3.5

I am pleased with the number 3.5 for a couple of reasons.

First, I have officially moved to Illinois (the reason why my blog has been neglected for the past week). I am living on the third floor of my apartment building. It is the first time in my life where I am truly living on my own. While I am excited and nervous about this, I have liked it so far. I like my 3rd floor apartment, although it has no furniture right now (it is coming on Thursday).

Secondly, I am running 3.5 miles this week. I get to run for more than 20 minutes....yay! Although I am not running nearly as much as I would like to be, it feels good. Running makes me so happy...a feeling which is hard to explain 100% to a non-runner. Needless to say, with my move and running, I am pretty happy right now!

And lastly, I signed up to do a 5k back in Iowa on Labor Day, about 3.5 weeks away. It will be my first race since the Flying Pig in May. I am excited to race again, even if it is only a 5k. Originally, I was going to run the 1/2 marathon instead of the 5k, but with my stress fracture that isn't possible. I have not raced a 5k for about 3 years. I don't even remember my time from that race, but I was the first female to cross the finish line. It was a super small race for schools in the town where I went to college...I sure my time wasn't very fast, but it did feel great to be the first female to cross the line.

Tomorrow I get to go into my new classroom for the first time. I feel like a new chapter of my life has begun, and I am excited and so happy about it. Life is good.

"Do you still have all of your toenails?"

I recently had breakfast with an old friend and got to talking about running. Her friend runs a lot, and made a comment about how disgusting his feet were. She said he was constantly losing toenails. Then she asked me, "do you still have all of your toenails? Or...are your feet deformed?"

I told her that I never lost a toenail because of running, and hope it never happens. The thought of it just sounds like it would hurt a massive amount. Are my feet deformed? Well, I wouldn't say that they are lovely but they are not deformed either. Feet, in general, are rather not the most attractive body part.

This conversation got me thinking. Since I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was always told to take special care of my feet. My first endocrinologists said that if I didn't have good control I would lose a toe or foot. If I wanted to keep my feet, I had to take care of them and my blood sugars.

Except, I never took (and take) care of my feet. I rarely look at them. They don't hurt and look fine when I wear sandals; however, I never take the time to examine them. It isn't a priority for me I guess. Even as I type this, a thought ran through my head about how maybe I should actually look at them, but it soon left my head. I guess I go on the philosophy that if my feet feel fine and aren't causing me any trouble, then they are fine.

Maybe I'll look at my feet tomorrow when I get my pedicure while I am picking out the new color I would like on my toes.

Lot 8 recall

If you use a Medtronic pump, I'm sure you know about the Lot 8 recall. And, if you know me at all, I like to be prepared.

After getting a letter from Medtronic, I went through my inventory of pump supplies and dug out all of the Lot 8 infusion sets. I consider myself to be fairly new to the pump still, as I have only been on it 3.5 years. It was not until my Lot 8 recall letter came in the mail that I realized how many supplies I accumulated. I had enough extra supplies so I would be able to use my pump for over a year if the company went out of business (which, by the way, they are not).

As I was going through the house and locating all of my pump supplies, I started to wonder how I had gotten so many. I change my pump site every 3 or 4 days. Sometimes, especially in the summer, my sites need to be changed more often. When I got everything together, I started to count the number of boxes and individual infusion sets, just as Minimed requested: I had 18 unused boxes and 13 individual infusion sets!! That would be 1 year and 7 months worth of them, not including my 4 boxes that were not Lot 8.

When I called Minimed about my supplies, I asked them when I would be getting my replacement infusion sets. I was told that I would be mailed 1 every 3 weeks, to which I responded, "you are going to mail me one box every three weeks for over a year?!?" I have yet to receive one in the mail. It has been about 3 weeks, so maybe one will come today?

I realize that Minimed had to recall many, many infusion sets, and I don't need my right away. I just think a year is a bit excessive. Yesterday I opened up a piece of mail from the president of the company, stating how sorry he was for the Lot 8 recall. Although it was a nice gesture, it would be more helpful to replace my sets promptly.

An Unlikely Friendship

When I lived in Ohio, I belonged to a large gym. I liked it and would occasionally say hi to a few people, but had one main goal every time I went through their doors: to run/workout. If I were friendlier, I bet I could have met more people. Maybe I wasn't because I knew my time in Ohio was limited? Or, maybe I'm just not friendly (hopefully not!)?

Now that I'm back in Iowa and have been here for over a month, the most time I've spent here for five years, it is very evident how different life is here. Although, by Iowa standards, I live in a city (65,000 people); by Ohio standards I would live in a mere town. The neighborhood and city is incredibly safe and many people don't even lock their doors. The pace of life seems much slower, along with the driving. It was hard to get used to driving 30 mph on city streets compared to driving on I70 or I75.

There is no large gym here for people to belong to, however there are a few smaller ones. After getting injured, I knew that I would need a gym to work out at since I would be using the elliptical religiously. Instead of paying to join a small gym for 2 months, I decided I would just use the gym at the country club my family belongs to. Their workout room consists of free weights, about 5 weight machines, 2 ellipticals , 5 treadmills, and 2 stationary bikes. I go during the day when the normal person is at work, so I never have trouble getting on machines. It is just very different than what I was accustomed to.

There is a sign when you enter the workout room that tells you to "sign in, please." We are very polite here! There is no membership card that needs to be scanned or receptionist to tell you to enjoy your workout, rather, on most days an empty room to welcome me. About a month ago, a couple older guys would come to the workout room on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. One day, one of the guys asked me if I knew someone because he saw my name on the sign-up sheet. The person ended up being my aunt, and after a while, one thing led to the next and we figured out I went to high school with his granddaughter.

Ever since that day, this man and I exchange greetings when he enters the room. We have talked about many things, from living in Africa to living in Chicago to injuries to golf. One thing that i can always count on is that he will have a smile on his face. The other day he came into the room and was grinning, ear to ear. He told me that he shot his age - 78 - during a round of golf last week. He was so proud and it made me smile.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is the little things in life that count. It is not about how fast or how many miles I can run or how perfect I am being, but rather, about being nice to people and simply saying "hi" to them. As someone once told me, it doesn't cost a penny to say hi.

:)

The Race to Cure Diabetes

Yesterday I was trying to find some races in the Chicagoland area in the fall, but found something even better - a race that supports diabetes research. The Dash to Cure Diabetes is located in Barrington, Illinois in May, and you can guarantee that I'll be participating in it next year.

When I found out about this race, I intuitively clicked on the link to go to the website. In bold font, it states: "Imagine you have an incurable disease... ....now imagine that you're 4 years old." As a matter of fact, that is how old I was when I was diagnosed with diabetes. However, as a 4 year old, I didn't really understand what diabetes was, or that it was incurable. In my young mind, it was just something I got and meant I couldn't eat some things.

I have never imagined that diabetes is an incurable disease. I can remember my first meter, the size of a small notebook, which took over 2 minutes to read my blood sugar. I had to take out the test strip and wipe it off in the middle of the reading. Needless to say, those days are long gone. Technology keeps getting better and better, with new insulin pumps, CGMS, meters and more things available today.

Right now, there is no cure for diabetes (I wish there was, though!). It is hard for me to imagine my life without it, since I don't remember my life before it. But, I have always believed that a cure was attainable. Growing up, my parents always said that although there was not a current cure, there would be one in the future. They supported diabetes research, through JDRF, and more recently, through the SpringPoint Project. My brother raised money and ran for SpringPoint during the Boston Marathon a few years ago.

I believe there will be a cure for diabetes in my lifetime. But, until then, I'll support research to make that possible while doing one of my favorite things - running.

Scarred

I have loved my CGMS and hated it during other times since getting it a few months ago. Currently, I like it. It has been pretty accurate and given me good, solid information to help me manage my diabetes better. However, there is one bad thing about it: it has left me scarred.


I only wear my sensor on my side, and it is apparent, and very ugly. There are little dots from where the sensor was in my body and also some light bruising. I am not sure if everyone who wears a sensor has these issues, or if it is just me? So if you have advice for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Until then, I'll remain scarred...

I'm Moving Up

This week I was able to run 5 days according to my running regimen, logging 1.25 miles each day. To my surprise, I did not become too out of shape in the past month and a half, which I am very thankful for. I completed most of my runs in 9 minutes and a couple seconds. However, you really don't have to be in that great of shape to log that time. Next week will give me a better picture of my fitness level, when I get to run 2 miles for 6 days of the week.

I have not been injured since high school, when I got hurt playing basketball. I was on crutches for 3 weeks and then in a lovely boot for quite some time. For the past 6 years, I have been running injury free and seemed to have forgotten the tole of being injured. Not only do I require more insulin because I am not burning as many calories, it has also effected my mindset and presence.

Before being injured, I would have a goal in mind of how many miles I wanted to run. Sometimes I would run more, rarely less, or decide to run and then work out on another machine. I could spend hours at the gym, and feel great afterword. Now, I have to have a different mindset before working out. I have to prepare to only run for that set amount of miles, and then demand my body to stop so it can get better. This past week, I wanted to keep running, but knew that I couldn't. It made me feel sad.

I think the next thing is the hardest to explain: being injured has effected my presence. It is like there is something missing if I can't run so many miles a day. Running makes me happy, and although it is not the only thing that makes me happy by a long shot, it feels like there is a void in me right now. Running provides balance in for me and gives me time to think about things I need to think about. I don't really know how to explain it, but I do know not running leaves a void in my life.

So you might be thinking that "you are running again, so why do you feel this void?" I don't know...I think it is because I want to do more than I can. I had a little taste of running, but want more. For the meantime I'll stick to the plan and hope for the best.