August is Hard

I'm going to buy a dexcom OOP. My TSH was 0.6 a month ago. I see the endo Thursday.


I was diagnosed with diabetes on September 1, 2006.
Every summer I remember the summer of 2006. I started a new journal on August 1st. I didn't write a whole lot, but what I did write brings back memories.

Here's an approximation and comments on what it says. Comments from now in red:


August 1: Peeing blood. Little brother's birthday.

August 2: Peeing blood, homework due, talked to rabbi who says that they're going to open a kosher restaurant in Lakeview. I want a hat that says "This IS my Kippa." Tisha B'Av Starts Sundown.

August 3: Peeing blood. Tisha B'av. Difficult fast- racing heart dry eyes. I'm great at fasting generally, but I remember this one as the most scary fast of my life. I couldn't get up out my chair unassisted at the end of the day.

August 4: Met with Ehtan, volunteered at Sulzer.

August 5: Shabbes services at new synagogue go to fellowship room/ north entrance. I remember having tremendous difficulty walking home. I sat down and had a hard time getting up.

August 6: Leave for Nashville. Got stopped in Terre Haute. This was a road trip with my family and I was really really short tempered in Terre Haute. The walk to the service station was really hard for me.

August 7: Grandfather's birthday, power point assignment due, read Still Me by Christopher Reeve. My grandfather had a birthday dinner and everybody else seemed satisfied by the serving sizes but not me- I was famished!

August 8: Went to Nashville's 9 Planet's and Counting. I went and sat in the family bathroom, locked the door, turned off the lights and rocked in the rocking chair. I was so tired and so wound up.

August 9: nothing written

August 10: Got home at 2200 hours. The trip home was terrible. I couldn't hold in my pee between rest stops and so I peed in all the water bottles we had, with a towel because when I started my accuracy wasn't so great. I tried to stop drinking water, I really did, but it was SOOOO hard. I thought my parents were pretty mean when they didn't stop to let me pee.

August 11: Anat's birthday. Class final. Met with assistant dean of students to ask for a map of bathrooms on campus.

August 13: Party at work. Bought chocolate soymilk from ALDI's. I wrote a poem about the soymilk- I finished the quart within a block of the ALDI's. Walked 9 blocks. I thought I was maybe weak from not having exercised enough and from this day on I recorded how much I walked every day.

August 14: Walked 6 blocks, then 3 more blocks. Babysat upstairs. Yvette's brithday. SO lethargic. My heart pounds painfully at even a slow walk. <- I wrote this in the backward script I use to prevent anybody reading over my shoulder.

August 15: Walked 6 blocks, then 13 blocks, then 11 blocks, then 10 blocks, then 3 blocks, then 24 blocks, total 67 blocks. Went to work from 1000 hours to 1600 hours, went to book discussion, lost a key.

August 16: Walked 1 block, then 1 more block, total 2 blocks. Last day of classes. Went to support group, used my bus cards.

August 17: Walked 5 blocks. Call ACLU.

August 18: Walked 24 blocks, went to Volunteer party. Threw up watermelon. I actually was extremely upset about this party. I had looked forward to it for a long time because of the food mostly, but it all tasted wrong, and then I threw up three times during the games, and couldn't play.

August 19: Walked 9 blocks, 9 more blocks, 67 blocks, 2 blocks, 5 blocks, and 24 blocks for a total of 126 blocks. Went to synagogue, played frisbee with Danny. Windy. I remember this frisbee game because I couldn't see the frisbee.

August 20: Walked 5 blocks, 1 block, plus 1 block, total 7 blocks. Won a game of hexic (a video game).

August 21: Walked 17 blocks plus 24 blocks, total 41 blocks The one-way distance to the library. Book discussion at Lincoln Belmont Library. Somebody called about me babysitting.

August 22: Walked 6 +13 +2 +6 +5= total 32 blocks. Went to work for five hours twenty minutes.

August 23: Walked 2+12+2+1= total 17 blocks. Saw therapist. Went to support group. Got a list of nongendered bathrooms. Played apples to apples. Woke up at 3 AM peeing on my self. Was wearing shorts.

August 24: Walked 1 block. Got a letter in the mail from friend. Side walk chalk with little brother. Threw up. Then took a nap.

August 25: Walked 8 blocks. Took a picture. Doctor won't see me. I had had an internist who decided she was not willing to see younger patients anymore.

August 26: 7 +41 +32 +17 + 1 + 8= 106 blocks

August 27: 10 +3 +8 +1 = 22 blocks. Went to GRASP meeting in Park Ridge, read When a Gene Makes You Smell Like a Fish. I remember peeing three times during the meeting, and falling down on my way home and wanting to stay there, the Herculean effort it took to get up and finish my walk.

August 28: Walked 3 blocks. Woke up half past noon. Stargirl book discussion. Threw up at Lincoln Belmont Library.

August 29: 13 + 2 +1 = 16 blocks. Worked almost 6 hours. Submitted bill. Friend in California will call Thursday.

August 30: Walked 4 blocks. [Address of penpal].

August 31: 4 +4 = 8 blocks. Mailed letter.

September 1: 3 +7 blocks. 2:45 Dr apt. 425 blood sugar level.