Looking out my window… smoky from all the fires in the west.
I am thinking… about tomorrow morning and the process to get ready and get Daniel on his bus with all his school supplies.
I am thankful… that when my mom offered to replace my laptop for Christmas two years ago, she got me a Geek Squad protection plan. My little miscreant removed part of my CD-ROM so it is currently off being repaired free of charge and I am typing this on my NOOK tablet!
One of my favorite things… rain. I hope we get some soon!
I am wearing… my black “Nevertheless, she persisted” shirt and black jeans.
I am creating… nothing at the moment.
I am listening to… the A/C because it is too smoky to have windows open.
I am hoping… the nighttime Dimatapp knocks Daniel out and my Benadryl does the same.
I am learning… Business English stuff for the challenge test I have to take this quarter.
In my kitchen… some chow mein and leftover Chinese pork.
In the school room… Daniel is chomping at the bit to go back tomorrow!
Shared Quote… “Comparison is the thief of joy.” –Theodore Roosevelt
My massage therapist in Galt. I saw a massage therapist almost the whole time we lived in Galt (2011-2014). It was helpful for my fibromyalgia and she kept my neck and shoulders worked out. I could seriously use her right now!
Obama. I miss having a president who was intelligent, classy, ethical, and *NOT* 45. Seriously, even my diehard Republican friends who didn’t vote for him even miss him!
Sugary cereal. Given that I live with my health-nut parents, Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs wouldn’t be allowed in the house. They’re also pretty much verboten because of my diabetes. However, I’d still give almost anything for a bowl of them.
My Giants being a winning team. Seriously, the freaking DODGERS are at the top of the NL West. Let’s talk about how *WRONG* that is, let alone that my boys are 40 games behind them. My #2 boys (the Cardinals) are only 6 games behind the Cubs so they could still take the division if the Cubs and the Brewers lose some games.
I am thinking… about Charlottesville, my own privilege, and the need to speak out and say, as a white woman, that the neo-Nazi crap going on there is abhorrent.
I am thankful… for last night. My youngest cousin called to let us know that she and her mom had just bought her wedding dress and she was coming up to show it to my grandmother. When we were taking the pictures with her and grandma (who was miraculously alert and smiling), we discovered that the portrait of my late grandfather in his Navy uniform was photobombing them. We had a good laugh and got teary because we miss him and photobombing them is totally something he would have enjoyed doing. (My cousin and I were beloved by him so she’s ecstatic that he was there in spirit last night.)
One of my favorite things… sleep. I’m not getting enough of it.
I am wearing… my blue-green fitted tee and jeans. Church clothes were the tee with black slacks, my black cardigan, and my black flats.
I am creating… my last two reports and journals for my Interpersonal Communications class.
I am listening to… the Andante movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in D Major Op. 28.
I am hoping… what I just ate and drank will get my blood sugar to where it needs to be and I won’t feel so hypoglycemic.
I am learning… the fingers that are least painful to prick with my glucometer. I am also trying to get a baseline for what “normal” should feel like.
In my kitchen… just noshed on some Chinese pork.
In the school room… class ends for me this week (4 chapters to outline for the quiz, 2 reports, and 2 journals due on Wednesday) and then I get to spend some time outlining the Business English textbook so I can test out of the class.
Closing Notes: My priest made an interesting point this morning. She commented that it is an example of white privilege that she was able to step away from the Internet and all the coverage of Charlottesville to go help at a community event raising money for the local theater. For many people, the presence of the jerks in Charlottesville is not something that they can escape. I have friends whose relatives were in concentration camps, whose family members perished, and for whom the neo-Nazi presence was a reminder that there are people there who want to kill them and their children for being Jewish or of Jewish extraction.
For people of color, they are reminded every day of their lower status in America and quite a few people have commented that if the protesters with tiki torches had been African-American, the National Guard would have been called in to quell the protest. Others have offered equivocations that the Antifa and BLM are as bad as the neo-Nazis and that’s utter bullshit. First of all, most of the Antifa just want to go cause mayhem — seriously, even anarchists disavow association with them. Secondly, BLM is largely peaceful but white people are incredibly threatened by them marching that law enforcement tends to go overboard. The neo-Nazis in Charlottesville look like a bunch of frat boys in their khakis and polo shirts — they haven’t experienced a day of persecution in their lives!
White people need to speak up and condemn these acts. Yes, crap does happen where African-Americans yell epithets at white folks — I experienced it living in Columbus, Ohio. However, I didn’t take it as personally as I could have because I knew that there was a lot of hurt and anger behind it that spans generations and that they were dealing with things that I would never experience. I have never had a landlord refuse to rent to me because of the color of my skin, I never had to attend a school that was sub-par because of the neighborhood in which it was located, and while my dad’s family fled persecution in Ireland in the 19th century and weren’t allowed into the States (long story), my ancestors were never considered mere pieces of property.
White people enjoy a very privileged status in this country and we need to use that privilege to SPEAK UP when there is injustice being committed. If a friend lost a family member or had a tragedy happen, you would speak up. Guess what? There are a number of communities in this country whose lives and well-being are threatened by the men marching in Charlottesville and WE NEED TO SAY SOMETHING.
Last Wednesday night (the 2nd), I didn’t get to sleep until probably 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and I had UTI symptoms. My resident just got hired on by Family Medicine as a sho’ nuff doctor and wasn’t going to be starting at the practice until the 9th so I hit up Urgent Care, hoping that La Bruja wouldn’t be one of the doctors on duty. (I had to deal with her several times last summer and she has the bedside manner of a rabid wolverine.) I gave them my UA and got triaged quickly.
As I’m sitting in the triage room talking to the medical assistant and telling her my symptoms, I suggest that they check my blood sugar on the off chance that my symptoms might be related to my sugars being screwed up. I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic 10 years ago and have been borderline for a while so it was a possibility. The medical assistant stabs my finger, puts the blood on the test strip, and announces to me that my blood sugar was 365. She then asks me when I last took my insulin. I looked at her, the color draining from my face, and told her that I wasn’t on insulin and that this was twice as high as I had ever seen it.
While I burst into tears and sobbed from exhaustion and fear, the medical assistant ran to get the doctor so the two of them could decide whether or not to treat me there or send me to the ER. I texted my mom (who was watching Daniel) and let her know that ish was going down and I might be headed over to the hospital. She texted back not to worry about Daniel (he was doing botany with her and engaging in some testing of the new washtub). The medical assistant came in, gave me a hug, and took me straight to an exam room.
The doctor came in shortly after and was wonderful. She checked me out very thoroughly and ordered bloodwork stat. After finding an antibiotic I could have, she came up with a game plan until my annual exam on the 17th. After showing me to the lab room, she went and sourced a new glucometer for me (thankfully Medicaid covered it) as well as giving me a prescription for test strips. I told her about my food issues and she gave me some suggestions for lunch, promising to call the second she had the labs back. (She sent them to the hospital to be processed *IMMEDIATELY*.)
When she called back that afternoon, I got some good news. My blood sugar was wonky but everything else was good so we were catching this early. She had me call her a few days later with my numbers (after testing 4 times a day) and they were on a positive trend down. She prescribed some Glipizide for me… which my pharmacist refused to fill because it could kill me. (It’s a sulfonurea medication and I’m very allergic to sulfa which puts me at great risk of a reaction due to cross-sensitivity.) I’ve opted to forgo the Glipizide (obviously) and work my diet for the next week and a half.
Right now, my numbers are steadily improving. I’m figuring out what I can order at $tarbux and what I can keep down. The theory is that I crossed the line into Type 2 diabetes within the last year or so and my blood sugar spiked because of the infection and stress. (PCOS-related insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes are on both sides of my dad’s family so genetics, as usual, are not in my favor.)
The game plan when I meet with my doctor in a week is to get a referral to endocrinology for the PCOS issues, nutrition to see if we can find a workable diet for me (hint: gluten-free is not an option — I don’t have a gluten sensitivity and it would further limit what I *can* eat), and an allergist to get a handle on what I am allergic to foodwise.
Looking out my window… dusk. The air still has a lot of forest fire smoke from British Columbia but it’s getting better.
I am thinking… about blood sugar issues.
I am thankful… my pharmacist refused to fill my Urgent Care doctor’s script for Glyburide. Apparently, people with a sulfa allergy shouldn’t have it and my Urgent Care doctor missed it!
One of my favorite things… all the things I’m not supposed to eat!
I am wearing… black fitted tee from Old Navy and jeans capris from Fred Meyer. I wore this with black flats for church and black flip-flops the rest of the day.
I am creating… this entry. 🙂
I am listening to… the sounds of the dryer and Daniel playing with his toys.
I am hoping… the kiddo goes down easily tonight. I don’t want a repeat of last night.
I am learning… about non-verbal communication.
In my kitchen… pork chops, potatoes, salad, and a peach-blueberry crumble with mountain huckleberry ice cream for dessert.
In the school room… kiddo goes back on September 6th.
Shared Quote… “Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn’t lock itself into darkness, that doesn’t dwell on the past, but is able to see a tomorrow.” — Pope Francis
A moment from my day… One of our hymns this morning:
July 19th was my 17th blogiversary and it passed quietly because of school and things in my personal life. As a way of ignoring the crappy health news I got today, here are are some ways my life has changed since I started blogging on July 19, 2000.
I’ve come full-circle in terms of relationships. When I started this blog, I was dating Jon. Then we went through our long engagement, marriage, a short separation, and now divorce. It’s a painful realization in a lot of ways but it also provides me with a record of the good times that I can look back upon eventually.
I have lived in five states. I had spent my life in California and was living with my parents over the summer before my senior year of college. Since then, I have lived in: Ohio, Minnesota, Montana, California (again), and now Washington. I’m glad to have had these experiences in seeing how people across the country live.
I am no longer vegetarian. I added meat back into my diet in December 2000 and while I don’t eat a lot of it, I have not given it up again except for Lenten purposes.
I have stopped coding largely by hand. For the first year, I coded by hand and then went to Livejournal, two iterations of Greymatter, Movable Type, back to Greymatter, b2, and then WordPress 12ish years ago. It’s good to know how to do some of it still so I can fix sidebars but I’d have to learn PHP to be able to create my own themes.
I’m Episcopalian again. At the time I started blogging, I was attending my Episcopal church at home and then attending an evangelical church at school. Eventually, I attended an LCMS church, went ELCA for 10 years, AALC for three years, and then became Episcopalian again.
I’m missing a body part or two. I gave up my gallbladder in 2005 and there is less liver than there was originally due to scar tissue from the gallbladder issues.
Needeh kittehs. Homer is being excessively needy today, which is something considering how needy he is normally. He has been on my lap a few times today and is currently causing me to type this one-handed so I can pet him.
Helping house panthers. If you’re a lover of the black kittehs like I am, go here to look at cat pictures, help with psychological research, and help the black ones (who are the least likely to be adopted) find homes.
Ouchie! I went to the beach on Monday in new water shoes that were not tight enough on my heels and between all the sand and water that got in there, I ended up with some pretty foul blisters. They’re bad enough that I’ll be in flip-flops for at least the next few weeks.
John McCain. Samantha Bee put it best when she said last year that an election is usually between two fundamentally decent people with a difference of opinion. (Obviously, 45 is an exception to this rule.) John McCain is a decent human being who has served his country both in the military and in Congress. My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. (He is also one of only two Republicans for whom I have voted — I voted for him in the primary in California in 2000 to try and knock Bush Jr. out of the race.)
