Hey there. I’ve been diabetic for 33 years and am so excited to find this site. I’ve always been an active person who has exercised and tried to maintain good diabetese control. I’m a third grade teacher and have loved teaching for 23 years. Unfortunately, my students have learned far more about diabetes than third graders need to know. After getting a $1600 EMS bill for 2008, I’ve been working hard to get inusrance approval for an OmniPod, insulin management system for active diabetics. My A1cs are always in a respectable range, but I have had a history of hypoglycemia for no apparent reason. I wake up at 2:00 AM each morning to check my BS, blood sugar, as well as check it close to 20 times or more each day depending on circumstances and activity level.
I’ve always run 5Ks and 10Ks, but ran my first, and last, marathon in Kona, Hawaii on the Iron Man Triathalon Course for the ADA. My newest adventure is a cycling event, the MS 150, where I’ll ride from Houston to Austin, TX in Aprill 2009. I’m a total cycling novice so it should be interesting, especially in the hill country. I’m hoping to have my OmniPod in place with all of the kinks worked out by then, but we’ll see…
I’ve acquired an aka “Jelly Bean Queen” nick name around my home town from our local EMS department. I always carry a metal can of jelly beans, Hot Tamales or something of the like in my purse for low BS incidents. A friend came over to help me once and “jelly beaned me” being unaware that I was to the point where I couldn’t chew or swallow thus mounting up jelly beans by the handful that couldn’t be a good resource to raise my BS. Hence the nickname. So if you’re in the Houston area, look up the Jelly Bean Queen.
