Diabetes...

August has come and gone and we are half way through September now. 

Not much went on in August other than it being horribly hot here in Oklahoma with no rain in sight. We had over 100 days of 100+ degree heat.  Our big trees started dying, all the leaves dried up on them. Hopefully they went into survivor mode and will come out next spring.  We'll need lots of rain and snow this winter for that to happen. When the dogs would trot across the yard they were leaving dust puffs. Our big boy Fitz looked like he was a galloping horse it was so dry and dusty. We  have had terrible grass fires here in the state, but nothing like in Texas.  Those poor people down there who have lost everything.  I really feel for them.

I had been feeling somewhat under the weather for awhile and with my grandfather, mother, brother having diabetes and my daughter having gestational diabetes, at my daughters urging, I decided to get a free Freestyle Lite meter and check mine.  HOLY COW my blood sugar clocked in at 189! 

The kids and the grand baby came to see us over the Labor Day weekend and I took a couple of days extra off and made an appointment with the Dr. to have my annual physical and blood work done.  My a1c came in at 8.1, the Dr. would like for it to be at 6 and my blood sugar was 157, it needs to be down to under 70.  In a week and a half's time I had managed to get it down to that. The Doctor said that she will give me three months to get things under control or she will put me on a drug called metformin. I will do everything I can to not go on medication.

My darling daughter brought all her diabetes information and I started going through it and making copies and started journaling my carbs, eating more fiber and protein. We have only eaten out once and boy did my blood sugar go up!  So eating out less and more preparing fresh.

I have been working on my weight by watching what I eat and exercising.  Since my knee surgery I have not been able to walk correctly and can't find my stride.  Also my foot hurts when I wear shoes so I have to wear Crocs. This morning the scale said I had lost 8 lbs. and my blood sugar was 134.  The more weight I loose the better the sugar will be and I think my foot pain will improve.  I must say that I am already feeling better.  It's amazing how a little device like a glucose meter will get you on the stick and make you realize that you had better do something about the situation and fast!

We had a wonderful visit with the kids and grand baby.  He's getting so big! Such a cutie! We formed a corral out of the furniture so he would have a safe place to play. It was so funny...Dave was gone and the kids had gone shopping leave grandma to babysit.  Noah was crawling all over his corral and having a good time. While sitting on the floor he just fell over sound asleep! I covered him, picked him up and put him on the couch propped by pillows so he wouldn't fall off.  I texted the kids and told them what happened and they replied "He put himself to sleep"?!?!?!?! to which I replied "Yep"  I guess he never does that at home.  After awhile he started to get fussy and wake up to which I picked him up blanket and all and brought him to my chair and tucked him into the crook of my arm and there he slept for another hour and a half. In all the little guy had a 3 hour nap, much to his parents amazement. 

He figured how to get past the furniture which was his corral by watching our little dog who would go under the chair, so we had to put our ottomans in front of them to block off the space.  He was not a happy camper about that!  He was very determined to get past the blockade and tried every maneuver in the book.  But we managed to thwart him and keep him occupied with lots of toys and balls and a movie or two. 

The kids brought their new bicycles and a collapsible child trailer for Heather's bike for Noah. We went for a bike ride over to the practice field for the OU band and watched the drum corps do their thing.  Noah was fascinated.  It was a good bike ride and I enjoyed it very much even though I had some trouble with the seat of my bike. Every time I would go over a bump in the road my seat would tilt backwards. Dave needed to tighten it a lot before it finally stayed put.   

I received an email in August saying the OU Community Choir was starting up and was going to be doing a work by Mendelssohn "Die erste Walpurgisnacht"  with the OU Orchestra and OU Choir on Halloween. I put in a link so you can listen to the work. It's been years since I had done any real serious singing and decided that this would be a fun thing to do as my pipes had become somewhat rusty. We had our first rehearsal last week and boy what a workout!  So lots of  fun in store for us I would say and my pipes?  I would say the rust is starting to wear away, just have to get the breathing under control.

Tomorrow is a free day at the Oklahoma State Fair for seniors so Dave and I will head off at some point during the day and look at all the goodies and then will head to Smash Burger at the new outlet mall at I-40 and Council Road.  I love their grilled chicken sandwich with their sweet potato fries.   The outlet mall is really cool and we have needed one in OKC for sometime, until then...

Happy Trails...