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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The day I made control solution for my meter

Last month I bought a meter from Walmart (relion prime) and I really wasn't sure if it was working properly and it didn't come with a control solution... So after some trial and error, including using brown sugar at first #fail (and help from my husband the physicist and another fellow biologist from twitter it worked!) I learned that (I already knew this) science is collaborative and (that which can I did not know already) for this particular meter I can use glucose tabs (dextrose) dissolved in water. Even though I didn't do a great job to get it dissolved 100% (no magnetic stir bar and plate at home :) I got a great result (see below!) the calculated concentration should've been 100 mg/dl so maybe a little higher but within error margin ;) should I go ahead and change my blog name to "sciency diabetic" or something?! :) I was so happy when it finally worked - thanks again to fellow t1 and biologist @randommagic who thoughtfully suggested I go for the dextrose glc tabs (instead of mainly sucrose?(molasses) in the brown sugar which read "lo" each time in case you are wondering)!!! :D


Monday, March 9, 2015

"The Four"

1. Four names people call me other than my real name:
Masha (it's a Russian thing - pretty much my whole family calls me this) - also Mashka, Mashen'ka, Mashun'ka, etc.
Ria (a nickname my husband used to have for me when we first started dating)
Marie (because apparently it's too close to Maria)
Marcia (go figure)
2. Four jobs I’ve had:
Pharmacy Technician
English Teacher/ Nanny
Grad Student/ Laboratory TA
Postdoctoral Researcher
3. Four movies I’ve watched more than once:
Pulp Fiction
Lord of the Rings (Fellowship)
Bridget Jones (both)
Die Hard (1 + 3)
4. Four books I’d recommend:
PIHKAL/TIHKAL
How to Think Like  a Pancreas
Anything by Dan Brown
Anything by Michael Crichton
5. Four places I’ve lived:
Russia (Siberian plain, Samara on the Volga)
Spain (Madrid)
US (Boston)
US (~Columbus, OH)
6. Four places I’ve visited
Costa Rica
Belize
Amsterdam
France (south)
7. Four things I prefer not to eat:
Pasta (it's the carbs)
"Sweet" salads (e.g. pasta salad, overly sweet potato salad)
That's it - I'm not too picky!
8. Four of my favorite foods:
Eggs (cause of course)!
Eggrolls 
Cheesecake
Coffee
9. Four TV shows I watch:
New Girl
House of Cards
Sherlock
Person of Interest
10. Four things I’m looking forward to this year:
Traveling to Italy
Hiking with my dogs all the time
Morel/mushroom hunting
Relaxing!
11. Four things I’m always saying:
It is what it is
You can do this (I may have stolen this from Laddie but it's true!)
Oh Shit!
Oh Well

Friday, March 6, 2015

10 things I (don't) hate about D

In an effort to reassess and gain perspective: It might be hard to come up with 10 but here goes - the 10 things I don't hate about (dealing with/life with/ current events with) Type 1 Diabetes.

1. I have an awesome blood glucose meter that I can use with the tiniest ever drop of blood to gather important information about the current status of my (imbalanced) body (sidenote: I cringe when I read about the old-school days of urinalysis and the very old bg meters).

2. My current insurance plan covers an UNLIMITED number of test strips per time period. I pay $125 for a 3 month supply (my last script was written for 1300 strips!) I know that I am very lucky to say this (from both personal and others' experiences).

3. I just had all my labs and eye exam done and I appear to be generally healthy (the Diabetes itself notwithstanding).

4. On some days, I have a really good handle on my management and I feel extra happiness because of my ability to maintain a steady "normal". Basically I'm talking about the days where I don't spike past 180 and have no lows and generally feel great all day/night long. There may not be many, but the happiness they bring to me makes me want to work harder towards more and more of them.

5. My A1C (although I am unhappy with it) could be much, much, much worse.

6. I have never let having diabetes stop me from doing anything. (such as living abroad, hiking alone, etc).

7. I always have snacks in case anyone needs any... (self-explanatory)

8. Although I am a bit of a (self-proclaimed) "hardass", dealing with diabetes has instilled in me a lot of compassion (towards myself and others).

9. Patience. I don't have any (still). But it looks like I will have to learn some (in order to not over-treat lows or rage-bolus as much, etc).

10. I am resilient. According to my therapist - that's just the way I am. But I know that having diabetes has a hell of a lot to do with that.

Hang tight, spring IS coming <3 -MM

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

diabetes burnout vs. general burnout

I realized that in my last post I alluded to some life events that made my "D care suffer". It made me wonder whether I was just making up excuses for not dealing with Diabetes the way I *should recently. The truth is when your A1C jumps up almost two points to it's highest ever after dx, one must admit to herself that "something's up!". I admit it- something is up. I guess something about being 8 years in all of the sudden makes you realize that it's forever and care less. I DO care, I care a lot, of course I care! But just exactly WHY did my D-care suffer so much? Because I realized that's it's forever and felt apathetic (THEREFORE prioritizing other things in life over D-care)? Because (as my endo kindly put it) "I'm in a transition period in my life"? Because I just am sick of it (by it I mean worrying about lows at all)? I admitted to my endo that one of my worst fears is being "low-stupid" at work. He attempted to help me through this, blah blah blah. Sometimes we just get sick of it (you know?) Sometimes I want to just get shit-faced drunk, eat a ton of carbs and not worry about it. And sometimes I do. The trouble is (I think) when "sometimes" becomes "most times". This is my official admittance of being both self-negligent and apathetic (more than) recently. This is my official admittance that I need some fucking help. Also, knowing that I (I!) am in charge here (in my life) places all the responsibility on me (which can lead to more apathetic and self-negligent behavior). This may sound pretty depressing (even for me), but it's just something I am working through. It's transient. Changeable. Non-conforming. It's controllable, changeable, malleable. Not permanent. Because nothing is. Diabetes burnout, general burnout - a bit of both? It will not always be here.