This is my dog Charlie.
Charlie is nine years old (that’s 63 in dog years).
Chuck (one of the many other names he is known as) had his annual physical this week. It seems that my dog is “remarkable.” His flexibility, his teeth, his bloodwork and everything else on the inside and outside are perfectly healthy. So much so that combined with his advanced age, the vet said his health is remarkable.
I find it ironic that my dog, my pain-in-the-butt, afraid-of-the-furnace, compulsive-couch-licker, barks-at-such-a-high-pitch-it-makes-ears-bleed dog is in perfect health, yet his very-sweet, lets-Chuck-sleep-in-bed-with-her, gives-Chuck-good-dog-bones, dries-Chuck-off-when-he-comes-in-from-the-rain owner is not. I am so far from remarkable.
Go figure. Long live Charlie. That mother chucker.
As always, more to come…
Cara over at “Every Day Every Hour Every Minute” had the fun and brilliant idea for a get-to-know-me experiment. She was listening to music on shuffle and wrote down the first 20 songs that came up. The idea caught on and for the last couple of days, I’ve been sneaking around everyone’s iPods and getting a kick out of what all the bloggers out there have been ear-worming. Just because I like to be part of the group and feel it’s only fair for you to jump into my shuffle as well, here’s my list…1. Edge of Seventeen, Steve Nicks – Stevie. What more does a girl have to say?2. Bliss, Alice Peacock featuring John Mayer – I listen to and like this song despite the fact that John Mayer sings on this. I believe (or I like to think) it was before his head got big and his dates became public knowledge.3. London Bridge, Fergie – She swears a lot in this song. I swear a lot, too. But I don’t like it because of that, I like it because I can dance around my kitchen to it.4. I Only Want To Be With You, Dusty Springfield – A classic. Also the song my husband and I danced to at our wedding.5. I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Marvin Gaye – I love me some Motown.6. That’s What I Think, Cyndi Lauper – Cyndi is often underrated. This is one of her songs that goes beyond Girls Wanna Have Fun (although I love that song, too).7. Missing You, John Waite – This has been one of my all-time favorites since high school. It gets me *right here.*8. Time To Pretend, MGMT – If you’ve seen the movie 21, you’ve heard this song. You’ll probably go, “A-ha!” when you hear it. 9. Even Angels Fall, Jessica Riddle – Just a nice song. Especially when riding on the CTA bus.10. A Thousand Miles, Vanessa Carlton – I like this song, then my niece did a lip-sync of it on You Tube and I like it even more.11. In My Life, Chantal Kreviazuk – I love this song when just about anybody sings it, but this one is really sweet.12. All I Want, Lightening Seeds – If you’ve never listened to a Lightening Seeds song, you should try this one. I don’t even know if he’s still around…13. Superfabulous, Bt – Great song to hula-hoop to. 14. Detective, No Doubt – Not necessarily my favorite Gwen song, but it’ll do. 15. Dream A Little Dream Of Me, Mamas & Papas - Mama Cass sings it like no one else does.16. Lost In You, Rod Stewart – I’ve had a thing for Rod since way back when. I’ve seen him in concert twice. I was born too late to be a true groupie, but I would have loved to hang with him in his heyday.17. I Touch Roses, Book Of Love – This has been in my music library for so long, I had to look up who sang it. How could I have forgotten Book Of Love from my college days???18. Got It Good, Jem – I love her. This is from her second album. Her first was awesome. 19. Mine All Mine, SheDaisy – Country music isn’t my first love, but I find myself liking more and more of it. I dig almost every song on this album.20. Here It Comes, Longwave – Huge Veronica Mars fan and the show had awesome music. That’s where I first heard this one.Some of these seem obscure when I look back, but I should also admit to having BOC (Blue Oyster Cult), Hilary Duff, Def Leppard, The Cure and a whole lotta ‘80s music on my iPod. It just didn’t happen to come up in this random shuffle. Maybe next time.As always, more to come (don’t fear the reaper)…
I’m a smart girl. Really I am. So I don’t know why it’s taking so long for it to sink in that I need to dose the NovoLog for everything I eat. Everything. Last night I went out to dinner and whipped out my pen between the appetizer and the main meal, gave myself the appropriate injection and carried on with my enchilada suiza. No problems.While we were driving home, we noticed the Tastee Freeze had opened for the season. Yay! We stopped and I got a sundae. The thought of giving myself a shot briefly crossed my mind, but I didn’t do it. I don’t know why. I think somewhere in the back of my head I’m still thinking there’s a lot of Lantus in my body to help cover it, somehow forgetting that I’ve decreased my dose from 45 units to 30 units. And I’m not making the connection that, no, that’s not going to do anything to an ice cream sundae (which was awesome, by the way, as the first one of the season always is). Flash forward to bedtime about two and a half hours later. 197. Damn! Should’ve given myself the NovoLog. Following my “sliding scale” guidelines, I gave myself a unit. I was pretty close (within three numbers) of giving myself two units, but I’m still in the learning process and I didn’t want to give myself too much insulin right before bed, fall asleep, get a low and not realize it. I also gave myself my regular Lantus dosage.About two hours later, I woke up in a pool of sweat. I didn’t know if it was because I was high. I didn’t know if it was because I was low. I didn’t know if it was because I had a 72-pound dog laying across me. I grabbed my kit and tested. 195. I didn’t do anything. I knew the sundae was pure sugar and eventually, the numbers would drop and probably drop drastically. I took my chances and went back to sleep.Flash forward again (can you see the wavy lines, like in Wayne’s World?) and said 72-pound dog is licking and nudging my hand at four in the morning to go out. As long as I was up, I checked my sugar again. 95. I must, must, must get it into my head that the NovoLog is not optional if I want to keep my numbers under control. That I must dose for the sundae. That I must dose four units if I’m eating four carb units. I’ve been timid with the shots and conservative with the insulin, fearing lows. But I’ve been on the NovoLog for five full days now and I haven’t been below 95 once, so I think I’m doing okay. There’s just so many factors I’m still trying to figure out. How the NovoLog reacts with items of less nutritional substance is one of them (ice cream? caramel sauce? whip cream?). And I know that the only way I’m going to get a grip on anything is to dose, keep a sharp and constant eye on my body’s reactions and take note for next time. I know it’s all for the best—I’ve eaten my first french fries, my first giant muffin and my first whole pita bread without skyrocketing for the first time in about three years. I even ate a whole hamburger bun, just to see if I could! And I could!But I’m back on the learning curve. I became a pro at the Lantus, knowing when to up the dosage or when to drop it; knowing what to eat, when to eat and how many carbs to keep my sugars in control. I know how my body reacts to certain foods when the Lantus is in the picture, but not when the NovoLog is added to the equation. I’m in kindergarten all over again, wishing I already had my college diploma.I’m taking it day by day and I think I’m going to have to start reciting a mantra to remind myself I must shoot up: “NovoLog the numbers. NovoLog the numbers.” I’m a smart girl. Surely I can graduate soon?As always, more to come…
Star date: Friday, April 10. Visited new endocrinologist. Shared a wealth of information and she posed the intriguing questions: “Would you like to eat?” and “Would you like to eat more than cheese?” Like cheese. Like cheese a lot, but fear it is not enough to sustain me. Endo prescribed NovoLog. My first experience with fast-acting insulin. Plane due to depart hours after endo appointment. We consulted and agreed the NovoLog should start upon my return.Star date: Sunday, April 19. Started the NovoLog. Tiny increments—one unit of insulin per carb unit for consumption. Reduced my current dose of Lantus from 45 units nightly to 30 units nightly. Can do “sliding scale” up to four times a day. Have not slid yet. Am feeling like newborn all over again. More numbers to add, more shots to give. Slight fear. Slight excitement. Will be good to eat when I’m hungry, and not have to wait until sugar drops to do so. Will be good to eat crackers with my cheese.Okay. I’m not a Trekkie, but I feel like I’m on an adventure here. I like the new endo and like the fact that she just didn’t take my HbA1C for the number it was, and really looked at my day-to-day. She said she was amazed I had been able to live on my regimen for as long as I had, and it was definitely time I started to be able to eat again. Being on the Lantus alone was very restricting, and I feel like adding the NovoLog will help with that. It is all a bit scary, but I’m just taking it one day at a time and experimenting within the guidelines. Am. Being. Very. Careful.I’ve asked my doctor a lot of questions, and I’m making a list as more come up, but if any of you out there have any advice, tips, tricks and suggestions that only PWD have, I’d appreciate anything you can offer up.As always, more to come (more insulin…)…
Life is still a little more hectic than normal, and to top it off, I've got an appointment with a new endo on Friday morning (about six hours before I hop a plane to London for a much-needed vacation). The new endo has already sent me a letter asking me to bring in my meter log and all sorts of info. Being the good patient I am, I've started another week of documenting my sugars every hour along with what I eat and when I exercise. (Unfortunately, when my life goes busy, exercise is the first thing to go, so I think there's only one or two of those entries on there...)Anyway, since I haven't really had time to blog, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and post a couple of days of logging right here (logging, blogging, so close). A few notes: the 200 thing freaked the hell out me; that's really high for me. I discovered French Onion soup has more carbs in it than I thought. CU stands for carb unit (for those of us not used to counting carbs (hi mom!)). Oh, and I know I'm supposed to take the Lantus at the same time every night, but I'm trying to back up the time a little bit each night to make up for the time difference in London so I don't have to wake up at 3 in the morning and give myself a bleary-eyed injection. And while I may have been crazy before but with normal numbers, it was all false advertising, because these digits really show the stress and extra hectic-icity (I made that word up) that I'm going through. Without further ado, days in the life of Lora...THURSDAY, 4/2/098:11 = 878:15 juice box, Nutrigrain bar, 3cu9:53 = 12010:54 = 9611:33 = 8912:12p = 7212:12p granola bar, 2cu1:14p = 1162:00p = 892:15p = 902:30p brioche roll, est 1cu2:30p cup french onion soup, est 1cu2:45p flatbread pizza, est 2cu3:10p cookie, est 3cu3:23p = 1254:03p = 1464:14p floor pedaller, 60min5:15p 2 tylenol, 0cu5:34p = 1586:01p = 1646:10p vodka drink, 0cu6:20p tuna and fries, est 2cu7:17p = 1388:25p = 1399:34p = 83insulin @ 9:30p, 45 units Lantus½ nutrigrain bar, 1cuFRIDAY, 4/3/097:47 = 737:48 english muffin, 2cu8:39 = 12710:03 = 10310:43 = 9611:29 = 8712:25p = 8512:25p granola bar, 2cu1:33p = 1222:16p = 1132:42p salad and roll, est cu33:30p = 1134:38p = 1115:39p = 1206:33p = 1057:39p = 877:45p vodka drink, 0cu8:23p flatbread pizza, est 2cu9:05p = 111insulin @ 10:30p, 45 units Lantus10:32p = 119SATURDAY, 4/4/098:14 = 11310:03 = 11411:09 = 8911:12 swiss sandwich and cracker sticks, 2cu12:10p = 1201:30p = 1172:44p cottage cheese, small brownie, 1cu2:48p = 812:50p chocolate pretzels, 1cu4:50p = 1064:53p peanut butter wafer, 1cu6:15p = 1056:18p small brownie, 1cu7:39p = 1157:45p beef sandwich and fries, est 5cu8:13p small piece of cake, est 3cuinsulin @ 9p, 45 units Lantus11:00p = 281 (test was slow for result; re-tested)11:02p = 204 (tested on palm instead of arm)11:02p = 238 (tested on palm on different meter)12:20p = 157 (set alarm after going to sleep to make sure # on downswing)SUNDAY, 4/5/097:45 = 1418-10 clean house10:05 = 9510:40 = 8710:41 granola bar, 2cu1:02p = 821:13p turkey sandwich, 1cu1:20p peanut butter wafer, 1cu2:35p = 892:35p small brownie, 1cu4:45p = 914:45p chocolate pretzels, 1cu7:00p = 1067:00 salmon, asparagus, potatoes, est 1cu8:17p = 110insulin @ 8:30p, 45 units Lantus8:42p peanut butter wafer, 1cu9:35p = 116MONDAY, 4/6/097:06 = 867:13 granola bar, juice box, 3cu9:16 = 12410:34 = 8810:45 cracker sticks, 1cu11:27 = 7311:30 pretzels, 1cu12:05p = 11212:36p = 1261:36p = 1042:09p = 922:15p small brownie, 1cu2:40p = 1103:51p = 1094:35p = 1295:36p = 937:16p = 807:50p flatbread pizza, peanut butter wafer, 2cu7:53p = 113insulin @ 9p, 45 units Lantus9:20p = 126As always, more to come (but not until after vacation, which I so richly deserve)...
Charlie is nine years old (that’s 63 in dog years). 
I find it ironic that my dog, my pain-in-the-butt, afraid-of-the-furnace, compulsive-couch-licker, barks-at-such-a-high-pitch-it-makes-ears-bleed dog is in perfect health, yet his very-sweet, lets-Chuck-sleep-in-bed-with-her, gives-Chuck-good-dog-bones, dries-Chuck-off-when-he-comes-in-from-the-rain owner is not. I am so far from remarkable. 
