Another year of a month of blue awareness comes to a close. It’s been a challenging month, but not because of diabetes. For me it’s because of the new president of the USA and because of the difficult challenge the native people at Standing Rock are facing. Our overall dependence on fossil fuel has made … Read more
It’s a few days before Thanksgiving and I am thinking about what I’m thankful for, maybe you can relate. Are you considering what you are thankful for? There’s lots I am thankful for: my amazing circle of friends, my snuggly loving dog Echo, my overall good health, to name the top items. I’m also profoundly … Read more
I told you last week that I started a 3-month journey of weight loss and increased fitness with diabetes. I successfully have logged my food intake for 8 days and I have joined the YWCA Maintain Your Weight program. I have lowered my basal rate by almost 15% and I am keeping my blood sugars … Read more
In May I broke my ankle, which radically altered my plan to ride my bike 100 miles a few weeks later. In fact, it interrupted my general fitness plans. Slowly and surely, my weight has creeped up. Not fun at all. I noticed how bad it had gotten a few weeks ago, when two pairs of my favorite pants no longer fit comfortably. Weight loss with type 1 diabetes is never a very easy problem to tackle.
Breathe deep. Plant my feet firmly on this beautiful Earth. Feel my heart open. Allow grief, loss, relief, gratitude, to one by one wash through my being. Today, October 20th, marks the 12th anniversary of my first breast cancer diagnosis. I am still alive. I am healthier than I have perhaps ever been. My attitude … Read more
No two ways about it, breast cancer, and all cancer, sucks. It interrupts life in a big way. It causes anxiety, fear and trauma, to name just a few of the difficult emotions. Cancer hit me twice, and both times it knocked me flat on my face. I cried harder than I have ever cried and it made me very angry. Both times, I found I had to reach deep inside myself to find strength to carry on. Both times I had to look hard to find a silver lining.
At the end of the school year last year, I was invited to join the Adolescent 1 (A1) Odyssey trip that headed West starting the 3rd day of school. I agreed to jump on the Odyssey train, not really knowing what I was signing up to do. I love working at Great River School, the Montessori/International Baccalaureate 1st grade through 12th grade school at which I substitute teach and help out in other odd ways. I used to take groups of teenagers on all sorts of overnight adventures, so tent camping for 7 nights with 50 7th and 8th graders didn’t seem like that big of a jump in my experience wheel.
On August 17th, it was officially Break The Silence Day in Minneapolis, MN, as declared by the City Council. As many of you know if you’ve been paying close attention to my various posts and blogs, what I posted on Facebook wasn’t a big surprise. On my Facebook page I said: Today, 8/17, is #BreakTheSilence … Read more
In May 2014, I went to see a shoulder orthopedic surgeon because of suffering more than 6 months with some terrible shoulder pain. It had come on suddenly and kept getting worse as the months went by. The physician took some x-rays and basically, because of having type 1 diabetes she diagnosed me with frozen shoulder. She sent me to physical therapy.
It is easy to get caught in the negative cycle of describing and feeling a difficult problem you have. With my diabetes, I spent years telling stories of how hopeless it was for me to avoid low blood sugars when exercising. I described, and over-described how awful it was to witness my father, who had … Read more