In Europe, country-hopping is like state-hopping over here. Very common.
Day #6 of our journey found us on a plane to Amsterdam(45 minutes), and another plane to Billund, Denmark. Before taking off from London's Heathrow, I grabbed some fish & chips to go.(because who goes to England and doesn't eat fish & chips?) We went through security twice...once at Heathrow, and again in Amsterdam. I got used to grabbing the BAG THAT MUST NOT BE X-RAYED out of my carry-on, handing it to the screener, setting off the machine nonetheless(Animas pumps always do that), getting patted down,getting bags hand screened, etc. Traveling is a pain with diabetes, it adds an extra 15 minutes to everything.Do that twice, on top of everything else..and its enough to make you never want to travel again.
By that time my cold was in full force,and I couldn't taste anything. I had some of the fish & chips on the way to Billund..and though it was comforting, I wasn't sure it was totally worth the 7 lbs.But at least I did it.
My husband's cousin picked us up at the Billund airport, and we zipped away to her boyfriend's house for dinner. In Denmark, 99% of cars are stick shift and air conditioning is unheard of.(because in Denmark, it never gets truly HOT) She apologized, I thought the warmth was a welcome change from the London rain/chillyness. It wasn't even as warm as it would be back home... much less feeling like Florida. But they don't get warm weather there very much. And in Denmark,thank goodness, they drive on the right side of the road so you don't have to worry about which way you should be looking when you cross the street. So we had a nice dinner...in the very IKEA-ish house of her boyfriend. There was wine(which most Danes have nightly), which I begged off because of the cold. Then we went back to her place for the night.
The next day, we went to Grostenslot Castle and saw the Danish queen + the changing of the guard.
There was a dinner party that day...over the hedge, you could hear people laughing, etc. Sadly, we weren't invited.
Then we were off to another cousin's house,to visit her family & be fed lots of food,etc. and exhibit the patience of Job for the sugarless adaptations they had provided me with. Really, it didn't matter, I couldn't taste anything anyway. We played a Wii for the first time(ever-sad, I know)and that was fun. I went to bed early,I was feeling bad from the fever.(the relatives were encouraging of me dissapeiring early)
The next morning,I couldn't get out of bed, I felt too bad. The worried relatives wanted to know whether I had H1N1(and at that point,I was beginning to think maybe I did). Spent that day in bed.
The day after that, I felt marginally better. We drove off to the family beach house..on the eastern side of Denmark(the North Sea). It was too cold to swim, but we got out on the beach. My husband's aunt and the cousin's daughter were there. We spent the rest of our time in Denmark there. At one point, the other cousin showed up for the day (he's really into politics & knows the Danish NATO minister(Rassmussen). Then we toured the TV station where cousin #1 is an anchor. It was cool, pretending to be on TV. Most Danes speak pretty good English,but the older ones may not.(my husband knows alot of Danish but I sure as heck don't) And my husband's aunt..doesn't know much English, so they translational services of the cousin were much appreciated. We had some weird food,(fishpaste on a mayo-bread thing)though most of it was pretty normal. Danes really like licorice candy, raw oats, and small potatoes.
The last day, we hopped on a train to Copenhagen (that took several hours) where we put our stuff in storage at the station & another relative took us to the graves of my husband's grandparents. One is buried in a cemetery..and one is buried in a Field of Unknowns. So my hubby laid flowers at their graves.
Then we went to a hostel,where we stayed the night. Hotels are really expensive in Copenhagen,and even the bare bones hostel cost an arm and a leg. By bare bones, the only things in the room were beds. It did have a skylight window, which let the cool breezes in and provided relief from the stuffiness but the 4 individuals getting drunk on the patio were hardly conducive to a peaceful night's slumber.We'd planned to go see the Little Mermaid but she was on loan to China.(figures)
The next day, it was up early to walk to the bus stop, take the bus to the train station,rescue our stuff from storage, take the train to the airport terminal, get checked in/go through security, fly to Amsterdam and go through a very THROUGH security check again,finally get on the flight to Detroit..get off, recheck our luggage and go through security & customs AGAIN,and get on our final flight home. It was only about 7 pm when we got home, but when you're running on Danish time it was 3 AM and we were both dead tired. We were happy to be home.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
A Laughter Therapy Workshop
"Hi,my name is Trish & I'm a World Laughter Leader."
(yep,world laughter leader is an actual certification)And she wears it like a badge of honor..right next to her pump,"Pieces"(named because "I can have a piece of that" is every pumper's motto)
Going into it,I had my doubts as to whether it was worth going to all.It might not do anything for me...
But Animas rep Trisha Porretti has a gift.A gift,that makes everyone around her instantly feel better.She should be on Jay Leno.(who,incedentily,had type 2 diabetes so maybe it's just
something about us D folk)
Laughter lowers blood pressure.
Laughter floods the brain with endorphins.
Laughter relaxes you.
Sitting next to fellow CWD'r "x",I was determined not to be THAT person in the room.You know,the one who lets loose in a loud guffaw at each and every mildly amusing anecdote.(and hence provide fodder for the late night chats for the next month) Not the CWD'r...the stereotype,I didn't want to be annoying to anyone else in the room.The CWD'r is a very nice person.
But I didn't have a chance.I laughed,snorted,and guffawed my way through the entire presentation.Along with the rest of the room. By the end of it,& the "Penguin Pumper Dance" I couldn't speak,I was laughing so hard.The amount of mirth that was coming from the room would have filled the Monsters,Inc Laugh Tank several times over.
Then I checked my blood sugar...
and was greeted with a 380.Decidedly non-amusing,with no spare set in my possession.Laughter,apparently,does not lower blood glucose.So I asked my rep-friend for a spare set,and when the room cleared out we went out to her car & she found me some.And then Trish & her friend pulled up & invited us out to dinner.
And that's how I found myself out to dinner with 3 Animas reps at 10 pm on a Florida-ish themed patio freezing my appendages off.
Having a BLAST.(despite the bg)They all rocked.
"Go change your site!"
(I forgave them for the mom-ish behavior..because they all WERE.They couldn't help it.)
I am an Animas pumper..& a nursing student to boot. I am not sure I'll ever become a CDE, but it was like Nirvana for me..to be among a group of pump guru-nurses-a T1 in there to boot.Really nice of them to invite me..I don't get out much!!(and laugh like that,practically never )
After a low carb salad& unsweetened tea,bg eventually drifted down to 220.2 more units and 8 glasses of water later,ketones dissapeired &I could float off on endorphin-laced dreams.
-- Posted from my iPhone
(yep,world laughter leader is an actual certification)And she wears it like a badge of honor..right next to her pump,"Pieces"(named because "I can have a piece of that" is every pumper's motto)
Going into it,I had my doubts as to whether it was worth going to all.It might not do anything for me...
But Animas rep Trisha Porretti has a gift.A gift,that makes everyone around her instantly feel better.She should be on Jay Leno.(who,incedentily,had type 2 diabetes so maybe it's just
something about us D folk)
Laughter lowers blood pressure.
Laughter floods the brain with endorphins.
Laughter relaxes you.
Sitting next to fellow CWD'r "x",I was determined not to be THAT person in the room.You know,the one who lets loose in a loud guffaw at each and every mildly amusing anecdote.(and hence provide fodder for the late night chats for the next month) Not the CWD'r...the stereotype,I didn't want to be annoying to anyone else in the room.The CWD'r is a very nice person.
But I didn't have a chance.I laughed,snorted,and guffawed my way through the entire presentation.Along with the rest of the room. By the end of it,& the "Penguin Pumper Dance" I couldn't speak,I was laughing so hard.The amount of mirth that was coming from the room would have filled the Monsters,Inc Laugh Tank several times over.
Then I checked my blood sugar...
and was greeted with a 380.Decidedly non-amusing,with no spare set in my possession.Laughter,apparently,does not lower blood glucose.So I asked my rep-friend for a spare set,and when the room cleared out we went out to her car & she found me some.And then Trish & her friend pulled up & invited us out to dinner.
And that's how I found myself out to dinner with 3 Animas reps at 10 pm on a Florida-ish themed patio freezing my appendages off.
Having a BLAST.(despite the bg)They all rocked.
"Go change your site!"
(I forgave them for the mom-ish behavior..because they all WERE.They couldn't help it.)
I am an Animas pumper..& a nursing student to boot. I am not sure I'll ever become a CDE, but it was like Nirvana for me..to be among a group of pump guru-nurses-a T1 in there to boot.Really nice of them to invite me..I don't get out much!!(and laugh like that,practically never )
After a low carb salad& unsweetened tea,bg eventually drifted down to 220.2 more units and 8 glasses of water later,ketones dissapeired &I could float off on endorphin-laced dreams.
-- Posted from my iPhone
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Stonehenge:An Unfinished Story
In the interest of wanting to get this vacation account over ASAP, before everyone stops reading my blog for good, this will be short & sweet.
The last "real" day in England, we had a private tour guide. His name was Peter, and he was a certified Blue Badge Guide(r) who had been doing this longer then I've been in existence.(so he was quite good)
First, we went to Stonehenge.
It was raining & chilly & generally not the nicest of days to be out and about, but Stonehenge was neat.
I took my own video..but with a flip,and from 100 yards away it wasn't very high quality.(is that why they named it the flip-because the videos are not worth "a flip"?) Hopefully this one will give you some idea of some of the mystery/mystique surrounding Stonehenge. They were smaller then I thought they'd be(the stones), but after 3500 years I'm sure they were quite impressive in that day.They are still impressive...just really worn down. In the hills surrounding Stonehenge, there are burial mounds, chalked with lime so it really had to do with something pertaining to the dead. Once a year, on the Summer Solstice, you're allowed to go up and touch the stones. The Druids/Hippies/Weirdos use that day to get naked & do whatever they do.(according to the tour guide, I don't think you want to come to Stonehenge on that day.)And there are always weird crop circle stuff popping up in the fields surrounding Stonehenge.
Then we went to the gift shop,and I bought some earrings(in the shape of the rocks) as a memento of our journey. Being in Europe...there are some names that more popular then in the United States, my own name being one of them. I rarely/never run into another person with it. There were some Germans in that shop though,and one of them was named "Heidi." It felt really, really weird to hear someone else calling someone else with my name.
Then, it was off to the city of Bath.
City of Jane Austin, and excessive rich people vacationing spot for much of the 1700-1800-early 1900's)
(on the way, we stopped at a pub for lunch and I had Heidi Pie.(a combination of goat cheese,sweet potato,spinach, and onion in a pastry crust. It was divine)
We then poked around the Roman Baths. It was very much like it was back in the 2nd century AD, minus the enclosed roof. That fell off, and it would be too expensive to put back on. Besides, tampering with a piece of history would feel so wrong. The hot springs still pump out water at 120F, after all this time.(you wouldn't want to bathe in it though-the water is green from the algae) At the end of the tour, you get a sample of the water to drink.(its not from that particular pool) And its untreated, though they must test it someway because no one has ever died from it yet. I drank it, and my husband's(he didn't like the taste). It failed to cure the sore throat I had, but it was comforting.
A Wishing Pool...(some brilliant American had thrown several $1 bills in there. IN A POOL OF WATER. How dumb can you possibly be?)
And I had my picture taken with Robbie the Roman. (not digitally though, and it was a wax figure so my husband didn't object too much) Went to the Bath cathedral, explored some of the shops.
Then we drove back to the hotel.
(and took a river cruise down the Thames the next morning)
And that was it for England.
(next stop: Denmark!)
The last "real" day in England, we had a private tour guide. His name was Peter, and he was a certified Blue Badge Guide(r) who had been doing this longer then I've been in existence.(so he was quite good)
First, we went to Stonehenge.
It was raining & chilly & generally not the nicest of days to be out and about, but Stonehenge was neat.
I took my own video..but with a flip,and from 100 yards away it wasn't very high quality.(is that why they named it the flip-because the videos are not worth "a flip"?) Hopefully this one will give you some idea of some of the mystery/mystique surrounding Stonehenge. They were smaller then I thought they'd be(the stones), but after 3500 years I'm sure they were quite impressive in that day.They are still impressive...just really worn down. In the hills surrounding Stonehenge, there are burial mounds, chalked with lime so it really had to do with something pertaining to the dead. Once a year, on the Summer Solstice, you're allowed to go up and touch the stones. The Druids/Hippies/Weirdos use that day to get naked & do whatever they do.(according to the tour guide, I don't think you want to come to Stonehenge on that day.)And there are always weird crop circle stuff popping up in the fields surrounding Stonehenge.
Then we went to the gift shop,and I bought some earrings(in the shape of the rocks) as a memento of our journey. Being in Europe...there are some names that more popular then in the United States, my own name being one of them. I rarely/never run into another person with it. There were some Germans in that shop though,and one of them was named "Heidi." It felt really, really weird to hear someone else calling someone else with my name.
Then, it was off to the city of Bath.
City of Jane Austin, and excessive rich people vacationing spot for much of the 1700-1800-early 1900's)
(on the way, we stopped at a pub for lunch and I had Heidi Pie.(a combination of goat cheese,sweet potato,spinach, and onion in a pastry crust. It was divine)
We then poked around the Roman Baths. It was very much like it was back in the 2nd century AD, minus the enclosed roof. That fell off, and it would be too expensive to put back on. Besides, tampering with a piece of history would feel so wrong. The hot springs still pump out water at 120F, after all this time.(you wouldn't want to bathe in it though-the water is green from the algae) At the end of the tour, you get a sample of the water to drink.(its not from that particular pool) And its untreated, though they must test it someway because no one has ever died from it yet. I drank it, and my husband's(he didn't like the taste). It failed to cure the sore throat I had, but it was comforting.
A Wishing Pool...(some brilliant American had thrown several $1 bills in there. IN A POOL OF WATER. How dumb can you possibly be?)
And I had my picture taken with Robbie the Roman. (not digitally though, and it was a wax figure so my husband didn't object too much) Went to the Bath cathedral, explored some of the shops.
Then we drove back to the hotel.
(and took a river cruise down the Thames the next morning)
And that was it for England.
(next stop: Denmark!)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Remembering
It's good to know America (was) not alone..but what about in Islamabad, in Indonesia, in China,Africa-what were their reactions? this seems to me to be very European centered.In parts of the Middle East/Africa, I'm sure 9/11 is celebrated but 8 years later..does the rest of the world(non-extremist-Muslim)still feel America's pain? (and that's not to say that there are not Muslims who disapprove strongly of the atrocious actions that took place that day..but there are many, many, who still want America to be a smoking heap of rubble)When will the hate end?
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Crossing the Line
Last week, I finished up the research study I was in. The Polypeptide Pancreotic One, to be more precise. I went in, got drugged up with more Boost,peed on the strip to prove I was not pregnant,and they did a DEXA scan
to check bone density and BMI. And that was kind of interesting-there's a family history of osteoporosis and T1 D makes you more prone to bone weakness.(it's in the risk list) It was all above normal, except for the proportion of fat/muscle was slightly elevated.(I could have told you that)So its nice to know I don't have to worry about stress fractures for another 40 years.
I wasn't able to come in for the final visit,but I still had to return the study pump,download my Dexcom, etc. so I had to go in the next day, regardless.Because I couldn't make the final visit, (that day) they cut my compensation in half(its ridiculous,the amount of money riding on that final visit).
Anyway,after that, I made my way down to the cafeteria to use up the meal pass(although when you're high,said meal will only be veggies,protein, and diet coke).
And saw this.
I respect doctors & all they do, I really do. But when I saw that,it made me so boiling mad I wanted to complain to somebody.
Doctors are not deity.
Doctors are supposed to mingle with the great unwashed,that's part of the
heart and soul of being a good one. It seems to me that that's only widening the
gap..not narrowing it.
Doctors are the captain of the Healthcare Ship-but without the nurses/techs/
assistants that ship wouldn't get out of the harbor, much less get to its final
destination. Doctors do not deserve all the perks.
Doctors do deserve some perks.Like parking spots,on-call rooms,etc.(it helps them
do their jobs better)
BUT A DINING ROOM????That doesn't seem to me to do anything but pump their already inflated egos to levels so high if it were a blood sugar, they'd be in DKA 3x over.
I'm sure its not the only excessive perk they have at that hospital. Said room was right off the regular dining room.
So I marched over to one of the side doors and peeked inside, to see if there were any gold and crystal chandeliers inside.
"WHAT THEEEEEE..."
That's as far as I made it, before a wide-eyed, white-jacketed resident scared me back to reality. I wanted to go inside,sit down,and check my blood sugar(on the advice of a Twitter friend) but I confess,I'm chicken.
So whaddya think...do doctors deserve their own dining room?
to check bone density and BMI. And that was kind of interesting-there's a family history of osteoporosis and T1 D makes you more prone to bone weakness.(it's in the risk list) It was all above normal, except for the proportion of fat/muscle was slightly elevated.(I could have told you that)So its nice to know I don't have to worry about stress fractures for another 40 years.
I wasn't able to come in for the final visit,but I still had to return the study pump,download my Dexcom, etc. so I had to go in the next day, regardless.Because I couldn't make the final visit, (that day) they cut my compensation in half(its ridiculous,the amount of money riding on that final visit).
Anyway,after that, I made my way down to the cafeteria to use up the meal pass(although when you're high,said meal will only be veggies,protein, and diet coke).
And saw this.
I respect doctors & all they do, I really do. But when I saw that,it made me so boiling mad I wanted to complain to somebody.
Doctors are not deity.
Doctors are supposed to mingle with the great unwashed,that's part of the
heart and soul of being a good one. It seems to me that that's only widening the
gap..not narrowing it.
Doctors are the captain of the Healthcare Ship-but without the nurses/techs/
assistants that ship wouldn't get out of the harbor, much less get to its final
destination. Doctors do not deserve all the perks.
Doctors do deserve some perks.Like parking spots,on-call rooms,etc.(it helps them
do their jobs better)
BUT A DINING ROOM????That doesn't seem to me to do anything but pump their already inflated egos to levels so high if it were a blood sugar, they'd be in DKA 3x over.
I'm sure its not the only excessive perk they have at that hospital. Said room was right off the regular dining room.
So I marched over to one of the side doors and peeked inside, to see if there were any gold and crystal chandeliers inside.
"WHAT THEEEEEE..."
That's as far as I made it, before a wide-eyed, white-jacketed resident scared me back to reality. I wanted to go inside,sit down,and check my blood sugar(on the advice of a Twitter friend) but I confess,I'm chicken.
So whaddya think...do doctors deserve their own dining room?
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Number 1 Beaumont Square
"Hello, is this Admissions?"
"Yes it is, are you being admitted?"
I look down at my watch, which reads 4:30 pm..30 minutes too early. But better early, then late.
"Not exactly, no-this is where I was told to go."
"What's your name?"
"I'm X, the consultant is Dr. Chesser."
The secretary takes a closer look at all 157 cm of unsophisticated me. "You're American." (raised eyebrows)
"That's right. I'm still here under Dr. Chesser's orders." Jut chin out.(I am not any less important, because I am American)I hope I got that right and it's not Mr. Chesser, which is what some English docs go by)
"Take a seat please and I shall ring someone to come down and get you."(crazy American, doesn't know whether she's being admitted or not!)
"Thank you."
First step..shell out very large sum of money to financial dude(because it is a private hospital) It will be reimbursed by insurance. Someone comes down and gets us, takes us up to the 2nd floor waiting room where I read a Diabetes UK flipchart and marvel over the differences. US doctors do not recommend 2 daily drinks(if you are female-the limit is more like 1, or ZIP) and fish oil supplements are not dangerous, that I know of. About 5:15, a tech comes over and takes me to a large room which is none other then...
THE DIALYSIS UNIT.
Large bloodsucking machines are all over the room. Immediately, my humidity frazzled hair stands straight on end and my toes instinctively curl in fear, at the sight. I have to keep reminding myself that it isn't for me. The unit was empty, there were no other patients.(mercifully) Tech guy and nurse guy come around and prepare paperwork, etc., waiting on the doctor to come up. Hubby wanders off in search of some supper.
The doctor shows up.
"Hello, so we finally meet."
(I should mention that I arranged this 3 months in advance,arranged it AROUND the tour stuff. That's how important this stuff is. Probably a first, in his career)
"Hi, nice to meet you."
"I tried to ring your hotel but the staff said there was no one of that last name there."
"That's really weird, because my husband's and I's last names are the same. They must all be idiots over there, we've had quite a few problems with them over various things."
"But you do have an iphone though, and I'm glad you checked that."
"Yes,I'm rather addicted to it..I do check that regularly so I got the message."
A review of all things kidney and 'beates wise.
"So 4 grams Magnesium Sufate over 3.5 hours- do you know if that's in 250 ml or 400?"
"No clue, sorry."(until 12 hours previous I'd been under the impression that all magnesium IV was one kind..which isn't true, there are two types)
"We'll do it in 400, just to be safe. And check your levels first, you may be high."
"It's never been high so that's highly unlikely but checking is fine."
"As we've never given anyone more then a gram at a time and 4 grams is quite alot, we'll check your levels and go from there."
"Ok."
"And the diabetes, that hasn't affected your kidney function?"
"No, it's all good."
"Because we can give you some dialysis too, if you'd like it," he jokes, cracking a smile.
"UCK-NO-not today,thankyouverymuch." I shudder at the thought. Unspoken are the words that dialysis units are filled with patients just like me..type 1's,type 2's,the great mass of Undiagnosed. No D really likes to dwell on those possibilities.
"I really appreciate your office being able to accommodate me,I wouldn't be able to go out of country if it hadn't."
"That's not a problem, you've certainly given us more then ample notice to be able to schedule you in."
"And I'll be around, should there be any problems they'll page me. So goodluck, nice meeting you,if nothing goes wrong and enjoy the rest of your holiday in London and Denmark." Shakes hand, smiles, and is gone.
Me? I think I am somewhere in between thinking that its still a really scary/unagreeable place to be in versus wanting to move there & adopt him immediately as my new nephrologist. Really, REALLY, different from my own staid prophet of doom.
"So where you're from, how often do you see your gp?" the tech asks, curious.
"The nephrologist is different from the gp- I don't see the nephrologist every infusion, more like once every 3-5 months."
"You don't? Why not?" the tech says, confusion on his face.
"Yes, you see, in the US patients see their doctors in the offices, not the hospital(unless its an emergency) and if docs saw their patients every time the doctor would get nothing else done, their case load is too great. The doc writes the orders and checks up on the patients every few months. For something like this, the patient goes into an outpatient setting, not directly in the hospital."
We are both well into thinking each other's systems O..D..D..and just leave it at that. Some things cannot be explained well.
"We don't get many Americans in here, maybe a couple of times a year."
"Well,since it's private I can see why-most people wouldn't do it if they can get it free at an NHS hospital."
"Something to eat?"
"Soup. Lime pie. Diet Coke." I go for the comfort foods, the bug brewing in my chest and throat is making my stomach do flipflops & I don't want to admit this to anyone else..the city of London is already doing a brisk increase on the daily number of H1N1 cases.
Turn on tv, watch "Grimebusters"(which involved going into sewers and unclogging them) and British murder mysteries. I love British murder mysteries,so that passed the time. The infusion goes without incident. As we're leaving the hospital, the security guard asks us where our discharge papers are and woohoo, I have none so that takes about 10 minutes to get straightened up with the tech(and they don't call them "techs", I think it is "sisters" but that's just too weird to try and explain..especially when the "sisters" are male.) upstairs. I was afraid they wouldn't let me out, it wasn't an admission but it was billed as such. Not the easiest thing in the world to explain. Back to the Tube..the last day of our UK trip ended. Price wise, it was about the same as the US but I got a real meal.(which was nice) It would have been cheaper but there was the consultants fee which made about the same. It will all be reimbursed at in-country rates.(which means all of it)
Friday, September 04, 2009
Youtube: Weird Al Style
I love this version of a Weird Al's masterpiece...
(the clincher is the dj kitty!)
(the clincher is the dj kitty!)
Thursday, September 03, 2009
A European Encounter-8/06/09
A Dialogue with a European...
Q:Do you like your new president?(Obama) Most Europeans do, we're thrilled that he won the election.
A: No. He has the most liberal voting record in the Senate.
2. Really? Did you like the other guy?
A: No, we disliked McCain as well. Really, they were both abysmal choices(to some of us)But you have to vote for the person you feel will do the better job.
3. Q:Well, relations with Europe are important and Obama is the best person to pull that off, most Europeans hated Bush.
A: That's true. We don't particularly love Bush either, but the man did his best to preserve the USA from the terrorists and he deserves credit for something.(and you have no right to hate Bush..he wasn't YOUR president.Plus,you've been fed an entirely one-sided arguement) Without that, the USA & free world would not be as safe, many more people would have died,and our standard of living(as well as theirs)would not be as comfortable. As for many of his other decisions, we are less then thrilled. But being alive is more important then getting free health care. I'm all for world cooperation,but you cannot sell your soul or compromise the United States of America just to live in peace and harmony with the communists. If you like communism,move to one of those countries. It remains to be seen what Obama will do.
(and that's my rant for today. If you don't like it..and as I respect your opinion, please respect mine, you don't have to comment)
Q:Do you like your new president?(Obama) Most Europeans do, we're thrilled that he won the election.
A: No. He has the most liberal voting record in the Senate.
2. Really? Did you like the other guy?
A: No, we disliked McCain as well. Really, they were both abysmal choices(to some of us)But you have to vote for the person you feel will do the better job.
3. Q:Well, relations with Europe are important and Obama is the best person to pull that off, most Europeans hated Bush.
A: That's true. We don't particularly love Bush either, but the man did his best to preserve the USA from the terrorists and he deserves credit for something.(and you have no right to hate Bush..he wasn't YOUR president.Plus,you've been fed an entirely one-sided arguement) Without that, the USA & free world would not be as safe, many more people would have died,and our standard of living(as well as theirs)would not be as comfortable. As for many of his other decisions, we are less then thrilled. But being alive is more important then getting free health care. I'm all for world cooperation,but you cannot sell your soul or compromise the United States of America just to live in peace and harmony with the communists. If you like communism,move to one of those countries. It remains to be seen what Obama will do.
(and that's my rant for today. If you don't like it..and as I respect your opinion, please respect mine, you don't have to comment)
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
A Birthday A1c
My endo appt just happened to fall on Tues.,Sept.1.I didn't bother to change it,because I figured I needed that wake-up call.
"Hi,Heidi," my endo greeted me,whisking me off to the exam room immeadietly after my a1c."How've you been,how are the blood sugars?"
"Julys were great,August's not so much...went to heck in a handbasket."(#iblamevacation)
Hand over meter.
"I can see you have alot of high-highs."
"That was part of a research study,they really don't go up to 500 without some major encouragement. Drinking Boost while they checked peptides,etc."
She frowned."Who's doing it?"
"Hopkins."
"Can you get them to send me a summary of the study,they really should have done that anyway(sending it to the primary endo)."
"Sure."
"I haven't seen you since Feb.,and you didn't have the bloodwork done so you're due for the full blood work up today."
(WHAT'S MY A1C?WHAT'S MY A1C?WHAT'S MY....)
Continues reviewing my basals,etc.Picks up phone."A1c on x, please."
An eyebrow goes up."Thank you ."
Ackkk.I am dead-dead-dead...
"You are coming down.0.1 better then last time."
Royal blue YUCK.I wasn't expecting miracles,but what is it about my singular inability to make my a1c drop by much at all?That is slightly depressing.
And then she asks the question,the one all endos ask their female patients.
Only this time,I say "yes."
"We do, and I'm so tired of waiting on an a1c that will will never be below 7.I'll be in menopause before it will happen."
"Yes it will.You can do it-you are dropping your a1c each time and you have the tools to make it happen.I'll set you up to meet with the DE to get you back on track don't want to have a baby till that a1c is under 7,you really don't.Major risk of birth defects,etc.And you're only 27."
"28 today."
Something I don't much about,because there's no use dwelling on the past but I know she's right.It's not a question of if anymore..it's a question of just-say-the-word.The risks of everything genetically horrible go up in the 30's.Sooner=better.
"You are going to have to come in here more frequently then once every 6 months,though," my endo dryly remarks.
"I know...I just needed a diabetes vacation.It's out of system now.
I'm ready to get back to work on my a1c now.
-- Post From My iPhone
"Hi,Heidi," my endo greeted me,whisking me off to the exam room immeadietly after my a1c."How've you been,how are the blood sugars?"
"Julys were great,August's not so much...went to heck in a handbasket."(#iblamevacation)
Hand over meter.
"I can see you have alot of high-highs."
"That was part of a research study,they really don't go up to 500 without some major encouragement. Drinking Boost while they checked peptides,etc."
She frowned."Who's doing it?"
"Hopkins."
"Can you get them to send me a summary of the study,they really should have done that anyway(sending it to the primary endo)."
"Sure."
"I haven't seen you since Feb.,and you didn't have the bloodwork done so you're due for the full blood work up today."
(WHAT'S MY A1C?WHAT'S MY A1C?WHAT'S MY....)
Continues reviewing my basals,etc.Picks up phone."A1c on x, please."
An eyebrow goes up."Thank you ."
Ackkk.I am dead-dead-dead...
"You are coming down.0.1 better then last time."
Royal blue YUCK.I wasn't expecting miracles,but what is it about my singular inability to make my a1c drop by much at all?That is slightly depressing.
And then she asks the question,the one all endos ask their female patients.
Only this time,I say "yes."
"We do, and I'm so tired of waiting on an a1c that will will never be below 7.I'll be in menopause before it will happen."
"Yes it will.You can do it-you are dropping your a1c each time and you have the tools to make it happen.I'll set you up to meet with the DE to get you back on track don't want to have a baby till that a1c is under 7,you really don't.Major risk of birth defects,etc.And you're only 27."
"28 today."
Something I don't much about,because there's no use dwelling on the past but I know she's right.It's not a question of if anymore..it's a question of just-say-the-word.The risks of everything genetically horrible go up in the 30's.Sooner=better.
"You are going to have to come in here more frequently then once every 6 months,though," my endo dryly remarks.
"I know...I just needed a diabetes vacation.It's out of system now.
I'm ready to get back to work on my a1c now.
-- Post From My iPhone
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Great Battery Eater
I am a high maintenance girl.
My weakness? No, it's not Jimmy Choo heels or Prada purses. Nor do I dine on fillet mignon and sip champagne circa 1905 on a nightly basis. My gold colored Nugget cannot be called a luxery car, by any stretch of the imagination.
"That'll be $17.99."
Grinding my upper teeth into the back molars, I think that is bad, even for CVS. It's just a 4 pack of batteries, for crying out loud!
Granted, they are lithium batteries. Because my Animas goes through them like tasty little after dinner mints.
And the semi-cheaper alkaline options? Well, the store brand lasts for about ten seconds and the name brand(Energizer,Duracell)last about two weeks. I swear the lithium doesn't last much longer then that, though Animas promises 5-6 weeks. I have never gotten that..never. Is it just me or do other people only get about three weeks too?
(if you have an Animas pump feel free to chime in)
So, after handing over the equivelent of $17.99 (ECB's, etc) for 12 more weeks of Pump Power..there are still other things. Like Pings,and other meters, and the normal battery-sucking household devices that you cannot use rechargeables for. I have device addiction. (plenty of upkeep $$'s for the following)
there's the pump...
and the CGM...
and an iphone..(it's necessary for D, I swear-the news of a cure will come from
Twitter!)
and the other medical stuff(infusions,etc)
and the regular diabetes supply costs,etc.
The annual cost of which, is well into the classification of upper class.(Rich) If insurance didn't cover it,I would not have it.(except the iphone but that's another story. I would eat gruel to be able to afford my iphone.)
But the cost of the batteries is just too much. It seems to me it's getting LESS effective, my Cozmo was extremely energy-efficient.(didn't have as many cool features but those batteries lasted forever)
Get it together, Animas. $4 a battery, $74+ a YEAR. Needing a new battery so often is not very earth friendly, or 21st centuryish. (since they don't encourage rechargeable batteries)
My weakness? No, it's not Jimmy Choo heels or Prada purses. Nor do I dine on fillet mignon and sip champagne circa 1905 on a nightly basis. My gold colored Nugget cannot be called a luxery car, by any stretch of the imagination.
"That'll be $17.99."
Grinding my upper teeth into the back molars, I think that is bad, even for CVS. It's just a 4 pack of batteries, for crying out loud!
Granted, they are lithium batteries. Because my Animas goes through them like tasty little after dinner mints.
And the semi-cheaper alkaline options? Well, the store brand lasts for about ten seconds and the name brand(Energizer,Duracell)last about two weeks. I swear the lithium doesn't last much longer then that, though Animas promises 5-6 weeks. I have never gotten that..never. Is it just me or do other people only get about three weeks too?
(if you have an Animas pump feel free to chime in)
So, after handing over the equivelent of $17.99 (ECB's, etc) for 12 more weeks of Pump Power..there are still other things. Like Pings,and other meters, and the normal battery-sucking household devices that you cannot use rechargeables for. I have device addiction. (plenty of upkeep $$'s for the following)
there's the pump...
and the CGM...
and an iphone..(it's necessary for D, I swear-the news of a cure will come from
Twitter!)
and the other medical stuff(infusions,etc)
and the regular diabetes supply costs,etc.
The annual cost of which, is well into the classification of upper class.(Rich) If insurance didn't cover it,I would not have it.(except the iphone but that's another story. I would eat gruel to be able to afford my iphone.)
But the cost of the batteries is just too much. It seems to me it's getting LESS effective, my Cozmo was extremely energy-efficient.(didn't have as many cool features but those batteries lasted forever)
Get it together, Animas. $4 a battery, $74+ a YEAR. Needing a new battery so often is not very earth friendly, or 21st centuryish. (since they don't encourage rechargeable batteries)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Healthcare Reform On a Napkin
This is awesome.
(found at: http://www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all)
(found at: http://www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all)
The England Chronicles: A Royal Journey
On Day 3, we slept in, until 9 am. (since it was DoItYourSelf day) At breakfast, I decided to try Bubble and Squeek a traditional English food made of leftover vegetables(?) I was expecting some black breadish type food to show up,but what mine looked like(and tasted like) was a small, round, hash brown.Only it had other flavors,besides that of the potato, running through it so who knows what was in it. Hubby had an omelet, which he didn't really care for.(it was pretty bland)
We then walked downtown,past the houses of Parliament and the big old statue of Oliver Cromwell sitting out front, to Buckingham Palace.(for the changing of the guard)
On the way...we saw a familiar face:
(hello, Mr. Ex-President, nice to see you here!)
There were a zillion people there,needless to say, so we really didn't get close to the gate(or them). And no, we did not try to make them laugh. The flag was flying, which meant Queen Elizabeth was not in residence. So the state rooms were open to the public. We didn't have time to go in there..we were off to Westminster Abbey.
At which point and time, my digital camera died-for good. Fiddling with it,deleting old photos, and swapping out memory cards failed to free up any more space. You weren't allowed to take pics inside the church anyway(not like that's every stopped anyone)
The admission price was rather steep(15 lbs per person), so I was amazed to see tickets(I counted five,altogether) carelessy strewn all over the place. Inside, and outside. Someone could treat their whole family and not pay anything. So anyway..we saw all the burial places of the great. Queen Elizabeth 1(she's buried on top of her sister,Mary), Henry VIII, the Poet's Corner, etc. Got some of the audio guides, and spent several hours just wandering around and being educated.
But we had another mission...a familial one.
This dude designed three of the manhole covers in Westminster Abbey. I don't think that what I actually took a picture of was one of them,but it's the closest thing I could find to that. He is my kinda-sorta-ancestor(Thomas Crapper was not married but the ancestry is the same,from some sibling of his).We didn't make it over to his grave(which is in another cemetery,halfway across London). That's my link to Westminster Abbey.
We then took the Tube to Kew Gardens, where, upon viewing the greenhouse/fish collection/aquatica I flopped down on a bench,dead beat from about 10 hours of constant walking. My husband walked around for an hour and took pictures of the flowers. Being August, it was not quite as colorful as it could have been but there were still alot of flowers. I like flowers, but not as much as he does.(he could probably make an entire trip out of visiting various gardens, etc.)
Has supper at a greasy little place near one of the Tube stations(I had bacon for breakfast, bacon chips for lunch, and a bacon sandwich for supper and henceforth decided I was DONE with bacon for the rest of trip) and eventually found our way back to the hotel after a lengthy delay with one of the trains. Another day, done.
We then walked downtown,past the houses of Parliament and the big old statue of Oliver Cromwell sitting out front, to Buckingham Palace.(for the changing of the guard)
On the way...we saw a familiar face:
(hello, Mr. Ex-President, nice to see you here!)
There were a zillion people there,needless to say, so we really didn't get close to the gate(or them). And no, we did not try to make them laugh. The flag was flying, which meant Queen Elizabeth was not in residence. So the state rooms were open to the public. We didn't have time to go in there..we were off to Westminster Abbey.
At which point and time, my digital camera died-for good. Fiddling with it,deleting old photos, and swapping out memory cards failed to free up any more space. You weren't allowed to take pics inside the church anyway(not like that's every stopped anyone)
The admission price was rather steep(15 lbs per person), so I was amazed to see tickets(I counted five,altogether) carelessy strewn all over the place. Inside, and outside. Someone could treat their whole family and not pay anything. So anyway..we saw all the burial places of the great. Queen Elizabeth 1(she's buried on top of her sister,Mary), Henry VIII, the Poet's Corner, etc. Got some of the audio guides, and spent several hours just wandering around and being educated.
But we had another mission...a familial one.
This dude designed three of the manhole covers in Westminster Abbey. I don't think that what I actually took a picture of was one of them,but it's the closest thing I could find to that. He is my kinda-sorta-ancestor(Thomas Crapper was not married but the ancestry is the same,from some sibling of his).We didn't make it over to his grave(which is in another cemetery,halfway across London). That's my link to Westminster Abbey.
We then took the Tube to Kew Gardens, where, upon viewing the greenhouse/fish collection/aquatica I flopped down on a bench,dead beat from about 10 hours of constant walking. My husband walked around for an hour and took pictures of the flowers. Being August, it was not quite as colorful as it could have been but there were still alot of flowers. I like flowers, but not as much as he does.(he could probably make an entire trip out of visiting various gardens, etc.)
Has supper at a greasy little place near one of the Tube stations(I had bacon for breakfast, bacon chips for lunch, and a bacon sandwich for supper and henceforth decided I was DONE with bacon for the rest of trip) and eventually found our way back to the hotel after a lengthy delay with one of the trains. Another day, done.
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Schwarzenegger Surprise- #1 With a Pencil!
I've blogged about my dad's amazing abilities with a pencil before(check this out: ) He's done it as a hobby for about 6 years now.
Apparently, Arnold Schwarzenegger (no joke) surfs the Internet.(I'm guessing YouTube was where he found it)Which lead him to my dad's website,and he wanted a pic of one of the presidents so he had one of his people contact my dad to commission one. My dad,who really wants to do a pic of Arnold too said he could do one of Arnold which was ok with Arnold so holy cow,they are flying my dad out to California to meet Arnold and present the portraits.(don't worry, people of California,its not being payed for with state funds)
I'm so proud I think I could bust right now. Way to go, Dad!(I don't think they're allowing family to tag along but I hold out hope)
Apparently, Arnold Schwarzenegger (no joke) surfs the Internet.(I'm guessing YouTube was where he found it)Which lead him to my dad's website,and he wanted a pic of one of the presidents so he had one of his people contact my dad to commission one. My dad,who really wants to do a pic of Arnold too said he could do one of Arnold which was ok with Arnold so holy cow,they are flying my dad out to California to meet Arnold and present the portraits.(don't worry, people of California,its not being payed for with state funds)
I'm so proud I think I could bust right now. Way to go, Dad!(I don't think they're allowing family to tag along but I hold out hope)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Sunday Freebies Itouch/Iphone App List
#1 Flash for Free. Cost: Free. A camera app that allows you to brighten up your pics. It's nice to have pics that don't look like they were taken at the bottom of the Black Lagoon.
#2 Parachute Panic, Lite. Cost: FREE. A fun game.
#3 MyCokeRewards. Cost: FREE. A way to enter your Coke codes, on the go. And I don't think its actually texting..which is good for my AT&T bill, texts are really expensive.
#4 Gumdrops. Cost: FREE. A Tetris-like game..the colors connect,and pop out. Seriously addicting.
#5 Cardster. Cost: FREE. You can plug your membership card #'s in this, it generates a barcode and you don't have to carry around a million cards in your wallet/purse.(as well as not having to worry about forgetting to bring a discount card) It's great. Occasionally, the barcodes don't scan but the cashier can still manually put in the number.
#6 Meta Squares. Cost: FREE. I haven't played this yet, but it looks interesting.
#7 Sheep Launcher FREE! A cute game where you launch your sheep into the stratosphere, attempting to collect as many points as possible before getting to the Moon.
#8 Offender Locator, Lite. Cost: FREE. It may not be great at locating all the registered sex offenders out there but it gets the word out that your neighborhood may not be as safe as you think it is..and you still need to track your kids whereabouts.
#9 Discovery Channel. Cost: FREE. Lots of video clips,shows,news, quizzes,plenty of entertainment.
#10 Parking Pal. Cost: Not quite free, .99. But if you're like me, and can never remember where on earth you parked it's totally worth it to be able to quickly tap it into your iphone. I have tried writing it on paper slips, and invariably, they get lost (or thrown out) too. This is a great idea.
#2 Parachute Panic, Lite. Cost: FREE. A fun game.
#3 MyCokeRewards. Cost: FREE. A way to enter your Coke codes, on the go. And I don't think its actually texting..which is good for my AT&T bill, texts are really expensive.
#4 Gumdrops. Cost: FREE. A Tetris-like game..the colors connect,and pop out. Seriously addicting.
#5 Cardster. Cost: FREE. You can plug your membership card #'s in this, it generates a barcode and you don't have to carry around a million cards in your wallet/purse.(as well as not having to worry about forgetting to bring a discount card) It's great. Occasionally, the barcodes don't scan but the cashier can still manually put in the number.
#6 Meta Squares. Cost: FREE. I haven't played this yet, but it looks interesting.
#7 Sheep Launcher FREE! A cute game where you launch your sheep into the stratosphere, attempting to collect as many points as possible before getting to the Moon.
#8 Offender Locator, Lite. Cost: FREE. It may not be great at locating all the registered sex offenders out there but it gets the word out that your neighborhood may not be as safe as you think it is..and you still need to track your kids whereabouts.
#9 Discovery Channel. Cost: FREE. Lots of video clips,shows,news, quizzes,plenty of entertainment.
#10 Parking Pal. Cost: Not quite free, .99. But if you're like me, and can never remember where on earth you parked it's totally worth it to be able to quickly tap it into your iphone. I have tried writing it on paper slips, and invariably, they get lost (or thrown out) too. This is a great idea.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Diabetes: Doin' it UK Style
Our second day's itinerary included a visit to Warwick Castle. Now armed with my camera,husband, and trusty bottle of Diet Coke, I hardly minded the 2 hour drive to get there. Our Scottish tour guide(whose name I don't remember) gave us some UK Road System 101 in the meantime.
Motorways- the "interstates" of England.
A Roads- other major roads.
B Roads- backroads, non-important. Coaches do not travel on B roads, it is too physically difficult to maneuver and impossible to get off, should you get stuck.
Motorways have a "M" in front of their respective number. Otherwise, you just have to guess whether its an A road or a B road. There are a heck of alot of roundabouts in England, to better manage the flow of traffic. No such thing as a stop sign. And it was all backwards, so you get off the motorway on the left, as well as merge to the right. Periodically, you'd see these areas where you could pull off to get gas, food, etc. Like a rest area but it didn't go off the highway system. I really liked that, because at least in my state you have to get off the interstate and go hunting a good 5-10 minutes for a restaurant, etc. Finally got to Warwick Castle.
Didn't have time to do much of anything..there was 1.5 hour time limit at each place. Every place was so big that you could spend the entire day there, so you had to just try to get some of the more interesting aspects of the site. But we did see a catapult, go through the state rooms(lots of regal stuff and portraits) and get some photographs of the drawbridge, etc. All of which were taken with hubby's instant camera, so I can't post the pics here but it was very interesting.
Warwick Castle website
A quick lunch...of salad,diet coke, and chips. Chips were kind of rough on the throat going down but I needed it for carb energy, had a lot of walking to do that day.
Then it was off to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Avon is just another Old English word for river-there are several river "Avons" in England.
Went through the visitor center..went through Shakespeare's birthplace.Shakespeare had an incredibly brief(51 years?) and tragic life. His only son died at 11(Hamnet),and shortly thereafter, Shakespeare decided to go to London(leaving behind wife and two daughters).Shakespeare stayed there until he retired,at about age 43. Moved back and died just 3 years later. Both his daughters married, but only one had a kid that got married, and later died without children. Hence ended the direct line of William Shakespeare. There was a garden,and a town full of souvenir shops begging to be explored. Discovered the UK equivalent of a "penny puncher" machine. I collect stamped pennies, so I thought that was pretty neat. In a regular penny stamper, you put in a penny and two quarters, select the design, and turn the handle to flatten the coin. In the UK version, you put in a pence and a pound.(coin) So it costs you about $1.61 to do it. I didn't have any pence so I tried a penny, since they are about the same size/thickness. It didn't work-jammed up the machine, much to my embarrassment. Had to find another machine.
And then we drove through the Cotswalds, which is a very rural, agricultural part of England. They grow alot of wheat,canola, strawberries, etc. there. It used be to be a very big sheep-raising area, sheep owners lived like kings and their were alot of castles, manors, etc. Drove by the birthplace of Winston Churchill(Blenheim Palace),didn't go in though. Saw alot of thatched roofs, which they cover with wire mesh to keep the bugs/birds out of it. Thatched roofs are very expensive to maintain-and the sad part is, even if you wanted to change your roofing you sometimes can't because its protected under some "historical preservation" laws. So every 10 years you have to shell out another $10,000 or so to get another roof.And they burn really,really easily..our tour guide pointed out one that had been rebuilt after the house burned to the ground. The insurance on those things must be horrendous too.
The town of Oxford:
Oxford was interesting..because Oxford University is not really an actual university, its just the governing body for the 39 collages that make it up.And all of those collages offer the same degrees,there's really no difference in them. It's really just one big fraternity/sorority deal, if your family has always gone to Collage X then you are going to apply to go to Collage X.(and hope you get in) Oxford was founded by some monks,(in the 12th century?) who were trying to provide a non-French alternative for schooling. Initially, the townspeople and the students did not get along well at all(at one point,there was a battle)..it was like any university town.(down through the ages-funny how that is) Students can be a pain in the gluteus maximus.
So we walked around the town, seeing a few of the collages and doing some more shopping.
In Oxford, we popped into a pharmacy because I wanted to see what kind of meters that use in the UK.(Only my long-suffering husband would put up with something like that..normal people do not go into foreign pharmacies unless they have to) Their "One Touch UltraEasy" is the exact same thing as the One Touch Mini. However, the number on that meter was 8.5 mmol...which converts to 153 mg/dl! which would never sell in the US. All our meter displays read somewhere in the neighborhood of 104 mg/dl, because we're all dedicated PWD who take control and never,ever,ever had evil readings that high. (yeah,right)
Back on the bus by 4:50, we drove back to London. The traffic was pretty horrific(Sunday night, all the weekenders were returning). Suddenly,a long sleek black Saudi Arabian(I assume) car streaked by our bus, jaunting me out of a doldrums reverie. It was one gorgeous car, no doubt owned by some rich oil tycoon. The lisence plate was in Arabic, and the steering wheel/driver was on the left-not something you see every day in England.
Our tour guide dropped us off near a Tube entrance. We'd arranged to meet Caro and her fiance Ian at 7(it was then 6:40). After 30 minutes of us getting nowhere,she called my iphone and eventually found us/took us to the restaurant.(Porters-they have great traditional English food) Otherwise, we would have never found it.(the street signs in London are incredibly obscure/non-existent)
That was so much fun-I don't remember what all we talked about, but I remember Spi-Belts,weddings and UK/US healthcare being part of it.(and I concur-SpiBelts are awesome!!) I couldn't go to London and NOT meet them,it was just as important as all the other things on my to-do list.It felt like a little bit of familiarity, to meet up with another blogger. We wish you guys much happiness together!
Here's proof:
And amazingly, I was only 200 after the (lots of carbs) meal,and 123 by the next morning. Sometimes things actually work out.(all the walking I did that day definatly helped)
Motorways- the "interstates" of England.
A Roads- other major roads.
B Roads- backroads, non-important. Coaches do not travel on B roads, it is too physically difficult to maneuver and impossible to get off, should you get stuck.
Motorways have a "M" in front of their respective number. Otherwise, you just have to guess whether its an A road or a B road. There are a heck of alot of roundabouts in England, to better manage the flow of traffic. No such thing as a stop sign. And it was all backwards, so you get off the motorway on the left, as well as merge to the right. Periodically, you'd see these areas where you could pull off to get gas, food, etc. Like a rest area but it didn't go off the highway system. I really liked that, because at least in my state you have to get off the interstate and go hunting a good 5-10 minutes for a restaurant, etc. Finally got to Warwick Castle.
Didn't have time to do much of anything..there was 1.5 hour time limit at each place. Every place was so big that you could spend the entire day there, so you had to just try to get some of the more interesting aspects of the site. But we did see a catapult, go through the state rooms(lots of regal stuff and portraits) and get some photographs of the drawbridge, etc. All of which were taken with hubby's instant camera, so I can't post the pics here but it was very interesting.
Warwick Castle website
A quick lunch...of salad,diet coke, and chips. Chips were kind of rough on the throat going down but I needed it for carb energy, had a lot of walking to do that day.
Then it was off to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Avon is just another Old English word for river-there are several river "Avons" in England.
Went through the visitor center..went through Shakespeare's birthplace.Shakespeare had an incredibly brief(51 years?) and tragic life. His only son died at 11(Hamnet),and shortly thereafter, Shakespeare decided to go to London(leaving behind wife and two daughters).Shakespeare stayed there until he retired,at about age 43. Moved back and died just 3 years later. Both his daughters married, but only one had a kid that got married, and later died without children. Hence ended the direct line of William Shakespeare. There was a garden,and a town full of souvenir shops begging to be explored. Discovered the UK equivalent of a "penny puncher" machine. I collect stamped pennies, so I thought that was pretty neat. In a regular penny stamper, you put in a penny and two quarters, select the design, and turn the handle to flatten the coin. In the UK version, you put in a pence and a pound.(coin) So it costs you about $1.61 to do it. I didn't have any pence so I tried a penny, since they are about the same size/thickness. It didn't work-jammed up the machine, much to my embarrassment. Had to find another machine.
And then we drove through the Cotswalds, which is a very rural, agricultural part of England. They grow alot of wheat,canola, strawberries, etc. there. It used be to be a very big sheep-raising area, sheep owners lived like kings and their were alot of castles, manors, etc. Drove by the birthplace of Winston Churchill(Blenheim Palace),didn't go in though. Saw alot of thatched roofs, which they cover with wire mesh to keep the bugs/birds out of it. Thatched roofs are very expensive to maintain-and the sad part is, even if you wanted to change your roofing you sometimes can't because its protected under some "historical preservation" laws. So every 10 years you have to shell out another $10,000 or so to get another roof.And they burn really,really easily..our tour guide pointed out one that had been rebuilt after the house burned to the ground. The insurance on those things must be horrendous too.
The town of Oxford:
Oxford was interesting..because Oxford University is not really an actual university, its just the governing body for the 39 collages that make it up.And all of those collages offer the same degrees,there's really no difference in them. It's really just one big fraternity/sorority deal, if your family has always gone to Collage X then you are going to apply to go to Collage X.(and hope you get in) Oxford was founded by some monks,(in the 12th century?) who were trying to provide a non-French alternative for schooling. Initially, the townspeople and the students did not get along well at all(at one point,there was a battle)..it was like any university town.(down through the ages-funny how that is) Students can be a pain in the gluteus maximus.
So we walked around the town, seeing a few of the collages and doing some more shopping.
In Oxford, we popped into a pharmacy because I wanted to see what kind of meters that use in the UK.(Only my long-suffering husband would put up with something like that..normal people do not go into foreign pharmacies unless they have to) Their "One Touch UltraEasy" is the exact same thing as the One Touch Mini. However, the number on that meter was 8.5 mmol...which converts to 153 mg/dl! which would never sell in the US. All our meter displays read somewhere in the neighborhood of 104 mg/dl, because we're all dedicated PWD who take control and never,ever,ever had evil readings that high. (yeah,right)
Back on the bus by 4:50, we drove back to London. The traffic was pretty horrific(Sunday night, all the weekenders were returning). Suddenly,a long sleek black Saudi Arabian(I assume) car streaked by our bus, jaunting me out of a doldrums reverie. It was one gorgeous car, no doubt owned by some rich oil tycoon. The lisence plate was in Arabic, and the steering wheel/driver was on the left-not something you see every day in England.
Our tour guide dropped us off near a Tube entrance. We'd arranged to meet Caro and her fiance Ian at 7(it was then 6:40). After 30 minutes of us getting nowhere,she called my iphone and eventually found us/took us to the restaurant.(Porters-they have great traditional English food) Otherwise, we would have never found it.(the street signs in London are incredibly obscure/non-existent)
That was so much fun-I don't remember what all we talked about, but I remember Spi-Belts,weddings and UK/US healthcare being part of it.(and I concur-SpiBelts are awesome!!) I couldn't go to London and NOT meet them,it was just as important as all the other things on my to-do list.It felt like a little bit of familiarity, to meet up with another blogger. We wish you guys much happiness together!
Here's proof:
And amazingly, I was only 200 after the (lots of carbs) meal,and 123 by the next morning. Sometimes things actually work out.(all the walking I did that day definatly helped)
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Across the Atlantic Soup(part 1)
"Passport, please," the immigration officer requested.
Finally! The journey of 5,500 miles(give or take-having to fly all the way to Detroit first) ended here, at London Heathrow, at the end of another really, really, really long line in a facility that either didn't have air conditioning or all their units are broken. And then again-it rarely gets hot in London, so why bother? The US line was 2 miles long..while the UK/European Union passport holders zipped on by. As luck would have it, the honeymooning couple who must have hated our guts because we refused to give up our seats on the 7.5 hour flight over had been stuck in front of us for the past hour. Just in case both of us were trying to forget it ever happened. Yeah, those were our seats and really, they should thought of that prior to the flight but I still felt marginally guilty that they couldn't sit together. I'd gotten a couple of hours of shut-eye on the plane but excitement kept me running. As per docs orders, no diet coke yet.
After getting through security and picking up our bags we wandered out to the main area where our driver picked us up and took us out to the "Car Park", loaded us up, and drove us to our hotel. It looked like London, it felt like London, it smelled like London..it must have been London. Humongous old buildings, smoke stacks, driving on the left side of the road...it keeps one enthralled with the utter novelty of it all. It was a 45 minute ride to our hotel, the City Inn Westminster. We get there, attempt to check in-room isn't ready yet, go eat breakfast (it was at this point that I discovered the joys of trying to read a UK cereal box-6 languages and yet STILL no clear carb count, they just list the total weight of the food in grams so I just gave up and SWAGGED everything) and tried again. Eventually we got checked in and and went off to the first day's itinerary with a tour group. St. Paul's Cathedral:
And the Tower of London:
And saw the Crown Jewels, that was a 20 minute wait. Of course, no photography WAS allowed inside the buildings.(and I was too tired to take pics that day) I had difficulty believing they are the actual jewels and not replications, like any Joe Blow can waltz in and see them with very little security. They have a person in each room-but for the most valued artifacts in English history,that deserves a 20 person detail, at least. I guess I've watched Pink Panther too many times.
Our tour guide, a very bright and peppy individual by the name of "Sandra", was funny as all get out and kept us all suitably entertained by the wild and whacky stories of past tour groups. Like the time their coach(aka bus) broke down in the Cotswalds,2 hours from civilization(and a replacement bus). But by 4:30 pm, nothing in the world (not even exciting stories about Ravens) could keep me awake any longer, I was totally bushed(and staggering around like I was drunk). We skipped the Tower Gift Shoppe(bad,bad tourists) and Thames cruise and went back to the hotel to get some shut-eye. Our wonderful tour guide dropped us off within sight of the hotel, which is good because we were still really clueless about how to get around London. Upon getting back to the room, we discovered that
our mini-fridge still felt more like a sauna then the a coolant device and the "engineer" couldn't come out to look at it until Monday because it is a weekend. Whatever.(this hotel was rapidly approaching the list of places to avoid staying at on future visits) I was certainly not putting my insulin in there,I could not afford to waste any more insulin(2 vials frozen at the FFL hotel's fridge last month, 1 vial baked in my car), I had two vials remaining and nothing must happen to them(must last another month) till I could get home and order more. The room was fairly cool though, so I just left them out. Bg was drifting down, so I ate something and proceed to pass out. Woke up 45 minutes later, still around 100 and going down. In my state of brain deadness, I thought it was a good idea to disconnect for an hour or so and reconnect when we ate supper. Well, 11 hours later I awoke with a 365 and all the wonderful feelings that go along with that(but was surprised it wasn't worse!) Corrected, drunk water, and craved Diet Coke with a passion. Ate breakfast(heavy on the protein, light on the carbs!) and our tour bus picked us up and took us to the bus station where I immediately blew a cool 1.60 pounds(that's $2.60 USD, in case you were wondering) for a 500 ml bottle of Diet Coke. Which is not as big as a US bottle, and twice as expensive. But man, was it worth it.(having not had any in 18 days)It was like liquid Heaven.
small copper coin=pence
gold, thick coin=pound
large, octangular coin=50 pence
small grey (dime-ish looking) coin= 5 pence
Large, circular coin=ten pence
Other octangular coin=20 pence
I didn't see any 2 pence coins. There are no pound notes in the UK, so when you flash a five or ten note be assured you will be getting quite a few POUND coins in change. And yeah, I'd say they weigh about a pound each. It took awhile for this concept to truly sink in, and my change pouch subsequently acquired quite a bit in change because I had a fear of looking like an idiot American tourist who couldn't give proper change and giving a large note is much safer. I semi-got over that fear as I became more comfortable with the coinage.
Visited a currency exchange booth, got lots of 20 pound notes.
(More to come....)
Finally! The journey of 5,500 miles(give or take-having to fly all the way to Detroit first) ended here, at London Heathrow, at the end of another really, really, really long line in a facility that either didn't have air conditioning or all their units are broken. And then again-it rarely gets hot in London, so why bother? The US line was 2 miles long..while the UK/European Union passport holders zipped on by. As luck would have it, the honeymooning couple who must have hated our guts because we refused to give up our seats on the 7.5 hour flight over had been stuck in front of us for the past hour. Just in case both of us were trying to forget it ever happened. Yeah, those were our seats and really, they should thought of that prior to the flight but I still felt marginally guilty that they couldn't sit together. I'd gotten a couple of hours of shut-eye on the plane but excitement kept me running. As per docs orders, no diet coke yet.
After getting through security and picking up our bags we wandered out to the main area where our driver picked us up and took us out to the "Car Park", loaded us up, and drove us to our hotel. It looked like London, it felt like London, it smelled like London..it must have been London. Humongous old buildings, smoke stacks, driving on the left side of the road...it keeps one enthralled with the utter novelty of it all. It was a 45 minute ride to our hotel, the City Inn Westminster. We get there, attempt to check in-room isn't ready yet, go eat breakfast (it was at this point that I discovered the joys of trying to read a UK cereal box-6 languages and yet STILL no clear carb count, they just list the total weight of the food in grams so I just gave up and SWAGGED everything) and tried again. Eventually we got checked in and and went off to the first day's itinerary with a tour group. St. Paul's Cathedral:
And the Tower of London:
And saw the Crown Jewels, that was a 20 minute wait. Of course, no photography WAS allowed inside the buildings.(and I was too tired to take pics that day) I had difficulty believing they are the actual jewels and not replications, like any Joe Blow can waltz in and see them with very little security. They have a person in each room-but for the most valued artifacts in English history,that deserves a 20 person detail, at least. I guess I've watched Pink Panther too many times.
Our tour guide, a very bright and peppy individual by the name of "Sandra", was funny as all get out and kept us all suitably entertained by the wild and whacky stories of past tour groups. Like the time their coach(aka bus) broke down in the Cotswalds,2 hours from civilization(and a replacement bus). But by 4:30 pm, nothing in the world (not even exciting stories about Ravens) could keep me awake any longer, I was totally bushed(and staggering around like I was drunk). We skipped the Tower Gift Shoppe(bad,bad tourists) and Thames cruise and went back to the hotel to get some shut-eye. Our wonderful tour guide dropped us off within sight of the hotel, which is good because we were still really clueless about how to get around London. Upon getting back to the room, we discovered that
our mini-fridge still felt more like a sauna then the a coolant device and the "engineer" couldn't come out to look at it until Monday because it is a weekend. Whatever.(this hotel was rapidly approaching the list of places to avoid staying at on future visits) I was certainly not putting my insulin in there,I could not afford to waste any more insulin(2 vials frozen at the FFL hotel's fridge last month, 1 vial baked in my car), I had two vials remaining and nothing must happen to them(must last another month) till I could get home and order more. The room was fairly cool though, so I just left them out. Bg was drifting down, so I ate something and proceed to pass out. Woke up 45 minutes later, still around 100 and going down. In my state of brain deadness, I thought it was a good idea to disconnect for an hour or so and reconnect when we ate supper. Well, 11 hours later I awoke with a 365 and all the wonderful feelings that go along with that(but was surprised it wasn't worse!) Corrected, drunk water, and craved Diet Coke with a passion. Ate breakfast(heavy on the protein, light on the carbs!) and our tour bus picked us up and took us to the bus station where I immediately blew a cool 1.60 pounds(that's $2.60 USD, in case you were wondering) for a 500 ml bottle of Diet Coke. Which is not as big as a US bottle, and twice as expensive. But man, was it worth it.(having not had any in 18 days)It was like liquid Heaven.
small copper coin=pence
gold, thick coin=pound
large, octangular coin=50 pence
small grey (dime-ish looking) coin= 5 pence
Large, circular coin=ten pence
Other octangular coin=20 pence
I didn't see any 2 pence coins. There are no pound notes in the UK, so when you flash a five or ten note be assured you will be getting quite a few POUND coins in change. And yeah, I'd say they weigh about a pound each. It took awhile for this concept to truly sink in, and my change pouch subsequently acquired quite a bit in change because I had a fear of looking like an idiot American tourist who couldn't give proper change and giving a large note is much safer. I semi-got over that fear as I became more comfortable with the coinage.
Visited a currency exchange booth, got lots of 20 pound notes.
(More to come....)
Friday, August 14, 2009
A Cartoon a Day
just because I think they're funny...
(from the Diabetes Health website)
(having lived on plane food 2 out of the past 14 days I can really identify with that one!)
Go check them out!
And if you haven't yet got in on the Chocolate Relief Act, go score yourself some free chocolate.(every Friday, from 9AM-6PM EST)
(from the Diabetes Health website)
(having lived on plane food 2 out of the past 14 days I can really identify with that one!)
Go check them out!
And if you haven't yet got in on the Chocolate Relief Act, go score yourself some free chocolate.(every Friday, from 9AM-6PM EST)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Marcus and the Post-Tonsillectomy Hamburger
"What kind of pain will it be-sharp,searing,dull ache,pulsating,or burning?"
"All of the above," my surgeon asserts, snapping the chart shut with a sense of finality. "It will be the worst sore throat of your life."
"Great.Might as well get it over with, then."
It's the morning of July 16,and my pre-op blood sugar is hanging out at 189. I have bolused, but the stress is already doing a number on my blood sugar. All in all though,it is isn't 50 and it isn't 300 so I'm not too upset about it.
Anesthesiologist stops by. OR nurse comes in,and my pump reminds me that the battery is about to die. (whoops, forgot to change it last night) Since its alkaline, and I don't think they'd appreciate it going off and emitting the Shriek of Death in the middle of the operation(the shriek of death does not stop unless you change the battery,which they wouldn't know to do), I ask the OR nurse if they have any spare AA batteries. He finds me one. I work on repriming and reloading it,as the anesthesiologist looks mildly annoyed that I'm not to ready to go in right that very minute.(I'm sorry, but it does take a few minutes) It's annoying how a doc can take an extra 30 minutes,but if the patient does that they're wasting the doc's time. The second I'm done,its off to the OR, I bolus another correction for the steroids they're going to pump into me and drift away.
The first thing I'm aware of, post-surgery is that my surgeon was absolutely telling the truth-the pain is all of the above. There is a Redwood growing in my throat,and grunting hurts, much less trying to talk. The second thing I'm aware of,is if I try to lie down flat my throat blocks up and I can't breathe at all.Small sips of water help this,but upset the stomach and make me retch, worrying the post-op nurse that I'm going to start bleeding again. Husband gets lost trying to find the place and takes several hours to pick me up. Get home. Take monster doses of every drug they have given me,doze off(on side,still impossible to breathe lying on back) My mom has come up to help out for a few days.Night #1, no sleep, despite the painkillers. Get a fever. Drink Gatorade,eat Popsicles, take meds,put in eardrops, rinse repeat. By Sunday though, the fever has let up and presumably I shall survive so my Mom leaves. Blood sugars are actually pretty good when you don't want to eat anything, except treating even mild lows SUCK because even swallowing liquid sends shooting pains all the way down your throat and up to your ears. Most people do not even feel like eating ice cream,its too darn thick.
Monday night, I decide to fix some scrambled eggs. Drank some Gatorade after that, and went to irrigate my throat. It was red, so I continue irrigating to get the gator aide completely out and the clumps of blood kept coming. After 20 or so minutes of that,(it was about 9 pm at that point) I was afraid I'd injured something and I was going to bleed to death and going to the ER was the best course of action given talking was extremely difficult and that's ultimately what the on-call doctor would say anyway. I was freaked out. Needless to say, when we got to the ER their definition of emergency was different from my own so it was another couple of hours till I saw a real doctor. Still bleeding. The doc said they didn't have the facilities to re cauterize,and called up the on call ENT doc and since I wasn't gushing great quantities of blood I'd probably be fine till morning. Discharged. Next morning,back in the ENT office, the doc took a look at my throat and decided to recauterize it. Hadn't eaten/drunken anything that morning, other then the pain meds so it was back to the OR. When I woke up,the pain was not very different from what I'd been feeling all along so it wasn't some huge shock. More recovery. I dreamed about eating BK hamburgers, because the surgeon's name was Dr. Hamburger.(that was a really weird twist to the experience) Have not had any bleeding since then,it scared the stuffing out of me that I would bleed to death right there.
Two weeks out, saw my surgeon again today and he says it's healing well. With each day that passes, less risk of bleeding again, but still cannot drink Diet Coke or take Advil for (other) pains till at least Sunday. I can semi-talk now,(short paragraphs) before it starts hurting again and it doesn't hurt near as much.(I still prefer to talk Chewbaccan though,but no one else can understand me when I do that) Can eat soup, soft pasta/foods,and ice cream without invoking a horrible backlash. I don't know how people can immediately eat ice cream after a tonsillectomy,I couldn't for a long time. The only foods that actually felt pleasurable were Popsicles and Beef broth. YTMV. The Redwood is now a Maple,and I think I am over the worst of it now. I now believe that it should be mandatory for every kid to get their tonsils taken out, because it is very much worse as an adult. I never even knew a throat could feel like that.
"All of the above," my surgeon asserts, snapping the chart shut with a sense of finality. "It will be the worst sore throat of your life."
"Great.Might as well get it over with, then."
It's the morning of July 16,and my pre-op blood sugar is hanging out at 189. I have bolused, but the stress is already doing a number on my blood sugar. All in all though,it is isn't 50 and it isn't 300 so I'm not too upset about it.
Anesthesiologist stops by. OR nurse comes in,and my pump reminds me that the battery is about to die. (whoops, forgot to change it last night) Since its alkaline, and I don't think they'd appreciate it going off and emitting the Shriek of Death in the middle of the operation(the shriek of death does not stop unless you change the battery,which they wouldn't know to do), I ask the OR nurse if they have any spare AA batteries. He finds me one. I work on repriming and reloading it,as the anesthesiologist looks mildly annoyed that I'm not to ready to go in right that very minute.(I'm sorry, but it does take a few minutes) It's annoying how a doc can take an extra 30 minutes,but if the patient does that they're wasting the doc's time. The second I'm done,its off to the OR, I bolus another correction for the steroids they're going to pump into me and drift away.
The first thing I'm aware of, post-surgery is that my surgeon was absolutely telling the truth-the pain is all of the above. There is a Redwood growing in my throat,and grunting hurts, much less trying to talk. The second thing I'm aware of,is if I try to lie down flat my throat blocks up and I can't breathe at all.Small sips of water help this,but upset the stomach and make me retch, worrying the post-op nurse that I'm going to start bleeding again. Husband gets lost trying to find the place and takes several hours to pick me up. Get home. Take monster doses of every drug they have given me,doze off(on side,still impossible to breathe lying on back) My mom has come up to help out for a few days.Night #1, no sleep, despite the painkillers. Get a fever. Drink Gatorade,eat Popsicles, take meds,put in eardrops, rinse repeat. By Sunday though, the fever has let up and presumably I shall survive so my Mom leaves. Blood sugars are actually pretty good when you don't want to eat anything, except treating even mild lows SUCK because even swallowing liquid sends shooting pains all the way down your throat and up to your ears. Most people do not even feel like eating ice cream,its too darn thick.
Monday night, I decide to fix some scrambled eggs. Drank some Gatorade after that, and went to irrigate my throat. It was red, so I continue irrigating to get the gator aide completely out and the clumps of blood kept coming. After 20 or so minutes of that,(it was about 9 pm at that point) I was afraid I'd injured something and I was going to bleed to death and going to the ER was the best course of action given talking was extremely difficult and that's ultimately what the on-call doctor would say anyway. I was freaked out. Needless to say, when we got to the ER their definition of emergency was different from my own so it was another couple of hours till I saw a real doctor. Still bleeding. The doc said they didn't have the facilities to re cauterize,and called up the on call ENT doc and since I wasn't gushing great quantities of blood I'd probably be fine till morning. Discharged. Next morning,back in the ENT office, the doc took a look at my throat and decided to recauterize it. Hadn't eaten/drunken anything that morning, other then the pain meds so it was back to the OR. When I woke up,the pain was not very different from what I'd been feeling all along so it wasn't some huge shock. More recovery. I dreamed about eating BK hamburgers, because the surgeon's name was Dr. Hamburger.(that was a really weird twist to the experience) Have not had any bleeding since then,it scared the stuffing out of me that I would bleed to death right there.
Two weeks out, saw my surgeon again today and he says it's healing well. With each day that passes, less risk of bleeding again, but still cannot drink Diet Coke or take Advil for (other) pains till at least Sunday. I can semi-talk now,(short paragraphs) before it starts hurting again and it doesn't hurt near as much.(I still prefer to talk Chewbaccan though,but no one else can understand me when I do that) Can eat soup, soft pasta/foods,and ice cream without invoking a horrible backlash. I don't know how people can immediately eat ice cream after a tonsillectomy,I couldn't for a long time. The only foods that actually felt pleasurable were Popsicles and Beef broth. YTMV. The Redwood is now a Maple,and I think I am over the worst of it now. I now believe that it should be mandatory for every kid to get their tonsils taken out, because it is very much worse as an adult. I never even knew a throat could feel like that.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Type 1, Live! on Fear Factor
I just had to do it.
Mainly, because there was a singular lack of sane people around to talk me out of it. Everyone else was at Disney, or the FFL hotel. It was just me, so I had made up my mind to do whatever I wanted to do.
The late afternoon rain fell in sheets, turning the semi-backed Orlando sod into a lake, once again.
"Lisence, please," the girl at the stand requests.
I whip out my lisence, stand on the scales.At 5"2, I barely qualify heightwise(5" to 6"2) and at X lbs, lets just say I am at the lower end of the weight requirements.
"Come on over here."
We stand around, filling out forms. The questions are invasive, personal,not for the faint of heart.
Do you have a fear of crowds?
Do you have a fear of embarressing yourself in front of 2000 people?
Do you have any medical condition that might be aggravated by excessive jerking, etc?
Do you have asthma?
Are you pregnant?
Do you relinquesh rights to sue Universal Studios should you be injured/maimed/killed?
Do you have any issues with seeing your body in Spandex?(unforseen pscyhological effects)
Etc....
And then, mini boot camp. We all do jumping jacks for five minutes, stretches for another five.(although it felt like alot longer)Apparently, the purpose of this pointless exercise was to weed out the seriously unfit among us.(of which I am one but it actually didn't weed me out)
Further selection down to ten people. We all crowd around a small tv screen to view what we'd be getting into. Due to PC and all that jazz, they've got to take one girl, and I am more then happy to be that girl.
Me. Five big, hunky guys. Yeah, I won't be winning but I figure its the showing up and trying that counts.
It's a weird feeling as we all march back to the trailer and are met by a friendly assisstant and EMT "Joe". Three of us on one bench, three to the other. We're handed another form, more legal stuff absolving Universal Studios of any blame whatsoever should we die or win a prize BTW where should we send the body/prize? Such a comforting thought. More invasive medical questions, this one asks if I have uncontrolled diabetes. I slightly pause on that one,wondering what exactly their definition of "uncontrolled" is, but I figure they just want to know if I will pass out on stage. Which is what the general public defines "control" as, how frequently one passes out(not what their a1c is,etc.) And I won't be doing that, so I check "no". EMT Joe gives us all dour looks before rattling off things that may possibly happen to us, based on contestants past experiences. Oh boy,scary stuff. Very glad my bp and pulse aren't being recorded for this. Each of us goes back to do a quick camera shot- "Hi, I'm Heidi, and I'm going to win Fear Factor because blahblahblah!"
The assistant hands us each a container of clothes and tells us to go change. So off I go to the women's changing room.
Spandex top
Spandex shorts
Waterpark shoes
Depend type, disposable underwear.Ewww.
As well as removing insulin pump, CGM, all rings,jewerly, green FFL wristband/medical ID. You don't get any of that, nothin must impede the performing of daredevil stunts.I do leave my set/sensor in,I don't figure that matters so much. Because the show takes about an hour, I check my blood sugar(298), give a correction(on the conservative side of things, I don't want to be going low in front of 500+ people) and waddle out to the main area where its jumpsuit fitting time. A crew member helps me into my jumpsuit, and if there were any previous doubts in my mind as to whether or not I was able to breathe, now there are none. It's hot as blazes, and everything is very, very tight. But on the plus side I don't look half bad in Spandex so I'm not worried about the public mortification factor. The producer comes in, runs us all through the first scene. We all go back out to the back of the stage, climb four flights of stairs. Stage crew helps us put goggles on, tighten jumpsuits even more. I ask if it possibly has to be that tight and the stage dude just says "Yes". I'm of a differant opinion,but I don't want to become a pancake should the thing fail so I don't say anything.
Lights, camera, action!
75 feet up. I walk onto the platform, grip bar.
"Pssst, Heidi!"
I turn around. "What?"(its so noisy I can barely hear him)
"Stop bending your knees, it's not time for that yet."
(I think the stage guy is regretting his assignment)
It's hot. My hands sweat profusely, and wiping them on my shorts every five seconds fails to dry them off. And I'm nervous-will it hurt/jerk when I do fall down? Things look so much scarier up here.
3..2...1...
The platform vibrates under my feet. I bend my knees again, and attempt to death-grip said yellow bar. The platform dissapeirs. I look out over the audience, briefly, wondering if there are any other D's in attendance that day. The bar I'm hanging from slopes down, so that's even easier to lose your grip as the sweat from your palms easily slides them off.
Later, the water starts. A fine mist is sprayed at the bars, to make them even wetter and a few seconds after that begins, I'm falling falling falling towards the stage. There is no humongous jolt(much to my surprise),just like that,I'm on the ground. Everyone else falls down, and another contestant and I take the "Walk of Shame."
"So what happened out there?"
"I think I just need to go back to the gym and work on my pullups-I'll be back someday and win this!"
"I like your attitude!" (even if ain't ever gonna happen)
So other contestant and I go back to the changing rooms and wait for the show to totally end before we're released.
This clip is actually from the same day,2 shows prior(it made me decide to apply to go on FF,I was in the audience-took a video clips myself but they didn't turn out):(thankfully, I didn't have to eat any disgusting things which is what I really needed to know before I applied)
All in all, it was pretty neat, kind of like minature skydiving. I might concievable skydive one day, if it is like that. Didn't expect to win, did it for the experience. The first place prize was 4 Universal Studio tickets, 2nd place was 2. And someone in the audience gave me a thumbs up for my attempts.(I had a fan, whoo hoo!) It's kind of neat to be able to do something, even though you have diabetes,it shouldn't hold you back from doing whatever you want to do. Kept expecting the diabetes police to show up and tell me I couldn't do it,had to keep reminding myself that short of them inspecting every square inch of my body, no one knew I had diabetes and it was really none of their business as long as nothing happened.
Mainly, because there was a singular lack of sane people around to talk me out of it. Everyone else was at Disney, or the FFL hotel. It was just me, so I had made up my mind to do whatever I wanted to do.
The late afternoon rain fell in sheets, turning the semi-backed Orlando sod into a lake, once again.
"Lisence, please," the girl at the stand requests.
I whip out my lisence, stand on the scales.At 5"2, I barely qualify heightwise(5" to 6"2) and at X lbs, lets just say I am at the lower end of the weight requirements.
"Come on over here."
We stand around, filling out forms. The questions are invasive, personal,not for the faint of heart.
Do you have a fear of crowds?
Do you have a fear of embarressing yourself in front of 2000 people?
Do you have any medical condition that might be aggravated by excessive jerking, etc?
Do you have asthma?
Are you pregnant?
Do you relinquesh rights to sue Universal Studios should you be injured/maimed/killed?
Do you have any issues with seeing your body in Spandex?(unforseen pscyhological effects)
Etc....
And then, mini boot camp. We all do jumping jacks for five minutes, stretches for another five.(although it felt like alot longer)Apparently, the purpose of this pointless exercise was to weed out the seriously unfit among us.(of which I am one but it actually didn't weed me out)
Further selection down to ten people. We all crowd around a small tv screen to view what we'd be getting into. Due to PC and all that jazz, they've got to take one girl, and I am more then happy to be that girl.
Me. Five big, hunky guys. Yeah, I won't be winning but I figure its the showing up and trying that counts.
It's a weird feeling as we all march back to the trailer and are met by a friendly assisstant and EMT "Joe". Three of us on one bench, three to the other. We're handed another form, more legal stuff absolving Universal Studios of any blame whatsoever should we die or win a prize BTW where should we send the body/prize? Such a comforting thought. More invasive medical questions, this one asks if I have uncontrolled diabetes. I slightly pause on that one,wondering what exactly their definition of "uncontrolled" is, but I figure they just want to know if I will pass out on stage. Which is what the general public defines "control" as, how frequently one passes out(not what their a1c is,etc.) And I won't be doing that, so I check "no". EMT Joe gives us all dour looks before rattling off things that may possibly happen to us, based on contestants past experiences. Oh boy,scary stuff. Very glad my bp and pulse aren't being recorded for this. Each of us goes back to do a quick camera shot- "Hi, I'm Heidi, and I'm going to win Fear Factor because blahblahblah!"
The assistant hands us each a container of clothes and tells us to go change. So off I go to the women's changing room.
Spandex top
Spandex shorts
Waterpark shoes
Depend type, disposable underwear.Ewww.
As well as removing insulin pump, CGM, all rings,jewerly, green FFL wristband/medical ID. You don't get any of that, nothin must impede the performing of daredevil stunts.I do leave my set/sensor in,I don't figure that matters so much. Because the show takes about an hour, I check my blood sugar(298), give a correction(on the conservative side of things, I don't want to be going low in front of 500+ people) and waddle out to the main area where its jumpsuit fitting time. A crew member helps me into my jumpsuit, and if there were any previous doubts in my mind as to whether or not I was able to breathe, now there are none. It's hot as blazes, and everything is very, very tight. But on the plus side I don't look half bad in Spandex so I'm not worried about the public mortification factor. The producer comes in, runs us all through the first scene. We all go back out to the back of the stage, climb four flights of stairs. Stage crew helps us put goggles on, tighten jumpsuits even more. I ask if it possibly has to be that tight and the stage dude just says "Yes". I'm of a differant opinion,but I don't want to become a pancake should the thing fail so I don't say anything.
Lights, camera, action!
75 feet up. I walk onto the platform, grip bar.
"Pssst, Heidi!"
I turn around. "What?"(its so noisy I can barely hear him)
"Stop bending your knees, it's not time for that yet."
(I think the stage guy is regretting his assignment)
It's hot. My hands sweat profusely, and wiping them on my shorts every five seconds fails to dry them off. And I'm nervous-will it hurt/jerk when I do fall down? Things look so much scarier up here.
3..2...1...
The platform vibrates under my feet. I bend my knees again, and attempt to death-grip said yellow bar. The platform dissapeirs. I look out over the audience, briefly, wondering if there are any other D's in attendance that day. The bar I'm hanging from slopes down, so that's even easier to lose your grip as the sweat from your palms easily slides them off.
Later, the water starts. A fine mist is sprayed at the bars, to make them even wetter and a few seconds after that begins, I'm falling falling falling towards the stage. There is no humongous jolt(much to my surprise),just like that,I'm on the ground. Everyone else falls down, and another contestant and I take the "Walk of Shame."
"So what happened out there?"
"I think I just need to go back to the gym and work on my pullups-I'll be back someday and win this!"
"I like your attitude!" (even if ain't ever gonna happen)
So other contestant and I go back to the changing rooms and wait for the show to totally end before we're released.
This clip is actually from the same day,2 shows prior(it made me decide to apply to go on FF,I was in the audience-took a video clips myself but they didn't turn out):(thankfully, I didn't have to eat any disgusting things which is what I really needed to know before I applied)
All in all, it was pretty neat, kind of like minature skydiving. I might concievable skydive one day, if it is like that. Didn't expect to win, did it for the experience. The first place prize was 4 Universal Studio tickets, 2nd place was 2. And someone in the audience gave me a thumbs up for my attempts.(I had a fan, whoo hoo!) It's kind of neat to be able to do something, even though you have diabetes,it shouldn't hold you back from doing whatever you want to do. Kept expecting the diabetes police to show up and tell me I couldn't do it,had to keep reminding myself that short of them inspecting every square inch of my body, no one knew I had diabetes and it was really none of their business as long as nothing happened.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
10 More Awesome Iphone/Touch Apps
I really have to get caught up with the zillion and one things that have happened this month. Vacations. Birthdays. Thousands of people with type 1 diabetes(and family members) coming together. Individuals in tightly clad spandex,doing dare devil stunts. Life and sometimes-not-so-certain moments in the OR. And I'd kind of like to do it before jetting off into the wild blue European yonder(this weekend).
So this is my start.
#1. The Weather Channel. Yeah, it sounds insanely boring, but its pretty nifty to be checking out the immediate/future forcast when you don't have a tv/radio around. Cost: FREE.
#2 Password Shaker. Random password generator, to keep things interesting and un-guessable. You can store the info in the app, so you don't forget them.
Cost: FREE.
#3 Camera Zoom. Takes the standard camera option to a whole new level, you can zoom in and out while taking pictures. Very cool, I really love this app! Cost: .99
#4 Speed Bones Lite.Fun game, that helps you learn the major bones of the body. I will be getting the real version/other anatomical apps to help me with the upcoming anatomy course this fall. Cost: FREE
#5 Battery Status. Tells you how much talk time/internet/audio remaining before your iphone/itouch totally poops out. Cost: FREE
#6 MyConvert. Does almost everything, no mmol/mg/dl converter but hopefully in a future version. Cost: FREE
#7 Drivers Ed. Unseful for the newbie teen or for the older adult brushing up on general knowledge. Cost:FREE
#8 IAreaCodes. Tells you where that US call is coming from, as well as including international calling codes. Cost: FREE
#9 Time Zone Converter. At .99, this is your cheapest option(no freebies) to check on the times around the world from where you are.(if you're not near a computer) Will come in handy, should I decide to call anyone from Europe.
#10 Waterslide. A fun, summer-ish app. Cost: FREE
So this is my start.
#1. The Weather Channel. Yeah, it sounds insanely boring, but its pretty nifty to be checking out the immediate/future forcast when you don't have a tv/radio around. Cost: FREE.
#2 Password Shaker. Random password generator, to keep things interesting and un-guessable. You can store the info in the app, so you don't forget them.
Cost: FREE.
#3 Camera Zoom. Takes the standard camera option to a whole new level, you can zoom in and out while taking pictures. Very cool, I really love this app! Cost: .99
#4 Speed Bones Lite.Fun game, that helps you learn the major bones of the body. I will be getting the real version/other anatomical apps to help me with the upcoming anatomy course this fall. Cost: FREE
#5 Battery Status. Tells you how much talk time/internet/audio remaining before your iphone/itouch totally poops out. Cost: FREE
#6 MyConvert. Does almost everything, no mmol/mg/dl converter but hopefully in a future version. Cost: FREE
#7 Drivers Ed. Unseful for the newbie teen or for the older adult brushing up on general knowledge. Cost:FREE
#8 IAreaCodes. Tells you where that US call is coming from, as well as including international calling codes. Cost: FREE
#9 Time Zone Converter. At .99, this is your cheapest option(no freebies) to check on the times around the world from where you are.(if you're not near a computer) Will come in handy, should I decide to call anyone from Europe.
#10 Waterslide. A fun, summer-ish app. Cost: FREE
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