See ya BYU

PS: Brad has his Bachelors in Exercise Science!!! Yay. I'm so proud of him. Now he just has to find a job, he will walk in April, and we are both done with good ol BYU.

Ping, you qualify for a Miracle!

So, my work is changing our insurance to a high deductible plan. Yuck, that's like death to a diabetic. Luckily they gave us lots of deductible options, but still, to have to fork out $1500 before my insurance will pay for anything, well, it just sucks.

After learning this, I started to think about things to do to prepare. Work told us to save some money. And yes, we are also going to have an HSA which will help...but I need things immediately all the time. So since insurance unfortunately won't let me stockpile on insulin, test strips, and pump supplies, I started to think what

I could do.

That's when I realized that my pump's warranty is WAY expired. I called Animas (my insulin pump manufacturers) and they told me that the warranty actually expired in 2008. Holy cow! For those who know me well or have lived with me, then you would know that I have been through a few pumps (well 5) in 6 years. My first pump broke when I accidentely hit it against my bed frame. The second pump got water under the screen somehow (the pump is waterproof). The third pump had some malfunction so the screen was not working (huge freak out moment my freshman year, specially since I was away from home). My fourth pump, I think that was because the enter button stopped working. And my fifth pump, I think it had a bad crack in it. The last pump replacement was in 2008, I guess right before the warranty expired. So this last pump had lasted me for over 2 years!

And it's still going strong. Impressive for my track history.

However, with an expired warranty, that means the next time my pump breaks, I have to buy a whole new pump. And guess what, pumps aren't cheap. So that's when I decided that I needed to hurry and get a new pump before next year, when I would have to pay $1500 and then 20% (where right now I only pay 20%). So I kicked it into high gear. Problem was that I had less than 2 months to pick a pump, get authorization from my insurance, and get the pump. From previous posts, you all know how indecisive I am.

So long story short, after reading up about all these different pumps, looking at customer reviews, I decided to get the newest Anima

s pump, called the One Touch Ping. Since I got my pump 6 years ago, technology has evolved. Awesome right. So all pumps "talk" with a blood glucose meter. This means that when I check my blood sugar, my meter tells my pump what it is so my pump can automatically correct it. Cool beans. It's all to help make the pump more like what a normal working body does. Sweet, cept my insurance does not pay for the One Touch strips, but that's a different story.

So I picked a pump, insurance approved it, and I was told that I would be responsible for $1020. Well compared to the total cost of $8500 (which is more than my new Civic is worth), $1020 isn't too bad. But with our current circumstances of Christmas, Brad graduating and trying to find a job, my typical expenses, well $1020 is a lot o

f money. Then, my miracle came. I was told that Animas has a trade program, where my old pump model could qualify me for a $700 credit. So they ran the serial number, and I did! So instead of paying $1020, we only have to pay $320 for a brand new blue pump! That was the best news ever!

Well after my wonderfully long story, point is, I have a new pump, it is navy blue just like my civic, and it came with a new meter, and I am blessed to only have to pay $320. Miracles do happen. Brad and I are both very happy and now I just need to name my pump (after the first two pumps broke, I decided that naming them might help them to last longer :) I have had Alfred, Donald, and Herbert. So I dunno, Hugo sounds pretty good, but we will see.

I quit!

Well, I wish I could say that. Dang diabetes, it ruins everything.

I just had one of those days. One of the girls I worked with called in (second time this week someone has done that). What did that mean for me, that I had to do it all alone. Granted, Paige helped out, but when you aren't an MA, you can only do so much. Oh my goodness, it was madness. The patient questions kept stock piling on my desk and I literally was running down the hall. At one time I had to clean the EMG room, transfer data, room the next EMG and room a new patient and pull a DR report, all at the SAME time. It was madness. I can't move fast enough to do all that and Paige couldn't do it. I wanted to scream so bad. I should have gotten paid double for today cause one person cannot do 2 peoples jobs.

So my head hurts like no other, for the second time this week I didn't get a lunch, and I'm fed up with it all. This is madness and it needs to end. How many times do I need medical people to tell me i'm stressed.

At my dentist check up, the dentist told me that my teeth were great, but he saw evidence that i was grinding. He looked at me and told me that I didn't look like a person who would be stressed. I wanted to laugh.

Every massage, whatever girl was working my back would tell me, "I can't believe how tight your back is!"

The chiropractor kept asking me if anything at work or home involved heavy lifting that would aggravate my back cause I had a HUGE knot on my shoulder. I told him I didn't lift anything heavy, work was just stressful. "I'll say, this is a HUGE stress knot!"

My hair is falling out, my face is breaking out, and I dream about work. I'm tired, worn out, and my body can't handle it anymore. I just want to throw the towel in.

But I can't. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the up side, Mandy will be back Monday and I only have 7 more work days, then it's christmas vacay/craziness.

Happy Holidays

Welp, I have learned that having a dark colored car means it always looks dirty. I thought white was bad, but this is about the same, at least cause we park in the open and snow is white. Poor Honda.

As for exciting things, Brad and I have officially been married for 3 years! Yay! For our anniverary we went to the Anniversary Inn again (cause last year was so much fun). We stayed in the Bridal Veil Falls room. It was really pretty, unfortunately the camera was forgotten, so no pictures. I was a little concerned about the weather cause everyone was saying that it was going to be a big blizzard. I kinda freaked out and almost wanted to cancel the whole thing cause I didn't want to get stuck in SLC, especially since my little sister was in town staying with us for Thanksgiving. Luckily, Brad does not fear snow, so he laughed at me being ridiculous and we went. Of course, the "blizzard" turned out to be just light snow mixed with a lot of wind and was no big deal at all. But, we got to eat at an almost empty Tucanos because of it :)

The week of Thanksgiving was an adventure. My little sister, Robyn, came down from BYU-I to spend Thanksgiving with us. Awesome. So here is how the week went:

Monday: we saw Harry Potter in IMAX! That was awesome!

Tuesday: Brad and I went to Tucanos and the Anniversary Inn

Wednesday: I made pumpkin pie and cranberry sause, we all did a puzzle, and just hung out

Thursday: Thanksgiving. I learned that Thanksgiving is stressful because everything has to be cooked at relatively the SAME time. Frustrating for me. My first attempt at mashed potatos was not perfect, but it went okay and the ham was delicious! We also watched Toy Story 3 (while waiting for everything to cook) and then The Back Up Plan after dinner. Love Toy Story and did not love Back Up Plan.

Friday: Brad and Robyn woke up early and went Black Friday shopping. Brad and I went to breakfast while Robyn hung out with a friend. Then all three of us tried to get a few things (and I thought I was going to die in JCPennys. How, from being "trampeded". Yup I made a new word, it means trampled in a stampede. I thought it was pretty ingenious, even if it was a total mistake on my part. So needless to say, our shopping didn't last long, cause we went home to the refuge of a quiet apartment.

Saturday: We saw Tangeled! So cute! I love that Disney is reverting back to the old ways of movies! Yes, I mainly wanted to see it because Chuck (Zachari Levi) was in it, but the commericials also looked cute. The funny part was Brad listening to the BYU Utah game on his ipod while waiting for the movie to start. Boo to the refs, that's what I got to say. But whatever, blue is the best color ever and I love cougars. Plus, you gotta love it when a guy's nickname is Juice. Haha, can I just say that I'm so glad football is over! (I told Brad that I was glad this was the last year we were going to college football games and he didn't like that. He loves the game/atmosphere. Meanwhile, I have a hard time liking a game that takes 4 hours to watch 1 hour of play. Dumb. But I am glad that BYU's team really came together. It started out rough/really bad, but no one can deny the fact that BYU got better. K, I'm done.

Sunday: We drove Robyn up to SLC to catch her shuttle back to Idaho in the storm.

Yup, so we watched a lot of movies, did a few puzzles (3) and had a lot of fun. Now, I can listen to christmas music! Yay! I love Christmas, I just don't love living in the snow :(