heart to stop pounding. Don't get me wrong, I still am excited and I know I can deal with it but I was shock and how freaked out I got. I am the best freaker-outer I know, but this even caught me off guard.

M.I.A.

I know I have been gone forever and I am sorry. I was so busy before the holidays and then sick on my parents couch the entire time I was in San Diego. I haven't even read what has been going on! I am a horrible blog friend right now.

So let's start fresh. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I wish everyone the best of luck in the new year with health, DB, family, life, money, career and all the rest that life will throw at you.

So much has happened in the past month and I can't wait to sit down with a big cup of tea and read about what everyone has been up to and to write about my next big adventure...the pump which is currently in a box in my living room. I am beyond scared of this thing. More to come...I have to go back to work.

I have a love/hate relationship with malls

Living in NYC I don't have a mall to go to. In order to go shopping you have to traverse several subways lines and neighborhoods, carry EVERYTHING you buy (we don't have cars to store things in) for hours, NOTHING is indoors so you are freezing outside and then sweating like a pig in August inside. It is a mess.

So Scott and I think it would be a great idea to visit our friends in the great state of New Jersey where there are some of the worlds largest malls, next to strip malls, which are across the street from box stores. Nirvana.

For those of you are lucky enough to have driven through the state you know what a cluster fuck of streets, highways, and poorly labeled roads this place is. The state is currently looking for a motto and Scott suggests. "New jersey: the place where you can see where you want to go but you just can't get there."

So...the mall was incredible. Everything you could dream up all in one simple place. The crowds weren't even that bad but I was walking around in constant fear that my blood sugar would drop and I wouldn't notice because everything was so loud and obnoxious.

Worst fears confirmed. I was low all day long. I guess I didn't realize how much exercise walking around the mall can be. I mean I was out for like 7 hours, but I got it all done. Mission accomplished.