Get this thing out of my belly. Please.

No, I’m not preggo.  While I absolutely adore kiddos, I shouldn’t be allowed to have any of my own for quite some time.  I don’t want to share my toys, donuts, or Nestle Quik with anyone else, yet.  No way.  Anyway, what I’m speaking of refers to my week—okay, 3.5 days—as a diabetic.  I’m interning at Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center this month, and had the opportunity to wear an insulin pump this week to learn how it works and to understand the planning and organization it takes for someone to rely on one of these things for their daily dosages of insulin.  Obviously mine was not filled with insulin, but saline instead, which got my thinking about how I might be able to use this thing for electrolyte placement during a run.  Unfortunately, there are many reasons that would not be feasible.  1—you don’t get very much fluid from one of these things and would need more of a backpack-sized pump than a pager-sized pump.  2—apparently my super sensitive skin was especially irritated while sweating by the adhesive around the cannula that was inserted into my belly.  Which is even more evident now that the thing is out of my belly (thank goodness!) and has left a really attractive red rash behind as a souvenir.  As someone who already gets a bit woozy when thinking about anything being in my body that doesn’t really belong there, the fact that this thing burned after each run until I was able to wash off in the shower gave me anxiety-induced appetite loss on occasion.  It’s not good when this girl loses her appetite.  That’s when we know something is seriously amiss.

So this week has taught me that there are a lot of people out there who are much, much tougher than I am.  I am proud to say that I can now give myself a finger stick to do a blood glucose reading without even flinching, which is a huge improvement over a few years ago when I couldn’t even manage to stay conscious during a simple finger stick.  However, do not think that I did not complain once or 12 times about my bruised fingertips or how annoying it was to find somewhere to stick my pump (it fell out of my skirt once or twice yesterday, which not only pulled on the thing stuck in my stomach, but also resulted in my having to put my hand down my skirt multiple times in public).  As somewhat of a perfectionist who might not have the most patience for those who don’t do what they know they should, I have been extremely humbled by this experience.  On multiple occasions, I would forget to check my blood sugar before I ate.  Last night, I suspended my pump when I went to the track to do my workout, then went for pizza afterwards, then took a shower and then finally put my pump back on—because I didn’t want to be inconvenienced.  Diabetics don’t get to do any of that.  And so now, when a patient comes in to the clinic, and maybe they didn’t check their blood sugar quite as often as they should have, or maybe they counted carbs wrong or forgot to take their insulin, I completely understand how that is possible.  However, it is extremely unfortunate for them that doing those things has an actual significant effect on their health, unlike when I do those things.  I feel for them.  I really do. 

Testing my blood glucose at different times during the day was really interesting.  One day, after a 10 mile easy run, my blood sugar was 76 mg/dl.  The next day, after a harder 10 mile progression run, my blood sugar was just above 100 mg/dl.  I talked to my preceptor about this and she thinks this may be showing my liver’s response to my muscles needing fuel right after finishing that harder run.  So interesting!  Testing my blood sugars also proved that when I get really hungry and start to get cranky, I really am hypoglycemic.  So don’t judge me when I’m cranky; instead, give me some sugar, please. J

How about a brief life update?  Clearly I haven’t been blogging, so just what in the world have I been up to?  Well, every weekend has been a whirlwind these past few months, and I don’t feel like I own any part of any of my week days.  This community rotation for my internship has been awesome so far, so I don’t mind so much that between commuting and putting in my required hours, 11 hours of my day are gone.  Add to that approximately 2 hours of exercise per day, an hour of running around getting ready in the morning, ample time to consume the amount of calories I do, and some super long showers, and I barely have enough time to get my 8 hours of beauty sleep.  However, I’m loving life.  A few weekends ago, I got back into the racing game with a nice, conservatively-run half-marathon in Dallas.  The following weekend, my wonderful parents visited from WI.  Last weekend, wedding season kicked off with the Pyle/Dankbar nuptials in Tulsa.  This weekend, I’m being whisked away to the exciting city of McCalester, OK to assist with some on-going research at Harold Hamm.  There’s also been some talk of some possible kayaking this weekend, which I’m super excited about.  And in just a few short weeks, I will embark on a much needed New Mexico vacay.  Can’t. Wait.

Running and my fitness are really coming around, and despite a few pesky foot flare-ups in the form of excessive swelling and a crazy day-to-day schedule, I’ve been able to consistently hit decent mileage and hope to level off somewhere in the 70-80 mpw range for the next few months.  While not close to the 90-100 mile weeks I put in last summer, I’ve decided to let those go until I can comfortably fit mileage AND ample recovery time into my schedule.  I’ve come to terms with the reality of my hectic schedule for now, and have accepted that since I’m only nearly-26 years old, there will be plenty of time for higher mileage when I’m older and in my running prime--and working just 1 real job.

Speaking of recovery, I best actually use some of this precious lunch hour to refuel my body.  I’m so happy I don’t have to bolus.  I think I will celebrate by eating even more carbs than usual. J

I need to retire so I can have more days like this . . .

What a wonderful, wonderful day.  I love days off, especially when they coincide with one curly-headed mop top’s days off.  Let me just recap.  I awoke without the help of an alarm (although with the help of an elbow to the face), which means I slept in until 8am.  Amazing.  After a muggy 65-minuter and a much needed long stretching session, we mosied on over for my very first Diner experience.  Yum!  I’ve only been waiting for this day since I moved here.  So basically a dream 4 years in the making was realized today.  A longer than planned homework session at Starbucks followed.  Why in the world do they blare the music so loud in there?  Do people really go to Starbucks to jam out to music?  Some of us are trying to get through homework and quizzes with as little effort as possible, for crying out loud.  I was especially irritated things were taking longer than planned because I was excited about what was to follow the homework sesh.  I took my first steps towards owning my first road bike!  We went up to Schlegel’s to check things out, and I got all measured and put into the system so when I decide which route I want to go bike-wise, I’m all ready to go.  I’m super pumped!! J  However, it made me realize how little I know about bikes, which made things slightly overwhelming.  But I will learn!  Following the bike outing, we couldn’t help but make a stop at Cuppies and Joe . . . I mean, you can’t just drive by.  That would be rude.  Speaking of things you can’t do—you can’t just buy 1 cupcake for yourself.  So we left with 4, which took a lot of self-control.  Taking full advantage of having some time to spend in the city, we headed over to Red Coyote to spend some hard-earned gift cards that had been burning holes in our pockets for quite some time.  After that, we thought hitting up a happy hour special at nearby Republic Gastro Pub might be fun, but unfortunately the wait was 45 minutes for a table.  So we headed over to tried and true McNellies, but we were informed the wait was 30 to 40 minutes there.  Which, according to the hostess, “isn’t really that bad” (shrug of the shoulders).  Not that bad!?  When it’s already 7pm, and we have a 30 minute drive home?!  Which means it would likely be nearly 10 o’clock before we got home.  No thanks—that late of a return home was not going to fly with my inner granny.  So we ended up at Erma’s, and I will admit, this might be the only disappointment of the day.  Not Erma’s itself—I’m a big fan of Erma’s.  But my chicken fried steak sandwich was less than appetizing.  Thank goodness I had a big basket of fries to satisfy my hunger.  And a delicious beer.  And now I’m concluding what might be the best day I’ve had in a long time with sweats and movie.  And then crawling into bed, since I have an early morning training session with my favorite newbie half-marathoners-to-be, followed by a conveniently located 10K on campus.  On a running note, things are finally starting to come together a bit, and I feel stronger every week, so let’s hope this trend continues and I start racing fast again.  And I started hitting the weights again this week, so keep an eye out for my biceps.  Ha!  Still missing friends and family back home, but my parents scheduled a trip down at the beginning of April (counting down the days!), and plans for a girls weekend with my college roomies is in the works.  Until then, more days like this will more than keep me content. J

Long overdue, but brief update...more to come when my eyelids aren't quite so heavy!

You know what might be the most awful sound in the whole entire world?  The alarm clock at 4:30 in the morning.  Unfortunately, I am greeted with that excruciatingly painful noise all too often these days.  It’d be different if I could actually get my bum in bed by, say 8-8:30ish every night, but that’s just highly unrealistic.  To top it off, I get up that early to head to a “job” I’m not entirely crazy about.  And by job, I mean unpaid, 40-hour-per-week internship.  I think after I finish this first rotation (management), I will enjoy the process a lot more, but management of a hospital kitchen is just not high on my list of future employment possibilities.  Thankfully, I’m beginning to really enjoy my co-workers, and I do get fed delicious food on a regular basis.  For example, today while working in the bakery, I was fed a hot, fresh-baked biscuit for breakfast, chocolate chip cookies, and pasta salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing made by one of the chefs.  Then, while passing by the chefs’ work station, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to “taste-test” the pork loin and chicken and dumplings.  Needless to say, it’s a good thing the miles are picking up for me, or we’d have a problem.  Although I do enjoy the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with these past few weeks, I am still counting down the days until this rotation is over….after this week, I’m 5 weeks down and only 4 more to go.  Then I move on to my community rotation, which is my passion.  I’m very excited.  Especially for the 4:30 AM noise to go away.

My poor pup has a cold.  He makes this awful wheezing sound and then phlegm or something of the sort hangs out of his mouth afterwards.  He’s special.  His immune system may be a bit battered due to the increasing number of miles he’s been running.  Sometimes he gets big doubles in, with Scott taking him out for 12+miles in the AM and me taking him out for 8-10 miles after I finish work for the day.  He’s fit, but a bit snotty right now.  I think he just needs a few recovery days to kick this bug in the butt and he’ll be hitting the roads again.  He loves to run so much, though, that he is hard to handle when he’s not getting his daily run in.  He starts going crazy when I lace up my shoes and frantically starts searching for his leash.  Poor guy.  He didn’t even eat all of his food this morning.  But no worries, my severely overweight cat (who becomes very vocal and somewhat violent, what with the lunging at my toes every time I walk past, when his food dish is empty) has no problem finishing up Asher’s meals for him.

I can’t decide on a spring marathon, so that is still pending, but I am all signed up for the Rock n’ Roll half in Dallas at the end of March, so I guess at least I have a goal to get fit for that.  I did my first real workout in about 4 ½ months this evening, and while I’ll admit I have some work to do, I am pleased with where I’m at.  Not really knowing what to expect, but expecting it to feel somewhat tough, my goal was to run a 4 mile progressive run, starting around 6:45/mi and dropping 5 seconds per mile.  After that, I was going to assess how I was feeling, and if I were up to it, I would do 1 or 2 miles at my goal half-marathon pace.  Of course, for my first big planned workout in awhile, the wind had to be gusting 30 mph.  I love Oklahoma.  I did the workout on the Norman High track, and it was breezy, but do-able.  And my actual workout went something like this:  6:33, 6:25, 6:20, 6:15.  Then a jog to find a bathroom—hey, when your lunch break occurs at 10:30 AM, it’s tricky finding the optimal pre-workout refueling/snack time.  And then a mile in 6:07.  In a little over a month, I’m hoping to run a half-marathon at 6:10-6:15 pace.  I’m not in that shape yet, but after tonight, I think that goal is absolutely realistic.  I’m hoping all the training I did for Chicago will make the legs come back quickly after my forced rest period.  Overall, I felt better than expected this evening, especially with a week full of late nights and 4:30 wake-ups under my belt.  I’m optimistic and excited about my running again—finally!

I’ve been finding myself a wee bit homesick as of late.  I always expect myself to grow out of that, but I guess when you have a family as wonderful as mine, homesickness will probably never go away.  Add to that pretty amazing friends back home, and it’s the recipe for perpetual homesickness.  Anyway, I’ve recently begun plotting ways to see friends/my next trip home.  Unfortunately, I’m only allowed 3 vacay/personal days during my entire internship (9 months!), so this will be tricky.  Hopefully my parents will get the itch for warmer weather at least, and head down sometime this spring. J  In the meantime, I just need to do a better job of reconnecting with society here—I have some pretty wonderful friends around these parts, and darn it, I need to make an effort to hang out more often.  If only they will promise to not be offended if I fall asleep mid-hang out.  J

I’m looking forward to another weekend without an agenda—it will be weekend number 2 in a row like this, and I don’t see myself getting sick of it anytime soon.  And tomorrow, I may go look at some bikes—I’m seriously considering dabbling in some cycling and want to see what my options are.  Now if I could just make myself learn to swim, perhaps I could become a triathlete.  Until they make floaties legal, I guess I’m out.

Well, friends, it’s past 10pm, which means my brain stopped functioning, oh about 2 hours ago.  This update will have to do for now, but more to come!  Just had to let my mom (who may very well be the only person who actually reads this) know that I’m still kickin’. J

Catching up

Goodness!  Where has the time gone?!  I haven’t written anything since Thanksgiving.  So many holidays have passed since then…Christmas, New Years, Elvis’ birthday.  Whew.  I’ll give as brief a synopsis of what’s been going on as possible, and then vow to update this more frequently.  I finished my coursework for my degree in mid-December.  I worked a lot over the Christmas holiday, and spent my first Christmas away from home.  Christmas with Scott’s family was a lot of fun, but just not the same as Christmas with my family.  Growing up is tough! 

At the end of December, I moved into a new house in exactly 2 days, while working, and then drove to WI.  Thankfully Scott and I took turns driving and sleeping, because we left at 3:30 one afternoon, after an exhausting day of moving and cleaning, and arrived at my parents in NE Wisconsin at 8:30 the next morning.  That morning happened to be the morning of New Year’s eve, so needless to say, I was nudging Scott awake as the ball dropped in New York (not even midnight in WI), and then we called it a night.  Total party animals.

Speaking of animals, my cat (Mr. Miles) has been on the brink of death twice since the beginning of December, which resulted in two holiday emergency animal hospital trips—one on Christmas Eve and one on New Year’s day.  Talk about majorly damaging the pocketbook.  But the monster is alive.  And back to his nocturnal ways, dang him.

Anyway, back to WI.  It was cold.  But wonderful!  I wish I could get home more often.  Activities included lots of family time, eating, sleeping, running, eating, mall walking, seeing old friends, sleeping, touring the New Glarus Brewery, eating, WATCHING THE PACKERS BEAT THE BEARS AT LAMBEAU!, sleeping, and a battling a few flu bugs.  Asher consumed a record amount of snow.  And food scraps.  All in all, I’d say the trip was a success, and over much too soon.

Currently, there are a lot of exciting things going on in my life.  I’m beginning my internship at OU Medical, which is exactly where I hoped I’d be.  I’m delving into some new research projects.  I’m running again, and even jumped in my first race since Chicago last weekend.  I ran a 10K at slightly slower than my goal marathon pace from Chicago, and it was tough.  And I was extremely sore the next day.  I’ve got a long way to go, folks.  But I’m beginning to enjoy the process again. 

Today marks the last day of school-based orientation for my internship.  Thank goodness!  I am suffering here, people!  40 hours of orientation?!  Is that really necessary?  Currently, my professor has a picture of a robot making pancakes on the screen to symbolize something I missed, and all I can think is “Oooh, I’m going to need one of those.”  I need to get out of here.

This weekend has a 5K, a short work shift, and a quick trip to Dallas in store.  Pretty excited.  If I can get my tummy to cooperate.  I was forced to get a flu shot for my internship, and I’ve felt pretty crummy since then.  It’s either the flu shot or lack of sleep.  Or a combo of both.  But I seem to be on the up-swing today.

Next week marks the beginning of my first internship rotation.  Many updates on my new adventures to come.  I’m excited!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday Elvis to all! J