Trying new things for dinner

So tonight I made Pistachio crusted pork chops with homemade pasta and a Mustard Tarragon cream sauce. I am always looking for new ways to cook food and getting my kids to try some thing different. Being diabetic makes it a little harder as I need to watch the crabs I eat.
One thing I have found is that regular pasta does not react with me the way it does for most diabetics. Normally you can only have about 1 cup of pasta, but for me I can eat a huge pate full and still have my blood sugars in range. Any other diabetic would be sky high. Now they make a pasta for diabetic called "Dream Fields". They say it's not something for those who are not diabetic to really eat a lot of, but it the carbs in it work differently and a diabetic can eat more of it. I found out that for it does not work. If I eat just a 1/4 of a cup of this pasta it send my blood sugars sky high.
I know, it is very strange. I like to think that it's my Italian blood that is say "Are you kidding me!!! No respectful Italian would eat that stuff." But seriously, I have no clue as to why Dream Fields pasta does the opposite with me, but I am glad it does. I did not like the taste of it at all. It was kind of pastie.
Anyways, last night I made Beef kabobs with couscous salad, cucumber yogurt, and hummus. I actually had about 2 cups of the couscous and I used Naan instead of pitas. I cut them into wedges. I had about 4 of those. My blood sugar after dinner was 113, which is great.
I don't always eat like I should (the type of foods), so I have trying to be better and eat more of the food I should be eating or trying to find a way to lower the carbs. I really wish my kitchen was a restaurants kitchen, fully stocked all the time and all the cooking equipment too, oh and lets not forget someone to clean up all my messes, lol. I think I would be in heaven.
Well it is time to change the ol' pod (insulin pod). Til next time.

Birthday Party

So today we are going to a birthday party for one of the kids who came to Sofie's party. I enjoy being around the people and love the food. We were suppose to go swimming today, but it's raining out. So a no go on swimming. I got my stitches out yesterday, ouch! It's nice being able to move my thumb like normal again. If I did not mention it before, I had trigger thumb. Last June I started to get a dull pain at the bottom of right thumb. I hate going to the Dr's so I put it off, thinking maybe I just pulled a muscle. Well it did not get better. I was laying Sofie down one night and laid her down wrong and she unbent my thumb which shot a sharp pain through it. I called the Dr the next morning. We did x-rays to rule out arthritis. Then I was sent to a hand Dr and found out I had Trigger thumb. I went last Weds for surgery to fix it. I could have done a steroid shot, but because of my diabetes, it may not have worked and I would have to wait 3-4 weeks to see if it did work. I did not want to wait, so opted for surgery. It's still a little sore, but at least I can un-bend it like before.

Well I have to go get in the shower and get ready for the party. Oh and so does little miss Sofia. Who is right now playing on the floor with little water toypedos, rubbing them in her hair. There is never a dull moment with her. I love watching her and am amazed at how smart she is. She truly lights up my life. 

I have an idea I will be working on for the Pods I wear. I have a lot of research to do on it and not sure what all I have to do. I tried to ask my son, but he tends to get anal anytime I ask him a question, like I should know all the answers to everything already so I don't have to bother him. So I guess I will be on my own for now. When I find out more, I will blog about it.


So..........
The birthday party was fun. I love the food!!! They had a whole pig, rice and beans, jicama (which I thought were potatoes with lard on it, lol but they were good), macaroni salad, a pork sandwich, cake and jello. They had 3 piñata's for the kids and some games like musical chairs for the kids and adults. Sofie was a hit, lol. All in all, it was nice to be out and around other people and I always love trying new food.

Catching up and pet peeves

I am so bad at blogging, lol. But really I get in these moods of depression and really don't want to do anything. Then there is spark that gets me so wound up that I have to get it off my chest.

So I come back to my blog to write about it. But before I do, let me do a quick catch up on things. Sofia is getting so big. I wish life had a remote control so I could pause her from growing up so fast. She is cutting about 4-8 teeth right now, she already has 7 teeth. She talks a lot and no matter where she goes people have to stop and see her and talk to her.

This was taken the other day.

So since my last post, we have finally moved. I have not been keeping up with my diabetes as well as I should be, shame on me. I just had surgery last Weds. for trigger thumb on my right hand and I get the stiches out tomorrow. Relationship wise, well that should be a blog all on it's own. Sometimes I would love to post about it on Facebook, but with him and his uncle being on my friends list, it hard to. Sometimes I think I am asking too much, but then other times, I think it's more that he wants everything without having to give up anything. I am very independent on a lot of things and I sometime expects everyone to be the same. When it comes to Daniel, it seems he has a problem saying no to everyone in HIS family, but me. Maybe that's because in the back of his mind I really am not his family. The way he is and the things he does pushes me away from him. I just want to scream at him "Tell your mom NO!!!" "Tell your family to leave you ALONE!!!!" "Tell them to do things on their OWN!!!", but he won't do it. He is so afraid of them walking out and leaving him.

Why does he feel this way, you may ask? Well his own mother walked out and left him when he was about 2 and then came back and took him from his father. She was always sending him off to stay with his grandmother and Godmother, while she did what she wanted. He sees it as her letting him visit and spend time with family, but how many moms out there would put their 5 year old child on a bus for 8 hours alone to visit family? Being a mom, I could never see myself doing this. Especially in the middle of the night. She then once again leaves him when he was 15 to come to the states with her boyfriend. She left him with no home and no money and he wonders why I don't want a thing to do with his mother and why I don't like her (besides things she has done to me personally as well).

I feel as though I am fighting with "the other woman", which in a way I am. It's like he is married to her and I am the mistress. It's really destroying our relationship and he won't see it, even when I talk to him about it. He goes on defense no matter what I say about his mother. It's like I am married to my ex all over again, except instead of it being alcohol and drugs I am pushed aside for it's his mother. All I know is that I won't stay for long in this kind of relationship. It makes me think I am much better off without any men in my life at all, because all they do is let me down and it's one more thing I don't need to stress out about. Dealing with diabetes is a lot to handle on it's own.

So on to dealing with my diabetes. I came across a blog today from a woman with type 1 and I "Hot Button" post. I so feel the same way. She was talking about how she was having a conversation with someone who asked her about diabetes and during this conversation someone nearby come over and joined in the conversation and thought to correct her on her knowledge of diabetes. Problem with this is that the person correcting her was not a doctor, nor were they a diabetic. I really hate it when people do this. I mean just because you know someone who knows someone who is diabetic, does not make you an expert now on diabetes. My own mother is a type 2 diabetic and I knew nothing about diabetes UNTIL I became diabetic myself.

I also read a post of hers about the difference between type 2 and type 1. When I tell people that I am diabetic I usually get asked, "Type 2?" A normal assumption, but not correct. When I say I am type 1, the next question is how long have I been type 1 or at what age in my childhood was I diagnosed. Most of what society knows about diabetes is so very vague. I had a woman argue with me that my Endocrinologist was wrong in diagnosing me as type 1, because you can only be type 1 if you have diabetes from childhood. This was coming from a woman who only had Gestational diabetes. It's like a woman who has only had a miscarriage early on telling a woman who is 38 weeks pregnant what child birth is like or a woman who has given birth to a child and never had a miscarriage, what it is like to have a miscarriage or even a man telling a women what child birth feels like.

So I asked my Dr and he assured me (not that I ever doubted him in the first place) that he knows what he is doing and how to test and diagnose someone as type 1. Type 1 can be distinguished from type 2 diabetes via a C-peptide assay, which measures endogenous insulin production.

Here is what I read in Daley's post about the difference between type 2 and type 1. "Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune chronic illness that is not brought on by diet or lifestyle. We have to have insulin all day everyday (because we don’t produce it anymore), and our blood sugars are affected by everything we do, not just by the food we are putting in our bodies. Type 2 Diabetes for some is caused by lifestyle and obesity (which is in the persons control) and for others age and genetics (which are not in the persons control). People with Type 2 diabetes still produce insulin; their bodies are just insulin resistant. This disease can be controlled by diet and exercise, but in cases where the disease has progressed the person may be put on oral medication and/or insulin injections."

So given the fact that my Dr did a C-peptide on me and my pancreas does not work at all, I am a type 1 diabetic.

So my pet peeve today is educate yourself before opening your mouth and thinking you know more then the person who has the disease. Also, just because someone is diabetic does not mean that can not eat sweet, or starches, we can eat them as long as we keep it in our carb range. I can not tell you how many looks I get from people judging me when they know I am a diabetic and eating some sweets.

I am off to research some more. I hope to get a blog going on low carb foods sometime in the future. So keep checking back. Oh and I will try to get back in here and post more then once every so many months. Sorry about that.

New baby

So it's been a while since I have been on here and posted. I am still learning about blogging and how to do it and everything. Plus I have to be honest, I have gotten lazy, lol. There is so many places I would like to take this blog and I just don't know how to do it, so please bare with me as I try and figure all this out.

So an update as to what is going on in life right now.


I had my baby girl on March 7th (I will post a birth story later). She is my biggest baby at 7lbs 4.5oz. I thought for sure she would come early, but nope she was too comfy where she was. After I had her, it did not seem like my blood sugars returned to normal as fast, but then again, I did not know what a normal diabetic was like. Since finding out I had diabetes, I was pregnant most of the time. The only time I was a normal diabetic was in between being pregnant and miscarring, but I kept my blood sugar levels as if I were pregnant.

I went to my Endocrinologist 2 weeks after I had Sofia just to talk about what my OmniPod meter should be set at and where my blood sugar levels need to be. I learned 2 things, one I am still on the same carb amount as when I was pregnant ( I thought it would go up some). I don't crash nearly as much anymore, but I am not as strict as I was being pregnant either. I tend to skip more meals. I am finding it hardest to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day.

One thing I would like to do is start adding some recipes. I get a cooking magazine in the mail every 2 months and they add in the nutrition information, which I love and I really love these magazines. I have been getting them since 2003. They are Cuisine at Home. What I like the most, besides the great recipes, is that there is no advertisements. It is purely recipes, tips and information. I hate cooking magazines where they have more ads then recipes and no pictures of the recipe. I love to see what I am making looks like in the end for 2 reason. One you eat with your eyes, so if it looks good then I am more willing to make it; and two I want to know that what I make looks the same. This way if I did something wrong, usually I will know by how it looks.

I am hoping to add more information on what I have learned and still learning about diabetes and provide links as well.

I hope to teach others about diabetes, eating as a diabetic and that life does go on and it can be a good life if you make it that way. Don't get me wrong, I still have days where I hate my life and hate having diabetes, but there is nothing I can do to change having daibetes. I can only change how I live with it and I try to remind myself of that when I get depressed.

So Happy living, learning and eating ;)

Had a scare today

So I thought we would go out, any where. I just wanted to get the kids out of the house for a while. So we decided to go eat and as I am driving, I started to get what I thought were braxton hicks contractions, until a few of them were a little painful and I had to breath through them. We get to the resaurant and they kind of stopped, I just felt pressure. So we eat and everything and then leave. Daniel wanted to get a new cell phone, so we headed back home to get his old one and then head to Best Buy. While driving the contractions start back up and again a few I had to breath through. We get to Best Buy and start looking at the phones, when I got a contraction that made me double over and have to hold onto the counter and breath through.

Daniel asked if I was ok and if we needed to go, I said no, I just need to go to the bathroom. So when the contraction ends I head for the bathroom, Daniel said he was coming with me. I get another contracton, but it's not painful, then right before I get to the bathroom, I get another one and I am doubled over again. I breath through it and when it finally ends I go to the bathroom. I had a couple more after that, but then I stopped.

If I had one more that doubled me over I was going to call my OB and head to the hospital. I think I have been under too much stress lately and it could be causing them. I will see how the rest of the weekend goes and call my OB on Monday to let her know what happened.

It did not help having the baby on my bladder either. I don't know why but I keep getting a feeling this baby might come early. I hope not, but we will see how it goes.

Dec 1st

Well I went to see my Endo on Nov. 19th. My A1c is still at 5.1, so we are doing good there. He was concerned with me having too many lows after fasting. He said he can handle the between 65-70, but he did not like the 50-47 ones, so he lowered my overnight doses and it does not seem to be doing much. They are mostly in the low 60's (65-60). Although this morning it was at 140, not sure if it was due to what I ate before bed, but I was at 146 1 hour after I ate a snack, so it should have been fine and I did do a correction bolus for it.

I will have to keep an eye on it.

Today I go to my high risk OB for an Echo ultrasound and see how Sofia's heart is doing. She is pretty active and man does she really love my bladder. I guess she thinks it's her own personal pillows to burel into and trampolin. All I can say is it's NOT fun for me at all.

I am 3 weeks away from hitting my 28th week of pregnacy. I know a lot of women who notice their blood sugar becoming more uncontrollable at this time, due to the placenta producing a hormone which makes our body more insulin resisant. I also know that this is around the time when the placenta could start to break down and fail.

Just when you think there is a moment of relief and you can relax, becasue you have made it through the stressful part of the risk for miscarriage and the development of the baby, now you have to worry about whether or not your placenta will be be healthy enough to make it though to the end or if it will start to die and fall apart before your close to your due date. My Age does not help much in the factor either. Even though I still feel like I am in my late 20's, I am not and my body knows it.

So onward and upward to new hights and new adventures in the world of Life with diabetes. 

Drama with supply delivery

So I used to recieve my shipment of pods, lancets, and test strips on the 13th of every month. Then it went to the 15th. I get a call on the 11th saying how Abbott the company that makes the test strips I use for my meter, is no longer going to make them. So they have to send me a new meter. Now the meter I have is like a all in one kind, where I test my BS and it communicates with my pod on the amount of insulin I should have or take.

When I put the test stip in the meter and test my blood, it will then say "Are you going to eat now?" If yes then I push the button for yes, it will then ask "How many Carbs?" So I put in the amount of carbs I will be eating and it will then suggest the amount of insulin I need, so I puck the ok button and it asks to comfirm, I push confirm and the it commuincates with my pod and says "Delivering insulin".

So now with having to use a new meter that does not commuincate with my pod, I have more steps that I have to take to get my insulin. Like I don't have enough going on in life already that I have to do for my diabetes.

So the 15th comes and goes with no delievery of my pods. I am wearing my last pod I have and it expires on the 17th at 10:22 am. Although I can wear it longer until the pod is at the end on the insulin it is holding.

So I wait and here is the 16th and still no delievery. I finally call the Omnipod company to get the number to the company that delievers my supplies. I explain to her what was going on. Now mind you, I am wearing my last pod and I am pregnant. The only other way to give myself insulin is my a suringe. Not a lot of fun and I have no clue how much to give because, I only have Novolog, which is a fast acting insulin and only should be taken when I eat. I have no long acting insulin that will help all day and all night. I have already suffered 3 miscarriages due to my blood sugar going over 200.

So the rep from OmniPod, calls the company who ships the suppiles. She comes back and tells me that they shipped it and said they tried to deliver it but no one was home, so it is sitting at the post office. She tells me to call the post office and make sure it is there and she will call me back in 10 minutes, so that if it is not there, she can see what she can do to get me some pod until my shipment comes in. So I call the post office and give them the tracking number. They can not fid it at all. The rep never called back, so I called the shipment company and explain all this to them. After about an hour on the phone with this rep, she says she will over night a new shipment and that if we find the other one to call back and so they can send me a return label and send it back.

So now the 17th rolls around and my pod starts beeping to let me know it expires at 10:22 am. So I hit the button for ok or else it will beep about every 10 minutes. The day goes by and still nothing. Oh and when I went to bring the kids to the end of the driveway at 6:55am to catch the bus for school, there is a box on front of the door. I think great my pods, nope, it was my new meter. So I wait all day and nothing, I finally call the company back and she tells me that they give the UPS until 7:00 pm and if they don't deliver to call back. This was around 5:30pm. About 15 mintues after the phone call the UPS truck shows up and I finally got my pods.

I just now got a phone call from the post office saying they found my shipment. it is 10:00 am on the 18th. 3 days after my shipment was supposed to here.

I have never had any problems with my shipments before and after this, I hope I never will again. I hate the thought of having to give myself shots and it is not fun at all, plus I only have 1 suringe, so I would have to re-use it with each shot.

Now that that drama is over with, I need to start cooking my Thanksgiving dinner as we are having it on Sunday due to Daniel's work schedule. I wish I could use my pregnacy to eat a ton of food, but the truth of it is that I don't eat as much as I used to before. So I can't use the excuse I'm eating for 2. I guess this baby does not want to be plump at birth, lol. It would be nice if she would stop using my bladder as her own personal trampoline. I feel like I need to run to the store to get a pack of Depends to wear now.