Numbers for the last Four Days

145
83
91

93
94
67

126
94
91

131
69
135

These are a lot better than they were back when I was trying to squeeze every last drop out of my expired insulin bottle, but not as good as I'd like them to be (under 110, baby!).

Really, the insulin is the only difference. I continue to eat and work out more or less the same as I'd been doing a few weeks ago, but the last four days before I finally packed it in and got new insulin, things looked more like this:

147
80
168

116
141
112

170
128
57

169
64
317

As you can see, it took that 317 number to freak me out enough to finally make the switch.

(and even then, it took some time to get things back under control. Even with the new insulin, I spent another week like this:

175
145
175

145
126
74

170
96
145

122
68
186)

It's a good lesson, though. When your numbers start to go off - even by "only" forty or fifty points, and your insulin is nearly three months old, it's the insulin, not some wackjob bodily process or those onion rings you ate last night. And, I think, it's a good lesson for me, too. Bad insulin takes a while to get out of your system. Changing it right away doesn't mean immediate results. You're already swinging high, and your body has to find equilibrium again.

It's weird how those hills and valleys work, like throwing a pebble into a pond.

Ranting About the Short Form

Because really, it never gets old.

Around the House

Steph's in-laws are here for the week to work on the cabinets and the plumbing in this 1940s-era fixer-upper.

Steph and the Old Man have a really great coffee maker that's shiny and kewl and makes the best coffee ever, but it had been taking progressively longer and longer for the coffee to brew. Steph's mother-in-law, Nancy, noted this and brewed the thing with - get this - vinegar, in order to dissolve all of the deposits in the machine.

After a thorough brew with the vinegar solution and two more brews with regular water. the thing works great.

Here are 61 other little-known uses for vinegar.

(by the time I leave this place, I'm going to be a regular home handywoman - who can cook too)

Mmmmmm

There's not much better than a little Lebanese and North African cooking.

The "I'm Fine!" Emergency Visit

Final Cost:

$836.75

On the one hand: it's better than being dead.

On the other hand: they spent 4 hours and charged me $836.75 to tell me that there was nothing wrong with me.

And people wonder why poor people never go to the doctor until they're literally bleeding and falling over on the floor?

This is why.