Snow Dayz

I have been waiting all winter long for a good snow. We have a few light dustings. Nothing to even cover the ground really. I am a sucker for snow. I hate dark and dreary winter, but I love it when it snows. Go figure.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn't snow a lot here in Tennessee. In fact, the whole world nearly shuts down if we get a couple of inches.

Yesterday, around noon, it started to spit icy stuff. By the time I left work at 4:30 it had turned into snow and was starting to stick to the ground! Yeah snow!

This morning I woke up to this:

These pictures were not taken by me, since my camera is currently not in my possession. But a friend of mine took these pictures this morning and e-mailed them to me. She was gracious enough to allow me to share them with all of you.

I know we haven't gotten near as much snow as some of my fellow bloggers (Amylia!) who have been practically snowed in. But I got the snow I'd been waiting on all winter.

Now that I've had this snow, bring on the spring!

Vacation? Or not?

I went out of town this past weekend with some friends of mine. One of my best friends is getting married and moving about 4 hours away from where she & I currently live. Her future sister-in-law threw her a bridal tea this weekend, so we gathered up and went down to stay the weekend.
I thought it was going to be a fun getaway. It was. It just also turns out that I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and I am thoroughly paying for it now. The lack of sleep has made me a very unhappy person. But, I survived the day and I intend on going to bed pretty early tonight.
On trips like that, I feel like I haven't really been on vacation. Even though, in a way, I have been.
I would post lots of fabulous pictures of my weekend, but I left my camera in my friend's truck and she ended up taking it home with her. Two hours from my house. Sigh. But I am going to go visit her in a couple of weeks. She is holding it hostage till I come to get it.
So, now it's back to the work week. Back to the schedule. And back to getting to bed at a decent hour. :)

Any Time Now...

I haven't been around near enough since I got my CGMS. For that, I apologize to those of you who read my blog. I have just been busy, stressed, and tired in general. Over the weekend I took a break from the world, watched the Daytona 500 (GO #88!!), and had the day off on Monday, courtesy of Presidents' Day.
On Monday I did spend quite a bit of time cleaning out my spare bedroom. It is really just a junk room. It is piled up with boxes of random stuff, Christmas decorations, a bunch of the stuff left over from my year of teaching, and tons of craft stuff. It's so bad that I can't even get to stuff. So I did a major clean out. I hauled boxes of stuff to Goodwill and boxes of teaching stuff to a local daycare.
It's far from being done, but it's a good start. And it makes me feel like I did something productive. I think that if I start cleaning some of the clutter out of my life, I will be less stressed in other areas of my life.
CGMS has gone okay. Day one through day 4 were pretty good on the sensor. The readings were fairly accurate about 90% of the time. On night 2 it woke me up to let me know I was low. And it was right.
I changed sensors on day 5 because the readings were all over the board and not right. It was like the sensor just gave out. I actually think I calibrated at a bad (very bad) time, so it threw everything off for the rest of the life of the sensor.
I started yesterday morning with another sensor. This one I put in my thigh. It did bleed some, but there was no pain, so I am not complaining. Yesterday and today it has been fairly close, but not as close as I would like. It is reading higher than my blood sugar actually is.
As for the title of this post, any time now I would like to get a full nights sleep. Last night the sensor woke me up again with another low. It was right (for which I am very thankful), but it continues to go off every 20 minutes until your blood sugar is reading back in range. So every time I got asleep again last night, it would go off again. It took about an hour to get back up in range.
If this keeps up much more, I may have to adjust my nighttime basal.

CGMS, Dentists, Sickness, and Valentine's Day

I am now, officially, hooked up to the CGMS. I went on Tuesday afternoon to meet with my CDE and the trainer from MiniMed. It was nearly a 2 hour training and there was another person also being trained at the same time. I enjoyed the time. The rep/nurse from MiniMed is also a diabetic and is on the CGMS, so she could talk from her personal experiences. This was very nice. As you can tell, I don't have the nice, flat stomach like in the MiniMed picture on their website...sigh. To be a model.
So far, my trends have been crazy. But, that may have to do with the raging head cold that I woke up with this morning. I'm hoping to take the print-offs to my endo in March to see if there is any more tweaking that needs to be done. I have also set up another appointment with my CDE to have them help me look at trends also.
Personally, I like having second opinions on stuff. I can make changes on my own. I do it often. But sometimes it is just nice to have others look at what you are doing to see if they find anything you might have skipped over. It's like having someone proof-read your papers before you turn them in.
I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday afternoon. It was to get the last of my fillings done. My mouth is still slightly sore, but its good to know I don't have to worry about the cavities anymore.
I was supposed to go to church and a Bible study class last night, but due to snow in our area, church was cancelled. Instead, I just stayed in, ate some dinner and watched American Idol.
This morning, as I mentioned earlier, I woke up with a raging head cold. I could barely talk. And when I did, I sounded like a frog. Luckily, it got better as the day went on, but I can feel it settling back in as night falls. I HATE not being able to breath.
Today was also Valentine's Day. As a single gal, I would like to say that I don't hate Valentine's Day, but in all reality, I can't stand it. It's just depressing at times. This year wasn't too bad on my emotions, so I am very thankful for that. But sometimes I wish that the holiday would just be wiped off the map.
Why can't a guy (0r girl) just buy their significant other flowers just because? Why should they feel forced to buy the heart shaped boxes of candy, and stuffed animals, and ridiculously expensive flowers? You don't have to do it all the time. Just once in a while. Then we wouldn't have to have Valentine's Day.
Oh well. Some of you in the OC have had a great day. Kerri at Six Until Me and Allison at Lemonade Life, are two that I have already found with positive posts. I have to say that I'm very glad for them. Making the best of the day is the important part. Whether you be single, like Allison, or attached, like Kerri.
I hope you all have had a wonderful day filled with love and friends and lots of fun.

A Good Day and a Nice Surprise

I went to get a new cell phone today. Since I was in college, my dad and I have been on the same plan. He paid the bill until I got out of college and I have split it with him since. It's cheaper that way. Our 2 years was up and we were due new phones.
Personally, we were both ready for new ones. The batteries in our old phones were shot. Because I live in the middle of no where, there is only a Verizon dealer. In other words, they only sign you up. They can't take money, give you your credit (you get $100 towards a new phone after 2 years), or do anything else. So we have to drive around 45 minutes to get to a store where we can get our new phones.
This was a good thing. My dad and I don't spend nearly enough time together. Today, we spent most of the day together. I got a new phone. It's orange! Those of you who know me, know I love orange. I also promptly dropped it on the basement floor when I got home and scratched it, but I figure it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway.
We also got to go have lunch together. We went to Cracker Barrel. I love their breakfast. Actually, all their food is great, but breakfast is my favorite. I very much over carb-ed it. But it was fun. And worth it. Two hours after eating, my blood sugar was 123. Not bad. The bad part came 4 hours later when it was 205. Sigh. Oh well, at least I know not to do that very often.
After we got back home, my grandmother, my brother, his fiancee, my dad & I had dinner at my grandmother's house. It was nice. We sat around and chatted for a while.
When I got home I went to check my mail. There was a package in my box. Just a little package, but the return address said Sussy Circle. Huh? I already got my sussy. Inside I found a great note from Amylia and Beth and some little sussy from them.
This wonderful sticker from Amylia and her days in Taiwan, along with 2 pins from Beth. And a mirror.
They are all beautiful. The mirror says "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. -Emily Dickinson" Emily has always been one of my favorite poets, so this was a wonderful surprise. And it reminds me that there is always hope for a cure...if we let there be hope.
Thanks Beth and Amylia for all you did for us with the Sussy Circle. It was a wonderful and creative way to bring the Diabetes OC together and let us know each other just a little bit better.

CGMS News

My appointment with the trainer from MiniMed is February 12th at 1:30. I am so excited. By this time next week, I will be hooked up on CGMS.

Storms in Tennessee

Some of you have already been asking if I am okay. Just wanted to let you know that my town escaped the worst of the storms. We just got some wind and bad thunderstorms. However, there are several other communities that I have friends in that got hit pretty hard. So far, I don't know any of the people who have died.
I have also sent out a message on my TuDiabetes.com group, TNDiabetics, asking that people let us know they are okay and let us know if they need anything.
Thank you so much for your concern. I will try to post more today if I can. I just wanted to let you all know that I am fine.
Keep all these areas that were hit, here and in other states, in your prayers! We are going to need them.
Cara

Overnight Mail

Yesterday, as I was on my way into my class (I am currently working on my Masters degree) my phone rang. It was MiniMed, wanting to know where they could ship my new CGMS to be signed for today! I gave them my work address and they told me that it should arrive around 10:30 this morning.

I am a very impatient person. 10:00 rolled around: nothing. 10:30: nothing. 11:00: nothing. I got to lunch at 12:00. Still, nothing.

"Surely, I'll have something when I get back from lunch," I thought to myself. The blogger in me even brought my camera back from home to take a picture when the packages arrived. When I got back at 1:00....there was still NOTHING! Ahhhhh! I'm worse than a little kid on Christmas. It's killing me by this time. I even contemplated calling MiniMed and asking them what the tracking number was for FedEx.

While I sat, contemplating this phone call, my phone rang. "Cara," one of our secretaries said, "You have some packages up here."

Yeah!!!!! It's about time! I ran up front and there were two boxes there. One said "Refrigerate Upon Arrival".

I hurried them back to my desk and took a picture quickly.

Then I tore into the boxes. I examined the items quickly. Got out the owner's manual and gave it a quick glance. And then I called my doctor's office. I knew they would either refer me to the local diabetes educator, or tell me to call her and make an appointment. I talked with one of my favorite ladies at the office and she told me to just call the diabetes center and talk to my diabetes educator (the same one who helped me with my pump).

I called the center and she was not in. But I left a message with the receptionist and my phone number and told her what I was needing. She told me my CDE would get back with me today or tomorrow.

So far today, still no call. But that's okay.

When I got home I had to take out the boxes again, but the sensors in the refrigerator, and look at the manual more closely. I am still working on it, but I was so excited I had to share with you all!

Very soon I should be hooked up to the CGMS!

Also a note: My Sussy pal isn't Caro. Anyone else know who it could be from the UK? I am stumped! I am going crazy! I hope you guys can help me figure out who it is. Perhaps a person on flicker Diabetes 365 group? I don't know.

Trip-The End....And SUSSY!!!

On the last day of our trip we really didn't do anything exciting. Basically got up and ate breakfast and then started our looonnnggg drive back. The blood sugar behaved itself most of the day. And I didn't have any major problems during the trip back. Although on the last leg of my trip (from M's house to my own) I thought my contacts were going to dry to my eyeballs!

The joys of learning to wear contacts. Ahh. I ended up going back to the eye doctor and they gave me a different kind. The are working much better!

On Saturday I got my Sussy package! I was thrilled! All the items were wrapped so beautifully. Sadly, I was so very impatient to open the packages that I didn't stop to take a picture. For that, I apologize.

It was such a wonderful package. I listed on my Sussy info that orange was my favorite color. Almost everything in my package was orange! I was great.
The only bad part is there was no name! Or return address. It was mailed from London. I love getting mail from outside the U.S. But I want to be able to properly thank the person who got it for me. So, please, if you are reading this, let me know it was you!!