Our Christmas.

This video pretty much sums up the awesome time I had with my family this Christmas, I don't feel like writing about all of it, but I think the video speaks for it's self. The stars are my Aunt Shannon and my cousin Cara! Enjoy!
I'm having a tiny get together on New Year's Eve,
so I'll be back with more on that, sometime next week.
Happy Early New Year Everyone!!!

Ps. You can check out my other google videos (click the "Go to google videos on the player above, then click "More from this user" on the new page) to see more of the karaoke fabulousness!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating today.
I have lots to update you on, but for now I will leave you with a picture of our Christmas tree.
I hope all of you had a happy and peaceful day!

I shouldn't have told them.

Well I won't be taking my driving test tomorrow, because I told the truth about my diabetes. I have never felt discriminated against before diabetes wise. Today that changed. Simply because I was a considerate citizen and alerted them to the fact that I have diabetes, one of the MVA's 17 medical disabilities, I can not walk into the MVA tomorrow to take my test like my friend Danielle can. I was approved, but they didn't send us the approval letter. Without the original copy of the letter, I can't take the test. The thing is we gave ample time, for approval and such. I hate this so much. I was excited and now I'm just upset. Hopefully it will get here sometime next week, but in the meantime the appointment has to be canceled.

The Computer, License, IHOP, and Early Christmas.

I'm doing bullet points. I can't resist.

• So everything with the computer seems to be falling into place. They replaced the hard drive for free because it's still under warranty, and it also got upgraded to a 2.5gb one because it's all they had left in the store. Small surprises are always nice. We received the recovery discs yesterday, so they ran those on the new hard drive last night. My mom is picking the computer up today. While all of this is going on my old hard drive is making it's way to Louisville (I think). Where the big repairs or whatever are done. They will attempt to retrieve my files at a fee of somewhere around 200 dollars. They won't do anything until they call us with a cost estimate, just in case it's way more. In the end it will be worth it because I have at least that much invested in iTunes music, plus my pictures and school work are priceless. I'm just glad my parents are willing to pay for it. In the meantime I will at least be able to use the new and improved computer while I wait on my old files. Cross your fingers that there will be no issues with retrieving my files! The next step is either an external hard drive or some other back up method (suggestions are welcome.)
  
• I have an 8:30 am appointment at the MVA on Friday to take my behind the wheel provisional license test. The only problem is we still haven't heard a thing from the Medical Advisory Board, even though my mom has called almost every day since last Monday. I'll update Friday to let you know how that goes.
• I also have an interesting get together to attend Friday afternoon. The Thanksgiving crew and I are going bowling and to IHOP. This worries me. First of all, I have only been to IHOP twice, and both of these times I was pump less. We are going at 4 in the afternoon, and my basal rates are not set for me eating at that time. I have this weird issue of going high after dinner, but only when dinner is at a normal hour. So I'm concerned that that basal kick up I have around 7pm will send me falling. I guess it's time to figure out a temporary rate. Plus breakfast food is not exactly carb friendly. Sometimes diabetes is so annoying, when all I want to do is have a little teenage fun!
• On Saturday morning my sister and I are heading north for an early Christmas with my mom's side of the family. (My parents are going up Friday after my test, and my sister will be arriving here shortly after they leave.) I'm excited to see if I can pull off another holiday with relatively good numbers. I'm also looking forward to seeing my little cousins who I haven't seen in 2 months.
  

And don't worry I will definitely have license, IHOP, and early Christmas pictures for you!

Justin Long and his Macs are looking so pretty right now.

So. The hard drive is "bad", and they can't get my files off unless we pay almost 300 dollars for them to ship it somewhere, where the files may not even be able to be saved anyway. So since it's still under warranty, the other option is let them ship it to Sony to get a new hard drive installed. All I keep thinking is, it happened once and it can happen again. Plus when I brought the computer into the tech guy. He looked at my mom and said, "well that's why people buy Macs," when she asked if there were a lot of people who come in with hard drive and/or Microsoft problems. Ugh I don't know what we are going to do.

The only thing that brightened my day was a nice bit o' sussy from Bernard. It's not something that I can take a picture of, but it does have to do with the computer issues and my pictures. THANKS A BUNCH!

Technical Difficulties.

Well that is the phrase of the day. Apparently sometime between the hours of 10pm last night and 8am this morning, my laptop did Microsoft updates, even though I definitely never told it to. So I woke up this morning to a strange black and gray screen telling me that there was a problem when the computer restarted after updating. The prompt told me that I needed to use the Recovery disc or follow one of the other 4 restart options. Seeing as Sony does not supply system recovery discs at the time of purchase, the first option was not possible. So I followed the next 4 only to have them all lead me back to the black and gray screen. I called my mom at work and told her the problem. She came home at lunch time, and we took the computer to Best Buy (where we purchased it). Unfortunately the Microsoft software (which turns out to be the problem) is not covered under any of the warranties. So what to do? I had to leave my laptop (also known as the Phoenix, it's red I like color themed names) there to have the hard drive backed up and then come home to call Sony about the recovery disc. But first they make me fill out a list of what I want them to say, and I can't just say "everything". I just told them that I wanted all of my documents, my music, and my pictures and the pictures were the most important thing. They wanted specific file names and places, which of course I had trouble remembering. Oh and all of this was 100 dollars, and if I want them to do the recovery it will be another 130. We promptly left the store, and I cried on the way home. It felt like my house had burned down (extreme I know), but I really feel like they aren't going to save everything. I have a lot of photos that are only on that computer, and they are important me.

(I guess not important enough for me to figure out to back them all up on my own!!!)

I'm so mad at myself for not thinking about something like this before it happened, and not finding a way to back up my files.

So anyway we came home ordered the Recovery disc from some guy at Sony (another 30 bucks), and now we have to wait a week for it to come. I hate how out of control this makes me feel. I also don't want to deal with the fact that I will now have limited access to the internet, as the desktop computer has 3 users now. So I won't be around often to comment or read. And my school work is also going to suffer because it's web-based. The placement of our desktop computer is not necessarily set up as a school work space. I rely on technology so much with diabetes and just in general. It's hard to believe it has failed me this easily. Of course now I'm worried about my pump going crazy.

Anyway here I am typing on our almost 6 year old slow desktop computer, thinking "I should have gotten a Mac."

Until next time.

Whoops.

I feel like I left you guys out in the rain. I said I would be back Friday with an update, and now it's Monday. (Could I have used "I" more times in 2 sentences?!) Any who. The doctor's appointment went fine. I was the first patient of the day, so I was seen within 10 minutes of walking in the door. Dispite the fact that the heat was broken in the office, my CDE seemed happy to see me. My doctor was also extremely impressed with my progress. I only gained 3 pounds which I'm fine with, because my doctor said he has seen patients gain about 10 in the first month. He commented that I was still on a lot of insulin, and he wanted to know if I would think I about Symlin again. I adamantly said, "no, it made me feel way too sick." He didn't fight me on this, which is typical, he likes to give gentle suggestions and let me find my own conclusions. He filled out my MVA medical review papers, and reviewed a few rules he feels are important to insure safe driving with diabetes. I'm hoping that with comments like, "Jillian is extremely responsible," I will get speedy approval. The good Doc even mentioned that there will be a low A1c celebration when I go back in February. So now I will impatiently wait until then, to see what will hopefully be my lowest A1c ever. On our way out, my CDE asked me how Diabetes 365 was going. For the answer pop by the flickr pool and have a look.

Oh yeah, I'm proper people sick and it sucks! See ya later alligators.

Yay for Arthur!

Why wasn't this little girl on Arthur when I was little? No wonder I named the stuffed Lab puppy I received right after diagnosis, Pal after Arthur's dog. I knew good things were coming from the show. I love educational children's programming!

Sorry for the double post I just could not resist.

Quick question.

I'm heading to my Endo on Thursday for my 1 month pump check-up. I have a quick question for anyone who uses Animas supplies (Insets). I'm coming upon my first reorder towards the end of the month, I want to make sure to do it before our insurance switches to CIGNA in January. So say I wanted to change my cannula and tubing length, do I have to get a new prescription when I go the Dr. on Thursday to do this? Or can I just change what I want on the website ordering thing, and the insurance company will be billed without a glitch? I'm sure I can have my mom call to ask, but I figured I would ask here too.
I've been having a boat load of overnight lows so I have been tweaking my basal rates, we'll see what happens. Expect a pump and doctor update Friday.