A Word About Valentine’s Day

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

SwanLoveOK… Y’all know it will be more than one word – Ha!

As I suspected, there will be no Valentine for me this year. At least he told me so before V-day. We were in the “seasonal” aisle at the grocery store, looking at the small amount of candy hearts, etc left on the shelves. That’s when he said “sorry, but I don’t have anything for you.”

Gee.   What a surprise.

I find this morning that there are surprises for me today, not from hubby, but from people who actually read my posts….

1. I am not the only one who thought the movie Love Story was obnoxious. Thank you, wscottling , cleopatralovesbooks and k8edid for your comments!

2. I angered my sis-in-law, calling her brother a “jerk“. Well, sis – sooiirrree, but on Valentine’s Day he is one. You do not know this because you never wanted a Valentine from your brother, and you are spoiled by your hubby, who apparently never got the anti-Valentine’s Day memo, so enjoy your romancing and stay out of my pain. 😉

3. Received a surprise confession: “I’m very much like any guy in that I’m like, “Oh, is it Valentine’s day? I forgot. Oops.” And it’s my guy who’s without the card. But I do love him, and he knows it. I guess what I’m saying is I kinda knew all that up there ^^^ because I’m the same way. It’s a good thing for others to know though because I’ve had to talk women down from breaking up with their guy because he forgot their birthday when every other day of the year he’s been showing her love. (I forget birthdays too… I’m horrible like that).”

4. Received some words of wisdom too: “So very true and as women we must remember it is the every day loveliness that makes us love them. Once a year romance would be awful…”

5.  I would bet she was lying, if I didn’t know her:  “My hubby never forgets a birthday or anniversary, or VDay! I always get flowers for VDay, no matter the cost. One birthday (30) I got 30 birthday cards one at a time at work and 30 long stem roses delivered to my work, along with a romantic dinner and other presents!”

6. I will call my son, who is a math tutor, to explain to me why V-Day + Full Moon ≠ Romance.

Here’s to a fabulous, sunshiny, TGIF day – whether you’re in love or not 😉

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

What Love Means…

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

LoveStory  Remember that obnoxious line from the movie “Love Story”?
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Seriously??  How lame is that?  People actually thought that movie was so romantic and heart wrenching.  Ali MacGraw was a Total Bitch from the first scene on. I could not believe that Ryan O’Neal took her crap. Frankly, I was happy she died at the end. There. I said it out loud. Some things just need to be said. And “I’m Sorry” is one of them!

Love means wanting to say you’re sorry. You say “Oh, sorry!” to the stranger you bumped into at Starbucks this morning. Why wouldn’t you apologize to the person you love when you did (or didn’t do) something and disappointed them?

Speaking of which, I apologize for my tirade. As far as “Love Story” goes – I don’t think any less of you if you enjoyed that movie.  My girlfriends said they “loved it”, even though they cried half of the time. What I enjoyed was the popcorn and Junior Mints I munched on, while promising myself to never treat a man (or anyone) so crappy.

There are a million different ways to show your love for someone. And they don’t have to be large productions, skywriting, or things you see in the movies (although I LOVE that corny stuff!)

“It’s the little things that mean a lot”
–Drew Barrymore, in “The Wedding Singer.”

To me, Love means,

  • Not leaving the house without a kiss goodbye.
  • Biting your tongue when his friends annoy you.
  • Keeping the cookie jar filled with his favorites.
  • Taking walks together and talking about silly stuff.
  • Knitting or sewing while watching his “American Rifleman” episodes.
  • Stoking up the fireplace when you’re not cold, but she is.
  • Making popcorn four times a week (or more) just because she loves it.
  • Putting them first, instead of yourself
  • Never holding a grudge. Telling them your side of it – then letting it go.

I bet you have some that you would like to share with us.  So, Please send me  (or comment on), what you feel love means.

I want to post them in tomorrow’s blog for Valentine’s Day!      Sorry for the really late notice, but sometimes that’s just how it goes…

HeartCandySpellsLove

Here’s Your Pump, Now Bond With It…

~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

Let me introduce you – to my little friend…

MyLittleFriendYesterday Maureen, the OmniPod trainer and Certified Diabetic Educator (CDE), and I opened the box shipped to me by Insulet™, with my OmniPod “start-up kit.”

Maureen showed me all the components and “we” programmed it to my doctor’s specifications, edited settings, and then,  attached my 1st Pod.  For two hours, she patiently showed me features, explained why I would use them and gave me a lot of information. (We also chatted about non-pump related stuff and shared a laugh or two.)

I won’t go into all the technical & medical details but basically this is how my “pump” works. I know you have been chomping at the bit to find out  😉

The Pod (shown above) is the insulin delivery system. Once attached to my stomach and activated, it acts as an artificial pancreas and deliver an amount of insulin that a normal pancreas would do.  Starting up a Pod is fairly simple – I will follow, step-by-step (lots of pictures) in the Quick Start Guide manual. There are a lot of steps and I do not want to miss any and ruin the Pod.

First I fill the Pod with insulin (a saline solution that we are pretending is insulin). Then I figure out where I want it to be on my body. I clean that place with alcohol pad, let it dry and then pull the paper off the adhesive tape (like you would a band-aid). The tape covers the bottom and sides of the Pod. It does not look like near enough tape to hold it on for 3-days, but it sticks well, so far.

Now, I can activate it. The PDM sends the information we programmed to the Pod. When that is accomplished the PDM tells me to hit “start” and the Pod will inject a needle with a cannula under my skin then pull the needle back, leaving the tube in. The injecting takes a few seconds to begin after pushing “start.”

This is the worse part. Waiting to be punctured. You know it’s going to happen, but since you are not doing it yourself, you don’t know exactly when it will go off.  Even though you are expecting it to happen, when it does happen it surprises you.

Yesterday, I squealed and jumped – almost falling over.  I got lucky and it didn’t hit a nerve, so the pain was nearly non-existent. I hope I get used to this step quickly!  I will be changing the Pod on Friday by myself. In fact, Maureen told me to “play” with and get to know the PDM. It has several menus and functions. Some I will use a lot, and some infrequently.

She will be teaching an in-depth class for two mornings next week. It’s then that I will go “live” with real insulin. God help me. So the more I “play” the more confident I will be when this happens. At least that’s what Maureen told me. Why would she lie?

Yes, this whole thing makes me nervous.

The Personal Diabetes Manager (PDM) is the “brains” for the Pod. (Shown below) It does the dose calculations after I give it my blood glucose level, and the amount of carbs I plan to eat for my meal/snack.  It shows me the values and asks me if I want that dose to be delivered. I tell it yes or no. I can edit the value the PDM suggests if I need to. I can’t enter special info to influence the calculation, such as, if I’m stressing out, and my blood glucose (BG) is going through the roof, no matter what I’m eating, I can increase the dose to cover it.

PDM-ZoomedOutMy PDM is displaying my current status when photo was taken. This means the time of the last BG test, meal insulin dose, and the insulin “on board.”  It also keeps track of when I will need to change the Pod unit.

In 3-days I have to deactivate the one I’m wearing now, and activate a new one in a different site than the previous one. I will just dispose of the old one. That blows my mind. The Pods are tossed away! They expire (no longer work) after 72-hours. This seemed very wasteful to me until I learned that the insulin being body temperature will start to “go bad” and not be dependable anymore. Then there is the need to give the skin a break from the injection site and adhesive, but putting a new Pod in a different place.  The PDM is really my pump. It controls the Pod via Bluetooth.

Basically, I have a remote-controlled pancreas now. How weird is that?  I’m already writing a list of things that will make my life easier using my little friend. Hubby has “homework” also. He is checking to make sure that I remember to take my real insulin injections. Very important job!

TTFN,  (Ta-Ta For Now)

   Jodi