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Feb. 10th, 2022 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichAfter writing my complaining post (see somewhere below in your newsfeed) and reading all the posts I'd missed, I realised that I hadn't written about how much I am loving this Dexcom 6 glucometer that I now use. There is a little monitor/transmitter which sits inside a sticky pad somewhere on one's body and transmits a person's glucose level to a phone or separate handheld monitor every three minutes. They can't get more than about 20 feet away from each other without the hand-held one going bat-shit crazy, but this is still a cool system.
Anyway.
I was here at my desk, sort of half-craving a taste of Aplets and Cotlets which I can occasionally indulge in, when I checked my monitor. Nope. Blood sugar is too high. And the craving subsided. I love this. I get instant reads on how the levels are doing and never have to go find the test kit. Oh man, and in the middle of my sleep cycle, if I wake up sweaty and shaky and confused, instead of struggling out of bed to careen my way into the kitchen where the finger-prick test kit is located (which energy outlay can dangerously drain one's glucose if it is already low), now I just press a button on the hand-held monitor and I know right then if I need to eat some sort of sugary thing*. It is so convenient. And acts as a secondary conscience, too, keeping me from indulging most of the time. Not all of the time yet, but I've only been using it for a little over one month. And I have to say that there is something satisfying about using the longer readout graph function to see how the levels fluctuate over the course of (up to) a day. I have no idea if it is significant, but I'll be letting my Endocrinologist know that I've learned that I digest food very, very slowly thanks to that graphing. It might make a difference in how I am supposed to pace out my food intake each day.
I did the "you're old now" thing and took myself to a dermatologist for a checkup. No suspicious moles or freckles but there is a rough patch of skin at the point of one elbow and it turned out that it is psoriasis, so now I have steroid cream to use on it as well as an appointment with an arthritis clinic. I suppose I should have thought of that anyway - it runs in the spindle side of my family and as a crafter it is something that will impact my retirement activities. Since the appointment I've discovered a bump on the joint of my little finger on the right hand. I'd never noticed it before. I guess arthritis just sneaks up on one. It will be interesting to see how much I have of it, and especially interesting to learn if there is anything I can do about it. It's not something I've thought about until now.
My SCA Kingdom hosted a weekend of classes (University of Atlantia) last weekend. I spent seven hours in Zoom meetings on Saturday and only one on Sunday since an instructor bailed on the second Sunday class. (I hope they are okay.) Most of the day was focused on medieval Mongolian life - clothing, history, personae, and cuisine. I have a list of book titles to consider purchasing. Normally I would say "check out from the library, probably via ILL" but now that my spouse is concentrating on SCA archery, he is more interested in "going Mongol" and he can't read books at the speed I do until he retires from work. I'm the research-y member of the family so to purchase or not is mostly my decision. It is really nice to see his interest in the SCA's activities growing again. He was pretty lost when he had to give up all forms of fighting, and he's burnt out in the service field, so this new enthusiasm heartens me.
*"Sugary thing" has evolved from a snack box of raisins (absorbed too slow) to a commercially produced glucose gel (one of the nastiest things I have put in my mouth in decades) to... Smarties. Yes, those hard little sugar wafers/tablets/candies which used to show up so often in my trick or treat bag. Folks on he diabetic support group say that they are just as good as glucose tablets for instant sugar delivery and taste better than any glucose tablet around. And they are hella cheaper than commercial glucose tablets. Unlike raisins, they don't go stale in a drawer in a nightstand, either.
Anyway.
I was here at my desk, sort of half-craving a taste of Aplets and Cotlets which I can occasionally indulge in, when I checked my monitor. Nope. Blood sugar is too high. And the craving subsided. I love this. I get instant reads on how the levels are doing and never have to go find the test kit. Oh man, and in the middle of my sleep cycle, if I wake up sweaty and shaky and confused, instead of struggling out of bed to careen my way into the kitchen where the finger-prick test kit is located (which energy outlay can dangerously drain one's glucose if it is already low), now I just press a button on the hand-held monitor and I know right then if I need to eat some sort of sugary thing*. It is so convenient. And acts as a secondary conscience, too, keeping me from indulging most of the time. Not all of the time yet, but I've only been using it for a little over one month. And I have to say that there is something satisfying about using the longer readout graph function to see how the levels fluctuate over the course of (up to) a day. I have no idea if it is significant, but I'll be letting my Endocrinologist know that I've learned that I digest food very, very slowly thanks to that graphing. It might make a difference in how I am supposed to pace out my food intake each day.
I did the "you're old now" thing and took myself to a dermatologist for a checkup. No suspicious moles or freckles but there is a rough patch of skin at the point of one elbow and it turned out that it is psoriasis, so now I have steroid cream to use on it as well as an appointment with an arthritis clinic. I suppose I should have thought of that anyway - it runs in the spindle side of my family and as a crafter it is something that will impact my retirement activities. Since the appointment I've discovered a bump on the joint of my little finger on the right hand. I'd never noticed it before. I guess arthritis just sneaks up on one. It will be interesting to see how much I have of it, and especially interesting to learn if there is anything I can do about it. It's not something I've thought about until now.
My SCA Kingdom hosted a weekend of classes (University of Atlantia) last weekend. I spent seven hours in Zoom meetings on Saturday and only one on Sunday since an instructor bailed on the second Sunday class. (I hope they are okay.) Most of the day was focused on medieval Mongolian life - clothing, history, personae, and cuisine. I have a list of book titles to consider purchasing. Normally I would say "check out from the library, probably via ILL" but now that my spouse is concentrating on SCA archery, he is more interested in "going Mongol" and he can't read books at the speed I do until he retires from work. I'm the research-y member of the family so to purchase or not is mostly my decision. It is really nice to see his interest in the SCA's activities growing again. He was pretty lost when he had to give up all forms of fighting, and he's burnt out in the service field, so this new enthusiasm heartens me.
*"Sugary thing" has evolved from a snack box of raisins (absorbed too slow) to a commercially produced glucose gel (one of the nastiest things I have put in my mouth in decades) to... Smarties. Yes, those hard little sugar wafers/tablets/candies which used to show up so often in my trick or treat bag. Folks on he diabetic support group say that they are just as good as glucose tablets for instant sugar delivery and taste better than any glucose tablet around. And they are hella cheaper than commercial glucose tablets. Unlike raisins, they don't go stale in a drawer in a nightstand, either.
