Diabetes Wise

It Must Be... A Meme

I'm just all out of time and inspiration tonight, but I'm not giving up on NaBloPoMo this close to the finish line. So...

1.  Were you named after anyone?  No. I'm pretty sure there has never been another Caroline in my family

2. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday. I was overworked, overtired, overstressed and overwhelmed. And I was sick. I think those are reason enough!

3. Do you like your handwriting? Yes, when I am writing properly. If I'm taking rushed notes, it looks appallingly messy to me. But people still compliment me on it. Maybe it is just because it doesn't look 'normal' to me when it's not neat. Or maybe it is because I'm a perfectionist! We often joke at work that the only class I failed at dental school was the handwriting one, as dentists, along with doctors, notoriously have very bad handwriting.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? Real chicken breast. It has to be real. Not processed.

5. Do you have kids?  Nope.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Oh yeah! I like me!

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?  Only when there is a letter 'y' in the day!

8. Do you still have your tonsils? Certainly do.

9. Would you bungee jump?  No. No way. Definitely not. The thought of my achilles tendon snapping again as I jumped is one thing that puts me off!

10. What is your favorite cereal? LUCKY CHARMS! Green milk and all. Or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Neither is available in the UK (although we do have Cinnamon Grahams, a very poor impression). Of UK cereals, probably Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes.

11.  Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?  Not if I don't have to. Getting Timberland boots off without unlacing is tricky. Failing to unlace my shoes in the presence of either of my parents will immediately bring out their parent-of-a-small-child side!

12. Do you think you are strong? Physically, no. Emotionally I'd say so.

13. What is your favorite ice cream?  Anything, as long as it's ice cream! Seriously love the stuff. If I had to choose, possibly Ben and Jerry's Phish Food, or a proper Pistachio flavour.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?  Teeth! What can I say?!

15. Red or Pink? Pink

16. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?  My occasional lack of self confidence. And my ability to procrastinate and fail to just get things done.

17. Who do you miss the most?  Rob, during the week when we're apart.
 

18. What color pants and shoes are you wearing?  Blue jeans, no shoes. My feet are curled up under me on the sofa.

20. What was the last thing you ate?  A cheese and ham toastie!

21. What are you listening to right now?  The distant sound of traffic, the sound of a boat on the river and the hum of the refrigerator. It is unusual, but I don't have any music on.

22.  If you were a crayon, what color would you be?  I'd be one of those magic rainbow crayons with multiple colours.

23. Favorite smells?  Freshly baked bread, freshly mown grass (hayfever be damned), the sea.

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?  Rob.

25. Favorite sports to watch?  International rugby.

26. Hair color? Dark brown.

27. Eye color?  Dark brown.

28 .Do you wear contacts? Yes.

29. Favorite food?  Erm.. chocolate (shhh!)

30. Scary Movies or Happy Endings?  Love the scaries. 28 Days Later ranks as one of my all time favourite films.

31. Last movie you watched?  30 Days of Night at the cinema two weeks ago.

32 What color shirt are you wearing?  White T-Shirt, purple sweater

33. Summer or winter?  Winter.

34. Hugs or kisses?  Hugs (And of the Hershey's variety too. The Hugs are way nicer than the original Kisses.)

35. Favorite dessert? Chocolate Fudge Cake. Or anything with proper custard. Like Syrup Sponge. (Diabetes? What's that then?!)

36. What is on your mousepad? Mousepad? I don't own one. I use the trackpad on my MacBook mostly, but even when I do use a mouse I don't ever use a mousepad!

37. What did you watch on TV last night?  Nothing. Was busy with other things.

38. Favorite sound?  Waves on the seashore.

39. Rolling Stones or Beatles?  Beatles. No question.

40. What is the farthest you have been from home? Either California or the Caribbean island of Grenada. Not sure which is actually further.

41. Do you have a special talent?  Being me?

Seven from me

I've been tagged by Pearlsa and also by Vivian to share my seven random facts.

1.     I have an obsession with giraffes. Seriously. I think they are incredibly amazing animals, so elegant and so well adapted, but yet so... daft. I recently saw a giraffe drinking at London Zoo and the memory of its sloppy drinking never fails to make me smile. I have dozens of cuddly giraffes and other giraffe related objects too.

2.    I cover my ears when I'm scared. It doesn't matter what the source of my fear is, it may be entirely visual, but I have to cover my ears to feel safe. I also sleep with my ears covered up, even in summer (although I do leave the rest of me uncovered when it is hot, I'm not completely mad!) 

3.     I can't say the word anemone. I just can't do it. Countless people have tried to teach me, but it never fails to make me sound as if I'm completely drunk!

4.    I only eat cooked cheese. This is partly because I don't like the texture of almost any cheese when it's not cooked. I much prefer the flavour reduced to a stringy, homogeneous blob first!

5.    I grew up in a village where all the houses look the same. Obviously not exactly the same, but each row of houses contained identical houses, each small neighbourhood had houses of very similar style and the entire village had a united look. I think it is this that has influenced my life long desire for uniformity and things that match. All the furniture in a give room of my house has to be in the same type of wood, for example.

6.    I regularly read things backwards. I don't mean prose, or when I 'm reading for an extended      time at normal pace, but when I see a title, or an individual word, or a sign or a brand name, I automatically reverse it in my mind. So Coke automatically becomes ekoc and diabetes is setebaid. I do occasioanlly do it with entire sentences too. I have no idea when I started doing this as I don't remember ever not doing it.

7.   Rob and I make  kissing noises down the phone to one another in lieu of the real thing. He won't, unsurprisingly, do it if anyone else is in the room on his end of the phone, but it was his suggestion that I include this as a random fact!

I'm pretty sure everyone has been tagged, but if you haven't and you want to be, you're it.

Book Meme

What could be better than writing about reading books? Following on from Kerri, Nicole, Rachel and Allison I absolutely had to jump in on this one.

Total Number of Books Owned:

I honestly have no idea! New book shelves (along with new DVD and CD storage) has been high on my list of things to sort out for a very long time. As I write this, I can see the book shelf in the corner of the room where the books are stacked double-depth. The Harry Potter's and Roald Dahl's have found a precarious home on top of my speakers, my growing collection of travel guides is squashed beneath the magazine rack and an enormous pile of recent purchases teeters on top of the stereo. In my bedroom, a stack of at least five books sits on the floor by my bed, and there are countless books stashed under the bed as well. All this is without mentioning the half height bookcase in my second bedroom-cum-study that houses nothing but dental, medical and sociological books! In short, we're talking in the hundreds.

R's book collection is just as vast and un-contained. If we ever end up living under the same roof, I dread to think where the books will go! If all else fails, we could always build the house out of books.

Last book bought:

That will be books, plural.  Whenever I start clicking on Amazon, or walk I in to my local Waterstone's book shop, I don't seem able to stop myself ending up with at least 3 new purchases! The most recent bundle included a guide book for Brugge, ahead of a trip in December, a book with a very un-scintillating title about the National Health Service and The Story of You by Julie Myerson.

Last Book Read:

Depends if we're talking properly read, like from cover to cover. If so, that would be The Story of You. But I've also been dipping in to a lot of dental stuff, as I have a post-grad exam looming in less than two weeks and completing my 06-07 Tax Return over the last couple of weeks has lead to furious double checking of several chapters of The Financial Times Guide to Personal Tax. Exciting times!

Five Books That Mean a Lot to You:

Difficult to pick just five, but:

1. Happy Like Barnacles by Karen Testa.
I discovered this book as a 14 year old in the grip of my first bout of depression. It made me cry solidly from around mid-way through (and still does, to be honest). Yet I came away from it feeling that I valued life just that little bit more. At that time in my life, in terms of its impact,  there probably couldn't have been anything better for me to read. I'd recommend it to everyone but it's long been out of print.

2. Say Goodnight Gracie by Julie Reece Deaver.
I read this the same summer. Again it manages to sadden and uplift in almost equal measure.

3. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud. Helps me reconnect with my inner child every time. I still refuse to see the movie, because nothing can top the book.

4. Catcher In the Rye by JD Salinger.
A cliche perhaps, but it has long been one of my mum's favourite books. When I left home, a battle even ensued over ownership of our dog-eared copy! I've read this at least half a dozen times, but I still discover a different slant at each re-visit.

5. Curious Incident of  the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

This was the book that got me back in to reading for fun following months of nothing but study for my final dental exams. It is also a book that is inextricably linked with the year I spent away from London, living in Plymouth.

Best Five Books You Read in the Last Year:

I just can't whittle this down to five. I read with a voracious appetite, often going through more than five books a week! So I have cheated slightly, and grouped these into related titles:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Absolutely it's on my list. I forced R to stand with in the pouring rain on Bold Street in Liverpool, waiting for our midnight copies. Torn between wanting to make it last and wanting to reach the end, I finished it by 3pm on the Saturday! I've also re-read all the books this year, and although the final installment has replaced Goblet of Fire as my favourite, they are all still up there.

2. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
I can't believe I waited so long to read these! Go out and get them!

3. One Unknown by Gill Hicks, Out of the Tunnel by Rachel North and One Morning In July by Aaron Debnam
These all focus on the London Transport bombings of July 7th 2005. By virtue of including them all here, it may almost appear that I have a fascination with the event. But these people, who were intimately involved in the attacks, have a story they wanted to share. Each of them has done it in an honest and moving way. As a Londoner, July 7th had a profound impact on me. So did these stories.

4. Books based on blogs - Blood Sweat and Tea (London Ambulance), Wasting Police Time (Police Force), Its Your Time You're Wasting (Teaching) and In Stitches (A&E Doctor)
All brilliantly crafted tales of life within each given profession - perfectly blended gritty realism and political rant.

5. The Jodie Picoult collection.
My Sister's Keeper was the first Jodie Picoult book I read, almost exactly one year ago. I began it on a early morning train in Italy and was almost done by the time our plane touched down back in England that afternoon. My travelling companion remarked "That must be really good, you literally can't put it down." More favourites include Salem Falls, The Pact and The Tenth Circle.

If you want to play, I'm keen to read.

P.S. Does anyone here Library Thing?

Me(me) Too...

This one has been going round like wildfire...

                                                                                   

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?  "Urgh... what happened to my hair"

2. How much cash do you have on you? £13.11 in my wallet, plus 5 US dollar bills (a amrketing company keeps sending them to me with surveys. I keep putting them in my wallet - saving for my next trip!)

3. What's a word that rhymes with DOOR? Floor

4. Favorite planet? Earth. I've not visited the others!

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone? R's flatmate/best mate, D

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone? Erm... I don't have one. My phone stays on vibrate. Permanently.

7. What shirt are you wearing? Turquoise, yellow and white horizontal striped, long length T-shirt. It looks a lot nicer than it sounds!

8. Do you label yourself? Hell yes! Diabetic, dentist, daughter, lover, friend.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you're currently wearing: See the previous post

10. Bright or Dark Room? Bright!

11. Why is there always a missing question? Erm. <shrugs>

12. What does your watch look like? Which one? I love watches, and have several. I'm curently wearing a silver bangle styles Fossil watch. It has a blue and silver sparkly face and silver bars for all the numbers except 12 and 6.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night? Crying. It's a story for another time.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say? "I'll call you soon baby"

15. Where is your nearest 7-11? There used to be one at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. Other than that, it's probably in New York or somewhere across the pond! I do have a fantastic little shop just over the road fro me that fulfills all the functions of a 7-11 though.

16. What's a word that you say a lot? Totally.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?  R

18. Last furry thing you touched? R's chest!

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?  Several, all legal. Some infused, some injected, some swallowed and some transdermal.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed? None, but the number of digital photosI have awaiting sorting and categorising doesn't bear thinking about

21. Favorite age you have been so far? None in particular. They've all been memorable and fun in their own ways.

22. Your worst enemy? Sometimes me!

23. What is your current desktop picture? A Caribbean sunset.  See opposite.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone? "Call me when you get home"

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly, what would it be? Fly. Then I'd cash in on my special talent to make a million bucks!

26. Do you like someone? I like lots of people.

27. The last song you listened to? I just listened to the album "Heart Full of Wine" by Angus and Julia Stone. The last song is "Chocolate and Cigarettes"

28. What time of day were you born?  7.05am

29. What's your favorite number? Three. Is a magic number....

30. Where did you live in 1987? At my parent's house in Kent, in the South-East corner of England.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?  No. I'm happy with what I've got, no need for jealousy. Maybe just a little envious of people with better health though.

32. Is anyone jealous of you? Not that I'm aware of.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened? On the 22nd floor of Guy's Hospital doing paediatric OpTek (learning how to drill childrens' teeth.) The news filtered from one end of the room to the other. No more drilling got done after that.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money? I can't remember the last time I used a vending machine.

35. Do you consider yourself kind? Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be? Nowhere. I really, really don't want a tattoo. I admire them on others, but it's not for me.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be? Italian.

38. Would you move for the person you loved? I can't answer that one right now, it's too complicated.

39. Are you touchy-feely? Very, with people I know well.

40. What's your life motto? "If it's meant to be, it will be." Either that or "Let it be."

41. Name three things you have on you at all times: My pump, my medical ID, my heart.

42. What's your favorite town/city? London.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? Two pints of beer, at lunchtime.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it? I do this everyday in my job. Believe it or not, all our referrals are still handled by writing paper letters. If we're feeling really advanced, we might even use a fax machine!

45. Can you change the oil on a car? No.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her? Living and working "up North", in a long term relationship.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry? To the potato famine in Ireland, to the mid-1800's in Italy.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy? At first I took this question to mean "fancy-dress" as in costumes, in which case the answer is a friend's 30th birthday last year when I dressed as Princess Leia - the night I reconnected with R. However, after reading other responses, the answer would probably be that I wore a black knee length dress to an awards dinner at The Savoy hotel.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now? The infusion set I put in around two hours ago after accidentally ripping the old one out. This new one stings like hell.

50. Have you ever been burned by love? Been there, done that.

51. Do you have a crush on any bloggers?  Nope. R doesn't blog!

52. Where would you like to live?  San Francisco is very cool.

New Year and Year Two

Late, as always.

I'm almost surprised that I didn't miss midnight altogether on New Year's Eve, and come crashing in a couple of hours later to toast everyone. I didn't: I made it to the real New Year on time.

I can't believe that I've been doing this for a year. From a tentative beginning, where shyness had me hiding all but the most essential information, to sharing my face with you on Flickr. The writing has got easier as I've come to know more of my reader's as real people, and felt comfortable about sharing some of my deepest emotions and fears with you.

And it's been a pretty big year. From trips to the USA and Italy, through countless frustrating highs and scarier lows. From pump malfunctions to new technology in the form of continuous monitoring. Through hospital admissions, the third rupture of, and subsequent surgery on, my achilles tendon and the diagnosis of Addison's Disease. From lows and depressions that kept me away for over a month, and even from D-blog day itself, to finding... something really special.

The last one is the one I want to hang on to. It makes everything else seem all to matter less, to frustrate and scare me less, to hurt me less. Based on its final outcome, I can only say 2006 turned out to be a pretty good year.

In summary, here is my "Year in Review", shamelessly copied from Rachel, Sandra and Kerri. These are the first lines from a defining post for each month of the year, linked in case you want to read on.   

January: "I hate beginnings."

February: "It wouldn't take great powers of observation to realise that I’m being pretty generic here.

March: "In November 1999, as a 19 year old who’d just begun my second year of dental school, I woke up in the Accident and Emergency Department of St Thomas’ Hospital with the mother of all headaches."

April: "Sandra's post 'A Dinner Out' got me thinking."

May: "I suppose I shouldn't be embarrassed by what happened this morning, but I certainly can't help feeling  thoroughly ashamed at how rude I must have seemed."

June: "My new cast, applied today."

July: "More than twenty years on, the autoimmunity that gave me diabetes has decided to reward me for my loyalty with a free gift: Addison's Disease."

August: "I'd intended on an early night last night."      

September: "The Paradigm REAL-Time system really is the Guardian RT all grown up."

October: Defining in itself - I made no posts in October.

November: "D-blog day: I missed it."

December: “Come ooooon…..” I whined, zipped into my coat practically before my boy, R, was dry from the shower.

Here's to 2007! Happy New Year everyone!

Twenty Three Things

This comes from Kassie  whom I must thank, as it has provided me with an opportunity to lift the mood a little from some of my recent posts where diabetes, and everything else for that matter, has clearly been getting on top of me. Time to be more positive: Twenty three pretty cool things I've done since I was diagnosed with diabetes. 

1. Went away from home alone at the tender age of eight - to diabetes camp, of course!

2. Set two county athletics records

3. Got straight A/A*'s in my GCSEs

4. Passed four A-Levels , winning a science prize along the way

5. Was accepted in to Dental School

6. Moved to London and lived it up as a Fresher, burning the candle at both ends and managing not to let diabetes get in the way

7. Worked at diabetes camp

8. Survived meningitis, and the subsequent diagnosis of epilepsy

9. Survived encephalitis

10. Obtained my first degree - a BSc(Hons) in Pharmacology with Biomaterials Science

11. Fought prejudice to continue with my dental training

12. Started pumping, and really took control of my diabetes

13. Organised a National Conference for over 200 dental students, raising over £15000 in the process

14. Started living alone

15. Fell in love (cool) and had my heart well and truly broken (not so cool.) Later on I took my own turn at doing the breaking (not cool either)

16. Was elected as President of a National Student Organisation, and travelled all over the UK.

17. Travelled to many places in Europe and North America, sometimes alone and sometimes with great friends, making fantastic memories.

18. Graduated from Dental School and registered as a Dentist with the General Dental Council

19. Attended an ADA Day Camp in Houston, Texas where all the kids thought my accent was "Cool" (That's a cool thing, huh?!)

20. Moved to Plymouth in Devon for a year, despite not knowing a soul in that part of the country, and successfully completed a dental training year there, despite spending much of the time with my leg in plaster

21. Achieved my lowest ever A1c of 5.2

22. Established a career in dental politics, alongside clinical practice

23. Started this blog - is that "cool"? You tell me...

If you want to play along, the rules are simple. Number of cool things = number of years with diabetes.

Seems I'm 'It'

Tagged by Kassie. I guess this makes me a proper part of the O.C!

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
1. Shop assistant
2. Bar staff
3. Lab technician
4. Volunteer diabetes camp leader

Four movies I can watch over and over (defined as movies I cannot channel surf past):
1. Rainman
2. 28 Days Later
3. ET
4. Girl, Interrupted

Four places I have lived:
1. London
That is it.. sad huh?!

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. ER
2. Friends
3. Family Guy
4. Strictly Come Dancing

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Whistler in Canada
2. Chicago
3. Venice
4. Paris

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate, specifically Chocolate Fudge Cake
2. Cheese Fondue
3. Tiger Prawns. Oh, and Mussels (am I cheating here?!)
4. Bacon, the English way

Four websites I visit daily:
1. The O.C
2. Yahoo.co.uk
3. BBC News
4. This Is London

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. In a warm bath, with a glass of wine
2. Skiing
3. With my family
4. Cruising in the Carribean

OK, I tag:
Sandra
Scott
Tiffany