Just 23 days to go before the pump-start. Still seems a long way off, but closer and closer.

After my loopy hypo yesterday, today I relaxed a little with the tight control I’m trying to have at the moment. Not all that good for me, but I feel a whole lot better. Back to the grind tomorrow with lots of testing and eating lower carb foods. I find it works best for me. Porridge is now officially out for me for breakfast. Too many carbs for me to control properly. Insulin to carb ratio is still a little unpredictable, even after all this time, but doing the lower carb thing just seems to work for me.

Am loving the cooler weather we’re having. Had the window and door surrounds in the living areas painted today while they’re still replacing our roof after the hail from last October. I’ve just realized that at no stage today could I smell paint, and I was in the same room! I must go look at what paint was used. A super fastidious German trained master painter did the job. It’s the second time I’ve used this guy and his work is immaculate!

Made one of my favourite dinners tonight – schnitzel, Israeli salad, red cabbage and risi bisi (rice with peas) – not that I had much rice. My daughter popped in for dinner and I know she loves rice. Jack was also around at that time, so he ate with us as well.

I’m not much of a drinker, but we did open a bottle of Shiraz that the roofers gave us because their work has been so delayed by the rain. The wine was smooth and lovely and went perfectly with dinner. Half a glass for me and I already feel tipsy, so I didn’t push my luck.

Off to the hairdressers tomorrow. Wanted to do a colour myself but because I’m going a little darker (too ash blonde at the moment) I thought I’d let them do the first change, and then I can keep it up afterwards. Done this many times before and have learned my lesson from when I was younger – not to do a first major colour change myself. I’ve ended up with green hair before!

I’ve been laughing at unusual stories of people having a hypo (low blood sugar) thinking that nothing like it would ever happen to me. I’m way too methodical when I treat a hypo. Always got my 15g carbs with me. Get it out, eat it, test in 10 mins by which time the shaking has eased a little and can get a test strip out without shaking them all out of the canister. Get on with what I was doing. That’s how it works, right? Not necessarily… I had a whopper this afternoon. I must have over bolused for something I almost never have for breakfast. Some 6 hours later, it hits me without any warning.

I was able to get a test in before the shaking got too bad. Ah not good… need food. Thought I was going to faint but made it to the kitchen even though my legs threatened to buckle. No idea why I headed for the kitchen, my hypo carbs were sitting right next to me.

Once in the kitchen, I’m sure I ate all of this week’s and next’s carb ration! I honestly have no idea what I ate. I can only assume what I might have had by what’s left on my benchtop – at the very least, I had some hummus, a glass of apple juice, a piece of chicken (really bright with no carbs), some chocolate, several homemade shortbreads, some pita bread with babaganouj, a mandarin, and then still feeling faint, I must have come back to where I was sitting and had 10g of glucose tablets. That’s the least of what I know I had. Heaven only knows what I really had.

During my hypo-feast, my husband came into the room, and I was apparently arguing with him about what our address was because he thought he needed to call emergency. Where he’s from, they give addresses backwards (suburb, street, then number) and I was adamant that you can’t do that here.

I do remember shouting, “You can’t… the form, the form!!!” Meaning that they have a form on screen that they fill out when you give the address the normal way, but I was totally unable to explain. Poor guy, he gets totally freaked when I hypo, because sometimes I don’t make sense. He keeps asking if he needs to call emergency, but I keep telling him only to call if I am unresponsive and not treating the hypo.

I’ve had a few hypos in 30 years, but never one as crazy as this one!

With 4 weeks to go until my pump-start, the hard work really starts 2 weeks before.

While I’m sure I know what my basals will be, my Diabetes Educator still wants me to document everything for the last 2 weeks – food, insulin and many blood glucose tests during the day and night. She wants the evidence, so I have to be hyper vigilant about writing everything down. I’m just not that kind of person, but I have to be.

Having recently swapped to my iMac as my main computer (PC for many years before that), I use Diabetes Logbook X to record when I’m home, and when I’m out, the equivalent for the iPhone, which hooks into the Mac and updates the records on the iMac. It’s really easy to use and is in a format I’m used to and like. The reporting is also fairly comprehensive and very easy to read for someone who isn’t used to the software.

I’ve had a persistent cough for a couple of weeks. I went to my doctor last week and he decided I had some strange fungal thing going on and gave me some medication. His conclusion just didn’t sit right with me.

After doing some research on something completely different I came across the following:

How conincidental it is that I was put on an ACE inhibitor just before this cough started? Fungal, my ass!

I am so anti-doctors and this is yet another thing that validates what I think. Why didn’t the doctor connect the symptom with a medication he just put me on a couple of weeks ago? Too concerned about dollars and getting me out the door, I suspect. If I can make the connection reading just one article which states that this is a common side-effect, why couldn’t he? He’s the one with the degree and the experience!

I’ve long believed that despite what some doctors think – that they don’t want us doing any research on the internet – we truly need to. As long as it’s done in an intelligent way and from a very trusted source. We need to be very sure of our facts before we go running to a doctor. Something as obvious as the ACE inhibitor thing, shouldn’t have needed any research, but the state of our medical system and the apathy and dismissiveness of some doctors, actually requires it! And we pay handsomely for the privelege of seeng a doctor for the 10 or 15 mintues we’re allowed.

Pity!