Friday, February 19, 2010
I *heart* these
Lately I have found myself browsing the internet in search of things that I want to buy, but don't need. I dream of the day when we are no longer saving every penny possible to get out of debt and save for a new home. SIGH!!! But since I am sure that day isn't anywhere in the near future I will continue to browse the internet for all the lovely things that are considered luxury. Last night at Bunco one of my girlfriends had a new purse, and I absolutely fell in love with it. So after lots of dice rolling and wine drinking, I headed home to to surf the web for it. Big Buddha bags!! Doesn't the companies name just make you want to smile (I sure did!!) Here are my favorites:
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
tired
I feel a little exhausted with everything right now. Balancing to be just on insulin and to change Dustin's diet when we only "kind of know" what we need to do is a lot of work. Our fridge is empty, and it seems like whatever we have in it doesn't work. Grocery shopping poses challenges of its own, because eliminating dairy and wheat from the diet can make it difficult to eat anything else. And then we try to stay educated. Read. Read. Read. So much information and it doesn't seem like there is enough space in this brain of mine to process all of it!
Dustin meets with Dr. Baker tomorrow. I'm not able to go to the appointment, but my mom is going with him. Those appointments throw out way too much information and for just one person to hear it all is overwhelming.
More news tomorrow!!
Dustin meets with Dr. Baker tomorrow. I'm not able to go to the appointment, but my mom is going with him. Those appointments throw out way too much information and for just one person to hear it all is overwhelming.
More news tomorrow!!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Talk to Everyone
My mom's theory through this entire Type 1 Journey has been TALK TO EVERYONE!! Her theory was tell everyone what we are going through in case someone has something incredible to share with us. We won't know if we don't keep seeking out the knowledge. In the beginning Dustin was a little hesitant about this, and I think this was mainly because the more we talked to everyone, the more it made this real. And that was a hard thing to accept.
A few weeks ago at our small church class at church they passed around a sign up sheet for various couples to stand at a table before each service to tell others about this awesome class that we are going to (I was going to do an entire post today on what we learned today about marriage, but this is too exciting that I am bursting at the seams to write this. So I will save that for another day). Dustin really wanted for us to sign up, and the first week that they asked for volunteers I told him "no" since we were so new to the class it wasn't quite yet in my comfort zone. But the following week they asked again for volunteers, Dustin asked me if I would be interested and I thought "what do we have to lose."
So we showed up early this morning and started talking with our small church leader. He asked what is going on in our lives and we shared our Type 1 Journey. He listened and then said.. "I have to get you connected to my daughter-in-law. My granddaughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the last year. They met with one of the leading endocrinologists in the Valley and didn't want to accept that insulin was the only solution. Long story short, our granddaughter is now living without Type 1 diabetes and is the normal ranges for everything." As you can imagine our eyes lit up. He got us in touch with his daughter-in-law immediately by email, and a series of emails has gone back and forth all day. Can you believe her daughter is no creating normal levels of insulin on her own? She told us to get in touch with a certain doctor in the valley (a naturopath). She told us to immediately get an appointment with him, and then she would set up a time to talk with us about food and how to live this out in our day to day lives. We mentioned to her that we had already met with another naturopath, who will remain nameless, and she said that they also had talked to this individual and she was far to strict/radical for them. This again made us thing that there still may be another option!! In the meantime she recommended that we read Diabetic Solutions by Dr. Bernstein. A book that we purchased months ago and has been collecting dust on our bookshelf since. Isn't that embarrassing??
Over the past many months we have been praying for another solution. Praying for God to open a door if there is another route that he has intended for us to go on. We are not saying that this is in fact His plan for us, but we are excited that He has opened another door. We are willing to try anything to avoid being insulin dependent for the rest of our lives. We will be calling the doctor that she recommended first thing tomorrow. And if they are closed for the holiday we will call back again first thing on Tuesday!
If you are interested to read more about her journey, and the road she is traveling just go to her blog.
A few weeks ago at our small church class at church they passed around a sign up sheet for various couples to stand at a table before each service to tell others about this awesome class that we are going to (I was going to do an entire post today on what we learned today about marriage, but this is too exciting that I am bursting at the seams to write this. So I will save that for another day). Dustin really wanted for us to sign up, and the first week that they asked for volunteers I told him "no" since we were so new to the class it wasn't quite yet in my comfort zone. But the following week they asked again for volunteers, Dustin asked me if I would be interested and I thought "what do we have to lose."
So we showed up early this morning and started talking with our small church leader. He asked what is going on in our lives and we shared our Type 1 Journey. He listened and then said.. "I have to get you connected to my daughter-in-law. My granddaughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the last year. They met with one of the leading endocrinologists in the Valley and didn't want to accept that insulin was the only solution. Long story short, our granddaughter is now living without Type 1 diabetes and is the normal ranges for everything." As you can imagine our eyes lit up. He got us in touch with his daughter-in-law immediately by email, and a series of emails has gone back and forth all day. Can you believe her daughter is no creating normal levels of insulin on her own? She told us to get in touch with a certain doctor in the valley (a naturopath). She told us to immediately get an appointment with him, and then she would set up a time to talk with us about food and how to live this out in our day to day lives. We mentioned to her that we had already met with another naturopath, who will remain nameless, and she said that they also had talked to this individual and she was far to strict/radical for them. This again made us thing that there still may be another option!! In the meantime she recommended that we read Diabetic Solutions by Dr. Bernstein. A book that we purchased months ago and has been collecting dust on our bookshelf since. Isn't that embarrassing??
Over the past many months we have been praying for another solution. Praying for God to open a door if there is another route that he has intended for us to go on. We are not saying that this is in fact His plan for us, but we are excited that He has opened another door. We are willing to try anything to avoid being insulin dependent for the rest of our lives. We will be calling the doctor that she recommended first thing tomorrow. And if they are closed for the holiday we will call back again first thing on Tuesday!If you are interested to read more about her journey, and the road she is traveling just go to her blog.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
What a day...
Today was a super fun day!! We had nothing planned... and just did whatever our hearts decided. I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of our day, and then post them!! So here they are!! Just another fun day in our very blessed life!!
We woke up this morning, layed in bed for a while and turned on the news. They were showcasing a giant book fair at the state fair grounds. We thought it sounded like fun, and this was the beginning of our day!!
We woke up this morning, layed in bed for a while and turned on the news. They were showcasing a giant book fair at the state fair grounds. We thought it sounded like fun, and this was the beginning of our day!!
- Picture 1: This is the time we left the house
- Picture 2 & 3: Nothing like Jamba Juice to get things started for our day!!
- Picture 4: The line to get into the book fair. One person told us the line was four hours long, so we almost turned around. But we decided it was worth checking out. After an hour in line, we were in
- Picture 5: Finally inside the VNSA book fair!! Over 16 books purchased, in like new quality, for less than $60
- Picture 6: Had lunch with Mandy and went furniture shopping in our never ending quest for something fabulous! Mandy and Dustin getting comfy
- Picture 7: BevMo was having the $.05 wine sale, so we were stocking up
- Picture 8: Dustin picking up his first dose of insulin and flexipens
- Picture 9 & 10: Dustin and I dancing to Baby Got Back in the car
- Picture 11: Heading to the iStore looking for an iMac. This is where we realized that the iStore is NOT directly associated with apple... so tomorrow we are heading to the apple store.
- Picture 12: The time that we got home!! Only an hour to rest before heading out to a going away party for our friends, Todd and Ashley!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
After the Doctors Appointment
Huge sigh of relief!! The doctor's appointment is over and it went far better than we were anticipating!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! We felt an amazing amount of peace throughout this appointment (quite different than last week). My parents went with us so that they could be the extra ears and hear all of the information that we may forget and ask any questions that we may not have thought about.
Today we met with the diabetes educator, Margaret. We had a little bit of an inside scoop about Margaret, because the photographer that I work for (Cristi Owen) is also a registered dietitian and used to work with Margaret at Banner Baywood. Cristi couldn't have been more right about how sweet and knowledgeable Margaret is. we were told that our appointment would only be 30 minutes, and Margaret used a full hour to be very thorough in her description of everything that is going on, and spent a lot of time answer all of our questions.
So let me start giving you the information that I got from the diabetes educator and the doctor today:
Q. How often should Dustin check his blood glucose (BG) levels?
A. Dustin should check his BG levels at least twice a day. Once in the morning and once before dinner. It he wants he could add a third time, being before lunch. We shouldn't be surprised if the amount of times checking his BG levels increases as the years go on. This is normal.
Q. What are the BG levels that Dustin should be striving for?
A. Around 100 is what we are striving for at any point in time (give or take 20)
A. Levemir. His daily dosage is 12 units. Levemir is a synthetic insulin. Years ago they used to use animal insulin, but now it is mostly all synthetic. This means it is exactly like human insulin and has very few side effects
Q. What time will Dustin need to give himself the injection?
A. Dustin will need to give himself the injections in the morning. It needs to be at a consistent time. Always within an hour of the same time
Q. Why does Dustin need to give the injections in the abdomen?
A. This is because it will give the best and most even absorption. There is a small area on the back of the arm that you can also give the injection, but it is hard for a person to do that on their own without help.
Q. Where should Dustin store the insulin?
A. The insulin needs to be stored in a cool place, preferably the refrigerator. When traveling we will need to have a little cooler that we can carry everything with us.
Q. Tell me more about the injections?
A. The insulin is not stored in a typical looking syringe. They call it a little pen. It carries up to 300 units of insulin in it and has disposable needles. So the one pen will last us approximately 3 weeks. Dustin will need to prime the pen using 2 units of insulin and then inject 12 units of insulin daily. This is a VERY small dosage of insulin. To give you an idea, this pen can inject up to 80 units of insulin at one time. It is a very small needle, and very fine. They told him that it goes in gently (not like throwing darts). You would give it the same force that you would use with a pin to pop a balloon. Dustin gave himself one placebo injection and one real injection while we were there. The placebo injection hurt more because it was sugar water, and this burned a little. He said that although it wasn’t comfortable, pricking his finger to get his blood glucose levels hurt more.
Q. Can Dustin drink alcohol while on insulin?
A. You should limit your alcohol content while on insulin. Although many people don’t adhere to this, this is the best thing you can do for your body. He can have 2 drinks a day. And Margaret was quick to tell us that if you didn’t have your two drinks one day, you couldn’t save them for another day. Alcohol can lower your blood sugar levels, but you typically won’t see this happen until hours after you stop drinking. The liver does actually play a role in insulin production. But when you drink, it spend so much energy processing the alcohol that it stops helping the pancreas produce insulin. This is the reason he should limit his alcohol intake.
Q. What should Dustin' diet look like?
A. As most of you know we have been on a very strict diet the last six months as we have tried to manage this. The doctor, diabetes educator, and my friend who is a registered dietitian do not believe that this is a diet we should remain on. Dustin can consume 60-75 grams of carbohydrates per meal. He needs to be prudent with his fat content and have reasonable size servings of protein (i.e. not too much). Here are four things Margaret told us to remember in regards to his diet:
Q. What other things did we learn?
A. It is not uncommon to see wheat sensitivity and celiac disease with diabetes, because this is also an auto-immune disorder. We should continue to manage this as much as possible, while keeping up with the 60-75 grams of carbs per meal.
Many of you asked us why Dustin’s case was unique. Mainly this is because of his deficiency with his GAD antibodies (I still don’t understand this). And mostly the doctor said that Dustin is unique because he was able to manage to survive with almost no insulin production without being hospitalized. PRAISE GOD FOR THIS!!!!
Q. Whats the next step?
A. Back to the doctor in four weeks for our follow up and to see how Dustin’s body is reacting to the insulin. It is very likely that we will go up with insulin units at this time. He started Dustin on such a low level of insulin units because of the very strict diet that he has been adhering to. He didn’t want to shock Dustin’s system with the new treatment.
I hope that this is helpful and gives you all a little insight into our day!! Love you all very much and am so thankful for the support and help you have given us!!
Today we met with the diabetes educator, Margaret. We had a little bit of an inside scoop about Margaret, because the photographer that I work for (Cristi Owen) is also a registered dietitian and used to work with Margaret at Banner Baywood. Cristi couldn't have been more right about how sweet and knowledgeable Margaret is. we were told that our appointment would only be 30 minutes, and Margaret used a full hour to be very thorough in her description of everything that is going on, and spent a lot of time answer all of our questions.
So let me start giving you the information that I got from the diabetes educator and the doctor today:
Q. How often should Dustin check his blood glucose (BG) levels?
A. Dustin should check his BG levels at least twice a day. Once in the morning and once before dinner. It he wants he could add a third time, being before lunch. We shouldn't be surprised if the amount of times checking his BG levels increases as the years go on. This is normal.
Q. What are the BG levels that Dustin should be striving for?
A. Around 100 is what we are striving for at any point in time (give or take 20)
- 160 two hours after a meal is good
- 180 is a little high
- 200+ on a consistent basis means that we need to come back to the doctor and look at new treatment options
- When Dustin's levels are seriously high (i.e. above 250) we should stay away from vigorous exercise until they drop
A. Levemir. His daily dosage is 12 units. Levemir is a synthetic insulin. Years ago they used to use animal insulin, but now it is mostly all synthetic. This means it is exactly like human insulin and has very few side effects
Q. What time will Dustin need to give himself the injection?
A. Dustin will need to give himself the injections in the morning. It needs to be at a consistent time. Always within an hour of the same time
Q. Why does Dustin need to give the injections in the abdomen?
A. This is because it will give the best and most even absorption. There is a small area on the back of the arm that you can also give the injection, but it is hard for a person to do that on their own without help.
Q. Where should Dustin store the insulin?
A. The insulin needs to be stored in a cool place, preferably the refrigerator. When traveling we will need to have a little cooler that we can carry everything with us.
Q. Tell me more about the injections?
A. The insulin is not stored in a typical looking syringe. They call it a little pen. It carries up to 300 units of insulin in it and has disposable needles. So the one pen will last us approximately 3 weeks. Dustin will need to prime the pen using 2 units of insulin and then inject 12 units of insulin daily. This is a VERY small dosage of insulin. To give you an idea, this pen can inject up to 80 units of insulin at one time. It is a very small needle, and very fine. They told him that it goes in gently (not like throwing darts). You would give it the same force that you would use with a pin to pop a balloon. Dustin gave himself one placebo injection and one real injection while we were there. The placebo injection hurt more because it was sugar water, and this burned a little. He said that although it wasn’t comfortable, pricking his finger to get his blood glucose levels hurt more.
Q. Can Dustin drink alcohol while on insulin?
A. You should limit your alcohol content while on insulin. Although many people don’t adhere to this, this is the best thing you can do for your body. He can have 2 drinks a day. And Margaret was quick to tell us that if you didn’t have your two drinks one day, you couldn’t save them for another day. Alcohol can lower your blood sugar levels, but you typically won’t see this happen until hours after you stop drinking. The liver does actually play a role in insulin production. But when you drink, it spend so much energy processing the alcohol that it stops helping the pancreas produce insulin. This is the reason he should limit his alcohol intake.
Q. What should Dustin' diet look like?
A. As most of you know we have been on a very strict diet the last six months as we have tried to manage this. The doctor, diabetes educator, and my friend who is a registered dietitian do not believe that this is a diet we should remain on. Dustin can consume 60-75 grams of carbohydrates per meal. He needs to be prudent with his fat content and have reasonable size servings of protein (i.e. not too much). Here are four things Margaret told us to remember in regards to his diet:
- Be consistent with your meal routine. The time and volume of meals should be consistent day to day.
- Be smart about your portion sizes.
- Keep added sweets to a minimum. Sugar substitutes are fine. Coke Zero and sports drinks such as Propel and Power 0 are okay as well.
- Keep down the fat in each meal
Q. What other things did we learn?
A. It is not uncommon to see wheat sensitivity and celiac disease with diabetes, because this is also an auto-immune disorder. We should continue to manage this as much as possible, while keeping up with the 60-75 grams of carbs per meal.
Many of you asked us why Dustin’s case was unique. Mainly this is because of his deficiency with his GAD antibodies (I still don’t understand this). And mostly the doctor said that Dustin is unique because he was able to manage to survive with almost no insulin production without being hospitalized. PRAISE GOD FOR THIS!!!!
Q. Whats the next step?
A. Back to the doctor in four weeks for our follow up and to see how Dustin’s body is reacting to the insulin. It is very likely that we will go up with insulin units at this time. He started Dustin on such a low level of insulin units because of the very strict diet that he has been adhering to. He didn’t want to shock Dustin’s system with the new treatment.
I hope that this is helpful and gives you all a little insight into our day!! Love you all very much and am so thankful for the support and help you have given us!!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Type 1
At 2:30 today we met with Dustin's endocrinologist. We made this appointment six months ago and have just been waiting for the day to arrive. It was a blessing that our appointment was today after finding out last Tuesday's news.
We knew that today would be a difficult day, but we in no way anticipated how hard hearing the news would actually be. We were very well prepared patients and took in with us a copy of Dustin's last three blood test results. We took a record of his blood sugar levels from the last several weeks and a food diary. The nurse was very impressed by our preparedness. And in fact this worked out well for us because they didn't need to take a baseline blood test and were able to make an official diagnosis right on the spot.
Short Story... Dustin is Type 1 Diabetic and will need to begin daily insulin injections as soon as we can meet with the diabetes educator (which will be next Wednesday)
Long Story... Dustin has lost 90-95% of his insulin production in the last six months. When we first began on this journey over six months ago his levels of insulin production were labeled as normal on his blood test. The blood work that he had completed just a few weeks ago came back with insulin levels that were undetectable. It is a little unique that Dustin has developed Type 1 Diabetes so late in his life. Technically speaking his doctor said that he isn't quite yet Type 1 Diabetic (I'm not sure the reasoning for this and will hopefully learn more on Wednesday), and would be officially classified as having Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood (LADA). The doctor said that he was really shocked that Dustin hasn't been hospitalized as of yet, and said that this is most likely due to the strict diet that he has been keeping. We still have a ton of questions, so I'm sorry that I can't give you more information. But hopefully we will be finding out more very soon!
Please pray for strength during this difficult time. Although we knew that this was coming it still doesn't make it less difficult to hear.
We knew that today would be a difficult day, but we in no way anticipated how hard hearing the news would actually be. We were very well prepared patients and took in with us a copy of Dustin's last three blood test results. We took a record of his blood sugar levels from the last several weeks and a food diary. The nurse was very impressed by our preparedness. And in fact this worked out well for us because they didn't need to take a baseline blood test and were able to make an official diagnosis right on the spot.
Short Story... Dustin is Type 1 Diabetic and will need to begin daily insulin injections as soon as we can meet with the diabetes educator (which will be next Wednesday)
Long Story... Dustin has lost 90-95% of his insulin production in the last six months. When we first began on this journey over six months ago his levels of insulin production were labeled as normal on his blood test. The blood work that he had completed just a few weeks ago came back with insulin levels that were undetectable. It is a little unique that Dustin has developed Type 1 Diabetes so late in his life. Technically speaking his doctor said that he isn't quite yet Type 1 Diabetic (I'm not sure the reasoning for this and will hopefully learn more on Wednesday), and would be officially classified as having Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood (LADA). The doctor said that he was really shocked that Dustin hasn't been hospitalized as of yet, and said that this is most likely due to the strict diet that he has been keeping. We still have a ton of questions, so I'm sorry that I can't give you more information. But hopefully we will be finding out more very soon!
Please pray for strength during this difficult time. Although we knew that this was coming it still doesn't make it less difficult to hear.
Monday, February 1, 2010
More pork leftovers... Tostadas!!
Well... the Kalua Pork that we made on Wednesday night has been put to some very good use! Tonight we used the remaining leftovers to make pork tostada's. This was a very similar recipe to the nachos. But this recipe we created on our own... this great idea was courtesy of my mom!
First, we took four corn tortillas and coated them with olive oil and put them in the oven to cook the tostada hard shell.
We didn't have a can of refried beans, so we made our own!! Then we chopped up some cilantro, onions and tomatoes.
We added the beans, pork, and cilantro mixture to the tostada. Topped it with some sour cream, avacado and cheese and called it good!! Super yummy and absolutely healthy!
First, we took four corn tortillas and coated them with olive oil and put them in the oven to cook the tostada hard shell.
We didn't have a can of refried beans, so we made our own!! Then we chopped up some cilantro, onions and tomatoes.
We added the beans, pork, and cilantro mixture to the tostada. Topped it with some sour cream, avacado and cheese and called it good!! Super yummy and absolutely healthy!
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