Friday Four.

It's been awhile since I had time to post a Friday Four!! Thank goodness for Spring Break! This one has been quite eventful:

• I played volleyball for the first time in several years. I'm still not very good, but at least I'm not as scared of the ball anymore. I actually hit it when I wasn't serving!

• I went to the endo on Tuesday, and not only did my a1c go down, but right under 7! Yay!

• My mom and I booked a trip for Disney! And started walking in the afternoons.

• I started playing tennis!! I'm not very athletic (see first bullet point), but I've been wanting to get more active out-of-doors. After volleyball one night (our youth always plays inside at the church gym), a friend and I were talking, and decided that tennis sounded fun. We practiced on Tuesday, and though neither of us were all that great (and she's WAY better than I am), we got together with a few others and played yesterday. I got SO burnt--I didn't even dream of needing sunscreen in March, in the morning! We played again today (I remembered my sunscreen!), and even though I still have a lot of room to grow, according to Cam, I was "considerably worse yesterday". Coming from him, that's a huge compliment, and I'll take it as marked improvement. Progress is everything.

Only 3 weeks left in my internship!! I'm having a ball, so these last few weeks are bittersweet.

Friday Four.

• I had my second observation today!! 
• My supervisor was crazy impressed. He loved my activities and transitions, and was taking pictures the entire time. 
• I was so caught up in preparing for my observation, and just wrapped up in the whole day, that I forgot something.
• Today is my diaversary--7 years. I was diagnosed on 2/7/07. In a way, I'm actually kind of glad that diabetes didn't have the spotlight today. It's nice to know that life and dreams do happen and come true even if you have diabetes. I don't feel like it's in spite of so much as with. It's part of my life, but it's not my whole life. I love that I was able to totally focus on my lesson and my day, without diabetes being the focal point of it all. Current technology has made that a lot more doable. Thank God for CGMs, meters, and insulin pumps! And insulin!

WOTW: Mawkish.

Mawkish:

(BOW)
MAW-kish, adj.

Sentimental in a sappy, almost offensive way; sickly sweet emotion.

(AH)
1. Excessively and objectionably sentimental.
2. Sickening or insipid in taste.

Middle English: mawke, from maggot.

The store had a rather mawkish display of Valentine's Day cards.

She carried on mawkishly about her boyfriend.

Seemed like an appropriate word for this time of year! Some displays of affections are sweet, tasteful, and classy. And then there's the other ones.

One way to keep it classy, and not mawkish, this year, is to be part of the Spare a Rose, Save a Child effort. If you donate just $5, and skip buying a single rose, you can help provide insulin, which is necessary for life, to a child with diabetes for a month. For the price of a dozen roses, you can help a child live for an entire year. Please consider joining us in helping children globally.

To those who give, a multitude of thanks. 

If you cannot give, please consider helping us spread the word--thank you!

USDEURGBPJPYCADAUD	Spare 1 Rose = $5 = 1 month of Life for a Child2 Roses = $10 = 2 months of Life for a Child3 Roses = $15 = 3 months of Life for a Child6 Roses = $30 = 6 months of Life for a Child1 Dozen Roses = $60 = A year of Life for a Child2 Dozen Roses = $120 = Two years of Life for a Child

Friday Four.

So, it kind of seems I only do Friday Four posts as of recent. Maybe I should stop wasting so much  spending quite so much time on Pinterest looking at everything education ideas. ;)

• Today was an ice day! It didn't snow, but school was cancelled. 

• I was observed for the first time yesterday! My clinical supervisor was "very impressed" by my "risky" lesson, which was a science experiment where the students were in small groups. 

• I have finally been able to place my Dexcom CGM sensor on the upper half of my upper arm instead of the lower, now that the med for my PCOS is helping my skin.

• I've learned that I enjoy doing phonics lessons.

Aaaand, that's it for now. I will try to draft some WOTW posts tomorrow. 

Friday Four.

• I started my demonstration teaching!! I am already having an awesome time, and learning SO much. 

• Trying to stop snacking! I've done pretty well this week, in fact, today was the first day I snacked, and it was mandated by a rogue low blood sugar.

• I set my reading goal at 35 books this year. That seems ridiculously low, but I know that I'll be super busy until DT is over, and then when school starts back up, and I (Lord willing) am teaching full-time, it'll be hard to work in non-academic reading material. I keep several classics downloaded on my phone for whenever I have a spare moment without a physical book with me (right now it's Rose in Bloom by L.M. Alcott). 

• My nephew that was born early will be 6 months old tomorrow!! He is now a chunky lil' guy, and finally rolled over this week. 

Happy News.

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have some good reasons! Most would say excuses, but I think these are pretty viable. Some pretty exciting things have been happening in the Emily-verse, some didn't interfere with blogging, but I put them in, anyway. I'm referring to the gap mainly between August to November.

• My a1c went down!
• I started doing only intervention at my job, instead of one week out of every three. That kept me busier than usual, since my day ended later than it did last year, which meant more planning at home.
• I spent about a month solid doing a marathon of schoolwork. I even took a week off of work in order to do in-classroom assignments. 
• In that month I completed about 23 credit hours worth of work minus about 5 assignments. 
• My record during that time was completing 8 assignments in a single day. I seriously spent every possible moment in front of my computer working strictly on schoolwork. After I was finished I didn't want to spend another minute in front of a screen for awhile.
• Because I was able to complete those credit hours, I got accepted into the Cohort Seminar at the university to do my demonstration teaching internship starting in January!! 
• I've been able to get placed at the school where I've been working, so I already know the layout, teachers, and routines.
• I'm doing it with my first grade teacher. We are both SO EXCITED. It's like coming full circle. The best thing about doing it with her may seem backward to some, but it's that she still views me as her STUDENT. Most of the other teachers at the school view me as either a peer or friend, which would make it easy for them to just let me do whatever, and not teach me as much. This teacher will continue to teach me as she always has. When I did some of my required lessons in her room, she gave me awesome feedback during the lesson (while the students were doing independent practice) that really improved the lesson. I did two observations in her room and my whole style improved. 

My blogging rate probably won't improve much, as my internship starts on January 6th and runs through April 4th. It will be a very busy 12 weeks, with a lot of time spent up at the school after the actual school day is over. Maybe one of these days I'll just MAKE time to blog, but for the last few months, it just hasn't been a priority. I won't promise that I'll publish much, but I'll promise that I'll try :).

--Emily

Another Diagnosis.

I have PCOS.

5 years ago, my dermatologist gave up on all of her meds and sent me back to my endo with an hormone (basically, birth control) prescription. My endo agreed to put me on it, and did some blood work. The levels came back extremely high. And stayed high. So, my endo decided to put me through extensive testing. I was tested for several diseases, including tumors, and genetic diseases. One day I spent most of a day at TCH, getting blood work drawn, going back to get a shot, then doing more blood work. I was sent to have an ultrasound done. 

I was scared.

Really scared.

Then, she sent me to the GYN next door on that floor. She looked at my ultrasound results. And kept looking. She kept sending people in there to check on me, saying that she was still looking. I'm not kidding, this went on for 2 HOURS. 

I was panicking.

Finally, she came in and said a whole bunch of things with dangerously italicized mights and thinks. 

My mom and I headed back to the endo. I was in tears.

The endo agreed to see us, and told us that I would probably be okay, but I might not be able to have children.

I was devastated. 

I was 16. 

She decided to do some genetic testing, and said it would take 6-8 weeks before we would know the results.

We waited.

And waited.

10 weeks rolled by, and we never heard anything.

Finally, my mom called, and the nurse on duty said that the results came back fine, that's why they didn't call us. 

I never found out why those levels were so high.

About a year and a half ago, I got off of the BC pills, because they make me cry all the time, and it was getting to the point where it was, seriously, all the time. The breaking point was my crying at school. Which was college. Which was really embarrassing. 

I got off of the meds the next week. I just couldn't handle it anymore. 

Fast forward 3 months, and I started going to an adult endo.

I never said anything about the hormone thing, until my acne started coming back horribly.

At my last appointment, she did blood work, and put me back on BC until the results came back. When they did (high, again), she put me on spironolactone. I had to get off of the BC, because I was in tears all the time, AGAIN. The new med took about 6 weeks, and now my skin has cleared up A LOT. 

I went back to the endo again today, and we told her that story. She looked at me and said the reason that my levels are so high, because I have PCOS. She showed me the levels, and explained it to me. She said it didn't show up on the ultrasound because people with milder cases (like mine), don't have the cysts all of the time, and I likely didn't when the ultrasound was done. 

To some, that diagnosis might have been devastating. To me, it was an answer.

She said that if I stay on my current med, and try to keep my weight reasonable, that, while it may take a little longer than "normal" to happen, I should be able to have kids.

Years ago, I had swallowed that bitter pill, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. 

Oddly enough, that diagnosis set me free. Free from years of pain and worry. Free from thinking that it really wasn't worth it to pursue any kind of relationship, because it might end in heartache from something I couldn't help.

Anyway, I hope this can help someone else. 

Get answers.

Push the issue.

It just might set you free.