D-Feast Friday Five: 23 July 2010

This is a special edition of Friday Five because Karen, Elizabeth, and Lorraine arranged for the DOC peeps to blog about their favorite foods and recipes.  I love when we help each other come up with blog ideas!  Especially ones that can be so helpful.  So for this Friday Five, I'm going to go through my favorite meals to have for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks!  Try not to drool.

1.  Breakfast--Cereal.  Doesn't matter what kind.  I love cereal!  When I was a single gal, making an elaborate dinner for one person was never fun.  So, most nights I would have cereal for dinner.  But with diabetes, my cereal choices require some thought.  First of all, the carb content needs to be conservative.  On average, most cereals are 25g carbs/serving (which is 3/4 cup), add in milk and I'm pushing 40g already.  I try to look for cereals that will keep me somewhere around 30g +/-5.  Second, the cereal has to have a significant amount of protein.  This is the hardest thing to find in a cereal, because most of the cereals in aisle #2 (aren't they all in aisle #2?!) are colorful and sugary with barely any protein.  And protein helps to keep my BG more stable, so I try to have at least 10g protein in my cereal.  Lastly, it has to taste good!  I've found some cereals that meet the carb and protein requirement, but taste like wood chips.  I can handle them for about a week before I steal a bowl of my husband's Cookie Crisps (shhh, don't tell him).  I have found one, though, that meets all this criteria:  Kashi GOLEAN Original!

 Click on picture for nutritional information. 

Even though the serving size is 1 cup, I limit it to 3/4 cup for the carb content.  I also like Kashi because their ingredients are natural (I'm pseudo-organic).  And it has a nice honey taste to it, too!  Mmmm . . . 

2.  Snack #1--Greek yogurt.  I usually have this snack after I've been at work for an hour (and after my first cup of coffee).  I first heard of diabetics eating Greek yogurt when I started twittering and wondered what all the fuss was about.  Turns out, Greek yogurt has twice the protein of regular yogurt!  I had always liked yogurt, especially as a breakfast side, but most yogurts had too much sugar that I would end up crashing before lunch.  So, I bought one Greek yogurt to try, honey and vanilla flavor.  The texture is a lot different than regular yogurt--it's thicker and gummier (sp? word?).  But I loved the taste and the reaction it had on my BGs, nice smooth line until lunch time.  But in order to get some fruit servings into my day, I like this brand.  The fruit flavors have real fruit in them, and it's all natural (yay!).  These usually have 20g carbs and 14g protein; I like when they almost match.  My favorite is strawberry:  

 3.  Lunch--This meal is tricky because I don't really have a favorite that I eat a lot.  Usually lunch is leftovers from dinner the night before or a turkey sandwich.  However, if I have the time to make it, I like to make a salad that's from the Abs Diet recipes. It is a dark, leafy green salad with almonds, sliced ham, craisins, feta cheese, 1 chopped green apple, and raspberry balsamic vinaigrette.  The almonds and sliced ham give protein while the craisins and green apple provide the carbs.  I ate this 3/5 days during the week in grad school.  I just loved the taste of it.  But I ate it so much that I got sick of it.  Now, I'll make it every once in awhile if I have time.  Lunch is usually a "whatever we have" type of meal because I'm not ravenously hungry.

4.  Snack #2--Popcorn popcorn!  Popcorn popcorn YAY!  That's what I sing on the way to the microwave.  I love popcorn.  And popcorn loves me!  The graininess (again, I'm making up words) of popcorn makes me BGs slowly digest it and keeps me stable well into the afternoon.  I could eat a full tub of popcorn everyday (and I have . . . at movies.  Trey usually says, "OK, we need 2 large popcorns.  One for everybody to share and one for Holly.  :->)  So I buy the single 100 calorie (20g carbs) pack in this delicious flavor:

Lime & Salt!  Tangy & Crunchy! =P

5.  Dinner--Say it with me, salmon caesar salad . . . salmon caesar salad.  Hard to say, a pleasure to eat.  Whenever I tell Trey we're having SCS for dinner, he looks at me with hope in his eyes and says, "Really?  Don't toy with me!"  OK, I might be overexaggerating its awesomeness, but my mouth begins watering if someone says salmon, caesar, and salad in the same sentence.  

This meal is quite involved, so let's get started, shall we?  (I feel like a should do a vlog in a cooking-show like fashion.  Where's my white coat and funny looking hat?)  We begin with roasting the salmon, which I kind of follow the directions from this dLife recipe.  It uses snapper, but I've yet to find snapper. 

First thing to do is marinate the salmon in a citrus marinade described in the recipe for about 20 minutes in the refrigerator.  Preheat the oven to 425 F.  After marinating, rub the salmon with the oil and garlic mix:

Next, place the salmon on a baking rack above a roasting pan filled with tomatoes, white wine, and water: 

Roast in the oven for one hour, flipping the fish over once: 

Finally, decorate your salad with dark, leafy greens, olives (green & black), croutons, Parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing, and of course, salmon:

My phone camera really doesn't do it justice.  It is delicious!  

There are usually no leftovers from this meal.  I don't know the exact nutrition information, but I do know that I don't bolus for this meal unless I'm high and want to take care of those croutons.  But this meal has so much protein that bolusing is unnecessary.  

Even though I only listed five things for this list, there is one more snack that I'd like to sneak in (consider this a bonus).  When I was first diagnosed, I struggled to find an ice cream that had reasonable carb and fat content because usually low carb = high fat and vice-a-versa.  I needed to find a good balance of both, then I was introduced to this ice cream (more like ice DREAM!): 

HEAVEN!

I have a feeling that today's DFeast Friday Five blog entries will make for a lot of hungry diabetics.  =P

Is this Bad?

Last night I changed my sensor site for Constance, and I decided to put the site on my arm.  Trey actually suggested this site because I was having problems keeping the stomach sites to stay on my for a full week, and he thought my arm would have less pulling on it from clothing and moving around.  I've been using my waterproof medical tape to keep a site down towards the end of its run. 

At first I was apprehensive because I wasn't sure I wanted to put my diabetes "out there" for all the world to see.  For the most part, this is an invisible disease minus the few seconds it takes to test and program my pump for my incoming carbs.  But putting the site on my arm would welcome the obvious questions like "What's that?" and "What's that for?"  I felt prepared and proud enough to explain Constance's presence.  But I also wanted it to look somewhat presentable, this sensor on my arm.  Not the case because . . .

the site was a bleeder!  

As soon as I inserted the needle I could feel the blood gushing from underneath the tape.  I wiped up the streaks (you can see in the photo) until the blood stopped.  Once it stopped, I put the transmitter back on and began the 2-hour calibration.  

I was somewhat concerned that this site might be bad.  So I tweeted the photo and asked, "Is this bad?".  I received 2 comments, one from DexcomClub and they told me as long as the bleeding stopped that it should be OK, but of course they recommend the stomach.  I'm 5'2'', so real estate on the stomach was running out.  I spent a good while last night rubbing alcohol on my stomach so it wouldn't look like a dart board with my belly button as the bulls eye.

After the calibration and the (seemingly) standard overnight "???" readings, I am once again streaming readings.  The site doesn't hurt, I even pressed on it after it stopped bleeding to make sure it didn't hurt and the bleeding had indeed stopped.  Is it weird that I just had blood gushing out of my arm and it didn't even phase me?  I was more worried that my CGM sensor would be bad that anything that could be wrong with my arm.  I guess such is life with diabetes--you get used to the sight of blood.  

Has anyone else had this experience?  I've had pump sites gush blood after I've pulled them, but none that gushed as soon as I put in the canula!  And is this just an arm thing or has this happened on a standard stomach site before?  I'm curious and perplexed at this whole situation.  

Also, since I have a nice brown blood stain on my site now, I didn't have the courage to go sleeveless today.  I'm wearing a cardigan.  :-/

First Adventure

 I originally posted the story of our honeymoon on my Facebook profile on September 7, 2008.  So this is a slightly edited version of that.  This is 2 weeks after our wedding, so the newlywedness is oozing off the page.  Enjoy! 

Definitely one to tell the kids about. I know people tell you marriage is not a destination but an adventure, but I didn't think I'd be experiencing one during our honeymoon. Our adventures ranged from being evacuated out of our first destination to watching a lady die on the interstate.

On Saturday, August 30th, we got down to Gulf Shores around 4:30 p.m. We managed to have dinner, watch the Auburn game, and eat breakfast before our realty agent called us at 9:00 a.m. the next day to tell us we needed to evacuate immediately because of Hurricane Gustav. I was totally ticked off because I didn't want to leave. I was rather looking forward to being in the middle of a Cat 3 storm during my honeymoon. So, as we were packing to leave the condo, Trey was in the kitchen packing and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I very calmly proceeded to walk across the condo, through the kitchen and living room, opened the balcony and screamed, "You suck!" to Gustav. Then, very calmly walked back to the bathroom. Trey was laughing so hard he almost cried.

We stopped for lunch at Lambert's, Home of Throwed Rolls, because no one can be in Foley, Alabama and not eat at Lambert's. Luckily, my parents only lived 2.5 hours away; however, since everyone and their Labor Day holiday dog were trying to evacuate, it took us 5 hours to get there.

Monday, Labor Day, we just hung out at my parents' house and let Gustav do his thing to the Gulf coast. We looked for condos in Panama City Beach (PCB) for the rest of the week since it is only 90 miles from my parents' house.

We left on Tuesday morning headed to PCB, and I used to go there all the time as a kid. But ever since PCB got MTVed, we stopped going. So, I haven't been there in years and it has really changed! The condo at Honeymoon Destination #2 was brand new; the complex itself was so new that they were still painting the stairs in the lobby! The weather was perfect the whole time we were there and the waves were just big enough to have fun! I couldn't ask for anything better, so perhaps it was best that we left Gulf Shores (which experienced multiple tornado warnings during Gustav, eek).

The only thing bad about PCB was for about 18 hours I experienced some stomach problems (I'm never eating oysters again, thanks for nothing SHUCKUMS!!!)

Anypoo . . .

We went to fabulous places to eat like Angelo's Steakhouse and Margaritaville and shopped at Pier Park and unfortunately had to leave Friday morning. However, the night before we left Trey surprised me with tickets to the Auburn/Southern Mississippi game!

So, we made the trip back up to my parents house where we spent one night before going to Auburn the next day. I think we repacked my car so many times we had it down to a science.

We all got up and went to Auburn for the game and I was like a kid at Disney World. I had the best time ever at a game! We had tickets 30 rows up on the 45 yard line, and Tiger flew right over our heads during the pregame festivities. It couldn't have been more perfect. Not to mention we got drenched on during the 3rd quarter; we only had 3 ponchos so Trey and I attempted to share one, which didn't work very well but I didn't mind getting cozy with my hubby during a thunderstorm. ;-)

On the way back towards Montgomery we stopped at the first rest area to use the restroom and get drinks. As we were parking I saw a very large lady on her side in front of the entrance. My mom is a registered public health nurse, so she jumps out of the car to go check on her. The lady was talking and still breathing, so mom and I went into the bathroom. By the time we came out she was unresponsive. Mom rolled her on her back and proceeded to administer CPR to her. My dad knows CPR also, so he, my mom, and another physician were rotating giving CPR to her lifeless body until the ambulance got there. She had about 4 other friends/family members there with her who were inconsolable at this point.

Trey got to the point where he couldn't take it anymore, so we walked off together. He told me that he had the same feeling of helplessness when I was in the hospital. It kind of put things into perspective when I saw how other people were responding to this lady.

They did CPR for 30 minutes until the ambulance finally got there. The put her in the van and went to a hospital in Opelika. Mom and Dad told me that they have to continue CPR until someone gets there, but she had probably been dead for the last 20 minutes. It was a total bummer. I couldn't do anything except pray for her and her family.  After that we drove back to Montgomery to retrieve our car.  

I told Trey I hope our honeymoon is not a foreshadowing of how adventurous the rest of our family vacations will be, he just laughed and said, "Probably . . . ". We made the final trek home to Huntsville, and I was so glad to be home and see my kitties (Roscoe and Missy hadn't joined our family yet).

There were some great parts of our honeymoon like connecting to the person who means the most to me in this world, and we definitely got closer as a couple through the whole experience.

Hurricane Gustav

 

And that, ladies and gentleman, was our honeymoon.  We are planning to go down to Cocoa Beach in September, and we're already calling it our 2nd honeymoon because . . . well . . . we need a redo. 

First Kiss

Per some requests via Twitter yesterday, I've decided to post the story of my first kiss with Trey and the adventure that was our honeymoon.  My blog has been very Constance heavy lately, so it might a good time for a little break. 

First Kiss

I've already told the story about how God brought Trey and me together, but our first kiss wasn't as passive on my part.  We were freshmen in college and shared a physics class together during the spring semester.  My high school boyfriend and I had just broken up the month before, so I was perfectly content with throwing myself into my schoolwork.  But there was something about Trey. 

He and I had actually met the semester before.  We shared a table at the cafeteria among several of our friends who resided in the same dorm.  The first thing he ever said to me was, "You gonna finish that," referring to my half-eaten calzone.  I was slightly annoyed with this odd request, but I gave in because . . . well . . . I wasn't going to finish that calzone. 

Over the new few weeks until Christmas break, I would always find myself sitting next to him in the cafeteria.  He made me laugh.  He was comfortable to be around.  I'm normally very shy around new people, but being around Trey made it seem like he was an old friend.  And after my intense break-up, I was so glad to find comfort in his company. 

Fast-forward to our physics class.  We sat beside each other in this huge lecture hall where the chairs were connected to these really long, rainbow-like tables.  Each chair was connected to it's own leg, alternating which side of the chair it was connected to, right or left.  So, in some instances, if two people were sitting next to each other and got up at the same time, they would nearly hug each other while getting up.  This made for some interesting encounters between us (though, I think he did this on purpose).  I knew I was liking him, but I actually forced myself from that thought.  It was too soon for me, and he was kind of dating someone else--in Utah. 

Fast-forward again (feel dizzy yet) to the night before our first test.  I'll always remember it because it was the day before Valentine's Day, February 13, 2004.  The same cafeteria group had formed a subset study group for going over our notes.  We met in someone else's dorm, went over and over and OVER the study test.  "I'm hungry," I said without looking up from my notes.  "I could make you some ramen," I heard Trey say.  Surprisingly, I had been a college student for almost 7 months by this point and had yet to discover ramen.  So, we left our study group and went down to his dorm where he made me our first meal together--ramen.  After I finished, I decided it was time for me to go to bed.  As Trey opened the door for me he said, "Let me know when I can take you out sometime."  I grinned, "OK," and walked back to my dorm. 

"That was weird," I thought.  "He said he was dating someone else."  Granted, it was online, and granted, it was long-distance (also granted, it was fairly new).  I walked into my dorm where my roommate said, "You OK, Holly?"  "I think I just got asked out."  "By Trey . . . ?"  Apparently, our friendship was somewhat obvious to people. 

I was wide awake laying on my bed.  I couldn't get the thought out of my head.  "I think he likes me, but the ball's in my court now."  I can never "sleep on" anything.  I had to know where this was going, right then.  I called Trey and asked what he was doing.  He was still up studying in the cafeteria, this time for calculus.  But he was actually helping a friend study.  "Can I join you?"  "Sure, you might can help, too."  I knew my power of mathematics would come in handy one day.  We helped our friend Josh for about an hour before finally calling it quits on studying.  "What do you want to do now?" Trey asked.  We both obviously didn't want the night to end.  "We could watch a movie in my room." 

We go back up to my room and I put in a movie that had Robin Williams in it.  I didn't want to risk a romantic comedy adding to the already-built tension.  If our feelings for each other were real, then I didn't want them clouded by the mood of the movie.  We watched the movie, his arms around me, sometimes tickling me.  After the movie was over, he said, "What are you thinking?"  And, ironically, without thinking about it I blurted out these words,

"I'm thinking you can't leave until you kiss me."  

And there it was:  passive, shy Holly had become assertive and . . . demanding?!  The longest second passed between us before Trey smiled, pulled me to him, and kissed me.  I knew what this meant to me, but wasn't going to tell it to myself. 

I didn't know what to think afterward except that this was totally impulsive, somewhat wreckless, and completely unlike me . . . and I liked it!  And I liked Trey, maybe even loved him (obviously, we know the ending to that one).  I was giddy, school-girl happy for the first time in a long while. 

You might think that we started dating immediately after that, but we didn't.  Even though we obviously liked each other, and I knew what having Trey in my life meant, I wasn't ready.  He wasn't ready either, because he had made plans (before our kiss) that he was going to see his Utah somewhat-girlfriend over Spring Break.  And I didn't want him to feel chained committed to me.  I wanted him to choose me because HE wanted to.  

Fast-forward (sorry, I know you're getting dizzy now) one month to Spring Break.  He and I agreed that we would take the week apart to think about everything, about us.  I went down to Sarasota, Florida to visit my brother's family, and he went to Utah.  I didn't know what to think when I got back to college.  I was scared of getting my heart broken, again.  But then, when Trey arrived back at our dormitory around 10:00 PM, he didn't go to his room first.  He showed up at mine.  

And the rest, as they say, is history . . . 

Tomorrow I'll post about our adventurous honeymoon (no, not in that way, mind-gutters people!)

How Do You Know Your Insulin is Bad?

When you have a bad low (and I mean a BAD low, like this one):

Ummm . . . help?! 

And you end up over-overcorrecting and you take roughly a unit of insulin every hour but you still can't get down:

Notice this is a 24-hour graph.  I spent most of it over 250 mg/dL.  Crappy day.  

After the 10th (or 11th?) correction and I was still in the 300s with a northeast arrow on Constance, I called my pharmacy and said, "Hey, how long are y'all open?  Can I get my insulin refilled?  I think my vial has gone bad."  Of course, they could refill it.  It had been more than a month since I had refilled my last prescription, but I still had one more reservoir left on my vial.  I like to be incredibly efficient in my insulin use, it's the engineer in me.  However, I've noticed that whenever I travel with a vial (which I did with this one over the 4th holiday) that it tends to go bad before all the insulin is used.  But I can usually get some use out of the whole vial without living in the "HIGH" zone for multiple hours.  

When I got my prescription refilled, I threw away the vial without looking at it.  But I should have because I might have seen that it had a milky white fog to it, signaling it had gone kaput.  I think this is the first time I have ever thrown away a vial with some significant amount of insulin left.  

I changed my site and it has been smooth sailing ever since--meaning the only highs I've seen have been my own doing, which I'm OK with.  I'd much rather to be able to explain the highs when I have them.  Having bad insulin or a malfunctioning pump just adds to the chaos.  I'm clumsy and ungraceful enough on my own; I don't need outside errors adding to it.  

Even though this happened on Friday, I thought this post would be appropriate because:

Friday Five: 15 July 2010

It's the end of another week, which means another edition of the Friday Five:

1. I changed my Dexcom sensor yesterday, you know, the one that didn't want to stay on.  When I finally pulled it off my skin, the transmitter was floating above my stomach and the sensor was barely underneath the skin anymore.  The tape was just keeping the left side down.  However, I was still getting good numbers until I stopped the sensor.  I put the new sensor on my lower back and this location appears to be a sweet spot.  I didn't get nearly as many ???s last night.  
2. A Senate committee approved a new NASA budget to be sent to Congress.  This budget is considerably better (IMO) than the originally proposed budget back in February.  It extends existing programs like the ISS and Shuttle until a suitable replacement is built.  It also charges NASA with building a new, heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLV) that could be operational by 2020.  This is great news for the area where I live because we thrived during the building of the Saturn V, so no doubt a lot of the building for the HLV will come here.  Finally, some money will be given to commercial space groups, but on a prove-yourself basis.  NASA will have a lot more say on when those vehicles will be deamed safe. 
3. Last weekend we began a trial of Netflix.  We've been talking about this for awhile because we don't take advantage of cable TV as much as we could (except for football season, less than 2 months!!!).  And I've been using it all this week to watch every season of The Office.  I don't know why I didn't get into this show sooner, but I love it!  I guess I feel that my days are so similar to The Office (minus a boss like Michael Scott).  I'm currently half-way through Season 3.  
4. Holy cow bells it is HAWT!  The high for the last two days has been over 100 F.  I worry about my dogs being outside for 10 hours, but I make sure they have plenty of water and our back yard is pretty heavily shaded.  I usually find them staying cool underneath our deck outside.  But that doesn't meant I still don't worry.  Yesterday when I got home I took out the garbage and I had sweat rolling down my neck by the time I walked back inside.  It's also wreaking havoc on my hair.  The increased humidity is making my usually layered, flipped-out hair look very flat and straw-like. 
5. Once again, Alabama is in 2nd place (tied with Tennessee) for the fattest state in America.  Colorado wins for being the fittest (which is where I wanted to live . . . at one point . . . OK, maybe I still do).  Mississippi wins first place for having an average BMI of 33.8.  Even though most of the states in the top 10 are southern states, they are the ones who always win the college football national championship.  (Seriously, I need therapy, this isn't healthy.)  

Have a great weekend everyone!  =)

It's Not Sinuses, It's Diabetes

Yesterday, my friend April posted an entry about her latest endo visit.  Since she and I live in the same region, we go to the same endo.  And I always like comparing who waited the longest!  The office is so overloaded with patients that it's not uncommon to wait 2 hours after your scheduled appointment time. 

Anyways, I made a comment on her post about how sometimes I feel that the endo visit is just a 3-month A1c check where I have to go to an offical doctor's office.  Diabetes is such a personal, daily disease that we can come to not trust our doctors' opinions because we wonder, "How can someone who I only see once a quarter know what's best for me and my diabetes that I deal with everyday?"  I've certainly felt that way in the last few months because I feel like I'm taking my diabetes into my own hands, trying to understand it more, and (for brief periods) making it do what I say. 

And daily life with diabetes can seem so monotonous, boring, just same-ole same-ole.  It's like dealing with sinuses, especially in Alabama, because no matter what time of the year you're here you are going to have an allergic reaction to something.  In the fall it's peanuts, in the spring it's pollen.  We never get a true winter here, and summer and spring are usually the same--HAWT!!!  So, everyday here is another day dealing with sinuses of some kind. 

And for me, everyday is another day dealing with diabetes. 

• I get up every morning and the first thing I do is check my blood sugar, and it's the last thing I do before I go to bed.  
• Taking insulin is something I can do without looking, and apparently try to do in my sleep!  
• I keep stashes of juice boxes in my desk, making this 25-year-old feel much more like a 5-year-old.  
• I have two rolls of glucose tabs in my Myabetic wallet, along with 3 syringes, 2 batteries, and an extra lancet (I could parody a Christmas song from that one line). 
• As I'm preparing my lunch for the day, I'm keeping tabs in my head of how many carbs I just packed, so I know what to bolus later.  
• I keep apple juice in the fridge because it's easiest to chug for those paralyzing lows. 
• I have an extra meter and a jar of glucose tabs on my bedside table because I'm too lazy to get up and walk to the kitchen in the middle of the night.  
• An entire shelf is dedicated to pump and CGM supplies in my bathroom linen closet.  
• My stomach is riddled with previous pump site markings and sticky residue, along with my current site and CGM sensor.  
• And my calloused fingertips show countless blood sugar tests. 

All of these evidenes of diabetes in my life seems to fade in the background after awhile.  It's like hearing a really loud noise for a long period of time.  Eventually, you learn to tune it out and, if you listen long enough, you don't hear it anymore.

But then we have these 3-month check-ups that show how well we're tuning out diabetes.  Every 3 months is like a wake-up call that this is a real disease that people get complications from, and die from.  People spend millions of dollars in research trying to find a cure, I doubt they're doing the same for sinuses.  It affects our health--physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Our everyday lives become an everyday treatment.  It's so serious and monotonous, it's seriously monotonous! 

We have a good friend who is expecting her first child in August (yay!) and she has gestational diabetes (boo!).  She recently sent a message to Trey telling him how much she admired me for dealing with this disease everyday and how tiresome it is to think about all these things like blood sugar, food, and exercise all the time.  It's weird to hear someone say they admire me for simply being me, and doing what I do everyday. 

But then again, I think the same about people like my nephew who has cerebral palsey.  I admire that kid so much!  He has such a zest for life and a pure heart.  You can't lie to him because he has this sixth sense about reading people's emotions.  And when you ask him what he has, he joyfully says, "I have cerebral palsey!" like it's his badge of honor that makes him special. 

I don't know if having diabetes is a badge of honor or a sign of being special.  I just know that God thinks I'm strong enough to handle it, and that's kind of cool to think about sometimes.  That He knew I could handle a disease that required constant attention.  It's a daily occurrence, like sinuses.