WhooHoo! A day with good readings

07:23:52   6.1  / 109  Fasting     
11:07:06   6.9  / 124  Post-Bfast  
14:07:05   4.6  /  83  Pre-Lunch   
16:56:13   6.7  / 120  Post-Lunch  
18:50:46   4.7  /  84  Pre-Tea     
21:17:53   5.7  / 103  Post-Tea    Roast beef, veggies, potatoes, gravy

Wow, I haven't had a full day of glucose readings that were in range since I had a cortisone shot a few weeks ago.

I started the day early as I had to go with Rod today - every other week on Tuesdays I have to put a form in at Centrelink. In the the last several times I've done this, I've had a late fast food breakfast, but as I was up early today, I had breakfast before we left, which apparently set the tone for the rest of the day. Neat!

I also made tea tonight even though Rod is usually the one who does any cooking of roasts. It turned out great.

I had an appt with my GP last week, and I'm still mulling over it, but while I'm adding a blog entry I may as well cover the bases with what was discussed. My memory really sucks lately so I had typed up a list, which I'm including below. My comments from the appt start with "...".

-------------
How long do the wonky glucose levels last after having had cortisone?

... Quite awhile as it's a long acting cortisone.

Have finished course of Iron tablets.

... No new prescription. Will check iron levels at next diabetes checkup (Nov) to see if there's been any change. Currently (as of 3 August) my iron levels are back up to normal.

Finished antibiotics yesterday.
Still have sinus infection, ear pain and cough
Ears - have woken up several times with them 'wet'

... Checked ears - blocked, but not infected. Checked chest, still infected. Sinus' still infected. Gave me a new prescription for another month of antibiotics. Vibramycin this time.

Rib pain - could this be weather related?

... no comment, not covered or discussed.

Having skin reactions I normally only have in summer.
Over sensitive in forehead, nose and left eye area. Very itchy.
Blisters on fingers - normally only get when it's hot and I've been sweaty.
Usually I get these two annoyances together.

... This is probably due to being ill with a long term infection.
... (I have since discovered our water bed heater setting was higher than normal, which led to night time sweats, which probably/maybe was the cause. Has settled down now.

My eyes have been quite puffy lately and have been a bit on the sticky side.
Recently noticed that my eyelashes have sorta disappeared.
Started recovery from chemo 5yrs ago... could this be why eyelashes
have disappeared?

... No idea. Will keep an eye on it.

Hands quite swollen and sore even with voltaren gel and tablets. Sometimes
fingers don't work. Like for remote control. Can only seem to use
my right hand for the remote.

... No comment, or was back to the due to being ill with long term infection.

Background sounds - pulsating (stop/start) and weak knees at the same time.
Have noticed this for awhile, but it used to be only once in awhile,
such as when getting out of the car and walking, but it's happening
more often lately and even at home. Even the tea kettle now sounds
like it's a big wheel turning. I get weak in the knees at the same
time, but not light headed or dizzy.

... Probably from being ill lately.

Extremely Forgetful. Almost forgot to mention this, but it's the main reason
for having a list in the first place. Stupid things I've done in
last few weeks - (... list removed because they're rather embarrassing).

... Also probably due to being ill. Suggested I take extra care as some of the things on the list could have been pretty deadly. Others were just stupid.

... He looked at my diabetes log book and remarked that even though I had a few highs, I also had lows on the same day and reckoned that it evened out overall and that they weren't bad stats. I don't really agree with that assessment as anything over 7.8 (140) does damage, and I had plenty of readings over this mark. But I do agree that considering I've had a cortisone shot, my readings really aren't as bad as what they could be.
-------------

So I'm on Vibramycin now for the next 4 weeks, and if the infections and odd symptoms like the weird sounds don't go away/improve, the next step is to do a cat scan of my head - mostly for the sinus areas.

It's taken me a few days (nearly a week) to sort of 'get over' the discussion, as it left me feeling like I should go home and go to bed until I'm well again. Well considering I've had this hole in my side, along with the other infections for the last several months, I'd probably be a long time in coming good, so really there's no point in just going to bed and hope to feel better in a few days. I'm much better off doing what I can, but also realising that I do need to take it a bit easier and let my body do the work it needs to in order for me to get well. Yesterday I thought I'd have a nap, but ended up catching up on over a weeks worth of Neighbours episodes that I'd recorded but hadn't watched yet, but today I did manage to have a little nap in the early afternoon. I had one of those nasty sinus headaches that wouldn't go away. A 45 minute nap helped it a lot though.

For those of you in the USA, 'Neighbours' is an Aussie soap of sorts. It's been on the air for about 20yrs and I've learned a lot from it, culture-wise. It's not at all like American soaps. I got addicted to it while recovering from chemo a few years ago, and I think it's cool that the BCNA (Breast Cancer Network Australia) pink lady fridge magnets seem to move from household to household within the show.

Tomorrow I'm adding purple streaks to my hair... it's a mousse that washes out after 10 washes. It was marked down and I bought it on a whim. I don't even think Rod noticed it in the shopping last week. He has a long day at school so I figure it's a good day to do it. At least it's something a little adventurous, and since I've had a day with my glucose levels completely within range, I reckon it's time to treat myself. :-)

Cheers!

Being a Granny in a modern world

I had the most delightful surprise on my computer this morning, my son sent me an instant message to tell me the results of the ultrasound his other half had yesterday. I've recently changed the software I use for instant messages, so was surprised to see a bubble comment in the lower portion of my screen...



Oh how exciting! I got a kick out of the fact that it asked me if I wanted to view or ignore it. Right... like I could ignore this kind of news!! So I clicked on the view box and it showed me... (you may have to click on it to go see the larger image)....



Oh wow. I had called Rod into the room to read the screen with me and get the news at the same time.


And while I'm showing off photos, I took this picture the other morning in my back garden...



The bird is a lorikeet, and so pretty. There are a few other new piccies on my flickr account, so have a mosey over there and take a look. The link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flitterg/.

Meanwhile, it's a bit late, so I'm headed for bed. G'night all!

Well that didn't work....

The weekend experiment of using foam and opsite for my dressing didn't work. The nurse thinks it got a bit 'cooked' because there was a green tinge to the exudate on the foam and on the material they use to pack my wound. Green means infection, and in this case, green is definitely NOT good for me. Sigh. And since there was a lot of exudate this time, I'll be seen by a nurse again tomorrow (normally it's every other day) just to check it and make sure it's not still green. If it is, I'll have to go see my GP. The thing is, I'm already on antibiotics (been on them for a month now), and finish them up this week. I'll probably be seeing the GP anyway this week for other issues. On the brighter side, it'll be a full month since I last had to see him. Better than once a week like it had been. And, my heat experiment also didn't go well, because the opsite doesn't allow the area to breath, by adding heat to it over the weekend, I just made it so the environment was warm and dark, which is all that's needed to give it a dark, warm, un-breathing environment to cook an infection in. Great. I'm currently back to having alion as my dressing, temporarily, at least.

My eyelashes have disappeared. I've noticed that one eye has really puffy eyelids, but was really surprised to see that my eyelashes have just vanished. When I see the GP I'll mention it as it's pretty odd.

I have a new favourite green tea blend. I still drink green tea to help keep by blood glucose levels lower, and really I'd hate to see what the levels would be without it lately as that cortisone shot I had a few weeks ago is really showing up in my test results lately. A few weeks ago I bought myself a one litre tea pot, and have worked out I can have 6 or 7 green tea bags (or various flavours) and one regular tea tossed in for the caffeine. Last week a couple of green tea samples arrived from Lipton - they have two new flavours - apple and peach. Both are quite nice, but I'm more partial to the apple. It really have a nice taste. I've never been keen on peach, and that still holds, but if it's mixed with vanilla and chai green teas, it's pretty good. A bit like a liquid guilt free peach cobbler. My favourite blend of late is:

1 Regular black tea bag
2 plain green tea bags
1 New Deli brand Chai green tea (it's very strongly cinnamony tasting)
3 vanilla flavoured green tea
1 apple flavoured green tea

I let the mix brew and then to make a cup of tea, I pour half a cup of just boiled water in my cup with two equals, and then fill the cup the rest of the way with the brewed tea. It is VERY YUMMY. It's like an apple pie.

On the computer side of things, since Rod told me all about it and showed me how cool it is, I installed a VMware server and added a Windows virtual machine so now I can have access to all the programs I've had to use my laptop for, such as my glucose meter, the Turbo Lister software for eBay sales, and of course Publisher for clients that send me files in this format. The neat thing is my linux box has far more memory and a faster cpu than my laptop so all these things run much smoother/faster, and I don't have to change position or keyboards to access my Windows computer.

If my eldest son is reading this.... vmware would certainly be the way to go if you want Mrs Eldest Son to use your computer and she wants to use Windows. It's much nicer than wine in that everything just works.

Well, I've been falling asleep typing this, so I better get it uploaded so I can get to bed. Tomorrow's another early day.

New Experiments, updates

I'm trying a new experiment. When I had my reconstruction, after I'd been returned to my room, they brought in a heater and made my room incredibly, uncomfortably warm. This was to help the blood vessels do their job in returning (or starting) blood flow into the reconstruction area. Over the course of the last 5 months, a couple of times the RDNS nurses have mentioned that whenever my dressings are changed, it cools the wound down, and it apparently takes several hours for it to get back up to the required temperature for healing to take place. I think I may have mentioned that I have either cracked my ribs again or the formerly broken ribs are now extremely sensitive to weather changes. Anyway, they hurt, and one of the things that helps make it feel better is keeping a heat pack on the area. The area where it hurts is just above where the wound is, so I'm thinking maybe the heat is helping both the ribs and the wound. I think after 5 months with this thing, if someone told me that standing on my head and singing Waltzing Matilda would make it heal faster - I'd try it!

My DDIL (Dearest Daughter in Law) will be having an ultrasound on the 23rd of the month and needs to decide whether or not to find out the sex of my grandchild. Oh, what a tough quandary. I didn't know the sex of my first child or my third, but middle son was a show off on not one, but two or three ultrasounds... and no one asked if I wanted to know or not, they just blurted out the news. So I've had it both ways. I think there's something special about not knowing, but in some ways it helped me to know a bit about who was kicking me from the inside... at least he had a real name!

I'm a bit wishy washy over which type of baby I'd like for my first grandchild. Happy and healthy would be the best kind! I'd just love a little girl to spoil, but a boy to spoil would be good too. The one thing that amazes me is this means my maiden name will live on in the USA for another generation. I've never had much thought about these things, but it's such a cool thing to realise. Like wow, a part of me, and all my family for generations behind me will be part of this new human being.

Rod needed more memory for his computer for some of the things he's studying right now, so we ordered him a couple gig... turns out the bios on his motherboard won't let him use it. So he gave it to me - and I've spent the last several days trying to work out why my CPU runs so high all the time. I've managed to get it down using some Tweaking Ubuntu sites I've found, but it still isn't right. I also lost my webcam for a day because Rod, who never seems to screw any computer component in, added a screw to my video capture card. It caused the opposite side of the card to not make contact with the board, so for a day or so my web cams weren't working. We managed to get it sorted in the end though, and he even apologized. I said I'm sure I send him around in far more circles and for far more time than what I spent trying to get it going. It's true, too.

So in the meantime, he's been working on getting settled with a newer motherboard and dealing with a corrupt partition, losing half his data (maybe), and of course in the midst of all this trying to actually study and do his homework. Ultimately the set up that he'll have is using Linux as his base system, and use VMware for Windows and any other linux flavours that he needs to work with for his classes.

I recently bought a new clock for in the bedroom. It's small, but the numbers display on it are huge, which is good, because I can see it without my glasses on. It has 8 alarm settings, but unfortunately the instructions don't really say how to disable the alarms without having to reset them completely when you want them again. So I'm just letting it tell me it's 8am every day and if nothing else, the early mornings help to keep my diet a bit more on track. As in breakfast in the morning etc. Both yesterday and today I've managed to miss seeing the frost on the trees by probably only minutes as the branches all had droplets of water but no frost. The grass was frosty though. Very pretty.

This weekend, I'm having a bit of a break from having the RDNS nurses. My skin has reacted again to the Alion dressing adhesive, so at the moment we're using a type of foam over the wound and using opsite tape to keep it in place. If you've ever had an IV, the clear plastic they use over top is what opsite is. It's a bit stretchable and for now at least my skin doesn't react to it. So by using the foam and opsite, it's giving my skin a rest from the adhesive in the Alion, and also allows 2 full days between changes. This in turn helps it stay warm and hopefully helps promote healing as well. It also means not having to worry about being up and dressed for the weekend nurse visit, but here I am up anyway.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Blood Test Results

Just a quick Whoo Hoo! Before I go to bed...

My iron is back to normal again.
My HBA1C was 6.2 ---- the same as it was in April!

I'm really thrilled with this news.

Cheers!!

Some Creative Therapy

Check out the new logo on the sidebar! I've joined a new diabetes community named Tu Diabetes. Someone described it as 'Like MySpace on insulin'... and there's a Flickr group for it with a challenge of "... write in your hand, a one-word feeling about being touched by diabetes and take a picture of yourself". I took 2 pics, which are shown below. When I did the second one, I thought what a neat idea for a logo for the Random Experiments blog, and so I created it. Took only a few minutes but I like it. The group on Flickr is "TuDiabetes.com" and really worth a look - there are some neat images and feelings there. It's a bit like PostSecret for diabetics. I found it very therapeutic and inspiring.

Here are my two entries:


Click on the images to view them on Flickr and read my descriptive text.

I saw the Gastro specialist last Friday, and am pleased to report that the polyp removed during the colonoscopy was benign. Yay! She had a few suggestions for adding fibre to my diet (since I take pain pills and these cause constipation), and then was curious why I haven't had a follow up blood test for my anemia. So she ordered one and tacked on the HBA1C test as well just to, in her words, get a bit of a snapshot. Good idea, I thought, mainly because it would be a good idea to find out if the anemia is any better or not. I suspect the 'or not' based on how I've been feeling, the constant infections and slow healing. I'll get the results of these tests hopefully tomorrow. I rang for them today but my GP had left for the day.

Last week I had a few days where the ribs just above where my wound is were hurting intensely. I thought maybe I'd cracked them again (these are in the same area as I kept breaking a few years ago - a result of having had radio thereapy). I kept heat on them for a couple of days, and after the weather cleared up, so did the pain. I think the ribs are sensitive to the weather, as if they were cracked again, I know it normally takes six weeks (for anyone not me) for them to heal.

One of the days I was using a heat pack (the type you boil for 10 minutes to liquefy it), I occidentally boiled the pan dry and wrecked the gel pack. Fortunately I didn't start a fire, and caught it in enough time that the pan was able to be saved. I've ordered two new gel packs and they should arrive tomorrow.

I've had a couple of good days in the last few weeks where I've probably over extended myself trying to catch up on things I haven't been able to do in awhile. So for the last two days I've started taking a nap around 3:30 for an hour or so. Hopefully this will help give my body some extra 'down time' so it can do the repairs for my side. It'd be nice. By the way, I've now had the hole in my side for 5 months now.

Next month I can get my prescription for my eye glasses updated -- last year the right eye was so vastly different they only gave me a half strength prescription, so this year I can get the proper prescription, and my eyes certainly have changed a bit. As this won't be covered at all by Medicare - they only pay for prescription glasses once every 2yrs - I have to pay for it myself. So today I was browsing online looking to get some pricing ideas and stumbled into Vision Direct Australia. Here's a link to the glasses I'll most likely be ordering. The frames are pink and quite similar to the pair I have now. Almost all of the things I planned on getting for the lenses (scratch and smudge proof coating, anti-reflective coating, and 100% UV Protection) are included in the price with the exception of transitions, which will only cost an additional $45 (instead of over $100). Total cost, including transitional and postage: AU$ 155.90 - considering the same would cost me well over $300-400, this is an excellent deal. They also accept PayPal, which is very very cool. And for those of you reading in the USA, they sell world wide and the shipping price is excellent.

Anyway, that's me. Rod is back at TAFE and we're back to keeping early morning hours again.

27 July: Catching up

I see I've got a bit behind in posting updates. I've had a very busy couple weeks along with being a bit focused on making changes on the blood glucose section of my website. Not so much the public side, but making it easier for me to use for adding information.

Things I've learned this week in regards diabetes and glucose levels --- not all brands/types of tortilla's have the same amount of carbs. I had tried some tortillas a few months ago and it gave me much better results than I have if I use bread. But the last few weeks I've noticed my Saturday night after tea readings have been abnormally high. Turns out the tortillas I've been using the last 3 weeks had about 3x the number of carbs as the other brand/type I was using. OH. That'll teach me to read labels!

Last week I had several medical appointments. Monday I saw the plastics team to check my wound, and it's still healing at the same rate (about a centimetre a month), and since there's nothing for them to do but wait, they made my next appointment in 3 months time. I still am to have RDNS change the dressing every other day (including weekends). Wednesday I had the endoscopy and colonoscopy. I don't remember much about it, except that the drugs they gave me lasted all day and I felt very mellow and lovely for the rest of the day. They found only one polyp and have sent that in for a pathology report. I won't know anything more until I see the Gastro specialist on Friday (3 August).

A week ago Friday I had the ultrasound to see if I had fluid in my bursa (hip). I did, so they did an ultrasound guided injection of a painkiller and cortisone (Celestone). I was a bit hyper for the rest of the day and the next, but fortunately it seems to have levelled off and I'm fine. It also seems to have worked as I've only had a couple incidences where my leg has just 'disappeared' out from under me.

I went to our local Breast Stroke meeting last Friday with Jen, and took along a pair of shorts and t-shirt. When it was time for the pool/spa, I sat on the edge of the spa and dangled my legs in the water. It was lovely. While I have this hole in my side, swimming is out of the question, but at least I can enjoy getting my feet and legs wet. Jen came for tea and that was nice - she always enthuses over Rod's chips and that of course makes him feel good. And they are nice chips too.

This week I saw the Diabetes Education Nurse and she said even though I've had a few highs here and there, the readings are excellent and much much better than what she anticipated they'd be with my having had a cortisone injection last week. She's pretty sure my next HBA1C readings should be around 6.3 or so, which is interesting because that's what my BGL section on my website says too, and I didn't get a chance to print out anything from my website. We discussed the possibility that it's been the green tea that I drink that have kept my levels from spiking up after the cortisone injection, and she thinks it's quite possible. Whatever it is she said, keep doing what you're doing because it's working. That was great.

On the way out of Noarlunga Hospital (where my appt with the diabetes nurse was), I noticed a used book sale being held - 10c to 20c a book, so I grabbed a few for Bookcrossing and added my coins to the box. Yesterday I had an appt with Centrelink and on the way home I had Rod stop at the hospital and I dropped off a bag of books for the sale that I've had in our boot for quite awhile. It felt good to 'give something back' since I haven't done a lot of Bookcrossing lately and that's another bag of books that are now out in the world and not in my way.

Wednesday this past week I went in to see my GP, prepared to have a blood test for my diabetes, cholesterol and anemia. I'd even fasted from Midnight the night before. He decided not to test me though, because I still have an infection and I'm not well enough to have the test as it'd give wonky results. A few weeks ago, I was given a 7 day prescription for antibiotics. This was followed with another 7 day supply of another type. When I returned after finishing though, he changed me to another type of antibiotic, this time for 2 weeks. These ended last week, and since then all the things that have been infected for the last two months or longer returned. This time it's a sinus, ear and chest infection. So now I have a 30 day supply of antibiotics. Hope it does the job!! My left ear is totally blocked (and very very painful) and the right one is partially blocked. So now I'm taking decongestants too. I'm really sick of this. The last time I had a whole winter of sinus infections was right before I was diagnosed with BC, but I'll bet that had to do with diabetes too.

After not having the blood test yesterday, as I'd been fasting from the night before, I was quite hungry so went to the shopping centre and bought a large mug of tea, and a spinach and cheese roll. I then wandered around the shopping centre while waiting for my prescriptions to be filled. I ended up buying myself a new wallet, and ... I didn't buy it, but I looked at baby clothes. I found the cutest little plain linen dress (?) that looked like the clothes I know I had when I was a baby as I inherited them for use on my dolls. I got just a little bit teary-eyed. Yes, that's right Granny Gaelyne is hoping for a girl, I guess. I think it's going to be very hard to be a long distance granny too. If my window shopping emotions are anything to go on.

Last, I have updated our Webcam page so it only updates the images on the page as well as the time and temperature every 15 seconds rather than refreshing the whole page. It works great, and it's something I sorted out how to do on my own. I found one example that worked with one image and did some changes and tweaks so I could use it for all 3 of our current cams. Rod also changed the Doorcam camera recently so that it uses the better colour night time camera. We still a USB cam I haven't tried since updating to Ubuntu, and also have an outside camera with a slight flaw (it seems to show a Martian landscape) that we haven't put into use yet.

Well I think I'm done catching up for the moment. I'm off to take a nap now... as I've been typing I've been getting more and more drowsy, in a good way. Cheers! ZZZzzzzzz

12 July: Readings & Comments

5.5  /  99  Bedtime  
6.0  / 108  Fasting  
6.9  / 124  Post-Bfast  1x crumpet toast w/ liverwurst
5.5  /  99  Pre-Lunch  
8.4  / 151  Post-Lunch  Mac & Cheese
5.9  / 106  Post-Tea    KFC.  Plain gravy instead of potatoes & gravy. 
                        Sprint-walked halls 5x

This evening I tried a couple different experiments. First up, we had decided to have KFC tonight, and I was trying to find ways to accommodate it without it driving up my glucose levels. I wondered if it were possible to just get gravy instead of potatoes and gravy. I love KFC gravy, and mostly I use it to dip my chips (french fries) into it. So I went to their website and checked out their menu and found that yes, you can get just the gravy. Cool. So no more mashed potatoes AND chips from KFC. And I really enjoyed just the gravy too as it meant I could share with Rod and not feel greedy about it as the container was a little bigger than the small mashed potatoes and gravy.

As I often slip up and enjoy watching telly after our evening meal, the last few days I've made my first cuppa green tea and have had it with my meal. I'm the type of person who doesn't really drink much during a meal, but after the meal, it's nice to have a sip of something. So having the green tea already there is a bonus.

My next experiment has to do with exercise. As my diabetes is 'Diet and Exercise' controlled, I probably should do something about the exercise side of things as I haven't been getting as much activity in, what with the hole still in my side and all. I can't use my stationary bike as the up and down movement of my legs aggravates the wound, but I can do some walking. The only problem is - it's winter and cold, wet and rainy, making going for a walk not that appealing. Recently I read an article about how studies have been done that prove that doing a few short bursts of 'fast, intense' exercise interspersed amongst regular paced exercise actually does more good than say riding the exercise bike for 30 minutes at a regular pace. Such as riding the bike at a normal pace for a minutes followed by a minute of really fast intense riding, and then back to normal pace, repeated for 20 minutes does more good (weight lost, etc) than 30 minutes of doing the same at a slower pace. The article I was reading suggested you could try this with walking as well, and that's where my idea of using my hallway for sprint walking came from. So every time I have to go to the loo, (which is near one end of the hallway), afterwards, I go to the laundry room and then sprint walk all the way down the hall to the window in our bedroom. We just measured the hall, and it's about 15 metres, so if I do the sprint walk twice, that's 30 metres, and so on. What with drinking my green tea all day, I tend to visit the loo at least once every hour or two, so even if I did the sprint walk thing twice each time, it could add up. One of the interesting things is I've found that doing this actually leaves me feeling refreshed and more energetic. I just tear down the hallway like I'm about to catch the bus and running late. It feels good, and just look at my reading tonight - even with having KFC, it was only 5.9! I can do this in any type of weather, and I don't need anything special for it and don't break a sweat or run out of breath. Cool. You can read a newspaper article about Interval training here.

Next week I go in for a check up with the clinic at Flinders for the hole in my side. That's Monday. And then on Wednesday I have the colonoscopy that was cancelled last month. Thursday I have an ultrasound on my hip, and if it has bursitis in it, I'll have a cortisone shot injected into it. I'm hoping that it's just arthritis and not bursitis as I really don't relish what cortisone can do to my mental health (I have several family members who are bi-polar and cortisone can make them manic), nor do I like the idea that it can make my glucose levels go haywire. I've barely got my levels under control at the moment so throwing a spanner in the works isn't my idea of fun. My doctor said that the good outweighs the bad as if my leg is giving out on me (which it was doing every day for a few weeks - but it hasn't since I saw the doctor about it), the pain and fear as it happens can also affect my glucose levels and falling over just really isn't a good thing either. Fair enough, but everything I've read on the subject suggests most doctors try other methods of dealing with the bursitis first before going to cortisone injections. So I'm a bit unsure on this. The potential diagnosis is Trochanteric Bursitis.

I've been working on updating the area of my website where I update my glucose levels, and it's coming along nicely. For a long time I wanted to have something similar to my Diabetes Record book where it just shows one day at a time in a neat orderly fashion. I have this working well now, with options to edit or delete records, and just added the ability to Email readings to my Sugarstats.com account. Tonight I added the 'blog format' so I can copy and paste the details into this blog easier. One of the things I still need to work are the links for the next and previous days so I can go from one day to the next without changing data in the drop down box. Once I have the Next/Previous links working right I'll copy the code to the public area of my website and remove the edit/delete/Email options from it. That way instead of showing a list of the last 30 entries, it will have the logbook format and only show one day at a time. Eventually I'll be adding in more graphs as well. In the process of working on this, I'm also teaching myself how to make use of session data which eventually will be used instead of using the methods I'm currently employing to keep bits of data going to the various functions of the program. OK, that was probably more 'geek' than you needed to know. Basically, every time I work on my personal website, I also try to learn new programming skills, and that's what I've been doing.

How am I doing/feeling? Some days I feel great. Other days not so hot. It's hard to put a finger on anything though. I'm still on antibiotics for a chest infection and having weird earraches that may be related to arthritis of my jaw. My glucose readings have been quite strange at times too. One day this week my after lunch reading was pretty normal, but then my reading before dinner was 13.9 - which made absolutely no sense to me. I hadn't snacked, and I'd been busy. So at this point, I'm just trying to get re-organised with being more strict with my diet and introducing some exercise so that maybe I can get my readings to stay back down in the 5-6 level (under 100 mg/dl) rather than spiking at various times of the day.

Well, my other half has retired for the evening so I think I will go join him.

Cheers!

2 July: Readings & Comments

8.2  / 148  Pre-Lunch       14:14:48  Still high.
10.3  / 185  Post-Lunch      16:20:44  2 tortillas with cheese.  ???
6.6  / 119  Pre-Tea         19:13:20  
7.6  / 136  Post-Tea        21:20:36  Pizza. Excellent considering recent highs
6.6  / 118  Fasting         08:41:37  
8.1  / 146  Post-Bfast      11:48:07  Crumpet toast & PB ???
6.3  / 113  Pre-Lunch       12:52:06  
4.6  /  83  Post-Lunch      16:04:18  Cottage Cheese & butternut squash. Vacuumed
4.3  /  78  Pre-Tea         17:09:46  Feeling shaky. Had slice cheese b4 cooking tea
5.9  / 107  Post-Tea        19:50:32  Yay!  Turkey Balls, Avocado tomato, Carb Options noodles

The above doesn't really show it, but I've been struggling with my glucose levels the last week. I thought it might have been because of using a different brand of green tea, but unless it left a lasting problem, it probably wasn't the new tea at all, but some other problem like an infection, which is perplexing because I'm still on antibiotics. In fact I don't finish them until tomorrow. I was also thinking that the tea wasn't working but then realised it probably WAS working and what would my readings have been without it? Being that it's been VERY consistent except when I've been ill, I think I should give the tea the benefit of the doubt.

I ordered a new vacuum cleaner last week and it arrived today. It's a heck of a lot better than the one I had, which I wouldn't even give away. I do need to hassle the place I ordered from because it was supposed to come with a full sized turbo head and it only came with the mini size. It works great though. Quite pleased with it.

There's a ton of things I need to be doing so I should probably get to it. I was so far behind on updating my glucose stats that I had to go all the way back to last Thursday - a total of 32 numbers to add. Oh, this reminds me. I've been using a new site in conjunction with my own for blood glucose readings - the site is sugarstats.com, and they have a pretty nice system. I'm sort of studying it so I can borrow some of the features it uses and add it to my own personal web update system. At the moment though, I'm using both my own site and it so I can get a feel for it and really give it a good check out. One of the nice things is that you can have other people view your details, but you have to create an account for them. They only see your details and can't edit anything. The other thing I like is that it uses both mmol and mg/dl formats and you can switch between them... well the account owner can, but visitors can't. It'd be nice if visitors could view in the format they are used to. For instance, my family lives in the USA where the standard is mg/dl and I live in Australia where the standard is mmol. It'd be nice if family could just see the stats as mg/dl.

Another item on my to-do list is to update my details for the next election, which will be in October or November, but the dates for when you can update your details can change depending on when the election is called. So if I get it done now I'm done.

Better get cracking, I reckon. Cheers!

21 June: Readings & Comments

5.1  /  91  Pre-Lunch       16:27:15  
7.2  / 129  Fasting         08:10:22  
9.3  / 167  Post-Bfast      11:37:10  Crumpet toast & PB. Fever.
5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch       13:05:43  
6.8  / 122  Fasting         10:01:41  
6.3  / 113  Post-Bfast      12:51:39  Crumpet toast & PB
8.1  / 145  Post-Tea        20:14:54  KFC
6.7  / 120  Bedtime         23:51:35  
7.8  / 140  Fasting         08:47:36  Fever.
8.3  / 149  Post-Bfast      11:33:04  Fever.

I haven't been very good about readings lately. Probably because I'm a bit discouraged since being feverish makes my readings high and there's not much I can do that will fix it.

I was supposed to have the colonoscopy this past Tuesday, but it was cancelled (halfway through a liquid diet day, but fortunately before I had to take the laxatives for it). Now I don't know when it will be as I go to the end of the waiting list. It was cancelled because the nurses are on strike (they call it 'Industrial Action' here).

As to being feverish, I've been taking antibiotics since a couple weeks ago, and they worked well on the hole in my side. My back no longer has a build up of fluid and it feels better. The nurses tell me it looks good. However, it hasn't taken care of a lovely sinus infection (in the last 5-6 years I tend to have a constant sinus infection over the course of the whole winter), and a chest infection. So I went to see my GP today and we changed to Vibramycin from Keflex for the antibiotics and I got a new prescription for ventolin. My other puffers were well and truly expired. I don't use them very often. The expiration date on the 2 I had were for 2005!

Not a lot of news, I know, but not a lot to share, really. I will try to do better at testing more often.

OH, I'd installed Wine on my Linux box in hopes of using the Windows software I have for my glucose meter so I could use MY computer instead of the Laptop (which is a Windows machine) for updating my readings. It worked great the first few times, and then there was an update to Wine and suddenly accessing the meter was VERY VERY slow. There's been another update, and now it doesn't read my meter at all. So I'm back stuck having to use the laptop for updating my online database for my glucose readings. Really not to happy about that. Hopefully the next Wine update will have it fixed.

13 June: Readings & Comments

6.8  / 123  Fasting         09:05:16  
7.9  / 142  Post-Bfast      11:49:21  crumpet (not crumpet toast) w/ pb 
7.8  / 141  Pre-Lunch       13:38:31  Pretty high for pre-lunch.
8.4  / 152  Post-Lunch      16:00:29  What the?  Tuna on tortillas.  Fever
4.4  /  79  Pre-Tea         19:13:05  
5.5  /  99  Post-Tea        21:39:28  Ham, Potatoes, Cheese Bake. Feeling VERY shaky. Fever.

I didn't sleep well again last night and managed to 'catch' my temperature rise several times, as opposed to waking up in a cold sweat after the fever breaks. It's weird because it goes up for several minutes and then drops down to below normal and the pattern repeats all night long.

Aside from not having a good night's sleep, I had a pretty good day - quiet, but not feeling really sick or anything like that. My readings were definitely weird today... much higher than normal during the day (for me) and this evening fairly low. The fever came back about an hour ago (9pm or so) and has done it's usual rise and fall a few times, but the really weird thing is suddenly tonight my knees are feeling like they want to give out on me and I have that weird 'not enough oxygen' feeling (light-headedness?). Anyway, aside from my body being a twit, *I* feel fine. I've stayed busy on quiet projects and made tea (wasn't too hard). Meanwhile Rod came home and fell asleep this afternoon and then after tea has gone back for another rest. He seems to be taking the rest I don't feel I need (but probably do).

Anyway, tomorrow is my clinic appt and we'll see how that goes. I was planning to take the bus, so I hope this 'weak in the knees' crap goes away by then. Anyway, I'm going to call it a night and go to bed.

Better care

Last night I didn't sleep well. I woke up a few times after having had fever dreams and was drenched in sweat. The RDNS nurse and I had another round, but she assured me she'd still be looking after me and wouldn't make me go to the clinic. I don't drive, I take pain pills that make me not really safe to be taking even public transportation (just look at the number of times I've taken the wrong bus from Flinders Hospital and ended up at Colonnades instead of home).

The nurse wrote a note for my doctor listing fever, pain and purulent exudate as well as pockets of fluid in my back and asked for advice about antibiotics for me. (Nurses have to be careful not to step on toes - they can't come out and say I think she has an infection, give her antibiotics). So I made an appt, but couldn't get in see my own GP. I ended up with Mum's GP, Dr. Liew. He's not as bad as I thought. He actually looked at the hole in my side and did a culture. The results of the culture won't be back until Tuesday, but meanwhile he put me on strong antibiotics and told me to ring on Tuesday for the culture results. I'll also stop in and get a print out of the results to take with me for my appt next Thursday. So, more than a week after I developed signs of an infection, at least I finally have some positive steps taken that should lessen its damage, I hope. I'm feeling a bit run down today, and even took a nap earlier. It's quite painful as well, so I've just been pretty much taking it easy. I just really want this to go away. Soon.

I'm also down on the roster for every other day including weekend days. That's good.

I was left without waterproof dressing again, but that's OK as the wound can breath this way. I'll have Rod put Opsite over it on the weekend when I want to have a shower. Meanwhile, let it breath and heal.

The brown soft warm winter wrap I ordered on Mothers Day arrived today. OMG, it is SO soft, and So warm. It's like walking around being hugged. Or a bit of guilty pleasure... wandering around wearing a blanket around my shoulders. And it has pockets!

I learned today that my son Chris was given a Citizenship Award during his graduation ceremony and that one of the teachers told him later that the vote was unanimous. I am SO proud of that kid. There was even a speech given before giving him the award. Oh, how cool. I'm so bummed I wasn't there to see it, but I'm also just over the moon for him. This is really fantastic. He tells me someone took a movie of the ceremony and that if he can get a copy, he'll have a friend of the family make a DVD of it for me. That's be great! He's also going to try to get a copy of the speech that was given. I'd love to see that. I think I might burst with pride if I don't watch out!

Beyond a Joke!

I'm fed up. I'm fudging well fed up. Last week I started experiencing more pain above and below the 'hole' I have in my side, and the nurse noticed that I had a few areas that seemed like they might be pockets of fluid developing. I also had a rash in the exact shape of the best bandaging they've been using on me. The rash only started because instead of seeing me daily or even every other day they switched me to every other day during the week and not at all on weekends. One Friday my current nurse didn't put the protective wipe they use on my skin before putting on the bandaging and that's when the rash started. So last week Friday she left me with bandaging that wasn't waterproof and I had to endure a weekend of no showers.

Last Friday I rang the clinic to find out what they wanted me to do and they more or less fudged me off and told me to see my GP. He couldn't see the pocket fluids (you'd need to feel it rather than see it visually and you can really feel it). He gave me a talking to about what to watch for in case the pain in the area turned out to be shingles because it's the area of the body where the blisters usually appear. And sent me on my merry way with a script for more Fenac - an anti-inflamatory I take for my arthritis. So come Monday, I hadn't had a shower since Friday morning, and the dressing leaked during the night. Ugh. Same thing yesterday. I woke up completely wet on that side from leakage and when the nurse came to change it she remarked at how much more exudite my wound had, and used twice as much Seasorb inside. Well, last night I had another leak because the dressing she was putting on was tiny - only 10cmx10cm and didn't hold the exudite.

All the other RDNS nurses I've had have always said if I had a problem to ring her. So this morning I rang to let her know it was leaking and she walked in and the first thing she said was 'You know we're not really a call out service.' WTF???? I like this nurse as a person, usually, but as a nurse she's a disaster. She's very untidy and today I found the rest of the aquacel (another absorbent thing they stick inside me) on the floor and it had to be thrown away. Along with that, there were other bits and pieces on the floor as well.

When she changed my dressing today she said it was even wetter than the day before and found that by pressing on one of the pockets she was able to get out pus and blood from my wound. She called the clinic for me and was only able to leave a message, but said if they rang her back she would let me know the results. She also said she would see me tomorrow and access how often I should be seen in light of the fact Monday is a public holiday (Queen's birthday). I may need to be seen on Sunday and then Tuesday, Thurs, Saturday, etc.

She rang me back about half an hour ago and the Wound care clinic says I'm not their problem. I'm to be seen next week by Plastics. And Plastics said that their normal clinic day is Monday but because of the holiday on Monday the nearest time they could see me would be next Thursday ... which is when I have my appointment! I was polite on the phone, but when I hung up, I said to myself, this thing is going to explode, and they're going to be telling me I should have had it looked at sooner - to which I'll say I TRIED, and no one wanted anything to do with it! It's not like I'm a rude patient. OK, today I had to stand up for myself (I'm still ticked with the 'We're not a call out service' remark), but as soon as she looked at my dressing she had to eat her words. I wasn't being a nuisance, I NEEDED it taken care of.

It's on my side, so it's not like I can do it myself, and being a deep 10cm hole, we need someone professional to deal with it. Otherwise, I jolly well would deal with it on my own or with Rod's help. But not when it's a 10cm tunnel! I've always been nice to the nurses in the clinic. I made a bookmark for one of them, and they always know me and more than one has remarked that I have the patience of a saint.

I'm tired of this merry go round I didn't ask to be on, and I'm fudging fed up. Yesterday was the 3 month mark. I've been dealing with this for 3 months plus 2 weeks prior to that when I was feverish and ill but had to wait until it came to a head THEN before anyone really paid attention and did something about it. Looks like I'm travelling the same road again now and I want off.

GRRR. Well we're off to do grocery shopping and pick up some KFC for tea.

Weight Loss

Vicki put a few photos on Flicker today from her grand-daughters 11th birthday a few years ago. For her birthday, Lakita wanted to have a girls baking day, so April and I took over Vicki's kitchen with her and her sister. We made a whole day of baking lovely goodies which would be part of the goodies for her birthday party the next day. It was a wonderful day and fun to spend time with two girls. April was amazed with my patience. Yeah, right - it's hard to yell when you're full of chocolatey goodness!

What astonished me was how much weight I've lost since that piccy was taken. I've asked Vicki how old Lakita is and when I sort out how long ago the pic was taken, I'll add that info here.

It's so heartening to be able to really see some tangible progress. I know I have a lot of pairs of pants that no longer fit as they're too large, and equally as many pairs that used to be too small that do fit now, but these two photos really sum up the changes for me.

Before (2003 ?):


After (Jan 2007):

31 May: Readings & Comments

5.8  / 104  Fasting         08:25:23  
6.7  / 120  Post-Bfast      11:47:28  
5.7  / 102  Pre-Lunch       13:14:33  
3.9  /  71  Pre-Tea         19:36:02  
6.3  / 114  Post-Tea        21:42:35  Beef and Black been stirfry
5.9  / 106  Bedtime         00:05:10  
6.9  / 125  Fasting         10:22:04  
6.6  / 118  Pre-Lunch       12:58:05  
5.3  /  96  Post-Lunch      15:09:22  sausage roll

Tonight we're off to see the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra perform the music of Queen. If it's anything like the concerts they did of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, we're in for a treat.

[Added Later: WOW, what a treat it was too. We had no idea when we booked our tickets that we were going to wind up in first row sets, in the center!! A bit hard to see the whole orchestra but it was excellent otherwise.]

In today's mail, I received something very very precious to me... my middle son's Graduation invitation along with a great personal invitation. I wonder if Kerstin had any invitations? Chris had told me to expect mail and that it was of great importance to him, and he's right. A few years ago he was a faceless teenager in the vast sea of Arthur Hill High School students, and next week he's graduating with honours at Omni, a much smaller, MUCH more personal school. I am so deeply proud of him for this achievement!

Rod is still waiting for a parcel from the states to arrive. I'm currently working on a website for Breaststroke (the support group I'm part of), and otherwise keeping busy.

As an experiment, I've now tried Xfce as my window manager on my recently updated Feisty Fawn Ubuntu operating system. It's lovely and light. For a day or two I played with having the background windows fade to transparent, which was cool, but it's a bit time consuming as it shifts between windows so I gave that up, but it was fun to play with.

Speaking of fun to play with, I have bought myself a sleeping kitten. No it's not real, but it looks sorta real (aside from the fact it has no whiskers!) and looks PURRfect sitting on my wood rocking chair, complete with a multicoloured afghan draped over the back of the chair. I can also pick up the curled up kitten and give it a bit of a cuddle. It's not the same as the real thing, but as furniture decorations go, it's pretty cool.

24 May: Readings & Comments & OH MY!

8.3  / 149  Fasting         08:08:08  
6.9  / 124  Pre-Bfast       08:40:03  Really fast drop from fasting reading.
7.7  / 139  Post-Bfast      11:14:01  Crumpet & PB (square - had both halves)
4.8  /  87  Pre-Lunch       14:14:02  
5.4  /  97  Post-Lunch      16:24:14  2x vietnamese cold rolls, cottage cheese
5.2  /  94  Pre-Tea         17:45:49  
6.9  / 124  Post-Tea        19:58:47  Chilli, tortilla, sour cream, cheese

My fasting reading was pretty high, at 8.3, but even weirder was that it took a plunge and within 32 minutes it was down to 6.9. I've never had that happen before. Normally it starts out reasonably low then after a cup of regular black tea (with milk) it goes up a bit. Today it was the opposite. Rod made a comment as we were having our coffee/tea that I had some colour today. The next thing I knew my heart was racing and I had the shakes. Not thinking of my glucose readings, I figured it just struck me that hard that he'd noticed how pale I've been the last couple of months. But no, it was my glucose. Have no idea why it would have dropped like that. Strange!

My appointment with the Gastro specialist went fine. She took a bit of a history, read all the results of my recent blood tests and had a bit of an examination. I will have both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy done. Basically, that's both ends in the same day. Great. Anyway, I don't have to worry about it as it'll be a couple of months before it happens.

The bus was early to take me to Flinders, but my changeover bus had to wait for a late one to arrive, but I still made it on time to my appt, where I sat for over an hour waiting to be called in. The buses were still running late when it was time to come home. I stopped off at a shopping centre to pick up an ingredient for tonight's tea, and ended up waiting for a bus that was late. Got to the changeover place and again we had to wait for a bus that was late. Very frustrating.

No parcels arrived today. We're expecting a few so I hope they all show up tomorrow.

I made really delicious chilli for tea tonight and have enough for another meal put away in the freezer.

And now, to the Oh My subject...



.....












.....


I'm going to be a Granny! Jenny and Terry are expecting, and I'm delighted for them. Jenny is 6wks along and Terry has taken over her diet and her parents are thrilled. I'm very happy for them, even though I wish they were a bit more settled in life, but I know these things happen - and they are a lot more mature than I was when Terry was born (I was 20 and alone). I've decided that I'm Granny Gaelyne. None of this Grandma stuff. Or Nanna. Granny suits me just fine!

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll hang on every detail shared and you won't be able to shut me up about the new little treasure that's soon to be in our lives!

23 May: Readings & Comments

6.4  / 116  Fasting         09:46:54  
7.9  / 142  Post-Bfast      12:35:53  Crumpet & PB (square - should have only half)
5.4  /  98  Pre-Lunch       14:10:03  
7.3  / 132  Post-Lunch      16:18:52  sausage roll
4.6  /  83  Pre-Tea         18:27:58  
6.3  / 113  Post-Tea        20:41:11  Yiros meat pack & chips

Tomorrow I go see the gastro specialist at Flinders Private. Other than that, I've just been doing work and housework and leading a pretty boring but normal life. Makes a nice change. :-)

20 May: Readings & Comments

Saturday & Sunday Readings:

6.6  / 119  Fasting         09:35:40  
5.4  /  97  Pre-Lunch       13:56:44  
5.5  /  99  Post-Lunch      16:43:54  Eggs, Bacon & toast
7.9  / 143  Post-Tea        21:22:00  Subway
7.7  / 139  Fasting         09:46:00  
7.8  / 140  Post-Bfast      12:35:01  Crumpet toast & PB
5.6  / 101  Pre-Lunch       14:41:04  
6.8  / 123  Post-Lunch      16:50:16  Eggs, Bacon & toast
5.9  / 106  Pre-Tea         19:32:35  
9.7  / 175  Post-Tea        21:55:16  Pizza

We've had a quiet weekend. Tea tonight was my homemade pizza. Very nice, but I should have had more green tea tonight after dinner.

Butterfly Folding Cane. I don't need a cane at the moment... my back is much much better, but if I should ever need a cane on a permanent basis, this would be my pick. How cool! The cane website was mentioned in the Happy Hobblers mail list I'm on for people with Osteo-Arthritis. I'm trying to catch up with mail at the moment and thought I'd add a comment since its the prettiest cane I've ever seen.

18 Mar: Readings & Comments

7.6  / 137  Bedtime         23:10:01  
8.1  / 146  Fasting         08:58:39  Feverish overnight
7.2  / 130  Post-Bfast      12:00:36  The usual crumpet toast w/pb
6.3  / 114  Pre-Lunch       12:54:16  
4.8  /  86  Pre-Tea         19:05:05  
9.3  / 168  Post-Tea        21:32:55  Fish & Chips. Still not feeling well.