Eye Doctor

I went to the eye doctor tonight.
It has me pretty upset.
Every time I go, I have my eyes dilated, like a good little diabetic.
Then I sit there, without my contacts, blind for 10 minutes while the drops work.
I went into the room, and the doctor came in. He made the required small talk. I hate this part of the appointment. My doctor is a relative of sorts. His daughter just married my cousin. We talked about the wedding. Then I had to hear, once again, how the college he went to is better than the college I go to. (They are arch rivals.) Then he starts the exam. He pulls out the little light, and starts looking. This time, he lingers longer on each eye longer than usual. So long, that my dilated eyes tear excessively, and I long to close them. He makes annoying worried noises that sent my panic level through the roof. Finally, he shuts the little light off, and leans back. "Well, your eyes look good Jennifer." (Oh really? I think. What about the noises?) "I can see some evidence of diabetes in your eyes. (WHAAAATTT!!!) Don't worry though. All it does is confirms the fact that you are diabetic."
I don't want my eyes telling anyone that I am diabetic!
I am 19 years old. I want normal eyes. I want to have great vision for another 60 years! OK, so I already have crappy vision, but a pair of glasses/contacts fix that. I don't want to have to worry about blood vessels showing I'm diabetic! I know I'm probably over reacting, but I really want to have good vision. I don't want to be one of those people that others look at and say, "oh, she's blind. She has diabetes you know."
So, the next part, is all the tests he wants to do all the time. Just last year, I had a visual field test done. Now, he wants another one. It seems a little much to me. Does anyone know what test are recommended? I looked on the ADA website, but I can't seem to find it.
Other than the "evidence of diabetes" everything else was fine, including my retinal photograph. I guess that's good. I just wish I had completely normal eyes.

Colorado

Day 1. Traveling
I started out Monday afternoon, and drove to my brother and sister in laws house. I spent the night there, hanging out with them. Tuesday, we started the drive to Chicago. We arrived at the airport behind schedule, which put us all on edge. We found the ticket counter, checked our luggage and got in line. I took my pump out of the case, and put it in my front pocket on the recommendation of a previous security screener. I went before my brother, just in case I set off the detectors. As I walked through the gate, I felt myself tense up. I waited for the beep, and the dark look from the screener. I continued to wait. No beep! I turned around and smiled at Mike (my brother). I made it! The flight to Colorado went fine. I got a little motion sick, but nothing bad. At the Denver airport, we met my other brother (Nick) his wife, (Cherie) and my niece (Maribel). We went out for a late supper, got groceries, and drove to the cabin. We were truly in for a rustic camping experience. The cabin was up in the mountains, 45 minutes from any civilization. We collapsed into bed at 2am.
Day 2
I woke up at a decent 200. Not bad considered all the travel and the time change. I decided that since we were going to go hiking first thing that day, not to correct. I had some cereal, and cut my basal in half right after breakfast. We packed up, and drove to Rocky Mountain National park for our first hike. In the car, I checked myself, not feeling the best. My two cautious moves earlier that morning took a major toll. I was 400. I started to panic. It was too late to tell everyone that we couldn't hike for another hour, and I wasn't sure how much of a correction to give. I had no idea what kind of hike we were in for. I guessed, and we started out on the trail. I checked every half hour after that. I slowly, but not too slowly, came back down. I spent the rest of the day hovering between 140 and 180. The first hike we took was to a set of waterfalls. They were beautiful. Well worth the 6 mile hike in the 90 degree heat.
Day 3
After the previous days strenuous hike, we decided to take our second day a little bit easier. We woke up (I was again in the 200's. That time I corrected), ate breakfast and dressed for another 90 degree day. As we piled into the car, we noticed it was cooler than the day before, but it was also earlier. When we got to the trail head, it was 55. It never got above 65 the whole day. We were a little cold in our shorts and T-shirts. Once again, it was beautiful, and once again, my blood sugars stayed picture perfect on 50% basal reduction.
Day 4
The fourth day was once of the most beautiful. It was a longer hike again, but by definitely worth it. It both rained and snowed while we made our way to Nypm, Emerald and Dream lakes. The view at Emerald lake was just amazing. I stuck with the 50% basal. When we sat down for lunch, I was in the 90's. That was the lowest I had gone while hiking so far.
Day 5
After hearing all about Trail Ridge Road, and how beautiful it was, we decided to try it. We weren't sure how it was going to go. Maribel (my year old niece) had decided she hated riding in the car, and would scream anytime we drove anywhere. The. Entire. Time. I love her dearly, but I think most of us wanted to murder her by the end of the week. This is the child that never sleeps. Ever. She screamed for 3 hours straight one night. She finally went to sleep at 3am. She slept for one freaking hour and then was up again. For the rest of the day. Anyway. That was my rant. High altitudes + babies = misery. Luckily for us, she decided to take a nap most of the trip out there. On the way back, we made frequent stops to take pictures and let her play. We took this picture on top of the mountain that the visitors center is on. Introducing the family. It is not a very attractive picture for any of us. We are looking into the sun, it was really windy, and crazy cold.

I'm on the far left. Then Sarah (SIL), Mike(bro), Nick(oldest bro), Cherie and Maribel.
I have never seen scenery more beautiful. We were on top of the mountains. You could see for miles. It was wonderful. I loved it. I would post about 50 pictures, but seeing as it takes 15minutes per picture(no, I'm not kidding) I'll refrain.
After Trail Ridge Road, we saw the Alluvial Fan. It is where a damn broke in the 80's, taking large amounts of rocks with it, and spreading them wherever it pleased. The picture below shows me sitting on one of those "rocks."

Day 6
This was the final day in Colorado, and it was not a great one. The hike we were going to go one had no parking spots open for several miles. We decided on another hike, and it turned out to be a boring one. It was hot again that day, and there was little shade, and lots of other people. Although I had again turned my basal down 50%, I had my first low. It didn't seem to be a bad one at first. Only 75. I took 30 grams. 5 minutes later, my brother wanted to keep going. I convinced him to wait another 5 minutes. I rechecked. I was 78. Neither Nick or Cherie wanted to sit there in the sun. I don't know what their problem was. It made me glad it was the one and only low I had the entire trip. I finally came up, but it did involve eating and hiking at the same time to keep everyone happy. The hike was someone pretty, but a bit of a let down after Trail Ridge Road.
Day 7
This was the day I was dreading. This was the trip I had to make all by myself. I had never flown alone before. I was dropped off by a shuttle bus at the baggage claim. After wondering through the airport, I finally found the United check-in area. They were like 50 different areas to check in, and I had no idea which one I needed. The woman I asked pointed to a line that read "International flights. E-tickets only." I was domestic, and I had a paper ticket. Low and behold, it was the right line. Weird. Then it was on to security. I had high hopes after security in Chicago. I was even waved into the express line. My first panic came when I set down my carry-on and shoes, started to go through the metal detector, and the woman behind me got my attention and asked me if I had dropped my ticket. Indeed I had. I couldn't believe I had and didn't notice it. I walked up to the metal detector again. The screener told me to loose the cell phone. I told him it was an insulin pump. He must have noticed I was nervous, because he told me they never set it off. Well, it must have been my lucky day! He even let me go through the detector again, because I had forgotten my belt, and it still set it off. After a hand wand and a pat down, I went to my gate, and flew home without a problem.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Other than the one low, the diabetes behaved. I can't wait to go back with my whole family (parents included) again. It is the most beautiful place I have ever visited.

Guess who is going to Colorado in 3 days.

ME!!!

As you might remember, I've been wanting to go out there ever since I went with a youth group 2 years ago, and NOW I GET TO!! I'm going with both my brothers, their wives and my niece.
Am I nervous? Oh heck yes. More nervous than I was last time. See, my brothers even after spending quite a few years of their lives in the same house with a diabetic, are fairly clueless. They both moved out before I started pumping, and let's just say things changed A LOT when I started pumping. I don't think they even know how to use glucagon. (I plan to fix that). One brother seems to have it in his head that we can go out and hike from 6am to 6pm. All day. Every day. With an 11month old and a diabetic? I think not. Well, at least I hope not. The plan is to cut basals in half right off the bat. The time change and the travel will start me off high, but I haven't found a good solution for either.

Ahh! I have to run, but any tips on flying, adjusting to new time zones, major hiking and anything else that might be helpful (good sights to see?) are greatly appreciated!

Wanted

One mail-order pharmacy.
At the least, it has to ship insulin and test strips. It would be nice if it shipped oral medication too.
If anyone has a good experience (or a bad one) that they could share, I would really appreciate it!

I killed it.

Well, the streak ended yesterday.
First, it was the chocolate cake. My mom had just baked it, and it is was warm out of the oven. My dad was having a piece for snack, and I couldn't resist.

The guess? 30 grams.
The result? 64.
Later that night?

Virgin, of course. It was the first time I had ever had one.
The Guess? 45 grams.
The result? 326.

So thanks for all the congrats, but it's over, and I killed it. Until next time, if there IS a next time...