Moments of Wonderful

I got this e-mail today. I’m sure most of you did too.

Hi Sara,

I work in the Media Relations Department at JDRF and thought I’d let you know about an upcoming workshop we’re doing next week in Washington , D.C.

Title: Towards an Artificial Pancreas: An FDA-NIH-JDRF Workshop
Info: JDRF is co-hosting a public workshop with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that focuses on the state of the art in the research and development of an artificial pancreas. “Towards an Artificial Pancreas: An FDA-NIH-JDRF Workshop” will be held on July 21 and 22, 2008. It will provide a public forum for discussing the progress and remaining challenges in the development of closed-loop systems designed to regulate glycemic control in diabetics.

The event will be webcasted live via http://videocast.nih.gov/, and will available in an archived form about a week after the event. A written summary will also be posted here at www.jdrf.org/artificialpancreas/workshop.

Download the agenda for the workshop.

Honestly, I don’t hold out much hope for the closed loops system. First, current CGMS models measure interstitial fluid which is not as reliable as blood glucose measured from finger sticks. CGMS users are told not to make a treatment (bolus/carb) decision based on their CGMS results. At least now we have a way of monitoring the results and interpreting them using other sources of information. A closed loop system theoretically reduces this interaction - by design.

Second even the fastest acting insulin lasts for several hours in the body. Even if the closed loop provided a method of hypoglycemic correction using glucagon or something similar, it seems to me that the insulin and the glucagon would be battling for hours.

But if ‘they’ want to prove me wrong, I’m all ears.

The bedroom in my new apartment felt very heavy. As in, you could feel the air. Upon closer inspection, the miniblinds had some moisture on them.

I took a trip to Walmart to buy a dehumidifier. Well, they had air purifiers, and humidifiers, but no DEhumidifiers. Everyone I have told that little nugget to has found it as odd as me, considering I live in super humid Florida.

They did have them online though so I bought one right when I got home. Well, that was about a week ago and it finally arrived yesterday. Thankfully it was a plug-and-play.

I plugged it in at about 6 pm, and by midnight it was one-third full. I emptied it out and went to bed.

Well I had a GREAT night of sleep (it may have helped that I had today off work)!

Around four o’clock this afternoon I went into my room to get something and noticed a red light on the humidifier. The tank was FULL. In about 16 hours it collected 30 PINTS of water out of the room.

I’m glad it’s working - but WOW!!

Yes. Unfortunately, it is quite accurate.

Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Donald Duck Your alter ego is Donald Duck! Try as you might, you have a nasty temper that is hard to control. But you try hard to please, and you arn’t one to go down without a fight. Donald Duck 88% The Beast 69% Peter Pan 63% Cinderella 63% Ariel 63% Snow White 50% Pinocchio 50% Sleeping Beauty 50% Goofy 44% Cruella De Ville 25%

The painting of the new place has begun.

It started with testing colors (it’s the one on the right).

It’s only one wall so I figure it’s go big or go home right?

Here is the wall after the pink primer.

I’ll keep you all posted on the progress.

*** I started this post SIX DAYS ago! Such is my life now. I am way too busy for my own good! Still funny/interesting so I had to post it!***

As I mentioned before, I moved this weekend. In all the action and piles of boxes, I totally forgot I had a lab appointment yesterday for my A1c. Praying they could fit me in today, I headed over to the office this morning shortly after they opened.

They agreed to squeeze me in, so I took a seat in the waiting room to… wait. A few minutes later an older man walked in. In my office, we joke around about people walking around with iPods listening to the ’soundtrack of their lives’. Well, this guy at the endos office was taking it to the next level. When he walked in, we could ALL hear the soundtrack of his life. He had an old school discman in his cargo shorts and had the big ol’ headphones resting on his arm.

He walks up to the counter to check in, and the receptionist asks where the music is coming from. Everyone in the waiting room points to the guy, but he acts completely clueless. One lady who was also waiting gets up to tell him his music is on, but again, clueless. We were amazed and couldn’t help but laugh just a little. I think that it did not help that a few moments earlier we had all heard another patient in the waiting room airing out all her family business (complete with every curse in the book) on the phone in front of us.

Finally I get called back to the lab area. There are a few chairs to wait in right in front of the lab and two blood draw seats. They tell me that I can go directly to the blood draw chair. They were drawing another patient’s blood in the other chair when all of a sudden the lights flicker and go out!!

Um, suddenly, the girl who never gets nervous around a needle (Kerri - I’m looking at you!), is having second thoughts about her lab work.

Thankfully, a lady sitting in the lab waiting area started beeping (she was in the middle of a GTT) so I suggest that I would be willing to trade with her. I hoped it would buy me a little time for the lights to come on.

It bought me time - but alas, no lights.

By only the light of a single flashlight, the phlebotomist went to work.

Wouldn’t you know - it was one of the least painful blood draws I have ever had.

Hopefully the results will be just as painless!!

**oh, and that lesson… I think it is - don’t forget your doctor’s appointments!

I still owe you guys a post about my time in Ohio (work) and my time in New York (family). However, I am moving this weekend - finally! That is - if I can get some help. As self-sufficient as I usually am, I just don’t see myself moving my couch or bed down my stairs all by myself. The good news is, it only has to go around the block (I’m serious).

Quick story, when the group I was traveling with made it to the airport on our way back home, I asked the rest of my group if I could be one of the first to go through security so if I had any trouble I wouldn’t hold them up. Well, I think I am on a roll because I have not been stopped or set off the alarm in the last four or five trips (hopefully I have not jinxed myself now).

I was talking to the friend behind me about diabetes in the airports and keeping supplies with you, wondering why no one cares that we have syringes with us (that honestly could be carrying just about anything), and other random topics like that when we reached a seating area.

We were about to sit down to wait for the rest of our group when something familar caught my eye. Now, it’s not mine, but obviously I was following in the footsteps of another diabetic.

Ok, admit it. Which one of you has been leaving your trash in the Dayton airport?

Ok, so sometimes memes are fun.

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

*No I did not go to high school with the gang from HSM. Think of his character’s name.

Any other questions?

This past weekend I was in New York for my aunt’s burial and memorial service. It was good to be with family, but hard to be there for that reason. I took a lot of pictures, and will eventually get them up on Flickr. I want you all to be able to see my extended family and the amazing support network of friends my aunt had in her life. It was truly a blessing to my family.

My aunt’s friends and church family could not stop talking about what a great cook she was and about all their favorite recipes that she would make for various events. As far as we can tell, they are all on recipe cards and in various notebooks. We talked a little bit, as a family, about organizing them into some sort of collection that we can distribute. I only have one other girl cousin so we will probably be heading up the project. She will be student teaching this upcoming semester so I will probably take the lead. If you know of an easy way to do this, please let me know.

Now that I am back at work, I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I think I am being productive but I know I am losing my patience with little things a lot quicker than I used to. I need to pack up my apartment because I told them I would move by the 1st of July, but I don’t have anything in boxes yet. I am just not motivated to do anything with it.

Last year, I really worked hard to exercise and lose about 20 pounds. Well, so far this year I have let the working out slip, and I have managed to gain about half of it back. After walking around NYC all day Monday, I realize I need to get back to the gym and start working on myself again.

Re: d365. Some people have expressed concern that I haven’t uploaded any pictures since May 13th. I have been taking them, but I have (again) not had the time or energy to upload them with the tags, descriptions, captions, etc. My goal is to eventually get caught up on that as well.

My goal for the rest of the summer (yes rest - my summer starts May 1st and ends Aug 1st), is to take more time for myself and to focus on what is really important.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently was away at a conference. This of course involved a few plane flights and their required odd occurances.

As I was proceeding through security, the guy in front of me had to be reminded to take his cell phone out of his pocket. When the security guard notice something in my pocket, he of course thought it was a cell phone as well.

I use the don’t ask don’t tell policy when it comes to my pump and airport security, but at this point I had to ‘tell’. When I told him it was an insulin pump, he told me to walk through.

I thankfully did not set off the metal detector while I was walking through, but the TSA agent did take the opportunity to ask me a question.

He asked if I had the clip and leather case for the pump. I told him I had the clip but not the case. He said that those were the things that typically set off the alarms. I agreed and mentioned that was why I typically don’t wear the clip when I travel.

At this point, I was moving toward the belt to gather my bags (and shoes), and he hit me with I think is one of the best diabetic zingers I have heard to this day…

“Well,” he said with some surprise in his voice. “You look good.”

In Ohio for a conference. We are staying at a college in a dorm, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal except for the….

COMMUNAL BATHROOMS!

I think I might be too old for this.

They do have wireless on the whole campus so I should be able to stay somewhat connected this week when I am not in session!

*************************

Thank you for all the well wishes for my family. We are doing as well as can be expected. The services will not actually be until the middle of June so I will be heading up to New York then. I’ll keep you posted.