Perspective

This past weekend I went skiing again, and not only is it April, but there was powder, sunshine, friends, family and no grass.  When my friends and I showed up last year, this is what the mountain looked like:

And when we showed up this year, this is what the mountain looked like:

Needless to say we skied really hard every morning.  At one point, Meghan said, "We need to wait for my legs to catch up."  And that's pretty much how it went.  The powder was awesome, and the diabetes feelings, well, they were a little off.  I was starting to feel low, so when we got to the top of the chair I tested.  And a stupid 33 mg/dL was staring me back.  My mom & Meghan helped me with the juice boxes. But I didn't FEEL that low.  So when I was done Mom asked how I was doing and I said, let's go!  Don't worry, I went slow and we were making our way over to my favorite lodge for snack.  And Meghan said, "My mom would be sitting on the ground crying."  Meghan has had diabetes since she was 5.  Her brother 6 months later.  And her uncles have T1 as well.  And in September her mother was diagnosed.  This is a woman who knows diabetes, but not the way we do.  She knows how to be a sister and mother of PWD, but is struggling with being a PWD.  She has a fabulous support system, but comments like those put diabetes in perspective for me.  Learning how to be a PWD happened while learning how to grow up, not while being comfortable with my life.

Deliciousness

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had no idea what to anticipate my BG as.  I've actually been waking up quite well lately, (and I'm sure that will change now) but the "oh no what will it be" is apparently automatic right now.  I was 152 mg/dL, which is darn near perfect for a day of skiing.  When you stick 11 people in a hotel "room," breakfast is a little chaotic.  But I grab a bagel and I'm totally all set and diabetes is great.  Our goal was first chair, and we were almost successful.  We got second.  And at the end of that run, I felt low.  So I took out my pump, pushed the basal down to 70% and went on my way.  And after the second run, I still felt low.  Grab the meter and I'm in the 60s.  Scoff down some tabs (of which I didn't bring enough, but wasn't about to admit that then and there), and take out the pump again and push the basal down to 50%.  And I was on my way.  No more feeling low for this girl! And we skied about half the mountain.

As a ski family, we've always taken snack breaks.  A few people have even mentioned that.  So when a few of us were in need of warming up and energizing, we stopped in at the lodge.  Now I still remember the days when the food was homemade, and the eternal optimist in me still believes that I might walk in one day and it will be there again.  But on this day, it was nearly true.  I grabbed a hot chocolate, and my cousin even showed me the container of marshmallows.  And then I turned around and saw the cinnamon buns.  I ran over to my mother and asked if she wanted to share.  I don't remember why she didn't want to, but I decided to go for it anyways.  And I felt better because said cousin was also getting one.  Not only did it at least look  kinda homemade, it was giant and it was swimming in syrup/frosting.  I am not sure what I bolused for this delicious treat, but I do know that it was definitely bolus-worthy.  And then I was wondering whether I would need a temp basal for the rest of the ski day.  I decided to reset the temp basal, because I could always do another bolus if I didn't need it, and a high BG wouldn't stop me from skiing.  The whole family skied around a lot of the mountain, and then the cousins took off to ski some more.  When we went inside at lunch time, I was 179 mg/dL.  So I probably didn't need such an extreme temp basal, but things definitely could've been worse.  We went back out after lunch, with another temp basal, and at the end of the ski day, a 70 mg/dL was staring me back.  Not so bad either.

The reason these temp basals are perplexing me is because when I first got the pump in 2002, I needed temp basals while I was skiing.  And I of course always thought I would.  And then I slowly needed more and more insulin during a ski day.  But now, I'm needing more extreme temp basals during my ski days, making for some trial and error days.  (But maybe that's all diabetes ever is?)

Happy Birthday

This weekend I went up to Sunday River to celebrate a 75th Birthday for one of my most favorite people in the world: 

Uncle Pepere turns 75!

We skiied

Megan, me, Michael & Karolyn

We love good trails

And we enjoyed time with family

The whole gang to celebrate the man front & center

cousins :)

And we had a lot of laughs in the process.  I hope everyone else had a great weekend too :)

My Happy Place

I went up to Sunday River with my family for the weekend.  I don't know if it's Maine, or the fact that in high school cell phones wouldn't work there, or just family, but Sunday River is my happy place.  And I'm not trying to steal their slogan, it just is.  I left right from work on Friday, and I was a little bit nervous about my drive.  The last time I made the drive, I was pretty tired.  But this time I looked good  (so I felt good) since I had my meeting with the Animas rep that morning (more on that soon).  I get there, text my friend so she knows I achieved my travel goals, and join the family who's already had a few drinks with dinner and dominoes, and since I'm the last one there, and the one with a tough week, we all head down to the bar.  It's not something that we've ever really done before, but we've got some great memories.  We learned about doo-yahs in Maine (I want to see if anyone out there knows what it is), and we held our faces from laughing to much, and we wondered how many people at the bar would be there when the chairs opened with us.  It was the perfect start to a weekend following a not so good week.

White Heat: my favorite

On Saturday, we woke up early to get the good runs in.  We started making our way through the fog and up and around to the groomed trails.   This included White Heat.  When I was nine, I started doing White Heat and it's partner, Shockwave.  At the time, they had a sign warning you of the dangers including severe injury or death from falling.  This sign was at a point of no return. I started crying and it took me 45 minutes to get down, for fear of falling.  As my mom says, "if you hadn't been able to read, you would've been fine."  I don't know if that's why, but every time I make it to the bottom of these, I get a huge surge of pride.  Well White Heat had been groomed and Shockwave had not.  My dad, uncle and cousin headed over there while the rest of headed down White Heat.  We got to the intersection and waited for them and I'm starting to feel low.  My mom carries my meter because she has a lot more pockets than I do.  She gets it out, and I'm expecting a number in the 60s.  Except that a 31 mg/dL stares me back in the face.  I get out my gluco-shot, which tasted so bad I thought I was going to throw it up.  And then my mom asked me the fateful question.  "Do you need to go in?"  I hate this question as it relates to diabetes.  I didn't feel that low, so I didn't feel like I needed to go in.  But the number staring me back told me otherwise.  So my mother and I headed inside while everyone else stayed skiing.  I got inside and waited  for my numbers to come up.  They did, but I wanted to stay a little longer, make sure I didn't start to drop again.  I didn't, but the tired feeling never left.  The rest of the day had decent numbers, though they were rising the rest of the day.  Whether it was the 31, or the fog & rain, I definitely felt tired the rest of the day.

Weekend Happiness

On Friday night, I drove up to Sunday River with my parents.  We drove through the snow, but we saw some beautiful places, like this in Twin Mountain, NH. 

On Saturday, we went skiing for the first time this season.  The sun never came out, but the skiing sure was great.  Here is my mother at the top of the trail Risky Business. 

This is looking down the trail American Express. 

And this is White Heat.  Closed right now, but I'll be back for it. 

We cut our ski day short, went in for lunch and then went walking with Earl :)

After going back to the beautifully decorated Jordan, we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant. 

When we came back, Dad watched the Heisman show, while Mom and I watched It's A Wonderful Life. Sunday was a snowy, rainy day, so we needed to leave early.  We got up, drove to Jefferson, NH and went out to breakfast.  What a delicious way to end a short, but wonderful trip to Maine

December 13: You're A Mean One Mister Grinch

This was my favorite movie as a kid, and loved to watch it all year long.