the lecture.

today i had a doctor's appointment. it's a nice day, everyone i'd seen in the office was polite, etc, yay happy times.

until ... the lecture.

her: [with my chart on the computer in front of her] do you smoke?
me: no.
her: and i hope that you don't drink. [stares at me]
me: rarely.
her: [SIGHS] with your diabet-us.  (oh you knew she was going to say it wrong, just to irk me.) drinking isn't really good with the diabet-us.
me: are you lecturing me?
her: no, i'm not lecturing. i'm just saying, because i care. i have a friend who has diabet-us and she has a pump too. and i can tell when she hasn't been taking care of herself because [waves her hands around] she gets all loopy and confused and i have to get her a coke.
me: i am healthy, thanks. and that's not 'not taking care of yourself' that sounds like having low blood sugar.
her: well she had an episode when she had been drinking once.
me: oh. that's not good.

uhhhh, i'm sorry, what is an 'episode'? sigh.

so i let it go. the conversation continues about how often i exercise, i tell her that i go to bootcamp and what it is.

her: oh, i know what bootcamp is. i did it ONCE.
me: oh yeah? i love it!
her: i didn't. i thought i was going to die.
me: oh i thought that at first too, but it got easier.
her: the bad thing was, my friend was the teacher. and every time i complained about something, she'd say, in front of the class, 'i bet it wouldn't be so bad if you didn't smoke a cigarette on your way here.'

...so let me get this straight. you're lecturing me about drinking RARELY and you're a smoker?

continuing on to questions about emergency contacts, mine is my mom. and i AM NOT EVEN KIDDING or exaggerating ...

her: and what does your mom have to say about you drinking as a diabetic?

i'm gonna give you minute to let that soak in. what does MY MOM think? folks, i'm gonna be 29 next week. and mom, i love you, but i know that you would tell her the same thing i told her. you guys, i tried to stay nice. but i kind of lost it on that one.

me: she doesn't have anything to say because i am an adult and i know how to take care of myself.
her: [trying to laugh it off] ohhh you know i'm not lecturing you, heh heh.
me: [NOT LAUGHING] um, do you smoke?
her: oh yeah, like a freight train.
me: well i'm not lecturing you about smoking, and i'm certainly not trying to get you to quit, so i GUESS we'll call it even.
her: [silence.]

so the standard procedures follow, and when she walks me to the exam room she says 'okay, no more lectures for the day!'  i had no response.

right. sorry lady, i don't think you're funny. and i'm 100% positive you're not a doctor, nor are you my endocrinologist who knows how often i drink and doesn't have a problem with it. so my suggestion is, next time, don't make judgements about people you know nothing about and a disease you CLEARLY know nothing about, and keep your comments to yourself.

happy birthday wilford

yes. i'm aware i'm not doing wordless wednesday. i am shocked as well.


yesterday my sister informed me that it was wilford brimley's birthday ... to be precise:

now, i feel as though some of you may not know why we find wilford to be so humorous, which is a sad thing. allow me to enlighten you.

it really doesn't take much to figure it out. you've seen the bushy mustache. maybe you've seen the pictures comparing his likeness to a dr. seuss character. or to an angry cat. or pops from the muppet show. or the walrus from alice in wonderland. if you haven't, do yourself a favor. google it (or click on those links...).

also, you may or may not be aware of the way he pronounces diabetes. those of us who say it every day, and the majority of the health care world pronounce it correctly: 'dye-uh-bee-tees.' there are a few others who choose to pronounce it 'dye-uh-bee-tis.' i don't know why. i don't know where it came from. personally, i can't STAND that pronunciation. i like my dia-beet to have 'ees' on the end.

i hope that you have seen the lovely liberty medical commercials. if you haven't, go to youtube. you'll find them. and you'll find many mixes of wilford saying dye-uh-bee-tis. to music even! there are quite a few re-mixes of the commercial. did you know you could remix a commercial? true story.

wilford checks his blood sugar. and he checks it often. and he eats oatmeal. (seriously, if you don't know what i'm talking about - YOUTUBE.)

so mr. brimley, i hope you had an awesome birthday. it's good to see a person with diabetes celebrating their 77th birthday!

and for those who haven't heard, yes, my JDRF walk team is named 'what would wilford brimley do?' - credit to my friend who is a fellow PWD. (and if you'd like to donate, send me a message and i'll get you the link! thank you for that donation plug.)

feast your eyes on this:

(that is DESIGNED BY ME. and if you take it from my blog and try to use it as your own, you won't be happy. kthanksbye.)

you're welcome.

friday fun :)

if you've ever talked with anyone in the DOC, you know that conversations about unicorns come up sometimes ... well, yesterday i remembered that i'd never shared the picture from when i was a unicorn for halloween (in first grade.) here she is, in all her glory: 

ohhh, awesome.

you know what's awesome?

when you stop at the gas station on the way to work, and while you're there, you pick up a delicious breakfast bar. and you forget that you fell asleep last night and forgot to change your insulin before bed, even though you reminded yourself to do it because you were running low and you woke up to the annoying loud video-game-like beeps from the pump ... and that your blood sugar is over 300 so you can't eat the delicious breakfast bar.

yet.

[almost] wordless wednesday

happy birthday dad! 

little things

after crappy high blood sugar day yesterday (not just for me):

i started today at 86. :) much better. little things make me happy.

like the old man who told me this morning that my sweater is pretty. thank you! :)

confessions of a diabetic

i feel like we all have our secrets. when it comes to diabetes, i don't have many. i am pretty open about it. i don't always eat perfectly, i let myself have sweets, i don't count carbs exactly every time i bolus.

but the 'big one,' the one i'm not proud of ... i don't check my blood sugar as often as i should on the weekends. how crappy does that sound? i think it's because my routine is ...well, i don't really have a routine. during the week, i check my blood sugar at all the same times. the weekends are always different. it's so irresponsible of me. and embarrassing.

so why am i telling my invisible internet friends and tens of blog readers? hopefully it'll help me get my shit together. i know it's stupid, i know it makes no sense ... so i need to lock it up and get it together. i have no excuses.

15 minutes

i think my 15 minutes of fame are almost up.

after a magazine photo shoot for work, a picture in my high school magazine, filming a commercial for my company, and now being talked about on the radio?  i'll take my bow.

when i got to bootcamp last night, the owner asked if i heard him talk about me on the radio. i knew he'd been doing some segments on a local radio show, but i'd only heard one. i racked my brain, thinking i had tuned out and didn't hear him talking about it.

turns out it was an episode i hadn't heard ... he was talking about disease management, diet and exercise. he said he didn't use my name, but talked about me and another diabetic who goes to the same gym.

so i listened, he was informative as always ... the only thing i caught (which no one else would notice or know) is he said my insulin needs are the lowest they've ever been as a result of bootcamp ... hmm. well, they haven't increased, and working out more makes me want to eat better, so i guess technically i am using less insulin. win/win!

if you are so inclined, you can listen here.

also, HAPPY WEEKEND!!

[almost] wordless wednesday: wedding weekend recap

old friends

new friends

fun for all

a gorgeous bride

a studly groom

a lovely wedding

cupcake converse

bad ass

and a tour of DC

no one told us THE REFLECTION POOL IS GONE.

amazing [long] weekend.

this past weekend, i was in annapolis for one of my closest friend's wedding. it was an amazing trip full of laughing, crying, laughing until crying, joking, meeting new friends, seeing old friends ... an awesome blend of everything.

i'll give a more detailed recap later, but just one highlight that made me laugh ... on sunday, the wedding party went to tour DC, and i posted the picture below on facebook.

a friend commented 'checking your blood sugar?' i laughed so hard. :) i love friends who 'get' diabetes humor.