To puke or not to puke, that is the question.

Sooo, I got a phone call today from one of the nurses at UIC and was asked if I'd speak at the Chicago Diabetes Project's dinner on Monday.

Of course, I said yes, but usually when I'm in front of a crowd, the crowd consists of kids age five to ten, and I'm making balloons animals.

So yeah, I'm already nervous.

I think I'm going to puke

or cry.

probably cry, cause damn, I'm like that.

*sigh*

Long Time No See

I can't believe it's been over two months since I've posted. Yikes! Time flies when you're uber busy with, um, stuff.

In August my A1c was back down to 6.0, exercising has paid off. Big surprise eh? Yeah, the hard part was finding a form of exercise I really enjoyed cause I've always been the "running is for when scary people chase you" kind of gal.

That being said, I discovered skating and I've become a tad obsessed. Now when I say skating I don't mean the Dorothy Hamil kind or even the skateboarding kind, which I do enjoy, I mean the put on some quad skates, a short skirt, a bad attitude, and knock your fellow roller girl over kind of skating. Yep, I joined my local roller derby and I think I'm in love. ;)

Skating on an almost daily basis however has done some weird things to my blood sugars. I've started having random lows in the range of 50-70 about once a week and I have to stop to eat after skating an hour or so to refuel or I definitely feel low. Power bars and Taco Bell have become my best friends.

My shoulder is still screwed up, it's not as painful but I still don't have full range of motion. I have an appointment with an orthopedic doc in a couple of weeks. Hopefully he'll have something new to suggest. If not I guess I'll have to try PT for the third time. Or I could just ignore it and hope it goes away. I'm sure the latter would not be approved by Dr. Transplant and the folks at UIC. ;)

and speaking of approval, I haven't mentioned the whole Roller Derby thing to them so, yeah, shhh! cause exercise, good, track rash from not so sanitary track floor, not so good.

In other news

October 11, I'll be in Chicago for "dinner and dialogue" with the folks at the Chicago Diabetes Project. I'm looking forward to it. In addition to being able to meet my fellow islet transplant recipients, and learning something new about the whole process, I'll also be able to talk to the research scientists that make it all possible. That, to me, is the best part cause how do you say thank you for something like that? For the most part they're behind the scenes and don't get to see the results of their efforts. Hopefully being there to say thank you in person will make things more tangible.

what I'd like to do is line them all up and hug the shit out of 'em.

woot!

yay scientists!

and I'm off

cause I'm late and there's a pair of skates and wood floor nearby that have my name on them....

Transplant Games

The 2010 U.S Transplant Games begin July 30. Check it out!



So the picture is cut in half. click on the video to go to youtube and see the whole thing. :)

Electrolytes anyone?

So Monday I went to work and at said fine fine establishment there is what I affectionately call "The SmellyZone". Its an area of the building close enough to dumpsters that in the hot summer reeks like, for lack of a better way to describe it, hot diapers and decay. It's just that lovely. Any way, I had the joy of working in the SmellyZone on Monday. It was not fun. Immunosupression drugs seem to make me uber sensitive to smells. Said smells tend ot make me nauseous. You see where I"m going with this?

yeah. I was pretty crabby by the end of the day.

So, my work day over, I went about my usual after work type of business and around 5pm passed out on the couch in a well deserved nap and woke up about 30 minutes later in excruciating pain when every muscle in my toes, foot calf, ham strings and butt cheek decided to spasm. After what was probably the longest 3 minutes of my summer, I finally got my partners attention and she stuck a bottle of Gatorade in my face and my muscles relaxed enough that I could move.

Gatorade seemed to have fixed things but that night i had cramping again. In the morning I talked my transplant coordinator about it and after having some blood work done discovered my thyroid levels are too high and magnesium and sodium levels too low.

Today, after a day of magnesium supplements, I feel like a new woman. No muscle aches, no joint pain, no nausea.

It's amazing what a little salt lick will do for you.

As for my thyroid levels, meds can easily be adjusted.

Moral of my story?

It's summer time. if you have diabetes or spend a lot of time in the heat keep hydrated, but not only that keep salted.

Trust me on this one.

You'll be glad you did.

On the Islet front.

My trip to Chicago for the most part went well. My islet cells are still producing huge amounts of insulin while by blood sugars are running a little higher then they should. Why I'm having issues with insulin resistance is a puzzle since I'm not over weight and didn't have resistance before my transplant. The game plan now is to increase aerobic exercise in order to increase insulin receptors in my muscles.

I have since started walking minimum of 3 miles a day and I'm seeing some results already in my fasting blood sugars. Now we just need my post meal numbers to start coming down a little faster!

While in Chicago I had a test called CIMT done. CIMT is an ultrasound of the walls of the carotid (neck) arteries, the thickness of which can be reflective of the health of coronary (heart) arteries. I also accidentally had C-reactive protein (a marker for heart disease) tested instead of c-peptides. Both the carotid artery u/s and c-reactive protein results were excellent. Which makes me happy since I've had diabetes for 30 years, been on cholesterol lowering meds for 20, and both of my parents had heart disease at a young age.

Kinda makes me feel like I'm doing something right. It's either my snack obsession with popcorn or celery. I can't think of anything else I do all that consistently, but eat those. ;)

I'm guessing its the celery.

or else the popcorn.

It is a whole grain after all...



Green Bean. Caught in the midst of mischief. Naughty bird likes wires.

Chicago Marathon 2010

The Chicago Marathon is sold out, however if you'd still like to run, you can join CellmatesOnTheRun, and help support diabetes research at the same time.

You can find registration info here.

I'm heading to Chicago Sunday for a 3 month follow up appointment with the islet cell transplant team as UIC. I'll be having two more metabolic tests done. The first an IV glucose tolerance test and the second a glucagon stimulation test. Both will give the research team a better idea of how my islets are functioning. I'll finally be able to talk to them about the results of the metabolic tests I had done in April.

Hopefully this next set of tests will be better then the April's. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me and I'll let you know what they say.

btw. June's donation goes to the American Cancer Societies Relay For Life.