Endochrinologist Appointment

Today I FINALLY had my first endochrinologist appointment since being officially diagnosed with Type 1.5 Diabetes. Visiting with the doctor has made me feel alot better especially since the doctor was able to really answer so many of my questions. I think I am starting to get used to being diabetic, but after my doctor's appointment today there is still alot that is going to have to change in order for me to get complete control over this disease and to get my blood sugars to go down. I was encouraged by some during today's appointment, for example finding out that my doctor doesn't want me to lose a bunch of weight like I thought he was wanting me to do. Also very encouraged to hear that at some point after getting everything under control with my blood sugars, I will be able to eat some fruit, just in very controlled moderation. As of right now my diet to keep my blood sugars under control consists of meat, vegetables, some whole grains, cheese, nuts, and thats pretty much it. I have cut off most all carbs, refined sugar products, refined white flour products, fruit. I also try and limit my carb intake to about 30-45 grams of carbs per day. One big change the doctor did decide to make today was have me stop taking my Metformin twice a day like I had been doing for the last month or so and started me on a new medication called Janumet. The new medication, Janumet is a new combination drug for diabetes of sitaglipitin and metformin. I will be on this new medication for the next month or two unless I encounter problems that my body isn't working well with this particular medicine. I also have be keeping track of my blood sugar numbers which I already am doing and send my numbers for the week in about once a week so that my doctor knows where I stand. I was very pleased that my weight and blood pressure were very well along with my standard diabetic exam to check for any progression or complications. I was very happy to know that I don't at this point have to be on insulin shots, he did though tell me if at any time soon or in the future that I do become pregnant I will not be able to take this new medication, but will be able to take Metformin and will have to take insulin shots throughout the pregnancy along with extra careful monitoring. Overall I felt good about my first appointment with my endochrinologist and feel comfortable with where I stand with my diabetes and the changes that have to be made so that it is under control and my numbers are where my doctor and I want them. Now that is one appointment down and two more to go so far this week. I guess you can't be dealing with medical issues without having some kind of medical insurance problems to figure out. I am supposed to be talking with the doctor's office early tomorrow morning to finish figuring all this out so my other two appointments this week can still happen. I have my mri and eeg tests on wednesday as long the insurance stuff goes as planned. And lastly have to neurologist appointment on thursday at 12:30 in Brownwood so we will see how it all goes. I'll be updating about everything going on this week.

our new car!!!

So after many days of searching for a new car that was right for us and many deals that went wrong we FINALLY found a great car for us!! We decided a little while ago that it was about time to sell our old explorer, the car Jake has been driving to work and back home and replace it with something newer that gets much better gas mileage that we could take on trips and such. Ever since we got married I started driving Jake's car, 2008 Chrysler Aspen because of the size of it, I need room for three carseats for three precious girls that accompany me most places I go. So about two weeks ago we went to the bank and refinanced my car and got approved to buy another car and we were so excited since this was first time as a married couple to get some kind of loan and purchase something new as a married couple. So off we went car shopping, sounds exciting right!? That is exactly what we thought and it was at first, but after looking and the dealership price not matching what the bank thought the car is worth and what they wanted to finance it for, this happened a couple of different times and we were beginning to feel somewhat discouraged about buying a car. The car we ended up buying below, 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid we had found and test drove early on in search, but were turned down on it because the dealership couldn't match the price the bank wanted to finance it for. But guess who reduced the price on the camry this weekend? Yes that's right the dealership reduced the price on the car so we went and talked to the bank again and went back and forth a little with the dealership and the bank for one last time and finally they were able to agree on a price and we got to bring the car home last night!! I'm so happy to be finished with that whole process it was exciting, frustrating, and stressful all at the same time! But we are so happy with the decision we made and love the new car! The most important thing to me was that Jake loved the car because for the most part he would be the one driving it and since he had been driving the old explorer he definitely deserved something much newer, nicer, and more luxurious feeling. The 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid gets amazing gas mileage which is really something we were looking for, its 34 mpg in the city and 41 on the highway. So far we are loving it, although I haven't gotten to drive it since I'm not allowed to drive right now, but maybe I will get to drive it one day. Gotta say there is nothing like having a new car, especially that smell, love that new car smell!!!

update on doctor's appointments

So today I had my first appointment with the neurosurgeon to be evaluated so that I can be referred to a neurologist to figure out what is going on. Everything with the neurosurgeon went good, nothing abnormal that he saw or noticed but that the tests would show more and the neurologist would know more and talk about everything more in depth. So I am waiting on the hospital to call me and set up an appointment for my EEG test and my MRI test which will probably take place early next week. I am also waiting on the neurologist's office to call me about my appointment with them late next week, probably Thursday or Friday. In the mean time we are working on getting my pediatric records from my old pediatrician when I was little and the records from a pediatric neurologist that I was referred to when I was 3. In other news, I was scheduled for about a month to see my endochrinologist today, but they called me on monday to cancel my appointment. But long story short I ended up having to call my regular physician to have her jump through some hoops for me to get my appointment rescheduled as soon as possible seeing as how I am in an almost emergency situation so needless to say I am now at the very top of the list of appointments to be rescheduled next week, most likely on Wednesday. I also had an appointment earlier this week with the ENT doctor about the cellulitis/staph infection on my forehead and had a CT scan done on my face/sinus area. The doctor confirmed that it was not a deeper infection in the sinus cavity or anywhere else, but strictly a skin infection. The ENT doctor also wrote me an extension to take the antibiotics I am already on for my infection just for a longer period of time. The really strong, powerful antibiotics I am taking right now, 800 mg. Bactrum are what are making me feel the worst. They have been completely draining me altogether, weak, tired, big loss in appetite, and have just left me with absolutely NO ENERGY at all. I have been really tired at different times in my life and even sick and weak, but this antibiotics has left me feeling like I have never felt before, I cannot even explain the exhaustion. But I definitely counting down the days until I am off of these antibiotics. Once I get more updates from doctors about the situation right now I will update on here again!

my "exciting" weekend

So this past weekend my mom & I left on Thursday to head down to Beaumont for my cousin's bridal shower that we were hosting and let me just tell you in advance what a weekend it was!! So for starters late Thursday afternoon my mom & I left to make the long drive down to Houston to spend the night with my sister and Matt before we headed to Beaumont on Friday. All the way there I kept having this sneaky feeling that I couldn't shake that I had forgotten something rather important back in Abilene. So right as we pulled into the Chick Fil A parking lot to get out for dinner and a bathroom break Jake calls me to let me know that I had left my shower dress hanging on the door in our apartment. Yes that is right, the dress I had thought about and purchased an entire month ago, which meant I would be wearing that dress to another spring event and obviously not the shower. So TARGET here I come!! But anyways we finally got to my sister & Matt's house about 10ish that night and hung out and talked for awhile and then went to bed since Friday was going to be an early and long day.

Our Friday started out exciting, confusing, and quite dramatic to say the least, which now I realize that should have been a sign for what was to come for the rest of the weekend. Upon waking up around 8 Jenna's alarm on the house was beeping like it had low battery but it turns out there was really no way for the battery to be replaced, which also meant we couldn't open any of the house doors to go outside or leave for that matter. But guess who magically forgets that small little detal and decides to open the back door and let Bailey (their dog) outside, YES that would be my mom!!! And off goes the loud alarm and it keeps on going and we three girls know nothing about how to set it off since their alarm system on their house is not monitored in turn meaning there is no code to type in when it is armed, big problem right there. So after pressing many different buttons and combinations, calling the alarm company which by the way did us no good, somehow Jenna and my mom figured out how to completely unplug the entire alarm system that was hooked up in the attic which finally did the trick. So after all that drama we finally left the house and headed to Target so I could find a dress to buy for the shower on Saturday, my mom had to buy shoes to wear to the shower, and I'm pretty sure all of us bought wrapping paper and cards for our shower gifts. Once we finished at Target we were on our way to Beaumont, once we arrived we had lunch at Jason's Deli at Gateway and surprisingly ran into the Mason clan, then proceeded to run our shower errands to Sam's, HEB, & went to the church to unload all of our shower stuff. That afternoon and evening until late we arranged the church the way we wanted it for the shower, got tables set up, cooked food, did flower arrangements, and got everything ready for Saturday morning.

So early Saturday morning we got up early to do our hair and threw on some clothes and headed up to the church to start preparing the rest of the food and put all the finishing details on everything for the shower. Soon after getting everything set up and ready it was time for family and friends to start showing up to enjoy the shower. We had the shower at the church that I grew up in which is always weird to go back to. The bridal shower was set at 11 am so we did a yummy lunch menu of chicken salad with crisp little toasts, potato salad, bruschetta with little toasts, chick fil a chicken nuggets, chicken pasta salad, with fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries, wedding cake cookies, & mini chocolate & strawberry cupcakes for dessert. It turned out really cute and everything looked so springy and fun! Hannah(the bride to be) got lots of good wedding fun stuff and seemed to enjoy the shower so I think all in all it was quite a success.

After the shower was when everything let loose, Friday night I discovered this bump on my forehead that was quite large, painful, and seemed to be infected. After we had gotten back to my Aunt Monica's house after working at the church I took a bath and soon after realized my face was starting to swell quite bad and had me somewhat worried. So I decided I should show my mom & Aunt Monica and see what they thought I should do. They seemed to be very concerned and thought I should ice it through the night so I did just that. The next day I woke up not feeling very well, which isn't that abnormal for me since I'm not a morning person, but also because I'm diabetic. But my face was still swollen and the bump was still there, red and large and in charge and extremely painful. So we all decided that I should go to the walk in clinic there in Beaumont to get some antibiotics or at least see what was going on. So I borrow my mom's car while they are finishing cleaning up at the shower and go to the walk in clinic to see what is going on. Once I finally see the doctor he tells me I have a cellulitis on my forehead that is infected and that he wants to give me an antibiotic shot and a prescription for some antibiotics to take for a week. He also tells me that the infection is serious mostly because it is so close to my brain and eyes and also because I am diabetic and things take alot longer to heal. So next the nurse comes into the exam room and proceeds to give me the antibiotic shot in my hip/butt area and because it is antibiotic shot it takes alot longer because of all the medicine that has to be pushed into my body. But right as she finishes giving me the shot and putting the band aid on I start to feel a little dizzy so I ask her for a cup of water. After telling her that she tells me to sit down in this chair and she would go get me a cup of water. And the last thing I remember is sitting there and things starting to spin and getting very dizzy and at that point no one was in the room with me. I think at least a half an hour later I woke up from having blacked out and apparently having a seizure. All I remember was being very confused and upset, I saw blood everyone because I had fallen and busted my chin open and cut my head and was extremely pale and weak. While sitting there with the doctors office staff, they take my blood sugar, are asking me questions, and then I black out and have another seizure. A little while later my aunt Monica and cousin Rachel show up and at this point I am very scared and soon to follow are the paramedics to take me to the emergency room at St. Elizabeth hospital.

Once I get to the hospital my mom, sister, cousin and fiance, aunt are there waiting for me. I needed stitches in my chin and some blood tests run to make sure everything was ok especially with my diabetes. Luckily everything turned out normal and I would proceed additional medical tests and help when I back home to Abilene. I got a different prescription for my infection on my forehead, which is a much much stronger one and is completely draining me of everything and making me so so exhausted and nauseous. After leaving the hospital all I wanted to do was talk to Jake since he was in Abilene and being so scared I just wanted to hear his voice and talk to him. After that we headed out to nana's house for a family birthday party and dinner, it was a fun time, but I was pretty out of it most of the time. We headed back to Jenna & Matt's house that night, went to get my prescription, and headed to their house. My mom & I left the next morning to drive back to Abilene which was a rough trip in the car with both my eyes being almost swollen shut and just feeling so beat up. But we finally made it back to Abilene which made me feel all the better. I'll update tomorrow on my current medical situation with all the doctors appointments and tests I have going on lately since this little occurance. And sorry this post is FOREVER long!!

the dessert table another angle of our precious cupcakes & wedding cake cookies

my sister iced the pink ones & I did the chocolate

the main food table

here we had: little toasts, potato salad, & chicken salad

beautiful orange & yellow arrangement nana made

hannah & monica

the gift table area with cute umbrella/fruit arrangement

the beverage area: peach lemonade, raspberry tea, & water with another umbrella arrangement

another table to display pictures of the bride & groom to be and a cute bud vase arrangement

my mom found this idea for an arrangement in a magazine and I thought it was so cute & so neat since you can do it so many different ways

sweet Adley Ann & Jenna

Adley Ann & Elijah

the bride to be & rachel (maid of honor) opening gifts

more gift opening

the whole hosting staff of the shower (from left to right): Jennifer, Beverly, Jenna, Hannah, Nana, Aunt Joyce, me, my mom, & Katha

late update on March

So I didn't do terrible at updating on March but I definitely wasn't the best, but I do have a few good excuses. As anyone reading this can probably tell I have been rather preoccupied with lots of medical stuff involving my recent diagnosis of diabetes, but I'm hoping to be able to update all that more after this week. But good news is this post has alot of pictures in it, the order they are in is from most recent to older. Over spring break we spent alot of time with my family, my sister came in town to spend the week with us and we enjoyed a great week together as a family. Both Jake & I had to work quite a bit but still got to spend alot of time with my family while my sister was in town. During spring break week my mom, sister, and I did a little shopping, alot of preparation and test cooking for one of my cousin's bridal showers we are hosting. Also during the week my parents did alot of yard work mainly building their second outdoor patio. We all went and tried out our new self serve yogurt shop here in town, we actually went there twice during the week we spent together, once after dinner as a family and again one afternoon the girls and I met them there for some afternoon frozen yogurt and then went to play outside at mom and dad's house. Earlier during the first weekend in March Jake & I made plans to go out of town to San Antonio to celebrate our one year anniversary since we knew we wouldn't be able to get out of town on the actual date. I had bought us tickets to see our first broadway show together as a Christmas gift to him since he loves Wicked and has always wanted to see it. We started off our weekend by driving to San Marcos to do some shopping at the big outlet malls there, we got alot of cute stuff while we were there and just enjoyed being out together. After that we drove to San Antonio went out to get a quick bite to eat and then checked into our hotel that had an awesome whirlpool hot tub in the living room, which was amazing! On Saturday in San Antonio we did some more shopping at La Cantera in San Antonio, went out to lunch at Pei Wei (Jake's favorite), and then went and relaxed at our hotel before we had to get ready for the show that night. We meant to go out to dinner before the show but ended up having to drive around downtown San Antonio at least 30 minutes looking for some place to park. By the time we found a place to park and found a restaurant that wasn't completely packed it was almost time to go pick up our tickets and go to the show. So we decided we should just eat a little something at a sandwich/coffee shop across the street from the theatre and it turned out to be the BEST panini I have ever eaten in my life and then afterward we decided to get a better bite to eat after the show was over. We absolutely LOVED the show and cannot wait to get to see more broadway shows together in the future. We checked out of our hotel on Sunday and took the route home through Austin to eat lunch and enjoy a little time wandering around looking at the capitol area and taking lots of pictures, such a beautiful area!! After leaving Austin and stopping at our favorite TCBY we headed home for Abilene to pick up our precious puppy from the vet and went to hang out a little with my parents. Up next is update on this weekend....

the twins (a.k.a. Dad & Christopher) mom & Jenna working hard on building mom & dad's second outdoor patio on spring break

more hard working on the patio

dad the giant shoveling crushed granite

doesn't he look excited to be working so hard?

more shoveling

sweet Maggie & Claire swinging at mom & dad's house

baby Elizabeth swinging

she's so pretty

I thought this was such a cute picture of Claire

mom & Elizabeth

maggie swinging

Jake at the capitol, taking a picture with W

my picture with W

beautiful ceiling at the capitol, love all the detail the building has

outside picture of the capitol in Austin

after the show picture with the Wicked poster

our first broadway show together, Wicked in San Antonio at the Majestic Theatre downtown

update on being diabetic

So I won't say that things with being diabetic have gotten easier or better, but I am definitely learning as I go in the hopes that things will get easier! Since my last post about being diagnosed with diabetes I have been back to the doctor, been set up to go to a diabetic nutritionist class, and been set up to see an endochrinologist, along been taking a stronger dose of the metformin my doctor prescribed almost two weeks ago. I started out taking the metformin once a day and checking my blood sugar before I eat breakfast in the morning and before I go to bed at night, but was still getting really high numbers. So my doctor has me now taking the metformin twice a day and checking my blood sugar four times a day, before I eat breakfast, 2 hours after I eat breakfast, 2 hours after I eat lunch, and before I go to bed at night, and also journaling everything I eat and what my blood sugar numbers are. I got set up to go to a diabetic nutritionist class on thursday from 8-4 and thankfully Jake was able to trade shifts with someone so he is able to come with my as my "guest." I'm so glad he is coming with me to this class, one because I think it will be very informative for both of us since he is trying really hard to be healthier and lose weight and also since it is so long I didn't want to go by myself, and I'm just so glad to have him there by my side for things like this!

I don't all that much about this diabetic nutrition class quite yet except that it is rather long, I will be set up with a personalized meal plan that I need to stick to, along with blood sugar goals, get a individual appointment with a nutritionist, will have a foot exam, and that they will feed us lunch since it is so long. As of right now I have SO MANY questions and really still don't understand alot about this disease and my particular situation so I know this class will probably help me out so much. I also found out last week at the doctor that I am for sure type 2 diabetic, which isn't good neither bad. Another thing my doctor did labs on me for was to find out if my pancreas is working like a type one diabetic or normal and we found out that my pancreas does produce insulin normally, but that my body has something called insulin resistance, which is why I was feeling the diabetic symptoms. In other words, my pancreas makes and produces the insulin like any other person, but my body and organs don't receive it and use it like they should which is why I am diabetic and why my numbers are so out of whack. So it was good to know that my pancreas is working normally, that makes me feel alot better for some reason.

The worst news of the week is probably knowing that I'm not going to be able to have very much fruit at all, which is something I survive on, I love fruit so much, so that was some pretty depressing news. But I'm hoping if I start to get my blood sugar numbers lowered maybe I can allow myself at least one piece of fruit a day as long as my numbers are much lower than they are now. The weird part is that I could deal without sugar, desserts, cookies, pies, cakes, and all that kinda sweet dessert stuff, but if you allowed me fruit that would be enough for me so we will see what happens. Obviously my health is most important, even more than my love for fruit haha, so right now I'm trying to really focus on getting control over these numbers and really take control of my health like I have never done before.

The best part out of all this bad medical news lately is probably seeing how much all my family and friends care and how much they are concerned for me. I cannot explain how many messages on facebook, text messages, and phone calls I have gotten over the last two weeks about how sorry everyone is, how many people are praying for, and all the support I have out there for me. It definitely puts things in life in their perspective for me to know what is the most important and really just how super important your health is and how much we all take our health for granted. I certainly hope we can all use this situation upon us to an advantage and all really take control over our health and live longer healthier lives. I'll write more this week about updates with doctors and such. But in non-diabetic news I am really looking forward to this week, it is spring break for everyone in abilene and my sister is coming in town to visit for the week since she has the same spring break as we do and I am really looking forward to spending some fun time with her and my mom this week. I absolutely LOVE times like this, they are just the greatest! Anyways I hope everyone has an awesome spring break week!!

Being Diabetic

First off, sorry there will no pictures in this post, all about my most recent news at the doctor, being diagnosed with diabetes. But I'll back up to about middle of January when all this started. So about mid January Sam's Club was offering free health screenings for members so naturally I went just to see what all my numbers were like definitely not expecting what I got. They did my blood pressure, blood sugar, body mass index, and cholesterol, my blood pressure was good, body mass index was good, but my blood sugar and cholesterol was much too high and was very concerning. That particular day my blood sugar was 295 and my cholesterol was 280, this was about 1:00 in the afternoon with only eating breakfast much earlier that morning, I had not had any lunch or other snacks when these tests were taken so naturally the nurse that did was a little worried and told me I needed be following up with this with my doctor. So I decided to make an appointment and to start watching what my sugar intake was like.

Fast forward to a few weeks later going to my doctor's appointment I tell her everything, my specific numbers and a few strange symptoms that I have been dealing with such as excessive thirst, extreme hunger, somewhat more tired than usual, and very weak, & nauseous. So my doctor decided to run some blood tests to figure out what is going on and why some of my numbers were so high. So now fast forward to yesterday when I went back to the doctor to talk with my doctor about my test results. As I sat in the doctor's office waiting for her to come into the exam room I cannot really explain it, but somehow through waiting on my test results I just knew I was going to have diabetes, I don't know I just had such a strange intuitive feeling about this. So when she finally came into the exam room I could tell by the look on her face what the test results were. She said I do have diabetes, my blood sugar was way way too high especially for someone my age and my weight. Most likely I have type 2 diabetes, but it could also be a combination of type 1 & type 2 diabetes, which would make it even more difficult to treat/manage. So yesterday she prescribed me with an oral medication of Metformin to take every morning and a prescription for a blood glucose monitor, lancets, & test strips to start taking my blood sugar every morning before I ate or drank anything and every night before I go to bed. She also referred me to an endochrinologist/diabetic specialist and a nutritionist who I will be seeing within the next week.

This all is very shocking, but at the same not shocking at all, I know that doesn't make alot of sense, but throughout my life I feel physically all these diabetic symptoms that have now been diagnosed have always been around at least for most of my life. It still is very intimidating, a tad scary, and a little bit nervewrecking because of knowing how much I will have to change my life. It is taking alot of getting used to when it comes pricking my fingers twice a day to check my blood sugar levels, but for now I am having Jake prick my finger because for some reason I just cannot bring myself to do it myself quite yet.

So that is my most recent physical/medical update, I will keep posting as new things come about and as I see new doctors and such...