A short appointment recap

Ok...quick post to update on my endo appointment.

1. I have high chlosterol...Yes, at 22 it's high. Significantly high. I have 3 months to get it down or I'm on my way to another pill to take in the morning. I was sorta depressed about the whole thing, as it's something else to worry about, but the changes I need to make will be better for my overall health, so I'm willing to make them. (Hopefully, I might be able to lose the 5 pounds I've been talking about losing--in time for Spring Break 2k7 in Panama City

2. On a very happy note....my A1c was a 6.8!!! The lowest it's ever been! I'm super stoked and am now working on keeping it down.

Alright, I'm at the boyfriend's house so I have to run, but in case I forget to post on Monday, MERRY CHRISTMAS BLOGOSPHERE!!!

Thanks for inspiring me!

Home for the Holidays

Yay! I'm home for Christmas and have been having a great time since I got home on Thursday. On Friday night, I went out with my boyfriend and his roommate and we had a great time partying in the city. Drank alittle too much, but my blood sugars were pretty good throughout the night.

I've finished most of my Christmas shopping and am working on a scrapbook (I used to work at a scrapbook store in high school and during breaks before I got my internship last summer...Yes, I sold stickers for a living and it was awesome) for my boyfriend's family. Their dog Oreo passed away a couple of weeks ago and the bf decided that a scrapbook with photos of the family and their pets would be perfect. He bought the supplies. I'm doing the labor.

Endo appointment on Thursday so that should be interesting...Will post more then.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Almost there

Well, I got my naturalistic analysis paper done last night and it's all turned in. I only have one more exam left tomorrow, then I'm leaving straight from campus to head 2 hours north to my house for 3 weeks. I cannot wait to be home celebrating the holiday with my family and to finally be done with final exams! Tonight, my roomies that are still here and I are going to hang out and watch ELF, one of my favorite Christmas movies! We've been planning hanging out all week since everyone's schedule is sooo messed up with exams and review sessions and studying.

I also have an endo appointment while I'm home, along with a check up with my regular doctor to make sure I'm all healthy before I come back here for my LAST SEMESTER! I've had a couple of highs lately (some of them due to my pump- one night last week the battery died- even though I had put a new one in just a few days before and I was super high when I finally woke up from the alarm). I also have some questions in terms of long term care and insurance stuff (since when I graduate, I'll lose the benefit of my parents AWESOME insurance). I know my A1C is probably going to be higher than I would like, so I hope I can keep good records this week and take about it with the endo next Thursday since I'm terrible at keeping a log book.

Alright, have to get back to packing up stuff to bring home. Clothes, shoes, Christmas presents that I bought at school, planner, meds, and all the diabetes junk...Blah.

All I want for Christmas is to be done with my exams...

This has been such an awesome weekend. Our cocktail party went really great on Friday. Nothing like 35 of your closests friends, great food, and amazing drinks. I think my roomies and I would have impressed all of our moms :o) We had a ton of people come in from out of town so it was great to see old friends.

My boyfriend and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary today. It was nice to finally be together on the actual day, since normally in the past it's fallen during exam week for both of us. We went out to dinner with friends from out of town last night and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vaction, which is one of my favorite movies EVER. Rent it if you haven't seen it. It'll crack you up! He left to go back home today, but I'll see him on Thursday or Friday once I get home.

Alright, well back to the massive amounts of studying I have. Can't wait to be for Christmas Break in 5 days. It's so close...only 4 written exams, a massive paper, and packing before I can leave!

Hump Day

Thank goodness today is Wednesday. In one week, I will be (almost) done with school...i.e. my Naturalistic Paper will be turned in and almost all of my exams will be over. I seriously can't wait. I am ready for a break from everything and to not have a ton of work to do. I need to start working on job stuff which is stressful and am going to hopefully start looking around for places to apply.

But until next Wednesday, I have a ton of stuff to do. My body obviously knows this and is giving me a hard time (lows two nights in a row, making me feel like garbage and tired for the next day). I had one of those "Damn you 'betes, Damn you" days yesterday. A low in the middle of the day left me feeling overwhelmingly crummy. I've been testing a ton today to prevent any more of those.

Things to get done (in the next 3 days)
1. Health Care Portrayl Analysis Paper (on Grey's Anatomy)
2. More work on my Naturalistic Analysis paper
3. Planning/shopping/cleaning for our cocktail party on Friday
4. Studying for my first 2 exams (Monday morning)

Must. go. do. work.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Allison. She was a getting ready for her senior year in high school, seemingly in love with a very cute boy, working at her first job, and living her life to its fullest. She had been tired and worn out for a few months, drinking gallons of water on a daily basis, and having more muscle cramps then she had ever had before. Allison was thinning like the hair on a middle aged man and her mother began to think her little girl was anorexic, even though she was packing her a lunch double the size of many of the kids at Allison's high school.

In June, Allison went to Hersey Park for the day, and instead of riding roller coasters like her little sister and dad, Allison sat on a bench, weak from what she thought had been an intense kickboxing class. She drank more that day then she ever had before and she had to pee the entire ride home to Northern VA.

The next week, Allison had to go to the doctor to get her allergy medication refilled. She told the run-of-the-mill doctor she had been thirsty, emotional, losing weight, and feeling exhausted. He told her it was probably in her head. Allison peed in a cup, just for good measure. She drove home with her mom, who fixed her a grilled cheese sandwich. Allison sat in front of the television, watching As the World Turns, enjoying her day off.

The phone rang and her mom answered. She told Allison that the doctor called.

600s. Hurry and get here for more tests. Emergency room. Stop eating. The words blurred together as her mom threw the clothes in the suitcase. Bring an overnight bag. Make arrangements for several days. Tests. Pokes. Insulin. Don't eat or drink. Call the boyfriend. Pick up the sister. Go to Walter Reed. Allison has diabetes.

Allison wondered as she sat there what would happen. Would her life change? Would she ever be like she was? Would she...die?

Allison recieved the best care, education, and support she could have gotten. She left the hospital with her syringes, newly formed calluses on her hands, more literature then she might have imagined, and an NPH and Regular insulin regimen. 3 weeks later she went to Humalog and Lantus.

Allison still is in love with that very cute boy, who stayed by her side through all sorts of diabetes ordeals. She still is living her life to its fullest, but now she is almost done with college, wears a purple insulin pump, and she carb counts. She's become an outspoken advocate for diabetes, educating people that the face of diabetes isn't always the face of your grandparent. She's told many a faculty that she isn't wearing an iPod on her hip all the time. She's apologized for the inconvenience of her medical device, but never for who she is.

Her life has changed. She never will be like she once was. But the experiences have shaped her into who she is today.

The end of the semester craziness

Monday starts my last week of class of the fall semester of my SENIOR year. Only one more semester to go and I'm starting to be very excited that I'm almost done.

The stress of the end of the semester is something that I dread. This week alone I had 2 events for the organization that I'm in charge (a restaurant night at this cute little place downtown that has amazing Greek American food and a blood drive), a test, a literature review due, and a paper due for my film class. None of which I started or thought about during my week at home. Nevertheless, everything got done (the film paper was pretty shitty...Did anyone else think the movie Lost in Translation was a waste of time???).

On the agenda for next week:
1. Reading material that will be on finals
2. Finishing my naturalistic anaylsis research paper (the bain of my existence, atleast on this list)
3. Health Portrayl anayslis paper
4. Holiday Cocktail Party that my roommates and I are hosting (it's Friday night and will be super fab, except for the fact 35 people are coming and I have no idea how we're going to feed them all)

So, it's going to be a busy one.

On the diabetes front, numbers have been fab for the past week. Of course, it couldn't be like that at home when I have my parents worrying. Met someone yesterday whose little brother has Type 1 and totally shot the shit about all things diabetes related. He's the philanthropy chair for this fraternity and their phil. happens to be JDRF. He's also the SGA president of our university so it was a pretty cool convo.

Hope that you all survived Thanksgiving and are counting down the days to whatever December holiday you celebrate!

A

I am...

-home in Northern Virginia for Thanksgiving
- supposed to be in class
- currently skipping Communication in Pop Culture and Film to 1960
- going out for drinks with friends from high school tonight and am sort of nervous about seeing them
- spending the day with my sister and my boyfriend tomorrow
- going out of town (to NC) on Thursday to see my grandparents and extended family (yeaaahhh....) - thankful for my family, friends, and boyfriend
- not excited about going back to school next week and running two huge events, taking an exam, and having a paper due
- happy that I decided to start a blog and wish I would have earlier
- wishing that my blood sugar didn't go crazy when I was home, leading my parents to believe that it's crazy all the time Happy Tuesday, Allison

Procrastinating is not good...

I was reading some old emails and realized I had one of these things from back in the day and decided that even with the abundance of work I have, I can procrasinate just a bit more.

1. Do you still have tonsils? Yes. They are large and when I'm sick I wish that I had a snoring problem like my little sister and could have them removed.

2. Would you bungee jump? Yes, I plan on doing it on Spring Break this year while I'm in Panama City.

3. If You Could Do Anything In The World For A Living What Would It Be? Something that would make a difference. I would love to be able to do programming or event planning for an organization that works in some way with diabetes

4. How many tattoos do you have? None. I have the perfect design and am waiting until a few weeks before graduation to get it done.

5. Your favorite fictional animal? Hmmm...probably the dogs from 101 Dalmatians. Pongo and Purdy.

6. One person that never fails to make you laugh? My younger sister.

7. Do you consider yourself well organized? I try hard, but normally end up misplacing something.

8. Any Addictions? Checking my email and maybe Diet Coke?

9. From what news source do you receive the bulk of your news? CNN is my homepage :o)

10. Would you rather go to a carnival or circus? Carnival...Quality food there.

11. When you were twelve years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher or a cook.

12. Best Movie You've Seen This Year? The Prestige. It totally rocked. And Christian Bale is pretty ridiculously good looking.

13.Favorite alcoholic drink. Gin and Diet Sprite.

14. Siblings? Younger sister. She's awesome.

15. What is the best thing about your job? Which one? I love my campus job because I get to find out all the things going on on my campus. Over the summer, I got up to speed on all things diabetes and loved that!

these questions were boring...

18. If you could have one super power what would it be? Super speed- be anywhere really fast!

19. Do you own any furniture from Ikea? Yes, I love that place.

20. Have you ever gone camping? Once, I hated it.

21. Gas prices! First thought? Ummm...could be lower?

22. Your favorite cartoon character? Olive Oyl from Popeye.

23. What was your first car? My neon.

24. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual? No, I love the idea.

25. The Cosby Show or the Simpsons? Cosby, mos def.

26. Do you go to church? When I'm home, not while I'm at school.

27. What famous person would you like to have dinner with? ummm...toughy. Probably Oprah.

28. What errand/chore do you despise? Chore- taking out the trash.

29. First thought when the alarm went off this morning. I should not stay up watching the Tyra Banks show.

30. Last time you puked from drinking? 2 years ago. A night of "jungle juice"= a morning of pain.

31. What is your heritage? Welsh, English, and German

32. Favorite flower? Gerber Daisies

33. Disney or Warner Bros? I went to Disney World for the very 1st time with my bf for Spring Break last year and LOVED IT! Disney all the way!

34. What is your best childhood memory? Riding bikes with my friends in Ohio.

Random posts make me smile

Whoa...so I woke up this morning to a pretty sore shoulder. I mean, enough that I had to take some Mortin and slide my backpack ever so gently over my little bump where Fierce Nurse decided to stick me. Damn those nurses at my school and their hasty flu jab. (I'm not calling it a shot anymore, it was violent and hurt so I'm now deeming them "flu jabs". Feel free to circulate the term among your friends. It's not copyrighted.)



In other news, had a low today. I had just gotten out of my film class and was on the phone with my mom and was getting ready to walk home. I started to feel slightly annoyed (which pretty much never happens when I'm on the phone with my mom :o)) and luckily, I was right by a building with ample vending machines. Got myself some delicious Skittles, parked myself on a bench, and low and behold (no pun intended) I was 56. Good thing I had decided to not attempt by .5 mile trek home (I joked with my roomies that they would have driven passed and been like "Hey, that girl laying there looks sorta like my roommate..."). Refueled and rechecked and made it home, safe and sound.

Oh and since I just found out, Happy World Diabetes Day to everyone. Seriously, we need to be able to get updates on our pumps about stuff like this. (Anyone feel like investing some money and putting a pager in a pump that would connect you to the diabetes news of the world? I'm a poor college kid, so I would need an investor)

Have a great night, Allison

The flu shot

So, I just got a flu shot on campus from the health center. This year, they had a flu shot clinic and I feel like everyone on campus was there to get theirs! I stood in line (it was kind of cattle-like), filled out my paperwork, and then was ushered over to a nurse who told me I could stand or sit (ummm...all I could think was if she jabbed me hard enough my knees would buckle, I would fall to the floor, and pass out) and then waited for me to pull my coat off. I took a seat (with the rest of the line looking at me...the pressure of not looking like a baby considering the tubing hanging from my stomach and the assumption that I am not in any way afraid of needles) and the nurse cleaned the area and was explaining that it would be a quick pinch when she stuck me. Not gently, with some force that kinda made me wanna throw up. I then had to stand up and pull my coat and bookbag on and head to work, all the while thinking "Geez, I'm alittle weak..."

Oh well, hopefully this will be the worst part of my week! Home to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday-ness with my family on SATURDAY!

Busy week

Man, this week has been busy. We had another event for the organization that I am the ED for on Wednesday. Of course, I came home that night late and changed my site, and went low at 4:30 am. When I go low in the middle of the night, I feel like I really don't sleep at all and wake up in the morning feeling awful because of the juice and fruit snack (and cookie...damn my roommates for leaving stuff on the counter that I gobble up in the middle of the night when I'm too low to know any better) that I ate. Err...damn the 'betes.

Oh, just got an email! I got accepted into this class on campus that publishes this health newsletter that is displayed on the doors of the bathrooms around campus (they hang on the coat hangers :o)) called Potty Mouth. The newsletter always has random facts (p.s. I an obessessed with knowing random stuff. When I was in Disney World over Spring Break my favorite It'll be a great research class and will give me the chance to do alittle more writing. So excited I had to share!

This week I also started thinking more about jobs...probably the worst part of being a senior. I had an internship in the healthcare field over the summer that I loved. My position gave me the opportunity to research about diabetes and I really feel like I want to do something in my life that involves this diabetes in some way. So, I've begun doing more research and I'm hoping to start applying at places over Winter Break. If you hear of anything in the DC area, holla at me!

Alright, enough for now. Hopefully this weekend proves to be a bit exciting.

:o) A

A perfect morning

On Saturday, my younger sister and I walked in the National ADA America's Walk for Diabetes in DC. I was home for the weekend and went to meet up with some "diabetes friends". It was the first walk I had been to and it was amazing! The day was perfect, chilly and sunny, and the stroll around the Capitol Building made me happy to be amongst people that share the same struggles. Everyone seemed really excited to be there and to be together. My sister signed the banner "I walked for my sister" and started to get teary eyed as we headed to the National Gallery of Art after the walk. I asked what was the matter and all she said was "Man, that was cool." Feeling amazing that I had participated in something that was just alittle bit bigger than myself, we headed off to the museum with the sounds of laughing, music, and "Mom, I'm not even low" behind us...

Stress and the betes

This past week was an awful week for the 'betes and me. As the Executive Director for the organization on my college campus and as a student, I live with stress. It's with me constantly and most of the time I do a great job managing it. But this week, we had a huge event for my org and I was super stressed. On Monday night/Tuesday morning I went to check the BG before bed and to my surprise I was 31. Eekkk. What was scary was that I didn't feel anywhere near 31. I checked again for good measure and I was 26. SCARY. Ok, glucose tabs and OJ. I felt more panicked after knowing. After 30 minutes, 2 more glasses of juice, and about a dozen tests, I was 100. Then off to bed.

I was 237 in the morning (gotta love that rebound). And was up and down until my event was over late Wednesday night.

The goal for this week is better control.

Say a prayer for me!

:o) Allison

That alarm

So yesterday I had my very first embarassing pump experience: I had noticed that my low battery alarm kept coming on, but figured my battery would last until the end of the day. Oh I was wrong. I'm in my first class- Intro to Health Com- and I start hearing this blaring beep which progressively gets louder. I'm like "please idiot, turn off your cell" but then I realize "it's me!" I scramble to get the battery out, only make more noise in my class of 45 people during a lecture. The professor finally looks annoyed and says "WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TURN OFF THEIR PHONE!" and I stand up, apologize, and run out of the room. I go out into the hall and get the battery out, try and calm myself down. Luckily, this is one of my professors who knows about my diabetes, so when I reenter the room, she gives me a simpathetic look. I sit through the next 45 minutes of my class and try and relax and listen, only wondering how high my blood sugar will be when I finally get a new battery in my pump (of course I don't have any in my backpack). After class, I apologize to the professor who looks at me and apologizes for embarassing me in front of the class. She says if she ever hears the noise again, she won't yell :o) I would appreciate that. I explain that when you depend on alittle device to help you, you have to remember it is a machine.



I have a presentation in that class on Friday. On diabetes.

1st post

After being a lurker for several months now, I've decided to start my own blog. Here I plan on posting ramblings about my senior year of college, my amazing friends, the awesome organizations I am involved in, and my diabetes. I've been so inspired by other blogs I've read, I thought it would be fun to write as well.

Happy Reading, Allison