Allow myself to introduce..... myself.

[JadeMonkey]

Hi all.

I've been lurking around a bit and even mad a few posts but I figured I should finally take a minute to introduce myself and let you all know where I'm coming from.

First the basics about me. I just recently turned 26. I'm a blond haired, blue eyed, European mutt; mostly a Norwegian Viking (and look the part) with a good bit of German thrown in. I work as an engineer for a big Telecom company. I'm into cars, motorcycles, traveling, skiing, computers, paintball, cooking, spirituous beverages, and a ton of other stuff. I am a huge geek but you'd never know it. Sarcasm flows from my pores; I also love to bust chops and give people a hard time. If you want to know more, just ask. (If you happen to be female, I happen to be single. :D )

I was diagnosed on November 16, 2007. I had been feeling worse and worse over the course of a few months with the usual symptoms; always thirsty, hitting the bathroom every hour or so, being really tired and run down despite sleeping a lot more than usual, and not healing correctly. I always had to have a drink with me and was planning things so that I knew I'd have access to a bathroom every hour. My mouth had gotten so dry for so long that my tongue and gum would get cut and bleed at the slightest irritation. I couldn't eat anything salty or spicy. Nothing tasted right, even water had started to taste bad. I would collapse on the couch after getting home from work and sleep for a few hours, then get up and pretty much go straight to bed. When I stood up after sitting or lying down I would get dizzy (apparently due to my blood pressure changing 30+ points). The last few days I had terrible abdominal pains and was feeling really weak and out of it.

I finally went to the doctor's on a Friday afternoon and got sent to the ER in a wheelchair within the hour. I was put on an Insulin IV and a Saline IV. It took a lot more of both to get me normalized than the doctors were expecting but eventually my numbers leveled out. I also felt better than I had in months. After 4 days in the hospital and more tests than I care to think about I finally got released with my new meter and the diagnosis that I was definitely diabetic and probably Type 1, though no one wanted to say that for sure.

A week later I had gained 32 pounds back. That is not a misprint. I gained 32 pounds in the 7 days after being released from the hospital; apparently I had been pretty dehydrated. ;) I was also feeling awesome. Insulin had become my new best friend. I was and am on Novolog (Novorapid) and Lantus. There was a brief period adjusting to lower blood sugars and some interesting side effects to go along with that. Now I will probably be switching to a pump in the very near future. Finally got a call last night that I had been approved for a Minimed 722 and the CGMS. :D

I've been doing well since then and my A1C has gone from a 12.8 to a 7.5 after just 2 months. I expect the next one to be under 7 and working to be under 6 after that. I still feel great. I ate pretty healthy before this all happened and had switched to smaller meals with snacks in between so my dietary changes have been minimal. I never really got depressed or angry about the diagnosis and it has never really bothered me. Honestly my friends and family have had a much harder time dealing with it then I have.

I'm glad I found this forum and have already gotten a good bit out of it. Hopefully as I become more active I'll only gain more and with any luck be able to help some others along the way. Thanks for having me along for the ride.

-Jade

PS - I apologize for my long-windedness (longwindedosity?). If you read that whole thing I'm impressed.... or sad for you.... I'm not really sure.

[princesslinda]

Welcome Jade..with your "longwindedosity," you'll fit right in!;)
Sounds like you've been through a lot in a short time, but are doing well and have a great attitude! Hope you'll post often.

[notme]

Welcome Jade. Your longwindedosity is much appreciated as it helps us learn about you. It is much harder when there is NOTHING written and advice is asked.

It sounds like you are doing GREAT. Good on you! Glad you found our site and you have decided to share! We will try to get used to your dry sense of humor and busting of chops!!! :boxing:

[camjen1]

Hi Jade and welcome!

Glad to see such a positive attitude and am glad you are getting better control of things.

Good luck with your pump. :)

[morrisma]

Welcome to the club Jade. You seem well suited to this forum!
Mike

[Jan B]

Jade,

Welcome -- thanks for the good intro! Now I know more about who I might be sending a book to! Your story sounds very familiar. Insulin is a miracle, really.

Anyway, I'm still waiting on UPS. I got a call yesterday saying I had to be home between 8am and 7pm today to accept delivery. It's possible I won't get "Pumping Insulin" since my pump is an upgrade, but I'll let you know.

Congrats on getting approval for your pump!! They may send you a "free" book.

Glad you are here -- this really is new for you -- it's nice to be high on life isn't it!?

[xMenace]

Welcome to the real world ;)

[susique333]

Hello and welcome Jade, nice to meet cha! Im a loquacious Irish gal and can talk the leg off a chair. With your longwindedosity, youre gonna fit right in!

[Jill-O]

Hi, Jade, and welcome here http://www.getsmile.com/emoticons/smileys-91853/aiw/bye.gif

[Olidus]

Welcome JadeMonkey - I think you covered everything in your post but your name? Where did you get it? I always like to ohear the story about peoples online names.

Welcome to DF and Club D.

[UpNorth]

Welcome to the forums :)

How wonderful to see someone being so positive! :D I was quite the same when i was diagnosed... it was my parents and friends getting sad and shocked, while i took it really well :) Still not sad about it over 3 years later :T

[kgm0612]

Welcome to this great forum, Jade. Glad you decided to stop lurking and start posting!

Karen

[JadeMonkey]

Jade,

Welcome -- thanks for the good intro! Now I know more about who I might be sending a book to! Your story sounds very familiar. Insulin is a miracle, really.

Anyway, I'm still waiting on UPS. I got a call yesterday saying I had to be home between 8am and 7pm today to accept delivery. It's possible I won't get "Pumping Insulin" since my pump is an upgrade, but I'll let you know.

Congrats on getting approval for your pump!! They may send you a "free" book.

Glad you are here -- this really is new for you -- it's nice to be high on life isn't it!?
Thanks again for the very friendly welcome Jan. I'll get a copy of the book one way or another but it was really nice of you to offer yours. Hope that your new pump is working out. I think I'm sending my paperwork in today. :D

Hello and welcome Jade, nice to meet cha! Im a loquacious Irish gal and can talk the leg off a chair. With your longwindedosity, youre gonna fit right in!
Thanks! Anyone who uses the word loquacious is more than welcome to talk all she likes. Plus you're from the Midwest which gets you bonus points (I'm an Iowa farm boy).

Welcome JadeMonkey - I think you covered everything in your post but your name? Where did you get it? I always like to ohear the story about peoples online names.

Welcome to DF and Club D.
Thanks as well. I posted in the latest thread about this actually. It's an obscure Simpsons reference. Somehow I have a penchant for remembering every line from that show, along with great heaps of other completely useless factoids.

Welcome to the forums :)

How wonderful to see someone being so positive! :D I was quite the same when i was diagnosed... it was my parents and friends getting sad and shocked, while i took it really well :) Still not sad about it over 3 years later :T
I keep expecting to have it all hit me eventually and to have a breakdown but it hasn't happened yet. I doubt it will as that really is not my nature; I am pretty laid back but still the thought is there. I'm the only T1 in the family though my Mom found out she was T2 a week before I went into the hospital.... and didn't tell me because she didn't want me to worry. Boy was she surprised when I called her from the hospital. :eek:

I like that everyone is using "longwindedosity". I may have to keep this one going.
Thanks again to everyone for the warm welcome.

-Jade

[susique333]

"Thanks! Anyone who uses the word loquacious is more than welcome to talk all she likes. Plus you're from the Midwest which gets you bonus points (I'm an Iowa farm boy)."

Well hello former neighbor. I grew up on a poultry farm near DeSoto Iowa, then moved to the small town of Adel when I was in Jr. High, many many, moons ago. Lived in Europe 2 years and found myself back in the Midwest in Nebraska! Where abouts did you live?

[UpNorth]

I keep expecting to have it all hit me eventually and to have a breakdown but it hasn't happened yet. I doubt it will as that really is not my nature; I am pretty laid back but still the thought is there. I'm the only T1 in the family though my Mom found out she was T2 a week before I went into the hospital.... and didn't tell me because she didn't want me to worry. Boy was she surprised when I called her from the hospital. :eek:

I like that everyone is using "longwindedosity". I may have to keep this one going.
Thanks again to everyone for the warm welcome.

-Jade


It might hit you, and it might not :) It hasn't with me in the over 3 years i've had T1 :) I'm the only T1 in my family, though my grandmother on dad's side had T2 before she passed away.
But don't be surprised if you one day feel everything is hopeless- like when waking up with ****ty bloodsugars or fighting hypos all day:eek: But usually those days are just once every now and then :T (at least for me)

[Jan B]

"Thanks! Anyone who uses the word loquacious is more than welcome to talk all she likes. Plus you're from the Midwest which gets you bonus points (I'm an Iowa farm boy)."

Well hello former neighbor. I grew up on a poultry farm near DeSoto Iowa, then moved to the small town of Adel when I was in Jr. High, many many, moons ago. Lived in Europe 2 years and found myself back in the Midwest in Nebraska! Where abouts did you live?

My husband comes from Newton, Iowa, where wrestling is bigger than football! We go at least every other year to see some of his relatives. However, my husband does not have the vocabulary you two do!!

[JadeMonkey]

Well hello former neighbor. I grew up on a poultry farm near DeSoto Iowa, then moved to the small town of Adel when I was in Jr. High, many many, moons ago. Lived in Europe 2 years and found myself back in the Midwest in Nebraska! Where abouts did you live?
I was born in Des Moines and grew up just outside the city but across from an experimental research farm (which was really cool). Lived in a rural farm/college town in Missouri after that. From there it's been New Mexico, Colorado, Pennsylavania, and NJ, with an all too brief stint in Melbourne (say Mel-bin, not Mel-born if you'd like to fit in), Australia during college. With any luck I'll be moving to Boston this fall for another degree.

It might hit you, and it might not :) It hasn't with me in the over 3 years i've had T1 :) I'm the only T1 in my family, though my grandmother on dad's side had T2 before she passed away.
But don't be surprised if you one day feel everything is hopeless- like when waking up with ****ty bloodsugars or fighting hypos all day:eek: But usually those days are just once every now and then :T (at least for me)
I had those days before Dx so I'm ready. There's enough good in my life that having something so manageable and treatable isn't a big deal. There's a running joke with my good friends and I that nothing really bad ever happens to me but every little thing that can go wrong does. Being T1 is just a bigger little thing. I can deal with a lot of bumps in the road, I'm just hoping the bridge isn't out for a good long while.

-Jade

[JadeMonkey]

My husband comes from Newton, Iowa, where wrestling is bigger than football! We go at least every other year to see some of his relatives. However, my husband does not have the vocabulary you two do!!

Permit me to assuage your lamentations, my esteemed insulin-deficient compatriot, that my personage is, in verisimilitude, practically monosyllabalic.

-Jade

[gettingby]

Hi Jade and Welcome. Actually, I do get the reference to the Simpsons. :D

[Evermont]

...I keep expecting to have it all hit me eventually and to have a breakdown but it hasn't happened yet. I doubt it will as that really is not my nature; I am pretty laid back but still the thought is there...

Hi JadeMonkey, welcome to DF! I think I'm like you in this regard. I skipped right past all the emotional reaction to Dx. Partly it's my nature but also maybe because my case seems a lot less severe than many others. Just lucky that way. I've managed some improvement already - take that diabetes, put it in a head-lock and give it a noogie.

Once you get past loquaciousness and longwindedosity you may progress to spontaneous verbification or even antidiscomvocababularianism. Don't try this at home. :burnout:

[JadeMonkey]

Hi JadeMonkey, welcome to DF! I think I'm like you in this regard. I skipped right past all the emotional reaction to Dx. Partly it's my nature but also maybe because my case seems a lot less severe than many others. Just lucky that way. I've managed some improvement already - take that diabetes, put it in a head-lock and give it a noogie.

Once you get past loquaciousness and longwindedosity you may progress to spontaneous verbification or even antidiscomvocababularianism. Don't try this at home. :burnout:

A large part of it for me is that I felt horrible for months and had a few days of bad DKA where I felt about the worst I ever have. Getting on Insulin in the hospital and having my glucose levels where they should be fixed everything immediately and got me feeling great again right away. I saw and felt how bad things can be and how good they can be within the span of 3 days. I don't ever want to go back to the way I felt before I was admitted to the hospital so not being in control of this is not an option for me, it's just something I have to do. I didn't just have a doctor tell me that I had this condition I would have to deal with out of the blue; I know the consequences of my own inaction. I'd guess that's why my approach to everything is a little different.

There I go with the longwindedosity again. **** my vocaboultramicroscopicmedicodiabetitalkaboutiosis.

-Jade

EDIT: I can't say ****? Well.... ****. I mean, uh, darn.

[Evermont]

:adore: vocaboultramicroscopicmedicodiabetitalkaboutiosis

[UpNorth]

:adore: vocaboultramicroscopicmedicodiabetitalkaboutiosis

*faint* :eek: :ahhhhh: I can't say that word :laugh:

****, it's worse than Nationalencyklopedin (yes, that is actually ONE real word in swedish) :eek:

[susique333]

Permit me to assuage your lamentations, my esteemed insulin-deficient compatriot, that my personage is, in verisimilitude, practically monosyllabalic.

-Jade


LOL That is hilarious! Almost truth eh?

[JadeMonkey]

LOL That is hilarious! Almost truth eh?

Pretty much, every now and then I slip a long one in by mistake. Oooo, see, that one was two. Now I need to take a break. That is why even saying "diabetes" makes me tired.

*whew*

Now it's nap time. ;)

-Jade

[Keezheekoni]

Pretty much, every now and then I slip a long one in by mistake
Now, at least, I know you'll fit in with us in the chat room. :D

Hi and welcome to the board, by the way!

[JadeMonkey]

Now, at least, I know you'll fit in with us in the chat room. :D

Hi and welcome to the board, by the way!

I don't know, sometimes it doesn't fit in so wel..... I mean, yes, I think I'll fit in nicely. :cool:

I still have yet to go in the chat room and actually find anyone else in there. :mad:

Perhaps you're all avoiding me? (I wouldn't blame you.)

Thanks for the welcome all.

-Jade