Multiple Daily Injections

I've been on that regimen since shortly before Christmas. I had a lot of scar tissue build up and my pump sites were going bad after less than a day - my blood sugars would rise and I'd have to bring my basal rates up like crazy just to compensate and force the sites to last a little while longer - cause we weren't able to afford more sites. ....diabetes sucks worse when money is involved. Haha.

So, I have been back on the good 'ol Lantus and the new Apidra regimen.

After being on my pump for 3 years it was so weird going back to shots. It's gone pretty smoothly, surprisingly to myself.

I end up forgetting my Lantus shot in the evening (or morning) until the next morning (or that evening) when I've been fighting sugars THEN realize what I forgot to do. So sometimes things get all crazy, oh well. Life goes on, one day at a time. I'm ready for my pump to be back on, and I think some of my preferred infusion sets are actually covered with the new medical year having rolled over.

Tomorrow is my ******10th******* year with diabetes. It's crazy, I know. I actually thought it had only been 8 or 9 years and my sister recently said something that made me sit back and think about the math. Yep, it's been 10 years. Time flies when you're.... ....having fun? Haha. Yep! Diabetes is apart of my life, it's apart of me and has helped shape me into who I am - so, taking everything in stride (cause that how I like to live) I just didn't even realize.

I'll have a rad post some time tomorrow about 10 years with Type 1 diabetes.

P.S. Yes, that is 50 units of Lantus you see in the needle. I have never had to take so much basal in my normal life! I did when I was pregnant, but that is not 'normal' life. I have no idea what the deal is, I want my pump back! 

Cartridges, Pumps and Insulin - Oh Joy?

Oh, site change day, how I hate you - and yet, I am forced to love you.

Without taking the time out of my day to refill the cartridge with precious life-giving insulin I'd certainly be a lot worse off. A few minutes of the day really isn't so bad.

It does irritate me, a lot, though. While I certainly appreciate the blessing of having such a wonderful device to pump my insulin into me as I tell it - allowing me only one shot (if things go right) every 3 or 4 days instead of 6+ shots every day. It really is more convenient to my life to just punch a few buttons and have my insulin instantly on its way to me instead of having to draw up a needle every time I need it.

Okay, I'll try to be thankful, grateful, not so irritated every time I need to refill my pump. It only takes a few minutes, not several hours.

Oh, and these super cute pink infusion sets (a gift from a sweet woman in the diabetic community, as I had run out last week while still waiting for the insurance company to process thing), I guess they make it all a little more okay.

I love my pump, I love how it allows me to be as free and able to live life as I can. I love how it allows me to be a mother - skipping meals while taking care of my child, staying up all night as she gets up for the 100th time, chasing after her as she shrieks for joy. It allows me to be a wife, staying up late eating ice cream with my husband, going out for hikes, paint-balling...whatever the heck I feel like. I'm grateful, really, sometimes I just need some perspective.

Living to our potential

Wouldn't it figure that just as soon as we're able to start saving money, instead of spending to get ahead, everything would go awry?

I went back to work for the first time in nearly 3 weeks today. 

This payday I made the decision to buy curtains to finish off "the look" of our room (and hide my storage bins) to maintain my sanity. It was going to be the last thing I was going to buy toward that end for quite awhile. I'm sick of spending money on this darn little area. Upon bringing the curtains home it became evident that I bought them 2 feet too short.

I made my trip back to Target this morning to exchange them, in doing so I also found what looked to be the cutest tank top to wear at work because I had planned my wardrobe poorly for the newfound spring weather (AND it was 75% off!). Only to realize it was a jumpsuit tank top, not JUST a tank top! Haha!

My stomach has been having problems lately - serious frustrating problems. I've felt pretty sure for several months now that I have something along the lines of Celiac  Disease and have put off getting actually tested for it because I'm a cheapskate and don't want deal with the numerous co-pays it will take to get all the proper testing done. I have cut gluten out of my diet just to see if there is a difference and there certainly is. I resolved today that I'm going to bite the bullet and actually go to the doctor to have the testing done.

Go figure it would also happen today that my car just dies. Driving home about a mile and a half - two mils from home and it just quit on me. Not a battery thing either. The engine more or less exploded, probably due to a lack of oil because of an oil leak.

Now I'm carless and we're having to shop for a new one.

It's really inconvenient timing (as if a dead car is ever convenient!). With Kenny going back to school, we're trying to save money (especially for a new insulin pump for me with mine out of warranty), I'll be, once again, set back and continuing in my super cheapskate ways and delaying the blood tests a little longer. I'd really just love to get the Dexcom system I've talked about before and that's another huge Durable Medical Equipment co-pay, like my insulin pump.

I think God allows these things in our lives to encourage us to live up to our full potential. Taking life in stride as it comes to us. I try to do my best, and have taken the whole car-exploding-thing quite well this evening. It's "par for the course" and, well, doesn't phase me as much as it should.

Of course when I sit down and think it all out I get a little more depressed about it, knowing how much we'll have to spend to get a "new to me" car. We just paid off our credit card and I'm bummed about having to put money back on it. Tonight I feel like we have taken many steps backward and are gaining no forward motion, like we have planned on.

Again, we are being spurred on to live to our full potential. How will we handle this hurdle? How will we deal with everything that is thrown at us? I don't know! We'll take one day at a time. For now, I'm not sweating the car. It's just a thing. God knew this was going to happen. It will all work out somehow, though I have NO idea how yet!

Diaper Rash, and everything else.

Rylee has had diaper rash for a month and a half now. We've changed the brand of diaper we use (we even did cloth at one point and loved it until Rylee's butt proved too sensitive for that, which was a bummer), the type of baby wipe, slathering her butt in Desitin Paste, A&D, Cortizone 10. Yeast infection cream - per doctors orders. Letting her run free and loose as the happiest naked baby for an hour+. Gotten prescription meds. Seen the doctor for it twice. 

Still, the danged rash persists.

The final 'straw' was pulled today when I was changing her diaper, as normal, she started sobbing in pain and I came to see that she was actually bleeding in a couple spots from the sores on her butt! I called the doctor right away after slathering her more with ointments to at least relieve the pain. We got an appointment for first thing tomorrow. I want this cleared up! I want them to tell me I'm doing something very wrong, or she's got an uber sensitive butt and I need to do other things, or that she's got something else that's making her 'sick'!

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I'm now in the process of trying to figure out where we'll store everything that we won't be bringing directly with us and won't 'need' for the next year or two. 

I applied for financial aid tonight, we'll see how that goes. I'd love to be able to take at least a year of schooling in Graphic Design and Photography. 

I still can't believe how much is going to change in the next month for us. I haven't even started sorting through ANYTHING! ...mostly I'm waiting for our tax return so we can get plastic containers to store our crap in for who knows how long. After that happens, (hopefully tomorrow!) I'll be in the full swing of the life that is moving.

For now, I gotta get off of here so I can make sure I get Rylee to her appointment on time tomorrow!

Random thoughts

It's been a great weekend for us so far. ...you know, aside from all those negative things that felt like they just lined up to beat me in the face.

Friday we went and walked around downtown for awhile, looking at a camera shop, pricing out lenses, walked to the mall, got a pizza. Came back home (after rushing to the car because of the failure to put money in the meter), Kenny went to a poker night where he won back 3x as much as he went in with (it was a very small buy in, nothing big but still fun).

Today. ...Today was a crazy day. I've been up since 7:30 (on a Saturday!!) because of a lovely low blood sugar. I spent the morning checking out new housing.

Kenny is going back to school this fall for sure. His job will pay for his tuition up to 9 credits. It's really an amazing perk! The catch is that we have to foot the bill first off and he has to finish the classes with a 'C' or better before they will reimburse us the cost. He want to finish his Computer Science degree he started out doing a couple years ago but got sick of school and couldn't see an end in sight. Now he's ready to go back and it's a tangible thing! We're paying off our only remaining debt with our tax return, and will be able to actually handle the cost of the schooling without any student loans or anything like that.

The only really impractical things that have been stopping us have been:

- Gas and Driving. The college is an hour away and gas isn't cheap these days. We weren't sure how we were going to be able to afford that.

- Living. We weren't sure how just living was going to work out. Haha! With the added cost of gas, possible (probable) hours lost at work, and extra needs that will arise - we just didn't know how it was going to happen.

Searching around for weeks and especially today brought me to the realization that there was no real way to 'break even' and ensure we'd be able to make it month to month. We don't know how Kenny's hours will hold up - things have been up and down for the last year. Some weeks at 50 hours, other weeks at just barely 25. If he gets any less than 35 while working and going to school there'll be no real good way to make the bills.

So... after much discussion and deliberation... we made a decision. A huge decision. It's so crazy we both can't quite believe we're going to do it. Haha! It'll be great. It'll be different. And, Hopefully, if all works out we'll come out very much on top!

I'm going to leave it a mystery tonight! Just because I can!