Where to start?

I went to sleep last night at 11pm. There was a slight flurry of snow in the air.......when I woke at 7am, there was 35 cm of snow on the ground. Why do these storms always happen at night when I can not watch the beauty of the DUMP? Last night I could see grass on the lawn, the morning.....a winter wonderland.

When I crawled out of bed, my blood sugar was 4.0mmol/L. That was a good morning blood sugar, but not good enough for snow shoveling. I peered out the bedroom window, at the neighbor in the distance. He has a plow on his truck, and was having trouble getting through the heavy, deep snow.

I knew I needed to "stock the furnace", in the words of my dear mother.

I went to the kitchen, and drank two full glasses of orange juice.

I went to the cupboard, and ate two small granola bars.

I did not bolus at all for the food I ate. It was easily 80 grams of carbohydrates, which would typically be 4 units of novorapid for my ratios.

I bundled up and headed out to shovel the driveway. I did not realize it was so warm outside. It was only -1 Celsius, so it was not long before I started shedding layers. I started at the end of the long driveway, and shoveled for 2.5 hours. I moved mountains of snow. My arms were tired, my back was tired....I was tired.

After I was done, I looked at my pump.....6,3 mmol/L. How's that for carb burning! I lucked out, or shall we say I calculated correctly!?

Let's be honest. I guessed, and won.

I am going to have sore arms tomorrow!!

The weeee hours of the morning I heard a fly buzz by my ear.....I grabbed the sheet, and threw it over my head. AH HA fly, I will outsmart you.

It is summer in Nova Scotia, and it is toasty warm. It took only a few minutes and I began to cook under the sheet. I needed fresh air, so off went the sheet, and in came the fly.

Dang you fly, why are you bothering me while I try to sleep?

I rolled over, and grabbed my tester. I had turned my sensor off last night before going to bed. The sensor was on day 6 and I knew in the middle of the night it would end and wake me. If I started a "new sensor" it would wake me as well for a calibration. Rather then fooling around with double calibrations before going to bed, I just turned the sensor off for the night.

Soooo, here I am early in the morning with a fly buzzing around my head, starting up my sensor. I tested, and was alarmed at the higher then normal BGL in the morning. Hmmmm, maybe that is why the fly was buzzing me, for my sweet blood.

I searched through the sheets to find my pump. I could not find it. This is not abnormal, it tends to travel while I am dreaming. I usually start at my pump site and follow the tubing ..... this morning, I could not find either. HUH? I stood up, and found my pump in the sheets, disconnected. During the night, my pump pulled right out of my stomach. I have never had this happen!

I remember the day before saying "During these hot days I have to change my pump site more often, I should do that tonight"

I should have listened to myself! Isn't that always the way!!

Halifax's Bluenose Marathon

May 17th is one of my favorite days of the year in Halifax. This day marks the beginning of spring in my opinion. Haligonians come together for the start of the running season to host and participate in the annual Bluenose Marathon.

I woke yesterday morning to a rainy and cool morning. "GIDDY UP", I said to myself when my alarm went off "LET"S GO GET 'EM!". Off to the races I went....literally!

I met up with my running buddies, and we headed for the race. What a blast! I thank Halifax for the intertia.......keeping all of the runners going through a beautiful race that took us all through many km's of historic streets, through the greenery of the Point Pleasant Park, along the waterfront and dockyards.

I had 3 goals with my race yesterday, and I am happy to say I made them all.

1. First and foremost, make it through the race alive. DONE, that one was easy. My wonderful Medtronic glucose sensor and insulin pump combo allowed me to know at all times where my blood glucose level was at.....I was able to approach each water station and know with confidence if I should drink gatorade or water, if I should take a carbo gel, if I needed a bolus or a stop....... It was such an ease to not have to worry about what my blood sugar was doing during a long race. I could actually focus on my running like all the other racers!

2. Finish in under 2hr30minutes. I ran the half marathon, so that equals 21.1km / 13 miles. I finished in 2hr21 minutes. Not a stellar time, I certainly did not win the race, but I met my goal of under 2hr30 minutes. My time result made me very happy, and later in the summer I will set a goal to shave a few minutes off that time, aim for less then 2hr15minutes!

3. My third, and most important goal, was to finish the half marathon before any of the full marathoners finished their race (How do they run that fast!?!?! They obviously are not short like I am!!!). The lead marathon runner finished in 2hr35minutes.....which is an amazing time (WOW), but still more then my time.

A success! Felt great!

Thanks Halifax!

Giving my carelink username and password?!

What a dilemma. I have an endo appointment monday morning. This is a good thing - my previous endo moved across the country, and after 14 years in this endo clinic, I had to go back to my GP to re-refereed for a new endo. I have had endo's leave in the past, and my case was always handed over to a new physician. Well, this time was different. My Ha1c was not great, but it was good enough to triage in to a 2+ year wait list to be assigned a new endo........now the wait is over.

I have been emailing back and forth with my education nurse, who thanks to the small number of patients on pumps, she remembers me by name. She said, if I gave her my username and password for carelink, she would print all of the data off for the Dr.

This is very helpful - and I agreed.....but now I sit and think about how my views of my diabetes control have changed over the years, especially over the past years since I ventured in to "adulthood". Take this scenario when I was 15 years old, and I would have been hiding all of the bad readings in order to avoid the "lectures". Now, I am laying it all out there.

There is a part of the health care system that is steering away from the "lecture" technique to encourage proper diabetes care....and allowing persons to step back and accept that their control may not be perfect, but small changes and small steps will make a big difference. Maybe adding a bit of realism?

I do feel vulnerable allowing people in to my secret diabetes world. All of the data that is secretly stored in my pump will be examined and critiqued by my diabetes health team......my goodness I don't even like people to see my meter screen when I test!

This is my first appointment with no carelink limitations. Last time, I took in the printouts I wanted the Dr to see. This time........

Cozmo exits the pump scene

Yahoo Canada News

I'm watching the snow blow horizontally across the beach....

Over the holidays, I was up in Ontario visiting family.

I flew out of Halifax, during the January 1st winter storm. We were experiencing an extreme blizzard, and the flight I was scheduled on was cancelled........and re-cancelled......cancelled again......and again......and then after multiple stand-by flights, I did made it to Ontario.

No surprise, but during this process, my luggage was lost.

Thankfully, I had my life packed in my carry on .... with the exception of clothes for the week. Easy enough.

I spent the week in Ontario with no luggage. No winter clothes, no gifts for the people I was going to visit (I am going to rewrap them in Easter wrapping paper!!), but still had a WONDERFUL time.

I received my bag back, a week later, on the day I was returning to Halifax.

When I arrived at the check-in terminal at the airport, with my bag, I was asked "Has this bag been in your possession the entire time?".

I looked at the agent who was waiting to take my bag, and I said "Well actually no. It has not been".

She stopped, and looked at me, waiting further explanation.

"Well??", she said, "where has it been that it was out of your possession? We need to know for security purposes"

"Funny that", I said, "the bag has been with Air Canada for the past seven days. I just received it back. For once, I can not answer yes to this question"

I asked if she wanted to take a look in the bag. She seemed unimpressed, said no, and the bag was checked through.

Funny that..............

Almost to the new year.....so close.....

2009 is almost days away, which means I need to compile my "to do" list for the year......

Places I want to go, people I want to see, things I want to do.....stay tuned :)

The list-making queen is at work!