THE FIVE QUESTIONS from Vivian

Below are the five questions. Here goes...... afterwards I will tell you a bit about some weird D stuff that is happening to me. Remember the weird hypos after lunch, well now my insulin to carb ratio seems to have jumped -UPWARDS! I have no idea why!

Here are the questions. Thanks Vivian for sending them! Hug to you and Daniel and your blue bear - to all of you! Hope Daniel's pumping is going along smoothly !

1. Who has been the most influential person in your life and in what way?

This question was a "piece of cake"! My husband Per, no question about it! We are a team, we have always discussed everything. We basicly are very much alike so disagreements are usually about dum stuff. Most of the important stuff we agree on. The little stuff can still cause big arguments and slammed doors and....... still, we have a very good marriage. Where we live, now in Belgium, is because that is where Per was offered an interesting job. I in fact pushed Per into applying for the position. We had two years previously moved from the center of Stockholm out to the country, a 45 minutes car ride from Stockholm. Per had agreed to this because I was fed up with living in the city. He didn't really enjoy this move, but later he came to love the house too! My kids were "leaving home" and I just could not see myself forever working my but off (for terrible pay and no recognition of the good job I was doing). I stopped and figured out what I wanted. Rather less money and the freedom of managing my diabetes better and planning my day as I wanted. Money was definitely short after this move, and we found that renovating a house was much harder than planned and cost much more than planned. Renovation went very slowly! Per had to commute every day into the city. He did that for me. There I was, happy, out in the country, and THEN he was asked to apply for this job in Belgium. REALLY, I wasn't happy, but if he just never applied we would always wonder what we had missed. I can return to Sweden and the countryside later. I have so many more experiences so I too have only gained from our moving to Belgium. But I LOVE Sweden. What else - if Per is grumpy or sad, well then I really cannot be happy either. That is just the way it is. My big problem with Per is that he has difficulty talking about problems....... So I go around in a fog guessing/wondering what is the problem now? It is the "men are from Mars and women from Venus thing"!

2. Has there been a single event in your lifetime that made you think absolutely anything is now possible? If so, what was it?

I have a slight suspicion I am analyzing this question too much - but I reason sort of backwards, like this: there are tons of things that ARE impossible! I cannot get my diabetes right. They cannot find a cure to diabetes NOW. War cannot be stopped. People go on starving. So anything is NOT possible, and thus no single event has made me think that anything is possible!

If you mean that something marvelous has happened that makes me thus think that other marvelous things could happen - well I am very happy that I have produced two healthy kids and I AM very proud of them. However this has nothing to do with preventing wars or famine or making people stop being so dam egocentric. Back when I had my kids I really didn't know if it was possible. You know "Steel Magnolias" was very real in my mind!

3. If you were Omnipotent for one day, what would you change in the world?

If I were really omnipotent I would stop all war and famine and sickness FOREVER! I would make people super intelligent so that we would figure out the solutions to the new problems that would inevitably arise. Last but not least, I would make people always act with empathy and kindness. ALWAYS.

George also gotten the following two questions, and I have NOT taken a peek at how he has replied!

4. Name the characteristics you think make a person worthy of being remembered for generations?

People are a mixture of good and bad. I would never single out a "famous person" to be remembered. The good qualities and the bad qualities are in all of us. It is the little things that count. Honesty, sincerity, empathy, kindness - these are the qualities in all people that make them worthy of remembrance. An artist, an author, a teacher or anybody that shows us the beauty of the world around us, that shakes us up and makes us appreciate what we already have, is worthy of remembrance. The bad qualities in these same people also exist and cannot, should not, be denied. If you pretend that these people are perfect, then everything becomes a big fat lie. Dishonesty destroys what is good.

5. Name two things about yourself that you love and then name two things you would like to be able to add to that list.

I cannot see things in black and white. I am always trying to understand what made someone do what he did. So even if you dislike a certain behavior, you can understand what caused it and sort of accept what has happened. I like this quality in myself. A second quality that I like in myself is that "I CARE". I get involved. I am rarely indifferent to anything. This makes me do a job well. It pushes me to improve myself. Wishing for things is very scary - you get more than you bargained for. Still I think I would like to have better control over my body. What I mean is like a dancer is able to beautifully move his body. I would like to be able to move myself more gracefully, be better at sports, know where my foot was going, be better coordinated. Lastly, I would like to be better at mechanical things. If I look at a machine I haven't the faintest idea of how to change the battery. If I try and open it, well I will often fail or push too hard and break it. So I would like to be more mechanically oriented.

Remember how I said in a recent blog entry that I was having terrible hypos after lunch, and they could not be explained by food, exercise, insulin or stress? Well the hypos have disappeared. Now I need more insulin for the same food. Exercise is unchanged! Before I use to take 2.5U for three slices of wholewheat bread with peanut butter and iceburg lettuce and fresh spinach for breakfast. Now I take 3U and only eat two slices of bread with the peanutbutter and lettuce and spinach. For only two slices of bread I should need only 2/3x2.5= 1.7 units of insulin. Thus i have an increase of 3-1.7= 1.3 units. For lunch I eat 4 slices of the same bread with lettuce and spinach and peanut butter. I use to take 5 units, 60% immediately and the rest spread over 2 hours. I am currently taking 7units, 60% immediately and the remaining spread over 2.5hours. I have removed 0.7U from the basal after lunch which really covered part of my lunch, but nevertheless 7-5-0.7 = an increase of 1.3 units, for no reason what-so-ever! The increased need for insulin to cover food (1.3 units at breakfast and 1.3 units at lunch) maybe seems small, but remember my basal is only 5.2units for the whole day! I don't understand why this change has suddenly occurred. Is it because of the stupid ketones I always have? Is it because I maybe have lost 1-2 kilos in weight? If you loose weight, the same quantity of food will increase you blood sugar more than before. Can only 1-2 kilos do that ? Think if I understood! I hate not understanding. I have had blood tests to see if we can find some explanation, some problem, but nothing was discovered. I have been tired, not my usual peppy self - that is all I can say. The whole thing kind of worries me. However i feel less dpressed since I am now preventing the highs that began to occur after my meals! First hypos then hypers...... Nothing stays the same!

I was told by my endo that you can calculate your LDL if you know your HDL, tryiglycerides and total cholesterol. You can only make this calculation if your triglycerides are low, which mine are. Now after decreasing my 10mg lipitor to 5mg per day my LDL has increased from 15 to 31, my HDL has decreased from 134 to 85. Triglycerides have increased from 44 to 51. My total cholesterol has decreased from 157 to 126. My endo STILL thinks I should continue to take the 5mg because statins have other microvascular benefits beyond improving cholesterol numbers. She said there was no way of measuring these other microvascular benefits. That is for those of you interested in cholesterol numbers. The C of the ABCs of diabetes care!

TOODLES.