Instructions Not Included

Rather than go 'Happy New Year, world!' and be all bouncy and jolly, in love with the world afresh, I entered 2010 a bit anxious, and with the attitude of 'bugger off, I don't want to know'. 

So, anxious and a bit depressed would probably best sum up my attitude to the start of 2010. I've never been a big fan of January. There's all this pressure to get yourself sorted, and make resolutions. I tell myself every year that I'll do things, then don't end up doing it and get even more angry with myself. 

So, I made a resolution several years ago, not to make any more New Year's Resolutions. And I've been doing really well at keeping that one.

Well, I've bitten all my nails off again due to being anxious. I was getting worked up. I was getting a lot of double figure scores, and I couldn't get them to stop easily. So I rang up Becky, my DSN, thinking she'd tell me I needed to up my NovoRapid. But instead, I was instructed to start again on Lantus. 

Ah. 

Now, I'd been very keen to start on Lantus again. Mainly for reasons of personal craziness. It was like I didn't feel as though I was a proper T1, what with my tiny 2u boluses, and no basal. So getting the basal back would be, as someone put it to me, 'like getting my diabetic stripes'.  But when I got told to put it back in again, all of a sudden it was a bit like a promotion I didn't want. 

I was nervous. 

I'd had some pretty rotten hypos on Lantus last time, and I've not been proved too far wrong. I've taken it down by a unit, but I've only had one hypo-free day since starting it up again. I'm not enjoying it thus far. The only good thing, I suppose, is that if DSN-Becky wants to keep the Lantus in, I might be able to calculate my insulin-sensitivity more accurately, and do some PROPER carb counting. 

So moving on to some good things. I mentioned that I might have some new readers due to my request for people to follow this on LiveJournal's holiday_wishes community. Well, one of the other things I wished for was for some sugar-free caramel syrup to put in hot chocolate. I didn't actually think I would have anyone send me any. So imagine my surprise when this turns up before Christmas:

They ended up tasting rather like shortbread. Half sugar, half Splenda. Next time, a little more allspice. I'm willing to share the recipe should anyone want it. But they were good. Proof in point?

 

I took them to work with me, and only ended up with  a couple left, one being the one I snagged for myself there, with my sneaky cup of low-sugar hot chocolate. And yes, that is a Christmas mug. I bought it for £1.00 in the sales after Christmas 2008. I figured no-one else would have a Christmas mug at work, so I'd know it was mine, and could keep tabs on who was stealing it! Not that that seems to stop people.

Coming soon by the way - Sam from Talking Blood Glucose is going to be doing a guest blog here at some point in the near future. Yey! That should be worth sticking around to read. 

 


And one of the best things about post Christmas/New Year period? Slowly working your way through the sea of amazing new Christmas socks. Awesome ^_^

Happy Christmas one and all!

Well I promised you a post today, and though I'm cutting it rather close to the wire, here we go.

So last night, I went to midnight communion, as I usually do of a Christmas Eve. Skimming over the ice, insanely squeaky clarinet playing, and the fact there was a rather frighteningly drunk man walking the same path home as me, I decided to test as I arrived at the service. 4.5. Hmm. Fair enough, but if that doesn't alter, I might need to have a snack before I go to bed.  Now when it comes to actually taking communion, I remember that the church I go to when I'm at my parents' place serves grape juice rather than wine for communion. Ah. All the times I've taken communion since being diagnosed, I've either been served wine, or I've been free to take the tiniest sip of juice from a comunial cup. So I start wondering whether this would be a problem. I decide that it shouldn't since the amount you get served in the individual glasses is smaller than a shot glass, so it couldn't affect me too much, surely?

Well, I'm 5.3 before I go to bed, so all's well that ends well, right? Well, I wake up this morning with a fairly strong headache, and test at 8.8 in one hand, and 7.6 in the other. Huh?! So I have some breakfast, and go back down to church again. After the service, I'm starting to feel a bit grotty. I figured I was probably on the edge of hypo. Nope! 10.3. An hour later, when I'm doing my proper post meal test, I come in at 4.3. AN HOUR LATER! What the heck is going on by this point?

But this is where it starts to get really interesting. I'm 4.6 before we have Christmas dinner. I don't go crazy, but I'm not stingy either. Turkey, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, stuffing, sausage. Have a bit of ice cream and a very tiny bit of Christmas pudding after. Two glasses of light sparkling (very sweet) wine. Post meal I come in at 5.9. Having told myself I can be a bit more relaxed today, I have a handful of savoury nibbles, and pick at yoghurt coated ginger (something I discovered I loved after being diagnosed. Then shortly after discovered the sugar content of it.). Come about 8pm, and I think I should probably have something else to eat, or I'll hypo later in the evening. But thinking about the ginger and what have you, I think it's still going to be a high score. Numberwang says....5.8.

Post meal numberwang says 4.5!

What is going on?! On a normal day, I wouldn't eat like this! I wouldn't pick at ginger. I wouldn't drink the sweet wine. I wouldn't have stuffing, potatoes and parsnips at the same meal. It's rather like the diabetes fairy, who normally is such a curse, decided to turn the usual game on its head. Thus I have had two of my mum's chocolates, and a small glass of port. I daren't see how far I can test this out though.

In other news, I have many, many pairs of socks. This is a very good thing. Note that I do not say that I have enough socks. One can never have enough socks. They are also all fabulous. I did take a picture of my feet in one pair to show you, but sadly this computer does not like to upload things. But believe me, they are rather wonderful.

I hope you are all having a great time, with good levels.

Again, Merry Christmas to you! xx

Well, after my huge accomplishment of managing to complete NaBloPoMo, I suppose I rather seemed to fall off the face of the earth for December. But hey, it's been busy. Most evenings I've been tied up doing something, or I've just been shattered. So I'm afraid this rather took a back seat for a bit.

But how are you? Seriously, if you're still reading even after I disappeared for practically a whole month, I'd like to know! 

For my part, like I say, I've been busy. December is a bit mad for everyone, but it's been a manic few weeks. I started off with York Come Dancing. Oh yes.  I've been talking about this one for a while, but it finally came. And then promptly went. Ben and I had a slightly stressful but wonderful time doing demonstration Cha-Cha-Cha and Jive. Proof?

So I did it! 30 posts in 30 days means that I managed to complete NaBloPoMo. It was actually quite an interesting experience to try and find something to write about every day. Some days were definitely more interesting than others.

My medic alert bracelet broke on Saturday. Middle of rehearsal. Suddenly it just snapped off my wrist. Beads everywhere.

So I've not been wearing it since. What I find really strange is that I was really resistant to getting one in the first place, yet having gone a few days without, I feel naked for not having it on. I don't know whether it's just that I got used to wearing another piece of jewellery, and not having it feels weird (I know I still get confused as to where my ring which broke is), or if it was giving me a sense of security. Peace of mind knowing that if something did happen to me, whoever found me would know my name, date of birth, that I had diabetes, and who I wanted them to call.

I'm not sure now whether to order a new one, try to fix this one, email the people I bought it from (as it was pointed out to me that breaking within six months isn't exactly great), or hoping that someone does in fact grant my wish for a new bracelet bit on Livejournal's holiday_wishes community. I've still got the ID in my purse, but is that enough?

There are too many nice things in the shops at the moment. It's quite irritating in a lot of ways. Threshers was going out of business, so I bought a rather nice bottle of port. I'm still in rather a 'trial and error' phase with alcohol and what it does to me. It all seems to be ok so far.

The deli where I go and get my lunch most days has a huge basket of nice things, all out for Christmas. Liebkuchen (yes Sam, I like them too!), stollen and Pfeffernusse. I've yet to see any Spritzgebäck, but man, I want some of them so badly.

Damn Christmas food. Why are you all so sweet?

But at least I get to assemble my Advent tree tomorrow. And get my Saint Nicholas gifts ready for Saturday.

Spritzgebäck.....*sigh*

Practice was interesting today. Half the couples for the demo were missing, and we had to add extra choreography on.

I've been swinging on levels again though. I'm just spending too much time around the 8's, or bordering on hypo. I'm fed up of it.

In terms of an interesting read, I recommend this article. It hits very close to home.