Pump it up!

In March, I had an appointment with the nurse practitioner at my endochrinology office.  I have been meeting with Amy for 4 years now and I love her to the end of the earth.  She is calm, listens, and has helped me be such a better diabetic, as strange as that sounds.  I mean first, she changed my diagnosis from a type II to a type I which altered my treatment plan dramatically all those years ago.  She and the nurses on staff got me through my pregnancy with Quinn healthy and safe and I don't know what I would do with out her.  In fact, she's a little bit older and if she were ever to retire, I just don't know what I would do.

Anyway, the last few months, being a diabetic has been pretty challenging.  My blood sugars have been out of whack, one of the insulin's I was using, Lantus, seemed to stop working and, when you are supposed to wake up with your blood sugars between 90-120 and you are in the 200's, there is a problem.

After months of thinking about it, and just not feeling well, I was ready when my March appointment came, to talk to Amy about a pump.

First, I wore a sensor for a 5 day study to see what exactly my blood sugar was doing every day.  The sensor recorded a glucose level every 5 minutes for 5 days, turned that data into charts and the short version is, I needed to be on a pump.  My body was doing something called "insulin pooling" which means that when I was taking large doses, of Lantus in particular, it was basically just hanging out in my body, my body not being able to convert the insulin into the right molecules to work.  So, even though I was shooting up 30 units of this long lasting insulin twice a day, I was maybe getting the benefit of half of those units.

Not the best thing for someone whose body cannot create it's own insulin.

I got my insulin pump, whom I've named Dieter, on April 8th.  The learning curve to getting all my insulin doses set up correctly has been a roller coaster.  It's been hard.  The first 10 days, I just wasn't getting enough insulin and I was pretty miserable.  But now, as I enter the third full week, things are going well and I'm pretty "Pumped" about the whole thing.

Last week, things got even cooler when I added a sensor to the whole set-up.  The sensor takes continuous glucose data and sends it to my pump, giving me a ball park number of where my blood sugar levels are approximately.  If I get too low, like I did at 4 am this morning, then the pump vibrates and chimes until I wake up and take care of things.  That is a lifesaver.  It means that I wake up when my number is 67 because the pump woke me up, instead of waking up on my own with my blood sugar in the 30's.

Lifesaver.

I change the sensor every 6 days.  I change the infusion site for my pump every two and a half days.  This, in exchange for 4-6 needle pokes into my arms and gut every single day - for the last 10 years.  Now, the needles for both insertion devices are pretty big - and a little intimidating at first, but I've gotten used to it and it's all good.

This July (2016) I will have been a diagnosed Diabetic for 10 years.  Ten years is a long time and if I sit down and think about the fact that I have to deal with this the rest of my life, and that it has the potential to do super rotten things to my body (eye sight, nerve damage, etc.) then it's pretty depressing and frustrating.  But, this pump may make the next 10 years a little bit easier to manage.  It doesn't fix everything, but it is, right now, making a huge difference.

13 years

Today is the wedding anniversary of Ross and Annie.
We have been married for 13 years.

A while ago, we had one of those late night, reminiscent talks, and it was concluded that I live life in two memory formats: BE and AE.

Before Elliott and After Elliott.

After Elliott, I remember a lot of stuff.  In fact, I remember most of it.  Before Elliott, I remember practically nothing and Ross has to regularly remind me of people, places, and things we did together before kids entered our lives.  I feel bad, but there isn't much I can do about it.

I do remember the day we were married, in snippets.  It was Easter weekend and the sun was shining on a beautiful Saturday morning.  It was warm and the tulips were absolutely beautiful at the temple.  I remember that after our sealing, we went out side for pictures and I had forgotten to put on my necklace so I looked a little casual for having just been married.  I remember the location of our luncheon, in a church gym by the Utah State Capitol, but nothing of the food or the things that were said.  I remember that after lunch, Ross and I headed out on our own to run some errands before meeting everyone back at the reception.  I have pictures to remind me how beautiful our wedding reception was.  My parents were generous, the location was spectacularly breathtaking, and I smiled a lot.

That's where the memory ends.  No details.  No recollection of our honeymoon, except for a few sparse details that Ross has reminded me of over the years.  No remembrance of the open house at Ross' parents house in Arizona except for a few frustrations and throwing up at the end of it with food poisoning.

Fast forward to today.  We have been married for 13 years and tomorrow embark on year 14.  To be honest, this past year has been extremely stressful.  Job, family, church, relationship, health have all gotten in the way of our path and caused some pretty big speed bumps.  Some of those bumps were that, just bumps, others felt more like pot holes that I really wasn't sure we were going to be able to pave over.  The last year has been hard.  But, we have perservered, fought our way through the muck, and have come out on top, and at least recently, have maybe been getting along better than we ever have.

Because I'm a nerd, I've spent the last year trying to come up with our "song".  Not a song that we danced to at a wedding (there was no dancing) or a song that we both really liked, but a song that, when I hear it, it reminds me of the why:  Why we try to make it work year after year.

I found the song.
Every single time I hear it, I am reminded of why we work, why we need each other, and why we keep trying.  As corny as it is, I cannot sleep when you aren't at home, and I get stressed out when you aren't close by.  We may fight like cats and dogs at times, but we work well together, have wonderful kids, respect each other, and are the best team I know.

Happy Anniversary.


You're the fire and the flood
And I'll always feel you in my blood
Everything is fine
When your head's resting next to mine
Next to mine

Since we met I feel a lightness in my step
You're miles away but I still feel you
Anywhere I go there you are
Anywhere I go there you are
Late at night when you can't fall asleep
I'll be lying right beside you counting sheep
Anywhere I go there you are
Anywhere I go there you are

AWOL

There is a lot going on.
Baseball for Wyatt 4-5 nights a week.
Soccer for Elliott two days a week.
School.
Preschool.
Filed trips.
Band.
Band concerts.
Driving to and from the elementary school 6 times a day.  Driving to and from preschool 8 times a week.
Homework. (Homework in elementary school is so dumb!)
Cub Scouts.
Mutual.
Boy Scouts and camp outs.
3 weekends of Craft Shows and Markets.
Wedding Anniversaries.
Watching Jurassic World.
Vacation planning.  (Hooray!)
Birthdays coming up.
Starting new jobs.
Trying to exercise.
Laundry.  (So much laundry)
House cleaning. (Ha!)
Insulin pumps and sensors.
Feeding hungry men and boys.

When I look at the calendar on the wall, it feels a little overwhelming at times.  Every day is busy and every night is jam packed with places we need to be.  But, somehow we manage.  All boys get to where they need to be on time, in the right clothes.  We manage to get all the homework done, the minutes mostly read, and the beds made.

Never would I have figured that we'd be this busy with a 9, 7 (almost) and 3 year old.  Time sure flies and when I relax a smidge to look at the big picture, things are pretty good.

Easter and other things....

Last weekend, Easter weekend, we celebrated a little differently.

No egg hunts or dyeing.  No fancy outfits.

Uncle Willie came to help move some furniture, and for dinner, and to build Lego Mixels.

We got ready for church early enough to take a few selfie's with Elliott's selfie stick.  Everyone wore something new, which is a first.

We enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner at my mom's and viewed some of Willie's pictures from the first area of his mission.

It was a good weekend.