South Bend, Indiana

Ever since July 30th, I have not had a chance to sit here and write about everything that has been going on. So, since I haven’t been able to comment you back and with fewer entries than I hoped for, I promise to bring everyone up to date and try to write everyday. (hopefully)

So, it is now the 19th of August as I sit here on a airplane, about 1000 miles from Chicago’s Midway Airport, I’m listening to my ipod, and figured I had enough time to begin my writing adventure…the only problem is I think I’m low.
Sure enough, I’m going down, I’m 86…turned my pump’s basal down to 0.1 for an hour, and drank some orange juice. Okay, I think I stopped the downward slide and it feels like my number is coming back up, here we go.

On Friday, August 17th to the 19th, Mom, Aunt Mama, Jackie, and our grandparents and I traveled to South Bend, Indiana, for our cousin Michael’s wedding to the beautiful Allison, on Saturday the 18 th. It was a great weekend! Traveling the first day was pretty tough though, just going through security with the 6 of us was a lot to handle, but it was all good, we were all together and safe, and just having a great time! The flight wasn’t bad, it was 3 ½ hours to Chicago-Midway Airport. After we landed, we walked to the Baggage Claim, and found some great photo opportunities we just could not pass up! It was hilarious! Right in front of us was life-size statues of the “Blues Brothers,” so all of us, including our 84 and 85 year old grandparents, took turns getting in character to take pictures with these two famous clowns…I am sure the pictures speak for themself. :] Haha!

After having a good laugh while walking through the airport, we went to pick up our rental cars, but they made a mistake so we ended up waiting about an hour to resolve the problem. Then, we had to figure out the navigation system before we finally got on the road. However, the hour delay caused us to hit the Dan Ryan Expressway at the height of rush hour and making matters worse, there was a massive accident and half the lanes were under construction. The good news is we eventually arrived in South Bend…3 ½ hours later. It literally took us as long to drive to South Bend from Midway Airport, as it took us to fly from Las Vegas to Chicago…something is wrong with this picture! It was beginning to seem like this trip would be nothing more than a comedy of errors. After we got on the road and were in the middle of rush hour traffic, our navigation system went crazy and it kept screaming at us, “Turn Right…Turn Left…Turn Right…Turn Left!” Before long we had had enough and turned it off; we opted for the old fashioned method of navigation…a map. However, the map the rental car company gave us literally stopped just before the Illinois-Indiana State lines; it ran out of roads…duh! Mom was asking us where we were going next, so she could have a warning for the next exit signs, and we replied, “Mom, theres no more map, its not there!” THis went on and on until we actually told her the map stopped at Illinois and never even went to Indiana! Oh gosh. To say we were confused was an understatement. In the end we missed the rehearsal dinner (that we really wanted to attend) because we forgot we lost another hour when we entered Indiana…it seems half the state is on EST and the half is on Mountain time, oh well at least we arrived safely and with enough time to make the “After dinner party! That was fun, it was nice to see so many members of our family; I really wish we could see all of them more often, it was cool to watch our grandparents, mom and aunt visit with so many good friends and family after too many years of separation, it was one big reunion and it was great.

The wedding ceremony, which was held on Saturday afternoon, was beautiful!

Everything was perfect. After the “Garden” wedding, we went back to the hotel, changed and took a little time to print out our boarding passes for the next day. Jackie, and other members of our family went to the reception ahead of mom, so she gave me the camera to capture those “moments” she’d miss. When I arrived at the reception hall I chose the perfect spot so I could get really good pictures, but just as Michael and Allison entered the room, the battery and memory stick in my camera ran out. I freaked out, (at first) and then regrouped. I changed the battery and replaced the memory stick with another one, and went on taking pictures…I missed a few, but I still got lots and lots of pictures. Everyone sat down for dinner and soon the party began, it was so much fun! Before dinner I tested and my blood sugar was good, so I bolused for dinner and started eating, but I barely ate anything, so I was watching to be sure I didn’t run low. But, almost 2 hours after dinner, I realized that I didn’t feel very well, as a matter of fact I was worried about being low yet I felt as though my numbers were high. I tested and sure enough I was 260…I knew I should have been low since it had only been an hour and a half since I bolused, but, I went ahead and corrected with another 4.5 units. However, Jackie suspected that there was something wrong and insisted that I check my site and she literally dragged me to the restroom and forced me to check to see if my site was alright; mostly because I told her I felt terrible. As it turned out, Jackie’s instincts were right, the site wasn’t okay, there were a ton of bubbles in the syringe; causing the line to be blocked with air. I tested again and was Still 256…it was as though I had never bolused. We both realized that I either needed to take a shot or change the site, so Jackie walked with me back to the hotel and I made the change (so annoying)! Woohoo! I tested again and was still 259. The good news is, while I was changing my site, which I did twice because I dropped the pump and it pulled out, we took advantage of the time in the hotel room and recharged the batteries before we went back to the reception, which turned out to be a brilliant move, since we went on to take more than another hundred pictures. Ultimately, I ended up giving myself 3.5 units in a shot, because I finally knew for sure that the insulin from my pump was never delivered, which was why my blood sugar was still climbing and then I primed my pump with 0.5 to get the insulin moving through the new line. Jackie and I finished at the hotel and walked back to the reception, new site and all. However, since I had bolused and taken a shot and since we’re never sure how much insulin gets through when I have air in the line, Mom suggested that I test every hour, for the next few hours, so I could watch my numbers and hopefully prevent further problems. With this in mind, I tested again at 10:40pm, and to everyone’s surprise I was 120…I had dropped too fast and still had insulin being delivered! Jackie was like, “do you have juice, Mollie?” I told her I had some cranberry juice in my purse and drank a quarter of the bottle and had to go to the restroom to turn my pump down, because it was hidden under my dress. (I don’t like diabetes and wearing dresses!) All and all, because I checked my BG’s early, I successfully headed off a serious low BG and finished off the night dancing, smiling, and picture taking. We made it home around midnight, and quickly packed, so we didn’t have to worry about it the next morning and, to be extra careful, given my fluctuation earlier in the evening, I tested before I went to sleep, I was 91…Yes! My numbers stayed pretty steady after my new site change…all was good. J Sunday morning was beautiful and we went to a brunch with everyone from the Wedding. We said goodbye to a lot of people, and left the hotel around noon in a torrential down pour…oh no another exciting trip back to Midway! Luckily the trip was relatively uneventful and we made it to the airport 3 hours early, which was nice, because we really needed to just sit down, relax and enjoy lunch. I’ve only tested 5 times today, three time changes are driving me crazy, I can’t figure out how to change the time on my tester, so it took extra long to write my BG numbers in my log. But, life is good…It’s alright; we had enough time before we boarded the plane for me to figure it out.

For some reason it seemed as though my diabetes was always around and causing a problem instead of hiding in the background during this trip, but I guess that’s a silly statement, how could it not be Always There! As all diabetics know, we can never take a vacation …but wouldn’t it be nice if at least once a year we could simply take a two week vacation from diabetes, get refreshed and start a new year with a new attitude. Oh well, wishful thinking! The flight home was 3 hours and 22 minutes and despite the weather, we landed early even though we left about 10 minutes late…I’ll never figure out the airlines, but God Bless them….they got us to and home from a wonderful family reunion!!