A visit to my future

I've been thinking lately about how I've changed. Where I was 5 or ten years ago, where I am now... and where I'll be in another 5 or 10 years.

Tonight I stumbled upon an old post of mine on Tudiabetes, where I said:

Ever heard of an older diabetic with complications saying they wished they'd look after themselves better? I've seen that a lot. I'd like to be the one that says 'I'm glad I looked after myself' while I'm sitting out on my rocking chair, enjoying the sun on my feet, on my 99th birthday.

I never once heard a diabetic say "I wish I let it all go and didn't worry about complications, carbs are better than keeping my feet/kidneys/eyes"

I'd love to think that I will be sitting out in the sun on my 99th birthday, having done a good job of looking after myself, and surviving with all my body intact. I'm still in one piece so far. Only another 66 years to go! I'll report back then!

What I'm wondering now is, what kind of life will there be in 66 years?
In 10 years, even?
What's happening with the price of gas, and the gas putting up the price of food and other things?
How is this going to affect our futures?
Will we, as diabetics, be damaged by all this?

In these circles (diabetes blogs & forums that I follow) I haven't seen any mention of what's happening to the world at the moment, and what's going to happen. The whole Peak Oil thing. Are you familiar with the idea? Putting it simply in my own words: We all need to re-learn those old-fashioned ideas - become more self sufficient, grow our own vegetables, learn a survival craft and live off goods from our own communities, etc, because the lack of available oil and the sheer price of what we have left is going to make even the basics hard to afford, if we can get them at all.

It's depressing, really, but it seems to be a plain fact. Unless someone comes up with a really great replacement for oil - one that not only can run vehicles of all shapes & sizes but can also be used in all the other ways oil & petroleum are used, then we're a fair bit stuffed.

Who'd have known we rely on oil for so much in our every day lives? I didn't. What I don't know is how this will effect me as a diabetic. Will my insulin double in price since it has to travel from another country? Same with my test strips / meter / glucagon / pens & needles? I might be safe from this regardless, seeing as the government pay for my medical supplies (ah, how I love New Zealand). But I may not be.

What if the world went truly belly-up? What if I couldn't get insulin at all? What if only the strong will survive? I'd be pooped. However, this is extreme thinking and I don't believe this is going to happen - it's just a paranoid thought. I'd be one of the fastest to fall off the planet if it ever came down to survival of the fittest.

So I'm putting this out there and wondering what you all think. Are you aware of 'Peak Oil'? Where do you see yourself in 5 years - and have you considered the lack of gas, the price of gas, the availability of all things that aren't made locally, and the outrageous prices we might see in anything that needs to travel to get to you? Do you worry about the availability of your insulin and other things necessary to our survival?

I don't plan to spend the rest of my days worrying, (hell no - live for today!) but I do think it's worthwhile considering options and perhaps stocking up a little, just in case. If I'm prepared, then I have little to fret over.

Then again, knowing me (Procrastination is my middle name) I wont do much about this until it's a little too late.
*sigh*

nom nom nom

If I ever get a pump
...which is really very unlikely...
I shall name it:
COOKIE MONSTER.
And it will certainly help me eat lots of cookies :D

Seems to me one of the hardest things about getting a pump is finding a good name! So I'm half way there.
Now to come up with many thousands of dollars to actually buy the thing.
Hmmmph.

Bath time for kitties

The kittens are nearly 6 months old and still totally adorable.
And still here!
I don't have the heart to give any of them away. So we're still a 6 cat family. Which I really do love, right up until it's time to buy the cat food - oh how my wallet complains. Next week Noodle (mum cat) and the three kittens are going to the vets for (da da da DAAA) the snip. *cringe*

Here are the twins showing some sibling love :)

I don't think I'd have ever done that for MY sister.

I can BREATHE!

I've dabbled in going gluten-free for quite some time. I know I needed to get serious about it - gluten has obviously slowed me down for years. Nothing major though, otherwise I would have done this properly a long time ago!

It's been obvious to me for a while now that eating foods that contain gluten leaves me with stuffed up sinuses. However, I knew I could get away with a little bit, so my diet was adjusted slightly - limited gluten. Just one piece of bread a day, and maybe some baking or whatever if I felt like it. I also didn't care about the little things - like malt added to stuff, or anything that had wheat as an afterthought.

4 days now I've gone without any obvious gluten at all. NO bread, no baking, nothing that contains anything other than a trace of the stuff. I've even bought a gluten-free bread to have with my new gluten-free marmite and baked a great (if I do say so myself) GF chocolate cake (my own recipe, and I'm very proud *puffs out chest*) and finally found GF cereal that I can crunch up for making my chocolate afghan biscuits. *drool*I so should have done this a long time ago! I can breathe! My sinuses are so clear it's fantastic. And I feel more awake, which is a real surprise seeing as I've had hardly any sleep all week (and urr, it's 3:29am, guess I'm not getting much sleep tonight either). I'm full of energy, I can think better, I just feel... light. Light and free.

Who'd have thunk it?

Well, me, actually, coz I've known I've needed this for years. Funny how we come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid things ("I can start this properly next week", "Gluten doesn't *really* effect me, it's all in my head", "I'm ok so long as I limit it", "this gluten-free thing is just a silly fad", etc)

Sure it's a bummer being gluten intolerant - but as usual, that's nothing compared to going on for years never knowing what the problem is.

And all this in only 4 gluten-free days. Fan-bloomin-tastic :)

Purrrrrfect

I get up in the morning to find the dishes done.
He's quiet, he's polite, and he's offering to keep an eye on kiddo if I want to go out.
He's planning to move the rest of the firewood this weekend.
He takes off his shoes at the door and walks quietly
He's glad that we recycle and compost and he wants to help in the garden.
No wacky-backy or alcohol!

I've found the perfect boarder.

...it only took three months! *gasp*

Three months of advertising, living on almost nothing, freaking out at any wastage lest we can't afford the basics next week, stressing over the idea that we'd have to move if no one turned up, meeting some odd potential boarders (and hating turning them down, scared I wouldn't find anyone better).

WOOHOOO! It's over!

I haven't even told him about my diabetes yet - which I really must do, in case something goes stupidly wrong. To date I've never had a big bad hypo, or any hypo that I couldn't control, but I hate to assume it'll always be that way. So, I'll have to spit it out eventually. (If he hasn't already noticed the insulin & glucagon in the fridge!)

I've never had a problem telling people about diabetes (well, those who need to know and are likely to understand). But it was only a few weeks ago that I had another guy lined up to be our boarder. This one was only *slightly* weird compared to the others (and even that was only because he wore a bright and holey hand-knitted jumper and looked like he hadn't combed his hair in a week or so)... so I said yes. He was keen - very keen, he loved the room! I was so relieved that it would all be over.

We sat and discussed dates and all the fiddly little details. We even discussed my diabetes and my son's ADHD... which I had no problem with, but apparently he did. I sent him a txt the next day. He replied that he was no longer interested.

Totally his problem if he has an issue with diabetes or ADHD. I know that. But it didn't stop me feeling a little wound up for a few days.

Speaking of purrrrrfect... check out how much my babies have grown up. 4 months old now! They've grown so much

Taco (look at those eyes!)

Rigatoni (begging for a belly rub)

Pumpkin (loves to steal my hot water bottle as soon as I put it down)

A packet of barbecue flavoured rice crackers.

Me. A cold night. A game of Spira-Defense. A packet of barbecue flavoured rice crackers.
A high carb snack - yes, but since I'm only having a few, and it adds up to less than 20g carb, I'm not bothered.
Lets see... 21g carb per serving, 4 servings in a pack, so if I have less than a quarter of a pack I'm having less than 21g carb, right?
In which case, the 3u I take to cover it should be just a little bit too much, especially as I started at 5.3 (nice!), right?

Sooooo why is it that I end up over 10mmol a couple of hours after eating these, having already taken a 1u correction dose?

You'd think - well ok, I'd think - that eating so little carb, and overdoing the insulin (even if it is only by about half a unit) and starting at a great place, AND jabbing early to give the insulin a head start - that's about perfect, isn't it? Should end up on the low side and then - yay - I could enjoy 1 or 2 squares of yummy caramello chocolate before bed.

But alas... no choccy for me tonight. (Everybody say awww)

So, does the packet lie?
Are rice cracker carbs different to other carbs (!)
Did I get my dose wrong, run out of insulin in the pen, inject an air bubble, or maybe miss my leg and inject my chair?!?! Nope.

When something so simple goes wrong once I can understand it - there's always a reason, even if I don't know what it is - no worries, move along, fuhgeddaboutit. But when the same thing happens with the same snack two nights in a row there's something weird going on. I have learnt already that rice crackers are pretty evil to my blood sugars, but surely they can't be THAT evil? The only other explanation I can think of is that the packet is lying about how much carb is involved. But then, it admits to being 84% carb and you really can't get much higher than that without eating pure sugar. Even if it was a little bit higher, the difference would be small when it came to my dosing, especially when eating such a small amount.

So this leaves me confused... here I am trying to be a good girl and have *ahem* healthier snacks (as in gluten free, not low carb, obviously) and it just aint working. I think I'll go back to nuts & apples... and chocolate ;)

Does anyone else have trouble with rice crackers? Or is there some other food that gets you confuzzled?

Reason number 157 NOT to do the housework:

The washing basket is needed for more important things.

A good find, and a favour to ask you...

Have you ever had an insulin pen that STINKS? Stale horrible old insulin - phhoooeey! Well my favourite pen, my Novopen demi, somehow got itself into that state even though it's my newest pen - probably only about a year old - and even though I cleaned it fairly regularly. (Twice a year is regular! It might not be often enough, but it sure is regular! Yes I know I said I've only owned it a year. So I've cleaned it twice. Tell me you've cleaned yours more, go on, lie to me!).

*ahem*

A few months ago I started pulling it apart to clean it every few days, I just couldn't get rid of that pong.

I soaked it in dishwashing liquid, I sat it in boiling hot water, I left it all sitting open for days with no cartridge in it in the hope that fresh air would help. I stared at it and willed it to de-stink itself, but nothing worked.

So I started using my old novopen (not a demi) and ohh it was nice to be away from that horrid stink, but I very much missed my half units and soon learnt that for me good control NEEDS half units. And so I had to go back to stinky-pen. Ugh.

It almost smelled fresh again by the time I put a new insulin cartridge in - but right when I thought things were going good I made the move of putting my nose right up to the lid. PHHHHOOARR! *holds nose*. This will never do!

So I got desperate. When I couldn't find the email for my diabetes ed nurse (to beg for a new pen), I thought I may as well try everything I can think of. I was about to try soaking it in bleach, spraying it with kitchen cleaner, burying it in the sand or whatever other plan I could invent.

But then I found The Answer: Simple-as. Soak it in hot water with a little white vinegar added.

Simple things are always the best :) For a few hours I had a pen with a whiff of vinegar, but that faded fast. And now I have a fresh smelling, fresh looking, fresh feeling (Ohh, there's a commercial in that lol) Demi pen. YAY. I can go back to being embarrassed of injecting holes in myself in front of people, instead of being embarrassed of the smell that wafts out when I pull that little beasty out of my portable pancreas.

Such a small thing, but such a big sigh of relief!


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And on another note... I have a favour to ask of the diabetes O.C:

*flutters eyelashes*

Now, Darrrrlinks, could you possibly, please, perhaps, have a look at all the links you have going on the sides of your blogs or blog roll pages, and kill off some dead ones / update the changed ones?

Coz M here is a chronic blog surfer and loves to just go through from one blog to the next using another person's links. But as time passes it's getting harder & harder to do because there are so many messages that say "this blog page doesn't exist" and so many sites that haven't had a fresh post since February 1912... I keep hitting dead ends!

*pulls the puppy dog eyed begging look*

Please, favourite bloggers in the whole wide world, could you do that for me?

*big cheesy grin* I'll luv ya forever-n-ever, really :D

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On yet another note - I owe you all a post on the failure that was my Diabetes Education dinner in honour of Type 1 diabetes day. I *tried* to raise my voice. But... Ears have to be turned on for that to work with any success. *sigh*. More on that some other day when I'm over the emotional side of it! (It seems that 2 weeks is NOT enough time to lose the disgust you have for your own family's lack of interest & knowledge).

Hurumph.
.