a visit to my Endo

I saw my diabetes specialist today.  It was probably one of the easiest appointments I've ever had.  I had to take my almost 4 year old with me but he fell asleep about 2 minutes out and slept in my arms the whole time.  I didn't get weighed in or my blood pressure checked because I was holding my sleeping "baby".  My bp has been excellent recently and it's usually only slightly high when I'm pregnant.  Yea for not having bp problems!  My weight has also decreased and I was only slightly sad I didn't get to weigh in to prove it. 

ANYWAY, last time I went in, the doc had me do a full lipid pannel and 24 hour urine collection- on the fun things you get to do when you're diabetic!  Today we went over those results and all of my tests were really good.  My A1C today was a 7.0.  I was hoping for a 6.8 but I'm still happy with 7.0.  All of my lipids were normal and I'm so happy that I don't have high cholesterol either.  The LAST thing I want is another medication to take!  The only test that was a little off, but still in normal range, was my Vitamin D.  Usually Vitamin D isn't tested in patients and mine had never been tested before.  So, he went ahead and had it run with the rest of my blood work.  It was within the normal range but a little on the low side.  I have NO idea what that means or anything but Dr. Day didn't seem too concerned about it. 

I pretty much told doc that I have stopped taking Symilin.  He wasn't too surprized, or concerned so I guess that's okay too.  He increased my basal, like always.  I'll make the changes, be low for 3 days striaght and lower them back again.  It's a common cycle.  But I'm not too worried about it. 

He asked me if I was planning another pregnancy.  When you're diabetic, you HAVE to plan, plan, plan for pregnancy, and you cannot just "accidentally" get pregnant either.  In the past, I've begged my insurance company to cover birth control in the past and didn't hesitate to have Dr. Day write me a letter of neccesity.  Usually, and currently, however, it has been covered.  But I digress, I told him I have started thinking about maybe having another one.  I aksed him what he thought, if I were healthy enough.  He said I was healthy enough, and young enough, but that I did need to get my A1C down to a 6.5 or less. 

I've GOT to make this decision in a year or less.  Why?  Well, because little brother is almost 4 and I'm opposed to having a kid farther than 5 years difference from him.  Since he was born, I've struggled with this decision.  I always thought I'd have more than 2 kids.  But somehow, it seems like enough for me.  I had a really, really hard time recovering from my second c-section.  Pregnancy is mega, super hard when you're diabetc.  Do you hear me rambling?  That's me trying to make a decision.  Husband told me JUST TODAY that I'm terrible at making decisions.  I am.  (but so is he).  ANYWAY, I'd love to have a baby girl.  or boy, maybe.  But I just don't know if I'm up for it. 
It means testing my sugar every 2 hours for about a year.  That's 4,382 tests.  It means wearing a CGM.  It means GAINING WEIGHT.  Lots of weight.  And I'm already 25 pounds over weight.  It means DELIVERING a baby.  It means having ANOTHER c-section.  And then RECOVERING from that surgery.  It means sleepless nights.  But, it also means another wonderful, beautiful, special human being in my family.  I just don't know!  I wish God would come down and just TELL me.  "Jen, you need to have another baby."  Or, "Jen, it's  okay, you're family is complete."  I just have not received an answer on that prayer.  And I've prayed about it for four years. 

Anyway, I really feel like 2012 is OUR YEAR.  It's our year for change.  Could be another baby, could not.  We'll just have to wait and see.  :) 

Diabetes Doesn't Care

Diabetes doesn't care if it's 2 hours after you went to bed. Diabetes doesn't care if you just fell into a deep sleep. Diabetes doesn't care if you've counted all your carbs, bolused correctly, had a bedtime snack, did your exercise, and otherwise followed through with all of your normal "diabetic" routines. Diabetes doesn't care if you're sick, or tired, or if you have a big day the next morning. Diabetes doesn't care if you have carefully calculated your basal rates.

When Diabetes wants to strike you with a "low" or a "high" then Diabetes is going to strike. Diabetes is 24/7 - 365. It doesn't break for holidays, sick days, birthdays, or Sundays. It doesn't EVER go away!

Monday night I went to bed at a decent hour. Back to a regular routine in the morning. My blood sugar at 10pm was 130. Just about what it had been all day long. Nice and steady.

I worked out at about 10am that morning, so it had been a good 12 hours since then. I ate my regular 6:00 dinner.

I had NO REASON to believe that my blood sugar would plummet. However, just about an hour into my deep sleep, I woke with the distinct feeling that I was low. When I was first diagnosed with Diabetes, I thought for sure that I'd never wake up with a low blood sugar. Little did I know, I just wasn't experiencing them. Once I did though, I knew they'd always wake me up. I don't know how my body does that. But I'm really glad it does. Sleeping through a low could be very dangerous. I wake up and think, "aw crap, I'm low". I reach over to the bedside table and flip on my light, test my sugar: 53. So I stumble down the stairs to the kitchen on my terribly aching feet and get the rest of the juice out of the fridge. There's only a half cup left and I water it down for the kids so I know it isn't going to be enough. I grab a slice of bread, pour some honey on it and climb back up the stairs to bed.

Then this post starts running through my head until I can finally fall back to sleep. My sugar at 7:30am the next morning: 130. Just what I thought it would be... without the escapades in the middle of the night.

New Year: New Goals

So, I've been thinking about what I'd like to work on this year. 2011 I did a great job of improving my diet and increasing my exercise. I'm a regular at our local recreation center. I swim, spin, and when my feet don't hurt take Zumba or run on the treadmill. I've even been to a couple of yoga classes.

One year ago this week, I started on Weight Watchers. I've done a really good job at tracking what I eat, focusing on the power foods, and sticking to that program pretty well. It hasn't really worked great for weight loss for me. But, I haven't GAINED any weight, not even over the holidays. They recently made a few changes to the program and since then my weight-loss has really improved.

Anyway, my last A1c was 7.0. My blood sugars since then have been great! I go see my Endochronologist in about 3 weeks and I think my A1c may have come down a couple of points.

So... as far as goals for this coming year.... I think what I'd like to do is decrease my soda intake. I don't drink regular soda... only if it's the ONLY option for a low blood sugar, that's super rare. Like maybe 3 in a whole year. BUT, I'm a HUGE Diet soda drinker. I LOVE my Diet Coke. Too much! Way too much. I think what I'd like to do is just slowly decrease my intake of diet soda to where I'm drinking one or less per day. I didn't buy a 12 pack of cans this week at the store. So, Sunday I had 1 and today I've had 1. So far... so good I guess.

The other thing I want to do is the "take a picture every day" challenge. I think I'll do the 365project.org. My URL there is http://365project.org/sugarfreesweety/365 I'd like to let Diabetes be the main focus for this project but it will probably end up being pics mostly of my kids... like everything else I do. Kind of a fun way to document the year. Hope I'm not taking on too much with this tho.

So, yeah, those are my goals for this year. I think they're ones that I can definitely work on; and I get pretty determined when it comes to setting goals so I hope I do as well this year as I did last. Now, if I could just get my damn foot healed, then maybe I can start running again.