RIP My Dear Purse......

My dear sweethearts, I am saddened to report the death of one of my most important possessions. 

My purse.

We mourn.

Ever since my diagnosis, I have carried around a purse, small backpack, or a bag of some kind. The pancreatic challenged must have their insulin and supplies available at ALL times. I don't go anywhere at all without my purse. Never. Never ever. It is just one of those constants in the T1D world. 

When I was younger, I could get away with carrying a smaller purse because I only had to carry syringes, my meter, strips, and insulin. My purses were fairly normal sized and didn't draw much attention. 

Now, my purses are really big. I have so much more to carry! I always keep with me: 

My meter

Test strips

Infusion Sets

Reservoirs

Insulin

Syringes

Skin prep wipes

Skin tac wipes

Adhesive remover

Batteries

Spare battery cap for my pump

IV style tape

Wet wipes

A sugar source

And finally, lancets.

Believe it or not, this isn't overdoing it either. We just have to be prepared for whatever might happen.  You just truly never know. Your set could catch on a doorknob and get yanked out. You could learn the hard way that your insulin went bad prematurely. Your pump battery could go out. So much can happen at any time.

This is the reason my purses are so huge. And this is only the T1D stuff I keep in there! When you become a wife and mom, your purse becomes the family's purse. So if you ever pick up my purse and wonder why it is so dang heavy, it's because I have the world in there! 

I had to go replace my purse last weekend. My old one's zipper finally gave out. I like my new one, but it is smaller than the old one. Life is funny sometimes. We get attached to the strangest things. But man, I loved that old purse. I shall miss it! 

RIP, my dear purse. I miss you and all your functionality! 

Good night sweethearts! 

Because I have been given much....

I'm a very blessed woman. I have a lot of love and goodness in my life. I have a beautiful family. We work hard together. We take care of one another. We have our ups and downs, but all in all, we are so blessed. 

I have been truly blessed by my T1D community this week as well. I recently learned that I am likely allergic to plastic cannula infusion sets. This is by far the majority of the infusion sets out there. It explains the struggles I've been having. The same struggles I had while previously pumping have come back in full force to haunt me. Struggles have included sudden highs when I change sets, difficulty healing from a set change, red skin around the insertion site, not being able to use the same spots again for very prolonged periods of time, my body completely rejecting sets, etc... While being sick this past month, I honestly almost gave up again. But then I put a sure t back in. My numbers have been better, near perfect, ever since I haven't put another plastic cannula in me. 

It was a big frustration as well due to the fact that my entire supply is plastic cannulas. So I've been working on replacing them all with sure t sets. I've tried to trade, but didn't have much luck. No luck at all really... Lots of people don't like the steel needle sets, so they didn't have anything to trade. Things were looking bleak. Then I had 2 ladies offer to send me a few sure t sets each to get me by till I can figure out what to do. Truly a blessing, and I'm so grateful to them! They wanted nothing in return even though I tried to offer. It gave me the faith to go out on a limb today and give my plastic sets to someone else who truly needs them and is suffering to afford supplies like so many T1D's do! It is so hard to just hand them over when you're in a tight spot as well, but every time I do, I'm blessed for it! About an hour after making arrangements for my plastic sets, someone posted in a T1D group about sharing her daughter's extensive supply of sure t sets. She's sharing with me and several other people. 

It has been so neat to see this happen time and time again. Whenever I've given from my T1D supplies, the blessings come back and then some. They are not left to go without and neither am I. I'm truly grateful to God for showing me this over and over again. I'm glad He lets me serve others! "Because I have been given much, I too must give." And it takes faith every time to do it, but that's ok. If you want to have faith, you need to do something that requires faith to accomplish it! 

I feel peace! 

Goodnight sweethearts! 

Oh. My. Heck.

I saw the following on Facebook the other day. It perfectly sums up my past few weeks, and explains why I haven't blogged in recent weeks.

I could close here, but I'll explain instead...ha! 

About a month ago, our daughter started coughing. It was mostly just a dry, slightly irritated cough, but it was persistent. We didn't take her in since it was the cough alone with no other symptoms. She decided to share this cough with Mama about 2 1/2 weeks ago. 

Super...Super Duper.... 

Every year, I get bronchitis at least once, and sometimes more. I. Hate. Bronchitis. I cough hard, I can't breathe, it is just hard to function. Having T1D makes you more susceptible to illness, and then once the germs get you, it takes a very long forever for them to get out. 

As if bronchitis isn't enough fun all on its own, it always packs the most awful high blood sugar kick in the gut. I was running in the upper 200's - 300's constantly. I decided to go in and be seen to get on an antibiotic. It definitely helped quickly, but it made my blood sugars even worse. It didn't matter how much insulin poured into me, I just ran high and felt a bit miserable. It was an antibiotic that I had never had problems with, and it had to choose this illness to bust my chops!

I had one night where I actually had to do a manual injection just to get my blood sugar down. I had changed my set twice, thinking that may be part of the issue, and it just wasn't doing any good.

It was the worst timing to be sick. I had so much going on that weekend, and I missed almost all of it. God did however bless me to be well enough to get to church for the Primary program. That was a merciful miracle.

The week after the program, my cough worsened some. It is making progress now, but I was having a hard time that week after the program. Breathing was not in the cards.

In true family style fashion, the cough and bronchitis spread to my husband. We've been coughing and medicating as a family. Awe...togetherness....

Now that I'm doing a bit better now, I thought I should just drop a line to explain that I didn't drop off the earth someplace.

Another couple weeks in the life of a sweetheart! Never a dull moment!