Boy, have I got some news!  No, they haven’t found a fountain full of 100-year-old babies… and I wish I could tell you the Kardashians have moved to the moon, but this news is just as exciting!  At least it is for me!   Hee…  It has just been announced that the FDA has approved a brand new portable pancreas!  This isn’t a cure for diabetes, but it’s definitely a step in the direction for better management…especially for those of us who can’t qualify for an ACTUAL pancreas transplant!  This would mean I wouldn’t have to give myself multiple insulin shots and bloody up my fingers as much every day.  I could stop worrying about going into a coma in my sleep because my sugars had dropped too low.  I could stand on a hill with blue face paint and scream to all my fellow warriors in a Scottish accent “FREEDOM!”  Ok, I don’t really need the Scottish accent… that’s going a bit far.

Seriously, though, the fear of my sugars going low is the most immediate issue I have to plan for everyday.  Anyone can go on the insulin pump and take insulin all day when sugars are high… it’s the control of when it goes low that makes this so extraordinary.   There is currently no technology out there that can help control those lows.  I constantly have to carry around a Capri Sun/juice in case my sugars drop.  I have to think ahead of any moment when I might be a bit more active than normal, as any activity will make my sugars drop, but what happens if I used my juice and there’s nothing available where I am?  No soda machine or convenience store nearby?  I’m screwed!  People don’t just happen to have this laying around, and I have to have enough of it to make a difference!  (Unfortunately, a single Jolly Rancher is not going to do a damn thing when I need it.)   This is why I’m so excited about the fact that this technology has been approved!

I actually talked to my doctor about this last week, and he is totally on board with me trying it after my transplant.  (He felt there is simply too much going on with my health right now to try to get acquainted with anything new.)  I had tried the insulin pump when I was in college, and although it was nice to not have to take shots all the time, there was a lot of maintenance involved and I kept getting skin rashes from where the sensor site was injected.  I’m pretty sure those issues have been improved since then, so I’ve got high hopes that it will work out better for me this time around!  Woohoo!  I’m excited!  Can’t you tell??

On a different note, I talked to my transplant coordinator, and they were FINALLY able to read the results of my CT scan!  She said there was nothing scary to report, so she’s going to present me to the committee this Friday and see if they will make me active again.  Even though my PET scan a few months ago showed that the lesion on my liver was not cancerous, she said they were still concerned that my cancer history could come back to haunt me and possibly metastasize somewhere else in my body.  At this point, I say stop looking for something that isn’t there and get on with it already!  LOL!  I’ll post on Friday with an update!

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Things I’m thankful for today:

1.  Pintrest – It’s become my favorite go-to site for recipes and, well, for just wasting time.

2.  The brilliant lyrical writing of “What Does the Fox Say?”

3.  Spa week, which is next week!  I’m ready to get my pamperin’ on!

4.  Jimmy Fallon.  How can you watch this guy and NOT just giggle?