Dear Saundra,

Just got to work, reading my emails, thinking about my son Stephen turning 16 years old today. Saw the Tudiabetes.com that we got an email, don't really pay much attention to the website, saw your birthday wish for my son and it really touched me. Thanks! I will pass it along to him today!!! He's been a warrior against type I diabetes since he was 4 (12 years now). I am so proud of the way he has handled his diabetes and the young Christian Man he has become.

God Bless.

The mom

Thanks!! Have a great day!!

oh ya. what i do when i dance is just have fun. i really don't care what all the other people think. its all good when your with friends and family just being yourself and having fun. xD i can still help you though....as soon as i find out how im going to do that xD

oh ya. i will check up on her for you...her right lol i forgot.......

lets see. im doing good. my bg went up for a while. but its going back down and im doing alot better. oh the pump thats good! i want one sooo bad. my mom ordered the trial one for the omni pod. shes thinking my endo is going to say yes when i ask her for one.

lol omg i wish i were there to see you dance xD it cant be that bad though.

lets see. i don't think im going anywhere for spring break. and no where else that im aware of. maybe the coast if my stepdad gets some days off. i know that this summer i get to go to a diabetic camp for two weeks then when i come back were going to texas and some other places but thats what we do every other summer. its pretty fun.

the NJ thing is going well. i cant remember if i told you but my school went to qualifiers and got first place. so were getting to go to santa ana for our superbowl. which if we place good enough we will go to forida for nationals xD

i cant think of anything else going on around here. how are you??

-hugs back ;D-
have a good day hun!!!

Hi There Saundra: :)

You are so Very Welcome my Dear. We were Happy to do it. Thank Goodness for Debb though. She was so helpful and caring. We just hoped that they brightened your day. Enjoy! I wonder if Debb mentioned to you the process that happened. ( I did enjoy talking to that Little Texas Gal though. She was Funny. She also now knows where Canada is. :D ) Oh did the flowers have a butterfly or hummimgbird? Because of the mix-up, I wasn't sure what they would deliver. I believe you if you say they were beautiful.

Your GrandSon is adorable. I laughed at the comment on the diapers. Out of the mouth of Babes. :D

Ya, I had to stop planting a garden because of the squirrels and raccoons mainly. Your way of getting rid of them sounds like a days work. Wow! Ten bucks isn't much. That sounds like quite the yearly event at spray time at your place. :D Heck, you have deer that go in your yard also? I haven't seen any in our area. Although you do hear on the news occasionally about a bear, deer kangaroo chase or a moose in a pool in the city somewhere.

Oh I didn't tell the pump educator that I wanted the pump yet. The pump sounds like more work and a pain to me. Plus more likely to have a DKA, she said. She agreed that my numbers are pretty Good. It's just the occasional Hypounawareness that she is concerned about. I test often enough to make sure my numbers are okay and if it isn't then I correct. Ya so, I'm still thinking about the pump. The pump educator told me to call whenever I wanted one. There is a wait period since they are free here, so lots of Diabetics want one.
Perhaps I should tell her I want one. :P I don't know.

Warm hugs and love to you Saundra. Oh and I don't consider anything that you've said to be whining.

Hey, Happy Valetine's Day to you too. I've been quite busy lately. The semester for school just started so I'm getting more homework and I've been staying after school a little bit to work in my Metal Design class. I like being in the workshop. I will definitely look at her page and welcome her here. Hope all is well with you as well. Have a good Valentine's Day! :]

Wow, am I ever behind. I am cleaning up "Favorites" and decided I should sign in and check out TuDiabetes. And I found the nice note you wrote way back in October!! Hope all is going well with you and with your walk with diabetes. I am managing the board our MSN diabetes group went to in November, so haven't been visitng other places, due to lack of time.

I just started doing the Question of Day again at my board. Not sure if Karen is still posting them here, but she told me everyone was having fun with them.

Thanks for leaving a note. Happy Valentine's Day!
Gail/Suzanna

Thank you so much for your Sweet words Saundra and your prayers and strength. I feel the same. You’re in my thoughts and prayers daily.

My Rheumy called and said my results are clean….NO infections. Yippee! That’s a relief. Now I won’t have to be concerned about that for a while. He said it’s probably my back muscles in the area, since he knows that I rock and roll all night. I don’t know. I’ll have to call Orencia on Monday and re-schedule the infusion for next week. I’ve been drinking a glass of Oceanspray cranberry juice each day. It seems to help some so the tired /achy feeling is less common. Splenda ruins the taste of it though.

I agree with you there. We are obviously far too vain to ride a wheelchair. So we just won’t. :D My Hubby asked if I wanted one of those scooters. They look like a small motorcycle. I told him that I’d have to leave it in the parking lot when shopping. Then someone would pick it up, stick it in their trunk and take off with it. He also mentioned a chair scooter like many have in our city. No thanks. When the pain is reasonable, I don’t mind walking.

How did all your appointments fair out? It sounds like you’re Very busy also. You have so much to go through and to process. It must be quite difficut. I hope that you had Good news.

Well, the Omni isn’t approved here yet and you understandably didn’t like the service or lack there of. So we’re both disappointed. I do like the idea of the Ping though and I surely wish you Good Luck with using it. Did you order it. Lucky duck. When does it arrive?

Well, I was disappointed that all the meters had tubing and I was surprised that they were that heavy. Out of the Minimed Paradigm Mini-Link Real-Time/CGMS, the Cozmo, the Animas2020 and the Acu-chek Spirit, I chose the blue Animas2020. I liked the bigger colour, lighted screen so that it is easily readable. Also the food database. There were a couple other things but I forgot what they were since I’ve been busy with other stuff. I didn’t tell the Pump Educator that I wanted any of the pumps but she said,”I can see that you prefer the Animas.” So she said to let her know if I wanted one and if I had any questions, just give her call.

I’m Happy that the Morphine is helping you some since the Pred. certainly isn’t that Great. It’s a darn shame that they can’t find a different drug for you to use, My Rheumy puts me on 30mgs. for a couple of weeks when I have a Bad flare or when my meds. stop working. This time I’ve been on it for 3 years. I did wean myself down to between 10 and 15mgs. Depending on the pain.

Nothing worked this time very much. I got really tired of taking double the dose of Insulin and still having blood sugar between 14.0 and 18.0 when I was on 30mgs. Now the Orencia raises my sugars also. But it’s not too bad now that I raised my Insulin again.

Well, I must be gone for a while. I hope that you have an Excellent Valentine’s Day Sweetheart. You clearly deserve it. I love you too. You’re a strength that I need. Thank you!! :o) Many Hugs.

*Terrie*

HOLA!!!!!!!!!

hey how you been???? well i hope. sorry i missed your b-day my mom just told me lol i hope your day was really good!!!

I had a great guild mtg! I pretended you and Debb were with me in the car and we were singing 60's songs along with the radio (I have the satellite radio and was listening to the 60's station.

I am going to forward you an email so you can see me with my art quilt friends at my artist friend's studio. for some reason I can't isolate the pictures.

I had a bad site today and had to change again, and now after the walk, bg is 80. I can't wait to go to the new endo doctor in about 10 days. My ear is the same, and all I can do is wait and pray it gets better.

Debb and I are checking out Twitter. Manny and a bunch of the gang are on it all the time. It is free, and it's like a combination of blogging and instant messaging (IM). They call it microblogging, because you are limited to 140 characters each post. If you IM on your cell phone, you can still keep up with TuD when you are waiting at the doctor's. I teased Debb telling her she might find that brevity aspect hard to do. You and Debb and I and others could have a chat at the same time. When Debb and I figure it out, if we like it, we'll bring you in.

I'm sorry I missed your birthday too, my dear Sandy. I've been having some bonker blood sugar days, and it's not helping me get any work done. Debb calmed me down the other day when I was having a meltdown. Once again today I had to change the infusion set that just got put in yesterday. It might be a good idea to go for a walk now to get it down some more. Thinking beautiful thoughts of you, as always.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I hope you also had a nice day!

~%~HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY SAUNDRA!!!~%~

Yes, my Nurse was supposed to come over and give me the infusion but I had to call up my Lady at Orencia and cancel that one. Last Friday evening, my kidneys started feeling a bit achy and tired, off and on. I thought it was old age :D but then I thought maybe a kidney infection. So I waited until Monday morning (they were still a bit sore), and mentioned it to my Rheumy. He told me to come to the hospital and he'd give me the requistion form to take to the lab downstairs. So I did. The results will be back soon.

That's why I cancelled with Orencia. In 2007, I was on Humira. My kidneys
felt a bit achy and tired for a few days. My sugars were reasonaable so I ignored them. Stupid! I got a really bad chill. I checked my temperature. It was 105.2. I took 2 extra strength Tylenol and went to lie down. I only made it to our entrance and collapsed on the floor.

They put me on double antibiotic I.V. fast at the ER. Plus 2 other antibiotic pills at home. The Dr. said he was Very Glad that I made it to the ER. I would have died from the blood infection otherwise. With these biologics, they also suppress the immune system, as you know.

So when I get the results, I'll call Orencia again either way. I Really hate RA since it's a Mean disease. These drugs suck also. Yes, lots of pain. I can't imagine how you are fairing just on Prednisone, my Dear. It must be one high dose. Bless your heart.

I'll finish the chat tomorrow. I'm pooped. :D

Happy life to you my dear,wish you long healthy happy life,Sandy

the birthday list is on the left hand side of the home page. i had your birthdate but it didn't come up on my yahoo birthday dates for some reason.
TuD started up the birthday list a while back.

oh man, can you ever forgive me? i totally forgot that your birthday was yesterday. some friend i am. how come your name wasn't on the TuD birthday list?
i'm sorry you didn't have a fun birthday. i feel like such a loser to have forgotten about it. i could have at brightened it up a touch by sending happy birthday wishes.

My ear is the same, no pain, just all clogged up. Another health burden that was added to me in 2008 was glaucoma. At least they got it early, so all I have to do is remember to take eye drops every night before I go to bed. I kept forgetting (they have to be refrigerated) until I remembered that I have an alarm on my pump! It goes off with vibrations every night at 9:30 by itself, and now I have not forgotten to take my drops even once.

That is not the only reason I LOVE my Accu-chek Spirit pump. The most comforting thing about it is you get two pumps. So if something happens (make that when something happens), you just switch over to the second one. There are many discussions here about pump failures, back up plans, going on shots, waiting for the next day mail to come, etc. I have not taken a shot in 18 years. I am amazed that Spirit users are such a minority (there are only about 25 here on TuD). They have excelent customer care too. I guess Minimed just streamrollers them marketing-wise. You also get a Palm Pilot, which calculates all your boluses according to the time of day and units per gram of carb. The Palm "talks" to your pump and up to two meters to collect all the numbers on basals, boluses, bgs, carbs so you can print off reports before you go to the doc. They just updated the software on the Palm so it has a Calorie King carb counter on it. So you just tell it you're having a McDonald's Big Mac and it tells you how many units to bolus. You don't really need to keep a written log unless you're crazy like me.

just stopping by to say hi, thinking of you as always. Had a nice dream and you were in it last night! along with a few other TuD members. there was dancing and camaraderie and Sandy, you were cooking for us. we even went to the grocery store together! It was so funny and cute. Isn't that a riot? oops, my alarm's going off to take my eyedrops - bye for now.....