Tomorrow Blades of Glory comes out. I. am. so. PSYCHED!

Labels: movies

Nate just ran in and out from his parents to go to a read-through for a show he may be in. I hugged him goodbye and he turned to leave when I felt a strange stinging yank from my gut. Before I realized what was happening I YELLED, partially because it hurt and partially to get him to stop walking, as every step he took increased the pain and fear. He had somehow looped his arm through my tubing and was now dashing out the door with my in hot pursuit. He gave me a startled "WHAT??"

"You just ripped Sheldon out of me!" I yelled back.
"I'm sorry! It's not like I did it on purpose! Don't be mad at me for that!"
"I'm not mad, it just hurt!"

We then realized that we were in "LOUD NOISES!!!!!" territory and took deep breaths and inspected the damage. There was none, thankfully. We laughed and he continued on his way.

Now I'm sitting here still trying to get my heart to stop pounding, wondering what our neighbors think of us. This all happened right in front of our open apartment door. Sweet.

Labels: diabetes, funny, pump, stories

I was grocery shopping tonight and noticed a peculiar product on the shelf. Skippy Carb Options Peanut Butter. I know that low-carb works, but for crissakes! Peanut butter was INVENTED to provide a high-protein food to patients with digestive issues! I've sort of backed off on my criticisms of the low-carb craze but this is kisy too insane to let pass.

Oh, and if you were wondering, here's how it stacks up:

Regular Skippy peanut butter contains 5g "net carbs" per 2 TBSP serving.
Carb Options Skippy has 3g "net carbs" per ... well, I don't know what the serving is, because the internets won't tell me.

What a dirty trick!

Labels: food, why?

The biggest cab company, Yellow Cab (just dial 7 sixes!) uses natural gas Honda Civics and, mor recently, Civic Hybrid cabs. Nice to see them driving around.

Labels: environment, hartford

I was SO happy when we moved to WH and didn't have to deal with Hartford's oppressive trash regime anymore. WH was all like "No barrel? No problem!" Any trash that didn't fit in the barrel we could just put on the curb as-is. We could have as many barrels as we wanted. Boxes could just be flattened and stacked at the curb. Now, we're going to be going automated with city-provided barrels come fall. At our apartment in Hartford, there was one barrel for the whole house, which was us and our landlords. Sometimes, it was enough room. Sometimes we had to hold trash back until the next week, which was no fun in a small apartment. Now it seems like we'll get get one barrel per unit which will be better. However, said barrels will be delivered by the end of August but e're not allowed to use them until at least October 1. Where are we supposed to put these things??

Oh, and West Hartford DPW would like you to know that the barrels are NOT bear proof.

Labels: home, whiney

WHY in 2007 are CDs so hard to open? I mean, are both the shrink wrap AND the seal really necessary? If so, how about making the seal from something that peels off in, say, two pieces instead of 143 individual ones that you find stuck to your clothing and couch for weeks?

All that aside, I am thrilled to have Jesse Malin's latest, Glitter in the Gutter in my hands. It's just finished importing so I'm having my first listen right now. Already I can say that I am very excited for "Happy Ever After (since you're in love 2007)" because I love love love "Since You're In Love" off his previous album, The Heat. I'm also excited to hear the song Eric played for me with guest vocalist The Boss himself, "Broken Radio."

Just hearing his voice again is giving me chills! I'm surprised I didn't spontaneously combust when I heard him and Springsteen doing a song together. Let's hope I don't this time either.

Labels: music, whiney, why?

Meet Sheldon.

Today was the big day-- pump day! Mine is the clear one. I'm going to get some cool skins for him to give him some personality. Yes, I did name my pump.

The set-up went fairly quickly because I had reviewed so much in advance. However, I was there awhile because I just love talking to my NP. I'm so lucky in that I love all of my doctors. It's kind of weird to be attached to an appliance, but i am looking forward to just having to push a few buttons for dinner, and to not have to give a 10pm shot. I am not, however, looking forward to the 12am-3am-6am blood sugars. Ladies, if I'm a little groggy tomorrow, you'll know why.

It's funny how geeked out I am about this new toy, even though it's really a medical appliance. My blood glucose meter communicates via radiofrequency with the pump so when I test my blood, it immediately shows up on the pump for me to make a decision about! Cool!

The infusion part didn't hurt at all. I was kind of scared but I've been through far worse. The trainer seemed impressed with my enthusiasm and lack of fear. I didn't even want to do a "trial" round with saline, just jumped right in with insulin.

I've only had it on for about 4 hours and already I feel a whole lot better than I have in a very very long time. Whee!

Labels: diabetes, health, pump

But I am the most Irish, always.

The parade was postponed to next Saturday, so I'm thinkin we'll go down there then. I wasn't really feeling it this weekend, but next weekend sounds good to me. We celebrated the big holiday, and our 6-month wedding anniversary, with a nice Italian dinner at Piccolo Arancio in Farmington. Mmmmm ... tasty filet mignon. No corned beef and cabbage for me, blech! We also ran some domestic errands yesterday, getting blinds for the living room and groceries. After we unearthed the car, of course. we got out pretty easily but I managed to get stuck trying to get back into our driveway after grocery shopping.

Today I have been fully domestic, having cleaned both the bathroom and the kitchen. They're the grossest places to clean, in my neurotic mind, but the easiest because everything has a place to go. Now I'm taking a well-deserved break. Just me, the couch, the computer, and the sounds of snowblowers. Oh, and a couple of coconut creme Hershey's kisses, because I'm hooked. It's my reward.

Labels: holidays, home, weekend

Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes.

A lot, let me tell you. I've just been feeling anti-social, even online. I guess I talk to much to so many people all day, that the thought of typing it all out is exhausting.

I do like TV, though, and this has been a good week. Lost was awesome. One of my favorite episodes this season. I don't know if everyone's seen it so I'll just leave it at that. Grey's was good tonight, too, even though I hate Izzy. I wish she'd get a spin-off just so I wouldn't have to see her anymore. The last scene was pretty funny, though. Then we watched the premiere of October Road, which was pretty good. It was weird, though, because it's one of those "coming of age" shows but it shows my time. It starts out in 1997 and flashes forward 10 years later to now. I have a hard time thinking of 1997 as 10 years ago. I still think it's 1999 sometimes, which it clearly isn't because I would still be in high school and I have definitely changed since then.

I don't know, that show has me all foggy and nostalgic in the head. The setting reminds me a bit of my hometown, I guess.

I do not want this snow tomorrow! It made me feel crappy and achy and my head was pounding all day. Plus it's supposed to be spring! How am I supposed to enjoy my holiday in the snow?

Labels: tv, weather, whiney

I will never run out of heart-related subject lines as long as I stick to song lyrics!

The specialist did not feel that my racing heart was a cause for concern. This may sound like good news but it doesn’t sit right with me. The doctor was very nice, and I’m sure very intelligent, but I’m not sure that he was really listening or thinking about what he was presented with. For one, he openly said that he didn’t know much about diabetes beyond what he learned in med school. That’s not unsurprising as I’m sure it’s rather difficult to find a doctor with two specialties but it still made me scratch my head a bit that he knew so little.

The other thing was that his reasoning for taking a “wait and see” approach was that we don’t know how long this has been going on, that it could have been going on my whole life and, if so, that means that this is just status quo for my body. Well, first of all, no other doctor has noticed this before. If my current doctors are so concerned and the nurses that do my vitals are shocked at my pulse rate, I’m guessing that it’s a new thing. The other thing is that in high school part of the phys ed requirement was to wear a heart monitor and walk/jog/run around the track. We were graded based on the percentage of time we were in target exercising heart range. For me, that would be about 100-150. If this problem were happening then, I could have gotten an A+ in gym class by napping through it!

I have a call into my regular cardiologist to see about getting a second opinion. As scary as the procedure I linked to earlier this week sounds, if it means not being at substantial risk of a heart attack 15-20 years down the road, I’d rather have it taken care of now.

I've gotten an overwhelming response from my family (hi guys!) offering everything from finding me specialists to taking me to them to giving me the money if it's not covered by insurance. I'm getting all teary just thinking about it. It's been a long, hard road and it's not over yet, but with everyone around me, I'll only be able to come out ahead in the end.

Labels: family, health

You can thank Amanda for the subject line suggestion! If it wasn't abvious, this is another heart-related update.

I spoke to my cardiologist today about my Holter results and he said that, while my heart’s natural peak-and-valley rhythm is normal, I’m at least 10-20 beats above a normal rate. For instance, when we sleep, our heart rate slows down considerably. Mine does that, but even then it’s still running at a fast rate.

So, the cardiologist has referred me to a subspecialty of cardiology, an electrophysiologist. I have a consult tomorrow morning with him where I will find out more, but this is the procedure I will likely need to have done.

So, what are the risks of leaving this untreated? Well, over time, it could lead to weakened heart muscles and all the problems associated with that. What causes this? Probably, like everything else, the diabetes. After having it for 15 years, it takes its toll on every system. In this case, it seems to have rearranged my nervous system a bit. How can this be treated? A few ways. One is medication. However, that is not an option for me as such medications also lower blood pressure and I, anomaly that I am, have low blood pressure already! So, the other option is an electric impulse to shock my heart back into a normal rhythm and rate. But, that’s all down the road a bit. First step is seeing what this guy has to say.

Now I'm settled in, watching Gilmore Girls. It's ... okay. I didn't have high hopes for this one because it's one of the CW's "theme" episodes.

Labels: health

Well, last weekend was a bit bumpy what with all the time traveling. You see, my friend Nicki and I went back a couple hundred years and met Ben Franklin. I'm serious! Look!



Well, okay, maybe not. We actually went up to Boston to visit her. Here's (most of) the motley crew in the Quincy Market area. It was cold.



Here are the girls worshipping at the statue of the Goddess Nicki, inventor of time, the wheel, and the internet. Pretty lifelike, huh?



We had a really fun day just hanging out. There were even banana margaritas, which, shortly after our honeymoon, I declared to be the best drink in all the land.

After Boston, my week was devoted to (guess what!) more doctors. 3 days of laser treatments on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with a trip to the endo wedged in on Tuesday. It all turned out to be good news, though, because a) my pump is on its way! Yay! I also became sort of a self-study for the endo because I was having weird blood sugar reactions to a med that should not have had any impact on my blood sugar. I have (sort of) figured out the mystery, though, after a few nights of testing my blood at 3am. I can't wait to share with the NP over at my endo. Also, b), well, the eye stuff I mentioned above.

That brings us to this weekend. We woke up Saturday and Nate wanted to "do something." We tossed around a few ideas, but eventually decided to head to Mystic Aquarium. It was damp when we left Hartford, and half the ride down was spent warily eyeing the scattered drops that bounced off the windshield. Happily, it cleared up and actually got sunny! We made some new friends, too.

This is me looking at the belugas. Well, I was, until Nate said "Hey, look over here!"



Here I am with the Great Guin (points to whomever gets the reference). We obviously met some real penguins, but the great and powerful photographer is not yet satisfied with their color levels.



I got a little more up close and personal with the baby in the statue.



This is Kodiak, the 9-year-old, 1600 lb Stellar Sea Lion. He's quite the ham! We were really taken with him and his posing and his bellowing. He eats 80lbs of fish a day! That will eventually get him up to his projected body weight of 2500 lbs. I'll have to post more pics that show off his magnificent size later on.



We had a fun, unusual day. Not bad for sponteneity! We weren't the only ones with such an idea. As we were browsing the gift shop, someone called my name and I looked up to see our landlord and his wife and their new baby! It was really random that we both wound up there on a blustery winter day.

Tomorrow is back to work. So far no doctor appointments, though I know that will change.

Labels: eyes, friends, health, pictures, weekend

I'm running out of eye-related subject lines. Anyone have any suggestions?

Anyway.

I had my 7th overall laser treatment today, and my third this week. There's good news and not-as-good. The awesome news is that she's done all she can for my right eye at this time! She actually ended the session, which is a first. Usually I cry uncle. The not-so-good news is that there is still more to go, it's just unreachable right now because of the blood. She also said that I'll only need one treatment for next week to do some touch-ups.

So while it's not over yet, I will get some sort of break for a bit. I'll take what I can get! I just wish it didn't hurt so much in the aftermath.

Is it strange that I'll miss talking to her a bit? She's smart and interesting. However, she also said that I can listen to my iPod when I'm on the machine. I can't believe it never occurred to me before. I think I'm going to load a podcast or audiobook for next week and give it a shot.

Labels: diabetes, eyes