Diabetes and Handyman work, do they get along together?

 On the web there are articles about how diabetics feel alone in certain situations.  May it be talking about their disease with others, or testing in public.  Personally I usually only feel like I am the only one when it comes to how bad I eat at times and also doing work around the house.  Lets leave the eating aside and look at my latest work.

 I have blogged before about how I could not find any information on how to clean my hands after doing car work with diabetes.  The grease and grime in my fingers when testing seems like it would alter my numbers.  Then building "Pete's" chicken coupe I tore up my fingers up pretty good.  Two weeks later and now they are starting to heal.  There is no information I can find about precautions or what others have done while doing home or auto maintenance in these situations.  Now I am going to make the most un-true statement ever and I know it is wrong:  I am the only diabetic that works on their own car and does home repairs.  This statement I know is 100% false but back to feeling alone, this is when I feel like I am the only one like this.

 Yesterday was my wife's birthday (Happy Birthday Brenda!) and she has been wanting a new dishwasher since the second day we moved into our house.  We bought our house new but our family is hard on appliances and well a bit lazy as well.  That whole rinsing and washing your dishes before you put them into the dishwasher just does not work for me. 

 What luck we had once she ordered her new dishwasher it was delivered about a week later on her birthday.  I took the day off to spend with her and to install the dishwasher.  As our house falls apart (almost ten years old) the more and more work on fixing items,  I am learning and doing the repairs on my own.  Have you ever thought about growing up as a child you should have paid more attention to your parents when they were fixing things?  I think that is one reason I make my son do alot of these repairs with me.  He needs to learn.

 So here we are (son, dog, and me) getting ready to put the new dish washer in the wall.  Looking at both washers sitting side by side you are thinking they look the same.  Well folks let me tell you our old washer seemed to make the dishes dirtier than when they were put in.

As a diabetic and a klutz put them together with home repairs and my hands are always destroyed and it seems like weeks of healing once I have completed these projects.  This time I tried to put a screw driver through my pointer finger and only took off an inch of skin. 

I know there are millions of diabetics out there that do this sort of stuff every day.  The only thing is I can't seem to find them on this inter web.  Just like how I never found any camping, outdoor, or guy stuff related to diabetes and I started blogging.  I know there has to be someone or somewhere out there that can help me get grease off of my hands or how to keep me from destroying my fingers and hands.

Mini-Me or Mascot?

The first look at what might be everyones favorite diabetic camper.  The Diabetic Campers logo/mascot.  I recently asked my friend Deb Meyer if she would not mind doing a favor for me by creating the "image and look" of my blog.  She sent me these preliminary pictures and I was so excited that I had to share with everyone. 
If you can't tell, my blog is stock everything.  I spent a week making my blogger button alone and that was just taking a De Tomaso emblem picture and updating it in a free picture editor.  In the images above, the first one is a blood drop head camper with an insulin pump on his belt.  the second one is not a marshmallow on a stick, it is a needle in a insulin bottle dude.  We are going to move forward with the blood drop head guy.  The only thing is what name does he get?  Please let me know if you have any ideas for a name of the official mascot of "The Diabetic Camper."  The only name I have currently is "The diabetic drop of blood dude."  That just does not roll off of your tongue at all.

Late Night Low

 I think at some point every diabetic gets relaxed and comfortable with their diabetes.  I certainly do this well too often.  Last night I worked late on some recon items and left the office around 6:30pm or so.  When I arrived at home my usual routine went into focus on making sure Zaine (my son) has fed the dogs, his homework has been completed, and do some basic cleaning of the house and catching up with the news.

 During all of this stuff going on last night I also wanted to spend some time working on my classes I am teaching on Jan 7th on "outdoor cooking A to Z" and "Dutch Oven Cooking."  Since it is one month away there are some items I need to review and get my lesson plan together.

Around 11:00pm or so I decided it was time for bed.  If you look at my diabetes notebook for the date of 12-08-11 you see that the only thing I ate after 4:00pm was a root beer and a snicker bar.  Then came 3:00am in the morning and my mind was running on full, making lists of things to do and then it hit me,  I am probably low.  In the pictures you see that I was 52 at 3:12am and after 24 oz's of apple sauce and 6 oz's of orange drink I went back to bed.  Why does it feel like a Mac truck drove over you in the morning after a low?

How does anyone forget to eat dinner?  It just goes for show that I need to bring up with my dietitian the discussion on getting a CGM (continuous glucose monitor).  This topic has been avoided by myself due to the addition of another device to keep track of. Also having another needle duct taped to my body does not excite me.  Having a pump for over 10 years now I am used to it, but to add another item to stick to my body seems way too crowded.  Just thinking of the new camping issues makes my head spin.  Then there is the issue of paying for more diabetes crap.  If I were just worked harder on my diet and carb counting a CGM is not necessary.  Oh well I think the answer is to get the CGM and bite the bullet.