My house is a zoo!

We have three cats - big Bub, medium sized Minxie, and our little girl Noodle. For those who don't remember every word I've posted here (ahem), Noodle was a stray - a sick little girl who started visiting us a long time ago and then moved in earlier this year.

Cute or what? My three babies - Minx on the left, then Bub sleeping as usual in a weird position, and Noodle

We took this bedraggled looking girl to the vet and discovered she was about a decade older than we thought, had cancer, and probably wouldn't hang on more than a couple of months. Heart-breaking :( But we were glad to have her and give her a good home. She was so energetic and so loving :)

A few months later, we had this healthy looking girl with a wonderful shiny coat, still all bouncy and playful, still very loving, and still with cancerous looking growths but showing no sign of slowing down. The vet called her our miracle cat.


Fast forward to today... another vet visit, and now it seems she's actually YOUNGER than we thought, Never had cancer in the first place (but still something that brings on bad swelling around her tongue/throat), and.... *drum roll* she's pregnant.

OMG I'm going to be a 'Nana'!!

This was not a shock, because I saw her flirting with Mac (My son's name for this wandering male cat - he was 'MC' for Mystery Cat, then became Mac for short). I assumed that Noodle had had 'the chop'. But then I was told that female cats who've had 'the chop' aren't interested in flirting with the male sluts and rolling around in the hay.
And then I saw the bulge growing around her belly.
And growing some more.
And then I looked up cat pregnancies on the net and realised there's only a 9 week gestation.
And then I freaked out and called the vet.
But now I'm a happy girl... because now we not only get lots of babies, but we've also discovered she's quite healthy enough to have them, and isn't threatening to leave this world any time soon.

I HAVE NO IDEA what to do with kittens! I've never had a cat who was able to have babies before. I'm nervous, but also very excited. The hard part is going to be passing some of those kitties off to other people... I just know I'm going to fall in love with every one of them and not want to pass them on!

Any advice re kittens, or helping Noodle through her pregnancy (or how to keep myself sane) would be gratefully appreciated!

Woot! Kitties! How adorable!

2-3 weeks to go. Gorgeous kitty photos to come :)

P'ram Beach sunset part 2

Can I only have 4 pics per post?? I can't seem to get any more in... so here are the two others I wanted to share:
Ahhh I love this place :)

And here's a little video of the seagulls

"Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine..."
You've seen Finding Nemo, right?

Paraparaumu Beach... and why I love it.

Nature put on quite a show for us tonight...

One cheeky looking Seagull (Trunkles is looking for a caption for this pic over on his blog)
Click to enlarge...

And one STUNNING sunset:

Christmas Madness

1. Wrapping or gift bags? Wrapping paper. More fun ripping into it... or carefully peeling it off if it's something cool. To be honest, I think BOTH are a waste of money and filling up the earth with unnecessary rubbish! But I guess I have to have a balance between Christmas spirit and my urge to look after the planet - so wrapping paper it is, and lots of recycling afterwards.

2. Real or artificial tree? Oh man I soooo love real trees! We don't get them any more - my son gets asthma and I get headaches & sinus trouble. Pffft. So now we have a fake tree (which I have to admit, is SO much tidier).

3. When do you put up the tree? As late as I possibly can. Some time after the 12th, ish. We put it up earlier this year because my friend was over from Australia (around the 8th I think) but normally I'd wait.

4. When do you take the tree down? When I finally get sick of having a darker dining room - it blocks the windows. Sometime soon after New Year.

5. Do you like eggnog? I have no idea - it's not a common thing in this country (New Zealand).

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I really don't recall!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, and I never will. I do have a blow up Santa and two bright orange blow up reindeer though. (hehehe! Thankfully they're just small!)

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm I don't know... I seem to get pretty good stuff.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? I gave up sending cards. I'll still make sure I make contact with everyone - an email, a phone call, whatever - but cards suck up so much time and money and just end up in the bin. Maybe I'm a scrooge, but I haven't missed doing them - I do kinda miss getting them, though!

10. Favorite Christmas Movie? Oh no, I'm really showing my scrooge bits now - I tend to dislike Christmas movies... they have the ability to be so tacky.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Any time during the year if I see something that someone would like - otherwise, I aim for the end of November, but actually get things done somewhere around the 20th of December. Which happens to be today - and I hope I'm finished with it all because I so hate being in the malls when they're overcrowded and full of stressed people!

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mum's gluten free Christmas cake is delicious... chocolate santas, roast dinner - geez, all the Christmas fare is pretty good :)

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear on the tree, surrounded by lots of nice little shiny decorations. (However, I happen to have coloured lights on the tree this year because our white ones were going cock-eyed). I like the coloured ones around the house. We bought three new sets this year - which takes our total up to about 12, which starts putting me in the 'crazy about Christmas lights' category, I think.

14. Favorite Christmas song? I grew up on Jim Reeve's Christmas Album - so that's the one that means it's really Christmas. However, I've heard it a few times every year for 32 years - so it has a good Christmas feeling to it, but it's also getting rather repetitive :P

This is the weirdest one, and I like it, but I wont call it my favourite!


15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? On Christmas day we sort of travel, but it's only an hour's drive to get to Mum's for Christmas Dinner. (Hey that's a long drive to us Kiwis!). We don't go on holiday around Christmas time because it's just too crowded everywhere, and the traffic jams etc are worth avoiding! Instead, because we're homeschooling, we can travel any time of the year we like. I think next year we'll be going to Auckland again, because our friend is moving up there.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I can if I get a little help from the Interweb ;)

17. Angel on the tree top or a star? We actually have a blank spot on the top of our tree. Sad eh? We used to have an angel - made from a Ken doll (as in Barbie & Ken). The poor guy lost his legs in a bath incident years ago, and then was subjected to wearing a frilly white dress with angel wings. It's ok, his friends don't see ;)

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? Christmas morning for sure!

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The stress that Christmas seems to bring to people. Everyone's just that little bit more touchy, worried about getting shopping done or planning a holiday... where's the Christmas buzz?

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Nope - just lights & decorations of any kind, whatever my son and I feel like doing at the time.

21. What do you leave for Santa? Whatever we think he'll want. Normally a fizzy drink (only half, because Santa wont have time for a full drink) and something my son has baked. This year it's going to be Mellow Yellow - the coolest fizzy drink around - and probably an afghan biscuit.

22. Least favorite holiday song? Let me think about this one for a while...

23. Favorite ornament? None. Just the Christmas lights - they're the best :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I've gone belly-up and had a belly-full.

I'm writing this from inside Adobe Contribute. Just a trial run :) Not sure why people create programs to write blogs when it's so easy to do them online, but I'm about to find out!

I'm such a geek.

Anyways, this all started because I was filling in my (scary) BG numbers for last week and found a 'contribute to blog' button in excel. It was easier to play around in my blog than to actually look at my BG results for the week, so denial won the battle today and here I am playing :D

*sigh* It's been a bouncy few weeks (shocking for me, anyway, as I normally have very tight control).

Lets hope things look much better in the next couple of weeks as I finally get the correct Lantus dose, which has eluded me ever since I gave up the Metformin aaaaaages ago.

And, at the same time, I really must concentrate on eating a bit better... uhh, except perhaps for Christmas day :D Bad diet and uncontrollable numbers do SO go hand in hand, no matter how clever you are with Diabetes.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I better start getting in some exercise. Sheesh, when did my control go belly-up? It all snuck up on me.

SO, onward & upward. I wont stress too much about my shocking range, speedily rising highs and shameful waking numbers... I'll just move on and get rid of them :D (She says, with as much positive thinking as she can muster, and an energetic smile)

2007 12 10

###

Scary, I'm actually willing to leave this file here and let the world see it. Until I chicken out and delete it later, of course ;)

It doesn't look THAT different to my normal results... but I know a lot of effort went in to keeping those results from being MUCH worse. And look at all those numbers in the teens! ARGH!

Edited to add: HAH! The file doesn't seem to be there, just some place marker. Well, just imagine some wiggly lines that go way out of the normal range at crazy times ;)

Eh won see

The results are in... my A1c is 6.2 - again.
Not as low as I'd have liked, but darnit, I WILL hit the 5s, or at least a 6.0, SOON. Determination has to mean something, doesn't it?!

Here's what some of my a1c results look like over the last few years - I'm pretty happy hanging around the low 6 area, I guess. But wouldn't a 5 be like a big fat pat on the back for all the hard work I've put into this?

That's 'some' of my a1c results because I had them more often around the time I was diagnosed - Monthly to start with - but my nurse wouldn't / couldn't give me those results when I asked for them. I know there's at least one over 9 in there somewhere from when they were treating me as a type 2... but I'm actually quite happy to forget about that!

One unit

I'm amazed at the difference one measly unit can make.
It can be the difference between a low and a high Blood sugar reading.
It can be the difference between a happy day and a grumpy one.
And just lately, it's the difference between a horrible night's sleep and a good one!

Recently I took myself off Metformin. I'd been taking it on and off for years - from the days when I was mis-diagnosed as a type two, and then as a booster when I couldn't lose weight. I'm not sure why I stayed on it - I didn't lose an ounce, it had no effect at all - and yet the docs wanted me to stay on it. What use is that?

When I went on the Met I needed to drop my basal by one unit each injection (twice a day for that lovely smooth basal...), and I dropped the Novorapid a little too. It just makes sense that I'd need to put them up again once I stopped Met, right?

Wrong, apparently!

The Lantus went up, the NR was increased just a teensy weensy bit for any meal with a decent amount of carbs involved. My BGs were looking SO good. Really really beautiful numbers (Can blood sugar readings be beautiful?!). My pre-bed numbers looked gorgeous. My post meal numbers were to die for. I could eat anything and get away with it. I could even have a very small snack without injecting. Highs were rare. It was as if my pancreas has suddenly started working just a little bit...

But DUH. Think about it, M. It was overkill, that's what it was. The Lantus was too much. I was on an all day drop. To some degree this worked for me - it was nice to have the knowledge that I was always in a good BG range, and it was nice to be able to nibble something without jabbing once in a while. I could handle the odd low - it meant I could have munchies! But what about the night time?

NOT good. I was waking up around 8 - 9 mmol a few times a week. Other days I would definitely be higher than when I went to bed. I was happy assuming that this was some form of Dawn Phenomenon that I wasn't used to, something that the Metformin had worked on for me that I now had to deal with myself.


After a few weeks of this I was actually beginning to look forward to my a1c (which I took yesterday). But I was feeling so trashed. Sleep was an issue - I wanted too much of it! I felt unrested. I never remembered any dreams which is odd for me. I'd fall asleep with the lamp on and some nights I'd even left the electric blanket on. Eep. And I was getting up far too late - a day feels so wasted when you're not ready to face it until lunch time.

It turns out that one unit makes a BIG difference. In hindsight, I can see that it was too much Lantus. I was actually going low overnight, and then my liver (all praise the wonderful liver) was rescuing me. This led to an uncomfortable nights sleep, which made me even more tired the next day, which led to me being too sleepy to wake up for the next nights low, which led to more of the same.

Which in turn makes me FREAK OUT. I was going low every night. EVERY night. How low? I'll never know. I can't help but question it. What if I hadn't woken?

I'm just glad I didn't go on like that for too long.

And as stupid as it is, I'm glad I did my a1c at a time when I'm almost guaranteed to get a good result. The result will also verify my theory of these overnight lows. I can't see that my problems could be anything else when I look at the evidence. I'll know soon... the countdown for another a1c result is on. I'll report in a few days :)

It's been two days now since I dropped the Lantus. I feel SO GOOD! I slept well last night, I woke up feeling good - I actually woke up feeling like I was going low, I was 4.2 - not low yet but heading there - so the Lantus changes still need another day to kick in, but at least it was a morning low not an overnighter. I can deal to it with breakfast - perfect.

Ah, I feel Dumb for missing this for weeks - but I feel GOOD that I've got it sorted :)
We never do stop learning, do we?

Short & sweet - well, not so short - and sugar-free sweet, of course.

Hello world :)

I've come to realise that the less I think about diabetes, the better I do. I'm much less stressed about it when I spend less time on the forums, less time on here writing about it, and less time freaking about numbers.

That doesn't mean I'm giving up on forums or my blog - it just means I'm enjoying a bit of peace for a while :)

Things are going well - I seem to have pretty good numbers all round at the moment. I'm due for an A1c this week - well, whenever I get my A into G and take the card to the blood-drainers. I'm still hoping for a result in the 5s - and I think if I'd have gone a couple of weeks ago I may have got that, but I've been making changes the last couple of weeks that might have stuffed it up.

Ever since I heard that the last few weeks make a big impact on your a1c (I guess the most recent bits are the strongest?? or most numerous??) I've noticed that I have bigger swings and higher highs when I'm due to get tested! How typical is that.

I've been dabbling in all things spiritual - not religion as most of you would know it, but researching psychic abilities, mediumship, etc. And wow have I learnt a lot. I guess it's something a lot of you wouldn't agree with, so I wont go on :) But it's been a very educational move for me and I may have more to share at a later date.

My cats are still totally gorgeous and have me thoroughly wrapped around their cute little paws :) Little Noodle (the old 'lady' with throat cancer) is still a healthy looking kitten to look at. Even though her body is going through so much, she's the one with all the energy. The one who will eat anything, even though she has no teeth. And the one who makes a mess of the floor because anything she sees needs to be thrown around the room and chased! She's also the only cat we have who loves to be picked up and cuddled. She'll even let us walk around with her - the other two freak if you even *think* about picking them up.

I love my babies very much :)

Minx and Bub

Noodle

The car is still great - though it's spent most of its time covered in sand & salt! The weather around here has been wild on and off lately. Very windy, as it often is with the move into spring. As we only live one street back from the beach, we end up with a lot of salt & sand all over the house & cars (and everything). We hadn't had much rain either, so it sat there clogging everything up and making all the windows look sooo grubby. No big deal - it all clears up in the rain, but it's a shame to have a nice new car I'm proud of that looks like shit lol

Nothing else to report - life is good!

Gosh this reads more like a letter than my typical blog post... but that's what came out of my writing (typing) fingers today :)

All the best to all of you :)
x x x
M