This is a late post but, I have been a busy gal.

In April, Mike and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary (April 18, in case you were curious) in Valencia, Spain! It was such a great place to visit especially for an anniversary.

To get ready for the trip I went to the doctor a couple of days before to make sure that I was ok physically, mentally haha I am never ok mentally! Anyway, they told me that I needed to change my pump time to local when I got there. To bring extra pump supplies, glucose tabs, insulin, glucagon etc.. Ok, so I brought like 3 months of supplies with me. I need to be prepared for anything. I even went out and bought a whole first aid kit, ya know in case there were no pharmacias en Spain LOL. (actually there are pharmacies on every other corner in Spain, it was so weird, and they have these huge blinking green and red crosses above them) I watch Lost and I wasn’t taking any chances! LOL

Anyway, the plane ride was almost 7 hours going there and yes, I was a complete nervous wreck. It was my first time flying over the pond, and I freaked out the whole way, and left imprints of my finger nails in Mike’s arm with every little bump (he even lost circulation a couple of times too), and sway of the wing. OMG, I totally needed a valium.

During the flight, I checked my blood every couple of hours mainly because I wanted to see if flying a long period of time would affect my blood sugar. To my surprise it was actually better! Could be because I checked like every hour! I had my CGM on as well and it was a nice steady flat line. Ahhh it was great. At least that was in check. My mind on the other hand that is a whole other story!

We were flying into Barcelona and then had a long layover before the connecting flight to Valencia. We finally got off the plane had no idea where to go, there were no signs, and noone spoke english! ugh. We figured it out though, and where we had to go was all the way on the other side of Barcelona airport. That place is huge! I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane, and I was fiending to get on the internet (I brought my laptop) We got to some seats that were perfect for chillaxin’. So, I decided to call my parents to tell them we arrived safely. Well, I looked in every bag for my phone. Yep, I lost it! Alright, now I had to go to the information desk to find out if it was on the plane, the guy  at the desk called the airline andgave them the flight that we got off of and had a person look for it. Ten minutes later the person from the airline called back, Of course I get the ol’ “Senora, no telefono” Whatever, ok fine, I will have to just deal with no phone in Spain. And I just got international service too (can you feel the frustration!). I needed to keep in touch with all my internet pals. LOL

Mike and I went to board for our second plane and yea baby… we were on our way to Valencia! It was a small propeller plane to make me nervous nelly again, but this time I was better. Yes, we got to our destination alive!

We stayed at the Hilton Valencia. As soon as we got to the room Mike whipped out the camera and took this photo from our room! What a view! Right?

We were both completely exhausted from being up for 24 hours and just ordered room service and crashed for the night.

I woke up the next morning, all groggy and light headed. I checked my blood sugar and it was 50! Must have been all that walking in the airport. I had some milk to bring it back up, and then we called room service for some breakfast.

I was all ready to get going right after I ate. We decided to do a bus tour which took as through the beautiful city of Valencia…These are the sights we saw on the way…

The Valencia Bioparc – the zoo

Going into the city of valencia

A market in the city

an alley way

Plaza de Virgin

closeup of the statue i n the middle of the fountain – everyone posed taking pictures to look like this guy

me as a bag lady in the plaza de virgen, ah the l ife of a diabetic gotta carry a lot of stuff!

The museum of arts and sciences – check out the architecture on this building

another view

Oceangrafico – the aquarium, no pics came out inside
because you couldn’t use a flash Oh well!

Inside the science museum there was a super hero exhibit,
I hung out with Captain America and he saved my life with his shield.

we got to fly like super heroes

I couldn’t stay up very long LOL

We went to the bioparc and saw some cute animals, how cute is this baby monkey!

Tell me this giraffe isn’t adorable!

The Queen of the Jungle.

The king of the jungle!

and some crazy monkeys! OMG!! This ain’t a peep show! Not in front of the kids!
Sorry everyone who gets offended I know I am so immature LOL

The City Center

That building in the back is a church and inside the church is the supposed Holy Grail (below)

It was very  medieval in this section of the church, below is a fresco
and the paint is slowly chipping off the bottom portion.

this is a painting by El Greco (below)

another painting by El Greco one of my favorite spanish artists

These were all inside of the church! I couldn’t believe it!

This was the exact center of the church (below)
The altar is right below it, check out the ceiling it has actual gold in it!

This is a saint people pray to when they want to have a baby or if they are not fertile.
I did not pray that day LOL

This is the outside of the church, all carved stone. How did they do this!

Check this out this was the once the city gates to the city center of Valencia they are called the Torres de Quart, they were once Napoleons point of entry into the city you  can still see the cannon ball marks!

There are also the Torres de Sorrenos which were also another entrance into the city as well (below)

another view

I did also eat when I was there I had pasta arribiata which was very spicy!

and check out the blood sugar after! Yea baby!!

Pretty impressive!

That is how my whole week was in Valencia. My blood sugars were excellent! Maybe I need to live there. I am wondering why my blood sugars did so well in Spain. Maybe because they eat smaller portioned food, or because I was doing a lot of walking, or the ingredients they use are much better? Who knows! I was just happy to be having great blood sugars on vacation because usually I am fighting highs.

Well anyway, this concludes my Valencia internet tour if you ever happen to visit this beautiful city please let me know! It is such a great place, and I highly recommend it. Find out more about Valencia, Spain here.

Definitely a diabetic friendly vacation spot LOL

Click the title above to get the full blog post

About six months ago I went to Mike’s eye doctor because he had to go for an eye checkup and I said to him: “hey, just make me an appointment to go with you. I am due.”

Turned out the doctor was a real heartless bastard, and I had mild retinopathy in my right eye and just sent me on my way. Great! It was not a win/win situation as my pal  Michael Scott would say (The Office). The jerkie doctor did say that with well controlled blood sugar levels that it could go away. I didn’t even believe  that I had retinopathy anyway. He wanted me to go back to him in 6 months.

YEA OK! Not in this life dude.

So, I decided that after 6 months I would just go to my regular eye doctor. He is much nicer and talks in language I can understand and is not cold hearted. Some doctors really need to learn how to talk to people.

Anyway, fast forward to June 5.

I was sweating bullets all week because I was afraid that my eye would be worse or it would end up in both eyes. I got to the office and of course had to fill out all of this paper work. They called me in. My heart got a little jumpy. Ok, here we go.

I got the routine exam. Covering one eye at a time, then looking to see which glass made my vision more clear. 1 or 2, 1 or 2. My right eye was real blurry. I couldn’t see better with 1 or 2 WTF? I just thought: Oh my gosh, my eye is worse. I am going blind.

The doctor comes in to dilate my eyes. Then I had to wait like 10 minutes. It’s really annoying that whole waiting thing.

He comes back. They are fully dilated thank goodness.

He shines those bright lights to see in the back of the eye. Telling me to stare at his ear the whole time. He does realize that a light as bright as the sun is shining right into my retina? LOL! I try so hard to focus but, the light keeps pulling me in! Anyway, he’s done with the right and then off to the left. The left eye all finished. I can breathe. Oh? he goes back to the right. I was just thinking to myself shit, I must have it in both eyes now.

He is done. Finally.

He says that I do have mild retinopathy in the right eye but, nothing in the left. I just think Ok. It didn’t get worse it stayed the same. I guess that is good.

He tells me that he would like to see me much sooner than every year. Every 4 months instead. Especially now with spots.

Alrighty then. I tell him ok.

He mimicked the other eye doctor about the possibility of the spots going away with well controlled blood sugar levels. Also, that if it gets worse in 4 months that I can get lasik to get it taken care of right away. Ok, so they caught it early and we can watch it.

Good news right? Then why do I feel like shit?

Yea, ok I know all of this is in a controllable stage but, take my aunt for instance she has had diabetes for over 30 yrs and she didn’t get any signs of diabetes complications for like 20 years. Here I am just about reaching my 9 year mark and already showing signs. I am pretty decent in controlling my blood sugars too. I try to eat, exercise and do everything RIGHT.

Is it enough?

In the next year or so I would like to start a family too. When becoming pregnant  you are more susceptible to getting retinopathy. I asked the doctor if I am more at risk of it going from mild to severe. He said that some people live there whole lives with just the spots, and others need eye surgery. He said that during pregnancy I would have to be closely watched to make sure that nothing gets out of control in my eyes.

Great, another thing to worry about.  As if there aren’t enough other things to keep my mind occupied. UGH.

If I do all of the right things am I still going to be doomed by all of these diabetic complications? What is in my cards. God, I wish I knew.

Man, I feel so freakin’ stressed out.

Read My Horror Eye Appointment – part 1

Sorry I haven’ t posted here in a while people! Had the writer’s block thing going on! Mama Gina sure did miss you guys but, I have been keeping tabs on all of you. You know on twitter, facebook, myspace, Aim, skype…

Anyway, I have been keeping really busy the past few months. Juvenation the new site that I am the community manager for has really taken off, we just hit 5000 members the other day. Our goal was on May 31, so I am really happy about that. If you haven’t checked it out do it ! It is a really great community of people.

In March, I had my endo appointment and the result, crap. It was my highest in a while. 8.2 ugh! I became very depressed about it too. Mainly because I am trying so hard to prepare myself for a family, and that number is no where near the safe baby number 6.5. I know a lot of it has to do with the fact of my unemployed status since January. I think being home all the time took a toll on me.

Enter April, I went to Valencia, Spain with my husband for our 1 year wedding anniversary, my first trip across the pond. I promise to give more details about the trip and photos too. It was an amazing trip and a lot of pretty places. I highly recommend going. More on that later…Instead here are two from my phone to tide you all over.

This is the Plaza de Virgin and in the back is a church where they have the Holy Grail! I wonder if it is “the” one.

and this my friends,  Chocolatissmo! and boy was it delissimo! It was like a chocolate brownie on the outside and inside was a warm chocolate that ooozed out like a volcanoe errupting when you cut into it. The ice cream was hazelnut, and mixed perfectly when the two were combined. MMMMMmmm makes me want to go back! It didn’t cause havok on my blood sugars either, surprisingly.

May Mayhem! When I got back from vacation I decided to take on my diabetes control by storm. I was really sick of having these crappy ass a1c numbers all of the time. Also, I wanted to lose weight too because I have noticed I have been packing on the pounds for some reason. I had my thyroid checked too and it seems my meds are not off. I go to the gym, I eat somewhat ok.. What the hell is my problem!

What did I do? I called Jenny! Craig that is.

So, now here I am 5 weeks later. My blood sugars have been the best they have ever been. It is so freakin’ amazing! The food isn’t that bad either. When I first started my average on my blood meter was over 300 for 30 days. Now, a 130 average! HOLY CRAP, right? My 14 day average is at 128 and my 7 day 112 For the first time in my diabetes life I finally feel like I can get an a1c of 6.5 or less.

Bad part, I have not lost any weight yet, and I am on my 5th week. I think it is mainly because I have been experiencing a lot more low blood sugars etc… because of the diet change and I up’d my exercise routine too.

Well whatever right? My outlook has been so much better! I have been so proactive in my diabetes care now and feeling so amazing. My attitude toward having diabetes is better, I’ve gotten more energy from eating better foods, and my skin looks great! If the weight takes longer to come off I guess I will have to live with that.

So, I think this is enough rambling on for one post, If you guys have any tips that you want to share about diet and losing weight or if you tried Jenny Craig please feel free to send me some comments! I can use all the advice I can get!

till the next post! Gina out…

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Thanks to Landileigh of Landileigh’s Little World the challenge for this week was to make a video of ourselves with an L on our forehead to The Smashmouth Song -All Star. You may or may not know this but, I am extremely shy when it comes to vlogging or anything video related so I decided to  ham it up for y’all with my interpretation of All Star by Smashmouth. I decided to lipsync. Please do not make this thing viral lol

here it is my first lip sync’d video exclusive! Right here on The Diabetes Talkfest Blog!

Tuesday, Jan. 27

So today was umm interesting…My CGM came out of my body and I didn’t exercise ughh!

815am: Blood sugar 98 — I woke up to bring my husband to the train went back home and back to sleep. Ah, gotta love being unemployed

851am: Blood sugar 73 — My CGM woke me up to tell me my blood sugar was dropping, I drank apple juice and turned over to the cold side of the pillow

1231pm: Blood sugar 78 — Finally, I  wake up into reality. Chug the rest of the juice that I left from earlier in the morning. Still haven’t eaten yet.

1pm: Blood sugar 109 — I go online to do some work and of course twitter, facebook and chat.

2pm: Went to pick up my grandmother and was hungry so I made a mozzarella sandwich with flatbread from peperidge farm and ummm forgot to bolus because she HAD TO GET TO THE DRUG STORE. ahhhh.

547pm: Blood sugar 208 — I had homemade chicken soup with small pasta and a chicken cutlet. I bolused 7.4 units.

836pm: Blood sugar 292 — I went online to do work. I did not exercise tonite because I had a meeting.

12am: 324 — Meeting over, bolused 5.3 correction.

See ya tomorrow!

I don’t know if you guys know but I am currently one of the contestants in Landileighs Biggest Loser D’style Challenge.

So far  I am down 2.2  pounds since last weeks first weigh in. My starting weight was 174 and I am now 171. (I really can’t believe I just posted that.) Anyway, I have decided to log my progress here on my blog each day to show you guys what I do during the day. Maybe it will help motivate me more to see my blood sugars, habits, trends etc. and maybe you too!

You have to be a winner, to be a loser!!

Here we go first entry!

Monday, Jan. 26

830am: I woke up and checked my blood sugar it was 171.

1030am: 148

I was dropping because I had nothing to eat.

My mom wanted to go out shopping early and I had just woken up so we went to breakfast I had two poached eggs on an english muffin, Tea and orange juice.

I haven’t had a hearty breakfast in a long time and I know this is bad but I did not even feel hungry for lunch. So I skipped it.

2:14pm Blood Sugar 174

I guess I didn’t quite have the guesstimate right.

I  had a sunchip bag around 4pm to tide me over till dinner

7:57pm 285

Mike and I ate chicken and a baked potato I estimated 32 carbs for dinner and after we ate we waited a half hour and went to the gym.

9pm Gym Workout 1 hour cardio on the elliptical, also got abs in as well.

11:47pm: After the gym I got home and checked my blood sugar 287. Well it is better than going low.

I am already a slacker today not eating right, I didn’t correct a couple of times and umm didn’t even check my blood sugar before I worked out.

Lets see what happens on Tuesday. See you all then. Hopefully you will come back each day, to check me out.

~g-sizzle that is my BL code name.

If Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems interest you this is for you…

Dexcom is looking to do some market research with type 1 patients and they are giving a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate to every single person who completes this really short survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=UbbcJQGO_2fpsgG4k92bZu8Q_3d_3d

They just ask you to pick out the marketing campaign that looks the most compelling to you and thats it  you are done. At the end they just ask you for your email address and name to send the gift card. That simple…

In case you don’t know Dexcom makes the SEVEN Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System

Hope you all take the survey!

I went to work today and when I came home my dad made the house look like this!

HAPPY WORLD DIABETES DAY EVERYONE!