You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2008.
Villanova’s finals begin well… for me they begin in about 5 hours with my Computer Systems 2 exam. I am completely unprepared for finals. I have been sprinting to catch up all semester, and it looks like I’m about ready to lose this race and just go home. In my head I know that is the worst view to have. Which is why I’m actually trying to study (I’m writing this during a break I’m taking. Because, I need a break.)
So this is pretty much just another little update. Finals are approaching. I’m done with finals on May 8th, which is pretty awesome, because that means summer is finally here. I’ve landed a full-time job with the music department here are Villanova (yes, in the summer we have a music department. Now if only we had one all year long, I might not always want to quit the band halfway through football season.) But yes, I have landed a full-time working with the summer music program. I’ll be setting up various workshops at the start of each week, tearing them back down at the end of the week, and setting up other activities for the participants of said workshops throughout the week. Should be a good time, but I’m sort of worried about my sanity throughout the summer.
Certain friends are leaving for the summer. Some are going home, some are going abroad, some are going various places… which could make this summer a very dull one. Certain friendships are just beginning to flourish, and now all of a sudden summer is here, and we’re all going our separate ways for a few months. I’m not too sure how that’s gonna work out, but my best plan of attack is probably to just roll with it. Hopefully this summer I’ll have lots of time to update this and actually write some stuff again. I know I’ve been promising a lot of things, and delivering very few of them… but I’m gonna try this summer. Again.
A little bit of D-news… I am pretty proud of myself. I have set three successful left-handed sites in the past week or so. By lefty-site, I mean physically inserting the needle with my left hand guiding, instead of my dominant right hand. So when the site is on my left side, the tubing is going towards my back, instead of snaking around in a somewhat awkward fashion. Anyways, I have been afraid of lefty-sites ever since the first lefty I put in way back when during pump training. On test day of training, I stupidly decided to insert on my left side, and naively used my left hand to guide the needle. I passed the test, but about an hour later I noticed that blood was creeping up my tubing. Being stubborn, I ignored it and just went about my business. Maybe an hour after getting home from the appointment, feeling accomplished and such, I was hanging out with my girlfriend (now ex), and she bumped it ever so slightly.
Well, we all know what “ever so slightly” can do to an infusion set. Blood literally flew up my tubing and into the cartridge turning the wonderfully clear insulin to an odd pinkish hue. I popped the set as an instinct (I guess), and low and behold… I was experiencing my first true bleeder. We were out back by the pool at the time, and blood was pretty much getting on anything I touched. The table, the pool deck, my pants, probably her pants…. it was pretty intense for the first day of solo-pumping.
But back to the purpose of that little tangent… I decided that if I had grown balls elsewhere in my life and made some drastic changes… I might as well grow a set in all facets of my life. I popped my old set, stickied my left side, pinched, and punctured. Ever so slowly, and gently…. and didn’t feel a thing. It was truly amazing. I had set my first lefty, and I didn’t even feel it. Huzzah. Go me. But all good things must come to an end… and I got it caught on a doorknob two days later. That doorknob just stole about $3.33 from my insurance company. Way to stick it to the man, doorknob. Congratulations.
Oh. Speaking of insurance. Animas now actually has a legit online store at which one can, with proper paperwork and information on physical file with them at their offices, order pumping supplies. I always used to have to call and be socially awkward on the phone, but that will happen no more. To tell you the truth, I had never looked at how much supplies actually cost. I really never had to, since I was not paying for them (and still aren’t). My cart total was over $700. I was completely blown away. Each set costs about $10?!? I understand the whole supply x demand concept… but how does that whole a little piece of tape and a needle and a straw costing $10 work? I was just blown away. But then I saw that insurance covered around $670 of the cart, and my parents cover the other $30 for S&H and the adhesive/alcohol swabs. Which are amazing. If anyone has never tried these things (smith&nephew I.V. Prep Antiseptic Wipes), I recommend them. Whole heartedly. Love them. Except for when your fingers stick to the site. That makes things a little awkward. But that never happens. Almost.
So…I actually just read the box for the first time, and it doesn’t say anywhere that they get sticky. But they do. I’m unsure as to why they don’t say they are adhesive wipes too… hmmm… I’m not the only one that they get sticky as they dry, am I? That’d be weird.
Well anyways, I’m going to go pass out and dream about encryption protocols, and client/server interactions, and virtual/physical memory translations… and then go bend that exam over the back of a chair.
Sorry for the way I sorta meandered through this post. It’s late, and I’m not thinking straight. I will clean it up at some point tomorrow (once I’m coherent after the exam).
Peace to all,
Tom.
PS(Edit One – 5AM – Sugar: 43mg/dL): If anyone wants to kick me in the ass to get me to test regularly again… please, please do it. I don’t think I’ve fallen out of the boat… I think the boat has been smashed into many pieces and I’m hanging onto some of the floating debris. While my tests have been within range, in the past seven days I have only tested nine times. So. If anyone wants to come and kick me, the door is always open. Okay. I just started converting the post’s wordcount into binary and hexadecimal in my head. That’s a bad sign. Night all.
PPS(Edit Two – 7:15AM – 38mg/dL): That pesky little thing about protein: It slows down carb intake, which means that insulin intake is lower, or at least needs to be spread out. Damn. Two lows in the past hour and a half without even taking insulin. Hello over-active basal? Or hello freak lows? Why have I been craving eggs so much lately? And why have I actually taken the effort to feed that craving??? Well hey. Looks like I’m up early enough to make breakfast. How do eggs sound? :-p
Pssst. Expect a post on food, lows, and the body’s alarm system in the very near future. And be ready to send me recipes for the summer. :-)
So there has been a ton of stuff that happened in the past month and a half or so. My last post was… wow. A very long time ago, and was talking about mono and such. Turns out I did not have mono… Guess I was just fairly sick or something. That cleared up just fine. The switch from endo back to my PCP went well, except that I was told that she is leaving the practice at the end of May and moving about an hour and a half further away (or something like that?), so I will most likely not be following her.
I got my A1c done last week, and it came back a 7.1. I can’t remember what my last one is, and I’m too tired to go digging through my posts (it’s actually probably still on the front page… haha), but I’m pretty sure it has come down a few points. I’m still nowhere near the 6.0 that I was loving, but I’m on my way back to that point. I just need to remain in control and stop getting angry at the disease. While it’s understandable, it does not reflect well on my numbers. :-\
I ended my relationship with my girlfriend a few weeks ago. Don’t really want to talk about it, just making a note. Not the greatest achievement of the recent months. Really threw me into a dark place for a while; I’m just now grabbing onto that ladder to start to climb back out.
Classwork has really kicked my ass this semester. I’ve really got no clue how I’m doing anymore, and am just hoping to pass all of my classes. The semester will be over soon, and then I guess we’ll see. The work has pretty much been the reason I haven’t posted in forever and a day. Also, I’ve been pretty reclusive lately, so that has not helped my online presence, either.
I feel that my posts will be few and far between for a while.
Be safe, each and every one of you who read this,
Tom.
