I have not slept well for the last two nights due to my arthritis and the changing weather temperature or barometric pressure. I went to Jane’s today after waking feeling very stiff and sore from my arthritis. I had to take 2 of the 650 mg arthritis pain relief caplets before I took my other medications or even had my coffee. That is bad when pain comes before my morning coffee. I almost called Jane and asked if I could come tomorrow, even though I am already scheduled for tomorrow. I knew if I changed the day on which she wanted me to do certain chores was going to make it even harder on my body. By the time I arrived at Jane’s, the pain was starting to ease up.

She was so happy to see me and gave me a big hug. She really didn’t have that much for me to do, but wanted me to sit and chat mostly over the next 3 hours. I had a feeling that was her reasoning for me coming today. We discussed about giving me the responsibility to come to her home while she was in rehabilitation to care for all of her plants and dusting and vacuuming all her carpets. If she needed something from a grocery store or department store, she wanted to know if I could bring the items to her at the rehabilitation unit. I assured her that was not a problem. She had ordered a new lift chair and wanted to give her Lazy Boy recliner away to anyone who wanted it. I thought of my younger daughter and her husband that will be moving in very soon to their new home. Jane’s new chair is being delivered on Wednesday, so we will go get the recliner.

When I talked to my youngest daughter today about the chair, she is getting more excited about moving into her new home. She was annoyed that she had to go in on her day off to a sales training meeting, though she understands they are necessary. I know she is packing boxes for the move in between college and her regular work schedule, so every minute counts on her day off. I will be glad when they are settled into their new home and the apartment gets rented out to relieve them and myself of any obligations.

I could hardly believe it when I opened the door to go to church this morning. It was so cold outside. I stepped back in the house and went to look at the thermometer I have placed outside the living room window. It read 30 degrees.

I had truly thought we were through with winter. I know in the past spring seasons when the daffodils and tulips had just bloomed, we would get a light snow. Then no more snow, but cool temperatures remained till almost May. I was praying since we have had above normal temperatures of 60s, that winter had ended.

This evening as my friends and I rode home from Club Jesus, it was flurrying some light snow. I am glad that my dogs’ kennel was not untarped on the sides this weekend so they can stay warmer through this cold front. I am not sure now when I will untarp the kennel fence.

I thought that as of last Friday that I would not be working for Jane till after her stay at a rehabilitation unit and/or her trip to California for her grandson’s wedding. Her son came Friday and they visited several rehabilitation units. I thought that he would have taken care of getting her situated before leaving. I found out that was not so when I called to check up on her and inquire about her son. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to him before he left. He had already left a little after noontime. She requested for me to come to her home tomorrow for a few hours. I know how she loves company. I know it will be more than a few hours. With her limitations with her right arm and hand, she does have a difficult time managing totally by herself. That is why she wants to go stay at a rehabilitation unit till her cast comes off and her wrist and hand have better movement. I still feel bad that she fell and injured herself while I was at her home. She told me today she wished she had listened to me that morning about constantly having her cane with her. Also how much she appreciated that I came right away on early Friday morning after she had knocked a beautiful antique lamp over and shattered the glass globe and chimney; and cleaned up the glass in her bedroom. I still remember the sound of her voice on the phone when she told me about the lamp, she was clearly shook up. This sweet lady has had enough problems with her hand and arm in cast reaching to turn on the light and then breaking the globe.

So off to bed I go so I can get over to Jane’s house early. I pray there isn’t any accumulation of snow in the morning.

1st daffodils of Spring 2009

Over this past week, a transformation has begun. Spring is definitely in the air. My daffodils and tulips have sprouted their young greenery. Today, the daffodils started appearing. I took this photo of the first two to appear. I can’t wait to see my flowers all bloomed. My lilac bushes have green leaves on them. Soon their blooms will appear and disappear just as fast. That is the one thing about the daffodils, tulips and lilacs that I wish their blooms lasted longer.

With the warmer temperatures we are having, I am looking forward to backyard barbequing. Our old picnic table was a hand me down from a neighbor that was moving and didn’t want it anymore 6 years ago. I want new patio furniture for my backyard patio. First on my list is a new table and chairs. Then I would like to have a few Adirondack chairs for out on the lawn. They are so comfortable to sit in and enjoy reading a good book while getting a tan. A friend of mine in Florida has some on their lawn and loves them too.

I will post more photos soon of the spring flowers and landscape shots.

I am so exhausted. I am not use to getting up this early every day anymore. Then going non-stop all day physically. Jane sure keeps me hopping. I understand her reasoning for wanting to get so much done around her condo. The first reason was because her son is coming to visit and she also wants to invite other relatives to come this summer. The second reason is because she had been asking another lady that use to clean her condo to help her sort through all many items that Jane wants to give away and Jane did not get the help she needed to complete the tasks. She is a real chatty Cathy and keeping Jane focused on completing one room at a time is hard to do. She first wanted to finish in her bedroom (not finished yet), then 10 minutes later she wants to go in the spare room and we just get started and then she wanted to go out to the garage. Her garage is a master storage units with a small space to pull her car in.

We did eat lunch of soup and sandwich and grapes. I felt I ate plenty for lunch. I felt fine at the time.

After working in the garage for an hour and clearing a big path to walk around her car, I finally felt a sense of accomplishment at completing one of the tasks that Jane wanted done. I even quickly sweep the garage floor before pulling the car back in.

As I was carrying some empty totes in from the garage to the spare bedroom, I started feeling light headed. After another 5 minutes, I started to feel shaky inside my body. I knew after yesterday, I was getting hypoglycemic. I took my blood sugar reading with my glucometer and it was 72. I drank about 4 oz. of orange juice. I didn’t even take a shot of Novolog at lunchtime, because my blood sugar was 98. I know how hard I have been trying to get my blood sugar reading in the normal ranges and keep it balanced. After reading more of Dennis Pollock’s book, Overcoming Runaway Blood Sugar, he recommends to eat only one carbohydrate per meal. I have been working on being more consistent with this new “rule”. I really want to one day get off of these diabetic insulin shots.

I realize now over the last two days that I must have something for a snack in the middle of the afternoon within 2 hours after lunch for me to keep my blood sugar balanced.

Tomorrow, I have to drive Jane to a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. I pray that we get some more work done in the cluttered spare bedroom so her son will have a place to sleep when he arrives.

I had a busy weekend however I called Jane each day to check on her. I know how hard it is trying to bath and get dressed. She has had wonderful friends going over and helping her get dressed and getting her something to drink and eat.

Jane called me this morning requesting if I could come over today. After I arrived, I saw Jane’s condition, her disarrayed hair and her unkempt condition. Jane is one to keep herself well groomed. She and I discussed the plan of action for the day. She first wanted a bath, her hair washed and clean clothes put on. We managed to accomplish the bath and hair washing without soaking down the bathroom. I used her blow dryer and dried her hair. She kept thanking me over and over. I can truly understand how she must have felt after almost 5 days without bathing. When I was in the hospital with my broken leg, it was at least 5 days before I was given a bath or washed my hair. I felt like a million bucks after my first shower after having surgery.

I fixed Jane a nice cup of her favorite tea, Typhoo. I did 3 loads of wash for Jane. I made up her bed with fresh sheets and put her clothes away. I washed her dishes and prepared food for her for lunch and dinner. As we ate our lunch, we discussed about still typing her memoirs after I got her apartment in order. I asked about her computer and she said she was going to have to buy more IBM memory. Her computer kept freezing up because of not enough memory. I told her that we could purchase the memory card and I could install it for her. I have personally added more memory to my computer.

I know these long days helping her plus the busy weekend, I am very tired. I even had a very low blood sugar at Jane’s. My blood sugar reading was 52 and I started to shake and Jane noticed my hands shaking. She asked me what was wrong. I told her I must have waited too long till I ate lunch. She told me to get a small glass of orange juice from her refrigerator. Tomorrow, I am going back to help Jane more. I will be sure I take something to eat with me so I don’t have another hypoglycemia episode. Thank goodness I took my glucometer and Medport bag with my insulin just in case I needed a shot.

Well off to bed I go so I can get some extra rest so I don’t get sick

Jane and I were just getting a good start in her bedroom sorting through some of the things she had bought for some of her family members into boxes to be mailed. The handyman she hired to fix a few things came over and she was explaining to him what she wanted him to do. I knew from the conversation it might be a while before we got back to our work of sorting. I went around the corner to take out some laundry from the dryer to be folded. I had barely folded the second item and I heard a crash. I ran around the corner and found Jane on the living room floor screaming call 911 that she had broken her wrist. Matt, the handyman, come running back in the front door. He had just closed the front storm door when Jane fell. As I was calling 911, he was pressing the Life Alert button on Jane’s neck strap. After the ambulance was called to come, I ran into the kitchen and got a bag of frozen vegetables to put under Jane’s wrist. Her wrist was starting to swell. As I looked at her poor wrist, I could really see the displaced bone pushed up. I remember from my experience of when I broke my right hand several years ago about the severe swelling and not having someone to get me something frozen on my hand immediately. My hand looked like a huge softball.

When the ambulance finally arrived, the paramedics praised Matt and me for the quick response and putting the frozen vegetable bag under her wrist. The male paramedic told me that was the right thing to do to help her not be in so much pain. Jane was talking and even laughing with the paramedics. I could not believe she was laughing. I think she was in shock. She kept reassuring me that she was fine, but was feeling slight pain. She gave me some instructions on where to find her insurance cards and list of medications and her hospital medication bag. I quickly got them so the paramedics could take it with her to the hospital. I stayed to lock up her condo and ride with Matt to the hospital.

Matt dropped me off at the hospital and I went looking for Jane in the emergency room. At first, I thought that she was taking up to surgery, because the information lady as you enter the ER did not have her name on a list. I told her she was just brought by ambulance. We eventually found Jane. She was sitting up on the bed still holding onto her vegetable bag. I asked her if I could pray with her and we prayed. Within a few minutes, her little room was cramped with personnel. I stepped out so they could do their work on her. Helen, one of her emergency contacts, arrived and we spoke in the hallway. My family member came and was clearly upset that Jane had been injured. I reassured him Jane was doing fine considering her wrist condition. I truly thought that she was going to be admitted to the hospital. I asked about going back to the condo and finishing some work clearing off her bed from where we were sorting things that morning. I knew when she got back to her home; she wouldn’t be able to do this by herself. She gave me her permission.

My family member drove me back to Jane’s condo. I did clear the bed, stacked boxes neatly so she could walk through her bedroom with ease, folded the rest of her laundry and washed her dishes. As I was starting to water all of her plants, the phone started ringing. I was not sure whether to answer it or not, so I let it ring to go to the answering machine. At the last second something told me to answer it, it was Helen informing me that Jane and her were on the way to Jane’s. I opened the garage door because I knew it would be easier for them to walk up her ramp in her garage into her home.
We got Jane seated in the living room in her recliner. I made her a cup of hot tea that she requested. We all talked about what the ER doctor recommended for her. She was to call Dr. Engdahl and go see him tomorrow. Dr. Engdahl is an orthopedic surgeon. She thanked us all for the quick response in handling everything with her. I asked her if she wanted me to stay with her overnight. I knew she was going to have a difficult time. Her friend, Helen, volunteered to stay overnight with her. So we departed with the understanding if they needed me to come, all they had to do was call.

I felt bad about her getting hurt. She says she tripped on a paper grocery bag. She had placed 4 bags in the living room sorting magazines prior to my arrival that morning. I had moved them over closer to the couch so she would not trip over them. She does have a habit of grabbing onto a small wooden lightweight teacart, which did go over with her when she fell. I pray her wrist heals quickly after the surgery. She is 89 years old. Keep her in prayer please.

I apologize for not writing lately. I have been involved in so many things lately from going to church, Club Jesus, the Historical Society meeting, working on a possible new website for my church and helping a friend with the maintenance on her website.

God has been blessing me with more income through doing additional work for Jane. Jane is the lady that I have been cleaning her house one day a week for the past 2 weeks. I really am enjoying being around her. She is so positive and sweet. She is so happy to have me helping her. I am feeling better about myself being around Jane. Her positive attitude is a delight to be around and how it is rubbing off more on me. Now if I can just get 4 other people in my life to be more positive, that would be great.

Jane’s condo is nice and a comfortable size. Jane loves her plants and has a shelving unit above her sinks full of plants. I love the size of her zero radius sinks, because I am able to take those plants down and put into the sinks to water them.

With her son coming in next week, I know we will have lots to do tomorrow in the spare bedroom. Reorganizing the spare bedroom is going to be a task that will take all day.

Jane has offered additional work of typing her memoirs. When her husband was alive, they traveled a lot. She is a very interesting lady. I look forward to learning more about her. She and my friend, Betty, are both actively involved with the Historical Society. Our city is getting ready to celebrate 200 years of one of the historical homes that is also a museum. The society is planning a huge celebration and tours in the area. I am excited to learn more about the city I live in. I will share more about it in June when they have the tour and celebration party that will include live music. I do know it is by special invitation and I was put on the list by Jane and Betty to go with them.

I slept in today after staying up last night searching Google for some ideas on website designs. I know my own website needs some work on it. I have learned to do HTML and SHTML. I designed my current website in shtml. I have been wanting to get more proficient with CSS, PHP and Photoshop.

I had taken some photographs of my church and the sign across the street from my house. I needed to crop the photographs. I have used the crop tool in the past but always had difficulties. So I used the Photoshop Help and looked up the instructions for cropping. I learned several tips that was extremely useful. I cropped and resized both photographs with very little problems. There are so many features on Photoshop to learn through the help section. I will spend more time learning about them over the next week.

When I do something creative and use my mind productively, I feel so good about myself. This boosts my self esteem and good for my health.

Today, I made myself aware of what I was eating. I had gotten lazy about writing down what I was eating. The consequences of not following through was my blood sugar was bouncing up and down again. Even though I have been writing down my blood sugars in my logbook, I know I needed to be more conscious of what I was putting in my mouth again.

For breakfast, I ate a 1/2 cup of Cheerios with a 1/2 cup of cut up strawberries and 1/2 cup of 2% milk. I can’t handle drinking 1% milk or skim milk, might as well drink water.

Two hours after breakfast, my blood sugar level was 134. My youngest daughter came over and was upset with her husband. She spent over an hour ranting about all of his problems. I could see that she was not going to take responsibility for part of the problems she helped create. She is a very controlling person and I can see where her husband is getting tired of her complaining about something every day to him. My youngest daughter never thinks she is wrong and that can be stressful in a young married couple. I wish she was more positive and celebrating the fact they have just signed the papers for their new home. I am trying hard to not let her stressful moods affect me and my blood sugar level.

For lunch, I made tuna salad with celery, onion, 1/2 teaspoon of sweet relish and mayonnaise. I ate it with one slice of homemade 100% whole wheat bread on the side. For dessert, I ate a small slice of angel food cake. I was craving something sweet, so I ate only a thin slice.

Two hours after lunch, I rechecked my blood sugar level and it was 158.

I ate a sensible dinner of steak, eggplant parmesan and salad. I am really watching how much carbohydrates I am consuming today. I am proud of myself for really taking an initiative to keep my blood sugar down from the previous day of high 300s. I know the continuing high blood sugars are doing damage to my body. I do not want to go blind, lose a leg, my kidney or liver to shut down. I know I have abused my body with too many carbohydrates in the past. Really trying to stick with better eating habits.

Lately I have been reading a book written by Dennis Pollock titled “Overcoming Runaway Blood Sugar”. I have found some very useful information and clearer explanation about the difference between insulin resistant and hyperinsulism.

Hyperinsulism is a state in which your body is being forced to endure the presence of far too much insulin, which is doing its best to deal with the high sugar, high refined flour diet to which you are subjecting it.
Insulin resistance means your body is becoming less efficient at processing insulin. Your pancreas is still working fine; it just takes far more insulin to keep your blood sugar in line than it should. Depending upon the state your body, you might stay in this insulin resistant stage for many years without developing full blown diabetes, or you might move quickly into the world of the diabetic.

One of the warning signs of insulin resistance and hyperinsulism is that jittery, shaking feeling you get when you go too long without eating.

I highly recommend this book. It is packed full of great information on controlling your blood sugar. With a whole way of life being changed with low carbohydrate diet, exercise and weight control, I have been researching for more recipes that are diabetic friendly and overall healthier eating.

I have been trying new recipes for my bread machine. I have been reading about 100% whole wheat bread and whole grain bread to compare the difference in taste and also amount of carbohydrates in the different recipes. Cholesterol is another concern of mine too. Whole wheat does break down slowly into your blood sugar. However, whole grains does include wheat, corn, rice, oats, barley, quinoa, sorghum, spelt, and rye. The higher the intake of whole grain foods, the lower the risk for getting diabetes. For those of us that already have Type 2 diabetes, because whole grain foods are more slowly digested, they can help even out blood glucose levels and can help with weight control at the same time. The soluble fiber in whole grains is more slowly absorbed than refined grains, meaning the body needs less insulin to do its job. The pancreas which makes insulin gets a break from working so hard.

Whole grains contain antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that may help certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Oats and barley, which are high in a type of fiber called water soluble fiber, can lower LDL (bad) cholesterol level. Nutrients found in whole grains may help decrease free radicals from forming, possibly lowering the risk for some types of cancer. Consumption of whole grain foods can even help with weight control. Whole grain foods are filling, which helps you cut back on your calorie intake. Have you ever had a bowl of oatmeal with fresh blueberries or pieces of fresh apple or raisins in it? What is your favorite way to eat oatmeal?

My conclusion is that whole grains are very important to a diet of a diabetic. Working to include at least one serving of a whole grain food at each of my meals.