Diabetes Camp!!

I am extremely sorry for the BIG break in my writing. I can't remember the last time I posted, or even the last time I had time to post. I have been a very busy girl considering it is now summer time and school is out! So, because I have not written anything in a couple of months, one could imagine that I have a lot to say. If I were to write about one thing that has happened since my last update...it would be about Diabetes Camp!!!!

The Donavon McNabb Diabetes Camp for Kids at Camp Green Lane in PA is one of the best times of all 365 days of the year!!..The feeling of being around others who live with the same disease, never fails to give me a sense of comfort, happiness, and normalcy. Its the 6 days that I get to talk freely about my diabetes, I don't have to explain myself, and we can all just relate to each other in how we are feeling. I also get to meet new people connect with them and stay in touch after camp! The friendships that are made at camp will never be forgotten!

This year was a special year for me. It was my last year as a camper and the man himself, DM, came to visit as well! This was only my second year at camp (I wish I had gone longer), but I'm not done with it yet. I hope to return as a CIT (councilor in training) next year and a real councilor after that!

(Here is a picture of the oldest girls cabin, SEASONS, aka TEAM AWESOME with McNabb!)

During these amazing 6 days, lots of stuff happened! There was the dance which was soooooooooo much fun! Here is another pic of the SEASONS cabin at the dance:

There was the luau/water fight between oldest girl and boy cabins, the light show haha, the trivia game, jeopardy, who wants to be a million air?, capture the flag, GAGA (best game ever created!), beach volleyball, huge football game, the long days when everyday at lunchtime it would feel like dinner then i would get excited that we still had another meal to look forward too!, the site changes were always fun (ecspecially when i got that gusher and then I showed Joe and he said "You're not cool until you've had a gusher!" haha, Team AWESOME, The seasons' crazy councilors-Roberta, Kristin, Court...!, hanging out in the boys cabin!!, THE MENTOR PARTY aka our reward for being nice and talking to the little kids!,THE PRANKS, and soo much more!

There was a FIRST for me at camp this year! That was.....a blood sugar all time low of 36 mg/dl. This was while i was having a catch with the football with my a kid named Jimmy. It was crazy. All of a sudden i was just like...WOW i need a break. cause i was starting to suck and not catch the ball and walk instead of run to the ball...lol Also while playing football was the first time someone has ever called me steroids..later to be shortened to roids...Basically i was beastin' it up during the game with some interceptions, touchdowns, and kick returns...but it was cool, my guy friends stood up for me and yelled at all the other guys who would call me different names like steroids or even Betsy, which was given to me cause this kid didn't know my name..lol



Here is the start of the PRANKS:::!

Since the girls were technically not allowed to go in the boy's cabins....WE decided to steal the boy's clothes off of their drying racks outside of their cabins and wear them to the flagpole the next morning!!! hahaha in front of the whole camp!..We also had a pair of their underwear the we stuck on a branch and marched out in front with!! lol They were pissed and came back at us with revenge in their eyes........That afternoon they decided to destroy our cabin, take ALL of our clothes, and throw them in a canoe in the lake. I thought this was funny but others, not so much..soooo we continued to battle it out and struck again the next night!

This time, considering they broke the rules by actually going into our cabin, we did the same. We snuck into their living area during the luau with string like a web and strung it throughout their whole cabin, had Vaseline on the door and light switches, put shaving cream on their windows and mirrors, placed forks strategically under their bed sheets, took their pillows out of their cases and hid them, and to top it all off we put pads and tampons on the beds and under the top bunks! hahahaha. It was awesome. Unfortunately we had to clean it all up, but it was funny while it lasted AND it got us in the boys cabin with them too! haha

Well considering i didnt get my pictures developed yet..i will have more about what we did at camp later..so thats it for now.

"What is that?"

As you may already know, I am currently on the Medtronic Minimed Insulin Pump. I have been on it for about a year and a half now. You may also already know that i am a big time sports fanatic. Currently my sports consist of school softball, travel softball, and field hockey.

Lately, during school softball, I have been having some trouble with the umpires' and their persistent questions about my pump. When I go up to bat, even though my pump is tucked away and most times out of clear sight, they find a way to spot it and call me out...

"My time," yells the home plate ump! I step out of the box and turn towards him. The first couple of times they would ask questions like..."What is that?", "Is that a cell phone?", or "Excuse me can you come here for a second?". I have even got "Is that an Ipod?" No, its an insulin pump." "Oh! i thought you were listening to some Diddy or something"....Now it goes a little something like this: "My time," - ump. I turn, and before they have a chance to ask, I reply "Its an Insulin Pump for Diabetes." That's when, i think they feel a little bad about interrupting or they just say OK that's fine. But I absolutely hate when they ask me about it...I don't know why it bothers me, I guess it is just the fact that-after they say it-I'm thinking about it and my focus is gone and has shifted to me and my pump. When I'm batting, i like to get up there, clear my head, and do what I gotta do, but when they inevitably bring it up...it leads to my destruction. I find that my mind races and I usually strike out when it happens.

Now, my coach is getting into the habit of telling the umpires before hand, that we have a diabetic with an insulin pump on our team, just to let them know so they won't bug me.

I'm surprised they haven't called me out about my Bracelet...??? I don't even try to hide that. lol

I HATE when I'm HIGH

Last night after i got home from my boyfriend, E's house, I kind of knew I would be going low during the night. I thought this because I had been low the past 2 nights and also because we were doing a lot of activity, consisting of basketball, Frisbee, football, and PlayStation 2. lol. So i decided to lower my basal a little bit by going down by 10 percent...I later found out at 2am that 10% wasn't nearly enough to go down by...I woke up to a shaky/extremely tired 68mg/dl. i drank my juicy juice and eat some crackers and fell back asleep without re-checking..oopss. That was OK though, because I woke up the next morning with 129mg/dl! yay i didnt over correct...something that I tend to do..A LOT!

So...that was the morning sugar but today seemed to just get worse and worse as the day went on. except for a very nice 102mg/dl. i was high every other time....(sad face). A couple hours after the nice 102...180mg/dl...awww come on u gotta be kidding..then before dinner..277mg/dl. NO WAY! uhh and i was out to dinner which didn't make things any better considering I was about to estimate everything that was on my plate...gerrr....1.5 hours later...364mg/dl..SHIT..not good..not good at alll. Correction bolus to the rescue..or lack there of. I was a little anxious at this point waiting and waiting for it to come down a little bit...so i checked it again about 30 mins later...366mg/dl. ahhhhh is this for real? Wow i really did a horrible estimating job. More correction bolus (as much as my wizard would allow)...

And that sticky 366 brings us to now....i just thought i would write about it considering i was feeling stressed...and not only from it being high but because i am trying to do 2 research projects at the same time.....Ridiculous, i know right?! I need my sugar lower so I can actually consentrate somewhat on that.....

I hope my corrections kick in soon...uhhh I Hate when I'm HIGH...:(

Excellence All Around! =)

Yesterday we had a softball game (varsity) and it was my chance to shine! This was basically my second start of the season. (Our current record 6-0) The starter is a senior and she was on vacation for spring break and didn't get to practice therefore, our coach started me! I was excited and came ready to play.

I started off in warm ups at 147mg/dl. A perfect start for physical activity. Then I didn't have much time to re check before the game actually started because I was starting, but i did as soon as i had a chance...this was at 4pm, about a half hour into the game..it was 121mg/dl. - not bad, but not as high as i would have liked to continue the game....so I ate a piece of a hard pretzel..which brought me up to 158mg/dl. in 20 minutes. That was the last time i checked in until I came out of the game in the last inning!

This was probably close to one of the best offensive games I have ever had! And I have been playing softball for about 12 years. My first time up to bat, there was a girl on second base...and i got a bunt single! My next time up, there were bases loaded with 2 outs and i got a 3 run Double! yay....THEN my last time up there were girls on 3rd and 2nd...2 outs...pressures on. I cleared my head, looked for a perfect pitch...and BOOM! The ball sailed out in between left and center...almost hitting cars in a parking lot (so i hear)...I GOT A 3 RUN HOME RUN--(stand up)!! haha it was the best feeling in the world!

Although after all this excitement, i think the adrenaline made my sugar go a little too high at 202 mg/dl., when i came out to let some other people play, so i bolused 1/2 of a correction which was 1 unit. That pretty much took care of it...it came down to 164 post game...92 pre dinner...99 at 9:30pm...72 at 10:15...123 post fix...96 pre bedtime...and 122 at 12:40 before actually falling asleep..ALL IN ALL it was an EXCELLENT day for softball and for my sugars (they weren't too bad)!

This was by far the best game ever! and we won 14-1...i was 2-for-2 with a sacrifice bunt single, a 3 run double and a 3 run homer which came out to be 6 RBIs....and...after the game a reporter interviewed me for the first time in my high school career!!! THIS WAS A GREAT DAY!

Last day of school before SPRING BREAK.

Today was a GREAT day. It started out with my internal clock waking me at 5:57am. with a sugar of 65 mg/dl. That was fun! SIKE. Although, I have a bed side mini fridge holding all my juicy juice and a crayon box on top full of crackers, pretzels, and glucose tabs, which is pretty cool and a great idea, if i don't say so myself. So that was a rocky start but it gradually got better and Better and BETTER....!

In 1st period at school my US History teacher was overly nice for some reason and we got to watch the rest of "The Great Gatsby". It was such a good movie and book-ironically i was reading it in English at the same time. Then after we finished the movie, we got to chill and listen to music!

In 2nd period we unfortunately had our "Great Gatsby" essay test, which wasn't that difficult, just annoying. That took up most of the time. Ohh..but as we were writing our essays out of the corner of my eye i saw a huge white spider crawling up a kid's back next to me...i turned to the girl next to me and was like..oh my god there is a huge spider on his back..then the teacher killed it...haha after I got everyone's train of thought messed up!

3rd period was half Directed Study...which i did nothing-so i went to the nurse's office and hung out lol- and then Lunch! Lunch is always fun, except for the gross food. This is a time to hang out and talk to my friends...

4th period Biology. This class was ok. I had another quiz but it was fairly easy...i love science!

As for 5th period- I was really bored because it was Art..so i again went to hang with my Nurse Buddies for a little bit! I'm glad I did too because I got to try some really delicious SUGAR FREE jelly belly beans! lol they were really good...

Then Post School...I had softball practice for 2 hours then a madd good Pasta Party..! But now i regret eating those brownies and all that pasta cause my sugar was a little high...like 230..but don't worry..a quick bolus and now its 130 :) i love my pump!

That was my day...and now ITS SPRING BREAK BABY...

April Fools....

So..i realize that April fools day is long gone and happened 3 days ago..but I'm a very busy person and have not had much time at nights, due to long softball games and massive amounts of homework..but that's a different story.

Anyways...On April 1st I had a lot going on: sleep :), watching movies, Field Hockey practice and a Pasta Party for softball!! yummy. I actually thought I had more going on than that but whatever. So i forgot that April 1st actually meant something, to tell you the truth I thought it was still March...obviously not. I found this out when My friend Meg and I arrived at our softball party and two of our team mates were cling wrapping my coaches car and putting Vaseline under the handles HAHA! (good thing our coach is cool and she was a good sport about it!) But yea it was soo funny..and that is when i found out it was actually April already!!! (so excited for SUMMER...and camps!!!)

Meg and I left the party to go to Field Hockey and I came up with an idea to trick my mom! I told her that my sugar was 500 mg/dl.! Knowing that my sugar rarely goes above 250 let alone 500, i knew her face would be priceless..haha. And it was. It was a small trick, but hey, it was the best I could do considering I forgot all about it...:) There is always next year.

A Book to Read...

A couple months ago, i read in a Diabetes news letter from my camp, that a boy named Chase was creating a book for newly diagnosed diabetics (Chase also attends the camp I go to, and is one of my camp friends). It is a collection of letters from all different people with diabetes and or people who know people with diabetes from all over the world. This book is definitely a Winner!

I am one of the lucky people who got to be involved in this project by writing an email that I sent to Chase about my story. I'm Chapter 53 ;). Anyways, this is a great book and I finished it in about three days! Its a great opportunity to learn about other people's situations and listen to advice they have to share!

The Book is called "When I Got Diabetes: Letters To Chase". I recommend this book to not only newly diagnosed people, but to anyone who is in need of support or encouragement! (young or old...) You can purchase it at Krollbooks.com and i also have a link to that site on the left hand side of my page so you can learn more about Chase and what he is all about!

Thank you Chase for putting such a great book together, I know you worked very hard on it, and it turned out really great!!!...(oh and Chase: only 2 months and 17 days till camp, can't wait)!