Nope. Nothing quite like it.

Nothing like a low blood sugar in the shower to make you think "Boy am I glad I exercised!" There's also nothing quite like it to make you rethink the necessity of leg-shaving and hair-conditioning, and get you to run through the house naked to get to the kitchen for those graham crackers spread with dark chocolate that you bought in a moment of weakness at Costco. Oh, and some milk.

I really love dark chocolate. It goes well with Diet Dr. Pepper.

Went to the dentist yesterday. I decided to pretend I was just a mannequin in a training exercise - "are you OK? Somebody call 911 - are you OK?" since that's basically how I was treated, with that stupid air thing left in my mouth as the hygienists chatted with another. But hey, my teeth are still doing fine. That office can't decide if they do x-rays every 6 months or once a year. They change their minds every time I go in. (No you don't need summer x-rays, OF COURSE you need summer x-rays.) Oh, the places we go because our insurance covers them. I don't feel like they're incompetent, I think it's more of a "right hand doesn't talk to the left hand" kind of thing, and I don't love it there, but hey, who loves the dentist? And seriously, can't beat a five dollar co-pay for these visits.

And on that note, I do believe I will go and finish re-reading Harry Potter 7, and maybe I will bolus for some of that dark chocolate-y graham goodness. Yes, I believe I will.

RESULTS! RESULTS!

Ok the results are in and published for the Protege study, the one in which I participated. Conclusions? "Further study is warranted." Okee-dokee then. Good to know.

Link to MacroGenics press release:

http://www.macrogenics.com/press_releases-298.html

Link to the article through the MacroGenics website:

http://www.macrogenics.com/publications-141.html

My guess is that I was placed in N=106, which was a 6 day full dose - even though I went up for 2 full 2 week sessions. The first dose gave me a terrible rash (want to see?) and made my hair curly - I loved it! - and lowered my dosage considerably. The second dose just made me insane, which, let's face it, could be a strong placebo effect. Although, I did get somewhat of a rash then, too, but not nearly as bad.

Here's the first rash - after a few days of healing. Yeah, it hurt.

I can't wait to find out what I got. I wonder how long before I know.

Swinging from 55 to 255 - all in a day's work.

Apparently diabetes doesn't want me to travel. It made that abundantly clear.

To which I say: Screw You.

In Which I Reveal Confidential Medical Information

So, went to the endo yesterday. Reminded him that I was his favorite patient. He laughed and admitted that I was "one of his favorites". I bet he says that to eveyone who insists on favoritism.

Demanded stem cells. No dice.

Asked about a pump and a CGM. He said he was a fan of pumps for some people, but my control is good on the MDI's, so unless I REALLY REALLY wanted it....he didn't see a reason, and you know what? Shots are fine with me. They really are. The CGM, however, I do REALLY, REALLY want.

He said if I had more days where I woke up super low (like I did right after Easter) then he would definitely fight for me to get one. He also said he would only do Dexcom, not Medtronic. I told him that was great with me. So...do I give myself more insulin to have scary scary daytime lows and get a CGM? NO. Even the thought scares me, and I would never put myself at risk that way. But do you see what the insurance companies have reduced me to????

Speaking of insurance, I found out today that my deductible went up by $1000 (from 3k to 4k) on June 1st with no warning whatsoever. The fact that my daughter's ER visit in April would have COVERED that doesn't seem to phase them. I. AM. BITTER. I'm still going to call and whine at them on Monday, even though I will probably get lost in voicemail hell. (*please say your ID number* *sorry, I didn't quite catch that*)

OK, lab stuff - A1c - 6.3. I'm OK with that, although frankly, I like it to hover at 6 or below. My doctor was thrilled. My husband told me that if I didn't like it, then I had "something to work on for next time." I wanted to punch him in the face. But I didn't. Because he was on the phone. Also I love him dearly.

LDL - still really really bad, and at 196. HDL is up to 57, so that's good. Doc and I had the following conversation:

So, I'm going to put you on blah-blah-statin.

This in instead of the simvastatin?

You're already ON cholesterol meds? And these are your numbers?

Um, yeah. But I forget to take them half the time. That could be the problem. (GREAT with shots, terrible with pills.)

OK, I'm going to up the dose, and even if you miss a few, you should still see some benefit. I'll call it into Walgreens. Put your pills by your toothbrush or something.

All right.

I hate high cholesterol. I kind of think it's a fake problem, because bringing down cholesterol isn't necessarily reducing the number of heart attacks. (Also, my father in law just had a triple bypass and his cholesterol was perfect. My dad's had high cholesterol all his life but at 77, nary a twinge of chest pain.) But I digress, and I will take my pills like a good little girl. I was kind of hoping to go off them, though - I don't like the long term side effects reported. Guess THAT didn't happen.

And it was at that trip to Walgreens, where I decided to pick up my refill of test strips along with my new horse pills, that I was asked to pay over $200 for said strips since the deductible wasn't met yet. I asked them to hold them for me while I railed on my insurance company for a few days. They're cool with that. I'm still going to have to pay it, though - I can feel it in my bones.

Thyroid, CMP, everything else was "fine." Still waiting for the lab results in the mail so I can obsess over them and see what "fine" means. Hopefully I'll get them, I did ask the tech 3 times to send them, but that didn't work last time.

Ok, then - off to check my sugars, then swear at my monitor, wash my hands, and check my sugars again. Last night I shaved 50 points off doing that. How did so much "sugar" get onto my hands? I don't know - it's a mystery.

Linky Goodness

Some thoughts to process -

HUGE fan of #7 on this article.

Also, I found this article very happy making and hope inducing.

Happy reading!

Oops

I am tired of finding Starbursts in my pockets after they go through the wash, and I wish I had someone to blame besides myself.

That is all.

So I Didn't Quite Make It, But Hey.

Well, so I didn't exactly post every day for diabetic blogging week. And I TOTALLY meant to, I swear. The other posts were going to be more interesting, too. Honest. But my life got very crazy, we brought down a 16 year old girl to live with us for about a month, and even though she's a friend of mine and I've known her pretty much her whole life, adding a teenager to your house takes some extra work. Plus I have to like clean and stuff so she doesn't think I'm a slob. Plus it's the end of the school year, and the number of events in May is insanely high. Plus my husband needs the computer at night.

There - did I give enough excuses to assuage my guilt? Probably. I didn't feel all that guilty.

On the plus side, the sugars have been fairly good - one reading over 200, (stupid hasbrowns that I forgot about when bolusing) but the rest have been really very very normal, so I guess adding a teenage girl to your life regulates blood sugars - who knew?

I'm also adding that I have Zumba for my Wii and it's very fun, but the public will never know my awesomeness at it. And by "public" I mean "anyone at all".

Oh, and gas prices suck. Which is diabetes related, somehow.