Injection sites

Is there anywhere I can't inject? Latest rise to a technical challenge - in a bar, by candlelight, balanced on a stool.
I would have preferred to do this discreetly at a table but we'd left our reservation too late and the Jill Sobule concert at Joe's Pub was sold out. I guess I could have gone to the restroom but that's a trek and pretty gross, and after the great hypo incident I prefer to actually order the food and count the carbs rather than guess from the menu. (Evil tiny cute rolls).
I had to count the clicks on my Pen because it was too dark to see and avoid the people jogging my elbow while injecting but mission was successfully accomplished and the concert rocked too.

Warning signs

One of the things I love about having diabetes are those pesky hypos in the middle of the night. Like last night. I thought it was the cat's purring that had woken me up and I tried to get her to shut up (in the nicest possible way of course) but I was aware that something wasn't right. One, I was still awake, two, I was hungry, three, I felt odd and the clincher: I could read the display on the clock without my glasses, a feat I can normally only accomplish by squinting really well.
What I don't understand is why sometimes the warning signs are subtle, sometimes I get increased vision, sometimes I can't see at all, and sometimes they are horribly obvious i.e. the full-on shakes and sweats incident. The lowness of the BG doesn't seem to have any effect on the severity of the symptoms, I can feel hungry at 43 and 27, I can get flashy lights in my eyes at those numbers too. And no, alcohol doesn't play any part in what kind of hypo warning signs I get or how severe they might be.
What I don't want in the middle of the night though, is to wake up, work out why I've woken up, deal with the hypo in whatever shape it comes and then go back to bed. I just want to roll over and go back to sleep. And I definitely don't want to have to feed at that time.
So if anyone knows of a magic excess insulin sucking up device that I could just stick in my body at the first sign of low BG could they send me details? Thanks.

Not prepared for the big one

The hurricane that is. According to a mail from my insurance company the north east of the US is overdue for a major hurricane. They sent out a Hurricane Preparedness List so we could put together a kit.

Water - at least 1 gallon daily per person for 3 to 7 days
Food - at least enough for 3 to 7 days
— non-perishable packaged or canned food / juices
— foods for infants or the elderly
— snack foods
— non-electric can opener
— cooking tools / fuel
— paper plates / plastic utensils
Blankets / Pillows, etc.
Clothing - seasonal / rain gear/ sturdy shoes
First Aid Kit / Medicines / Prescription Drugs
Special Items - for babies and the elderly
Toiletries / Hygiene items / Moisture wipes
Flashlight / Batteries
Radio - Battery operated and NOAA weather radio
Telephones - Fully charged cell phone with extra battery and a traditional (not cordless) telephone set
Cash (with some small bills) and Credit Cards - Banks and ATMs may not be available for extended periods
Keys
Toys, Books and Games
Important documents - in a waterproof container or watertight resealable plastic bag
— insurance, medical records, bank account numbers, Social Security card, etc.
Tools - keep a set with you during the storm
Vehicle fuel tanks filled

Pet care items
— proper identification / immunization records / medications
— ample supply of food and water
— a carrier or cage
— muzzle and leash

A quick check of the items revealed that we are woefully ill prepared for a disaster of any kind. I am almost out of all medicines (a trip to the pharmacy is on the agenda for this weekend). We have a bunch of flashlights, none of which functions, the only cash I have is small bills - five ones and a five dollar bill. We don't possess either a traditional phone or a battery-operated radio and my car has almost no fuel in it. And what is that "keys" item? We have one set of keys for the house and the cars - that's what we use on a daily basis. We also have a spare set. And tools, am I supposed to have two sets of tools?
Never mind. I have all the pet care items except for the muzzle. And I have discovered the perfect packaged food that doesn't even require a can-opener. Low-carb, ready-to-eat, preservative-free, vegetarian Indian food you can heat in a pan or a microwave. Eat it with rice, or with grilled chicken, as a side to Rogan Josh or straight out of the pan with a spoon, it's comfort food that tastes delicious. Just what I'll need if the hurricane comes.

Can't Live Without It

I'm currently reading Judith Levine's Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping an account of a year spent buying only essential items. She begins by making a list of those items that she cannot function without. Her cat is diabetic so insulin is on the essential list. But other items, more life enhancing than absolutely necessary, make the "can't live without it" list.
That prompted me to think about what I consider "essential" to my life on this planet, and later I started to compose an essential shopping list for this weekend. Here it is in all its hedonistic, alcoholic glory.



Don't judge me too harshly, Levine's last purchase before giving up consumerism was a concrete baby elephant from Red Envelope.
Apart from insulin and related items like syringes (not much point in having insulin if you can't find a way to get it into your body) and your loved ones, what are your "must haves" to sustain body and soul, if not for twelve months then at least for the next weekend?

Rollercoaster weekend

Another one of those weekends.
Saturday: Woke at 3 am feeling low. Staggered downstairs, found meter, 43, swallowed 20 cl orange juice, ate a graham cracker, staggered back to bed.
Woke at 7 am. BG 71. Calculated breakfast, allowing for lower glucose reading.
Ate breakfast.
Walked dogs on beach for an hour. BG 117. Hurrah.
Cleaned house. BG 54. Ate another graham cracker, washed down with coffee.
Played with my new "toy": a virtual kitchen planner by IKEA that allows me to see in 3D and color what my kitchen will look like when I have saved the money/won the lottery. Stop playing when I feel really, really hungry.
Lunch. BG 57. In view of low BG, eat Wholefoods prepared Macaroni Cheese. Regret it 30 minutes later when stomach ache starts.
Clean the pool, Swim in pool. Float in pool. Lounge by pool reading. Stomach still aching.
5 pm. BG 297. What?? Correct with bolus.
7 pm dinner date with sweetie. Cocktail in restaurant bar. Vodka tastes weird so I eat the olives and drink about a third of the martini.
8 pm our table is ready. Bartender offers to bring remainder of now very warm martini to the table, I decline. It's hot so I opt for 6 oysters and steamed lobster. Take insulin. Eat cute, tiny bread roll. Listen to conversation at next table about numerology. Restrain sweetie from correcting the assertions made about the number seven. Oysters are served with pickled ginger and Japanese seaweed. Hope insulin sufficient to cope with sugar in dressing. Pass on the wine as I'm still feeling a little odd and it's hot. Drink an entire litre of sparkling water though.
Lobster arrives with corn on the cob placed vertical between lobster claws like some phallic totem pole. Pass this to sweetie as I don't like corn. Wrestle lobster. Cover hair, face and wall behind with lobster juice, manage not to get any on attractive plastic bib! Woman at next table starts to tell her table about her special spoon. Kick husband under table as he is frankly staring open-mouthed. Husband returns attention to date and asks "would you like my potatoes?"
I've known him long enough that I can crack the secret code. "Am I white?" "A bit" he says. Before I can reach for the potatoes or the meter in my bag, I am hit by the worst, most devastating hypo of my diabetic life. Sweat is pouring off me, I am sure I am going to pass out or throw up. Sweetie has his hand in the air and orders an OJ asap, please, and the bus boy leaps in to remove out plates. Sweetie waves him off, because I hadn't finished and he thought I might come back to it or because if I was going to be sick the bowl for the lobster shell might come in handy? I don't know but the OJ arrives and he gives the waiter his credit card and asks for the bill so I'm guessing it was the latter.
I slurp the OJ, and chase it down with more water. Hubby gets up and kneels by me. Maitre d' brings check, credit card already swiped and asks if he can do "anything, whatever you need".
Eventually I feel like I can walk to the block to the car. Table next door still discussing numbers 666 and 7. Outside where it is cooler, I start to feel better. "OK", I say to my angel, "can't go there again for a while. Was everyone staring?" "They never noticed, if they did they probably thought I was proposing to you". Such a sweetie.
Make it home and into bed feeling like I have been sandbagged.
Woke up Sunday morning. BG 340. Felt like crap and I never found out what the woman at the next table used her magic spoon for.

Oh Canada!

A propos to my previous post, I made an interesting discovery while eating breakfast this morning. All the products I like: Liberty yoghurt, Wholefoods All Natural Peanut Butter and Glutino flax crackers are all made in Canada, even though the milk for the yoghurt comes from good old Vermont cows.
Canada is a bit far for a weekly shopping trip, maybe I should consider moving there? Maybe they have decent bread? Maybe I should stop being a label-reading obsessive?

Sugar, sugar everywhere

Just back from a rip to the supermarket and another full blown rant is going to be unleashed. You have been warned.
I have a weird type of diabetes. If I go into a big supermarket chain, Super Stop and Shop, for instance here in the US, or Tesco in the UK, or the Hypermarché Carrefour in Belgium, I manage to push my cart around only half the store before I see flashing lights before my eyes, or worse, the world goes dark. I've never actually passed out but it always brings the shopping expedition to a rapid end. I can't tell you how many times I've been forced to abandon a semi-full cart in the middle of an aisle. I think it has something to do with the lights or maybe my brain suffers overload from the apparent excess of breakfast cereals, which, when you examine it, consists of twenty boxes of the same damn cereal and never the one you actually want. Whatever it is I have learnt that the stuff I want isn't sold in these stores anyway or when it is, it's more expensive.
That's why I shop in the "natural" food supermarkets like Wholefoods. And it's fine when I want hormone free beef or chicken and organic vegetables but when it comes to a simple loaf of bread I'm stymied. I pick up one and read the ingredients: corn syrup, fructose, 3g of sugar per serving. What the hell? After I 've rejected the third loaf, I'm usually on the verge of a total meltdown. "Why?" I mutter to myself, "why would you put so much sugar in bread?" It doesn't make it taste better and it makes it much more difficult for me to bolus. I’m shopping in a store that’s supposed to promote healthy eating and all the bread comes with a healthy dose of sugar. Grrr.
I'm aware that I'm beginning to sound like the crazy lady but I don't have a sweet tooth and I like my bread to taste like bread. And don't tell me because it doesn't have actual sucrose in it that it's good for me. This is like a good friend, also a diabetic, offering me a glass of orange juice instead of Coke, because "we can drink this, it isn't sweetened". Uh, yeah it is, it's full of natural sugar and I don't think I could ever bolus enough for a full glass of OJ.
So, please, I don't want dried fruit in my bread, I don't want honey sweetened anything thanks, and if I wanted brioche, I'd buy that. I want bread that's made with flour, water, yeast, and a little salt. Is that too much to ask?
Oh, and I discovered today why take-out Indian food in the US pushes my BG to stratospheric limits while in Europe my numbers stay in range. Wholefoods, like a lot of Indian restaurants here, adapt recipes to local taste and add cane sugar to their dishes. And they don't even tell you how much sugar they're putting in there. That's just wrong.
So now I've got that off my chest I'm going to make Rogan Josh, and because you stayed with me through the rant I will share with you my favourite recipe, adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Rogan Josh
2" fresh ginger, peeled, coarsley chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled
4 tbls water
1 2O oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbls olive oil
2 lbs cubed lean lamb
10 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
6 cloves
10 black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
2 onions, peeled, finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander seed
2 tsp ground cumin seeds
2 tsp red paprika
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper (or more if you like it spicy)
1 tsp salt
6 tbls plain yogurt (Do Not use the kind with gelatin in it)
1/4 tsp garam masala
Freshly ground blackpepper

Puree ginger, garlic and 4 tablespoons of water in an electric blender until you have a smooth paste.

Heat oil and brown meat cubes in several batches and set aside. Put the cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon into the hot oil and cook until the cloves swell. Add the onions. Cook until the onions turn medium-brown. Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir for 30 seconds. Add the coriander, cumin, paprika, cayenne, and the salt. Stir, cook for 30 seconds, then add the browned lamb and any meat juices, the yoghurt and the tomatoes.
Cover, reduce to low heat and simmer for about an hour and a half or until meat is tender. Check that the casserole doesn't dry out, if necessary add a little water.
Just before serving sprinkle with garam masala and black pepper.
Serves 4

And by the way, DO NOT use yoghurt with gelatin in it. Why would you put gelatin in yoghurt anyway?

Another thought

From the past. Prompted by the Cargill advertisement on MSNBC for sugar-free chocolate.
It must have been 1992 or 1993. I was at a support group meeting and a dietician had been invited to answer questions. A study had just been released that suggested diabetics could consume up to 25g of sugar a day with no ill effects so a lot of the questions naturally concerned this matter and whether this represented one or two Belgian chocolates. At some point the dietician got a little cross we weren't heeding her mantra of lean meat, brown bread, green apples and she totally lost it.
She screamed that the study should never have been released, that we would never be able to eat just one chocolate (diabetics apparently have no self-control) and we would all end up getting horrible complications.
We've come a long way from those days. Genuine Belgian praline anyone?

21st Celebration

21diabetes

Twenty-one years since the diagnosis and I'm in kind of a reflective mood. I'm thinking about what has improved during the intervening years, what's actually worse and what could do with a huge upgrade.
In 1985 Type 1 diabetes was called Juvenile Diabetes or Insulin Dependent Diabetes (IDD) and pork and beef insulin was still being prescribed. But a growing number of people were taking the new "human" insulin, many of whom I seem to recall, blamed it for loss of hypo warning signs. When I was diagnosed, I was more concerned that the human insulin didn't come from actual humans, and when I was reassured that it was manufactured, that I got that rather than animal insulin (I was a recovering vegetarian at that time).
I was taught to use a syringe and told I could either mix the basal Ultratard with the bolus Actrapid or shoot it on its own before bedtime. As I was so befuddled I couldn't cope with mixing the stuff (hugely complicated), I opted for four rather than three shots a day. A little while later I discovered the diabetic nurse (that's the nurse who worked with diabetics and who had juvenile diabetes) used a Novopen and I had to have one. Before I left the office, please.
There was some sort of deal with the purchase of a special meter, buy one get a Novopen free (plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose), so I got a cool Novopen, and I loved it. Everyone thought it was a real pen and people were upset when I told them they could not borrow it. Still it was three shots of Actrapid and one of Ultratard and though I've changed insulins I'm still shooting up at least four times a day. This definitely needs improving.
Eventually the Novopen was replaced by Novopen II, nasty, plasticky beige but with one great feature: you could take your shot and the number remained displayed until you used the pen again. So if you were on a sliding scale and were the forgetful type you could see if you had taken your shot or not. In those days I had to take the shot 30 mins before a meal and I could forget a lot of things in that half-hour. Unfortunately the plastic locking mechanism wasn't very sturdy and the pens broke easily. A few years later and U-40 insulin became U-100 and I had to swap to a Novopen III. That was upgraded and it no longer showed the last number dialed, so I now had to remember if I had had a shot or not. Definitely worse.
Now I have disposable Humalog pens. They are so ugly, much bigger than they need be and no-one is going to mistake them for a Bic. Plus, I feel I'm using up the earth's resources at an alarming rate. What happens to all that plastic?
As for meters, I'm on my fourth. I loved my Glucoscan II so much. It had a huge display, 30 second wait compared to 60 seconds of other meters, it was simple to use, and was slim. It sat in a vinyl wallet, strips on one side in their foil packages, meter, lancets and sticker on the other side. Looked great, worked great.
When it finally died, my parents bought be the AccuCheck meter and I hated that machine with a passion. It was truly the worst designed meter I have ever seen, the size of a brick and an unappetizing generic grey colour. The strips came in a tube and I could never get the top off. I either had to ask someone to help or I wrestle it off with a knife and end up with strips all over the floor and, once or twice, a nasty gash to my finger. It was also so complicated and gave so many false readings I went out and bought myself a new One Touch Ultra.
The improvement here was a five second wait for results and it was tiny. But it didn't do much else. Then the big upgrade to One Touch UltraSmart. I know I've complained about this meter elsewhere, largely because it isn't Mac compatible but there is the facility to record insulin intake and carbs, fats, protein; it gives weekly, monthly and three-monthly averages, it even lets you record doctors' appointments.
What I'd like now is a meter that has a better screen, that comes with a keyboard so I can type in additional information and that wirelessly interfaces with my Mac. Manufacturers are you listening?
I remember the endocrinologist coming to see me while I was in the hospital and telling me two things: it was the best time in history to be diagnosed with diabetes and that there would be a cure within the next ten to twenty years. Well, I think he may have been right on the first one, and a lot of things have got better, especially the advocacy and activism and support of other people with diabetes but as for the second, I'm celebrating twenty-one relatively healthy years living with diabetes but I don't see that a cure is any nearer now than it was then.

The grass is always greener

Ok, it's time for my periodical whine about living in the USA. This time it has been brought about by an email from the US Government telling us that our application for a green card has been received at the Texas office and they will let us know if it has been approved in 400-450 days. As our visa runs out in 49 days we will be stuck waiting for an annual extension visa and unable to travel during that time. Rats.
It's at this time that I start making a pro/con list for living in the US.
On the pro side my worse half has a job here, on the con side I can't officially work until our green card is granted. On the pro side the weather is much better here, on the con: the healthcare system sucks. Big time. Example, sweetie had to go to the emergency room after a work related accident. After a four hour wait he got four stitches, a tetanus shot and a week later a bill for $500. We have health insurance, we are supposed to have a $50 copay. No one asked my husband for it and as he was bleeding freely, he probably didn't think of it. Anway it was a work related incident so he should have to pay $0. Two phone calls to the billing dept of the hospital confirmed that his copay was $0, and he thought it was finished. A week later another bill for $500. followed by a bill for $49:95, a letter from the insurance company to say they had paid $475 and another letter asking him to confirm it was he who had been treated. All that administrative work for what reason? Aaaagh.
And one more con: my doctor in Belgium used to write a scip for spa treatments. Very therapeutic. Apparently that doesn't happen here but I could get unlimited Nexium, Paxil and Ambien. Hum.

(Almost) all good news

So it's official, changing injection sites does have a profound and positive effect on blood sugar readings.
I had an appointment with the endocrinologist last week and finally, having played phone tag for a few days, I got the results of my blood work. A1c levels are waaaaaaaay down, and this despite the fact that I am taking less insulin. The only thing I really altered was where I stick the needle and I am truly amazed at the change it's made.
I only stopped exclusive stomach injecting at the end of March, so I'm hoping for an even better number next time. My OneTouch UltraSmart meter tells me averages for 7, 14, 28, 60 and 90 days; and the averages for 7, 14 and 28 days are two-thirds of the 60 and 90 day readings.
The only bad news, which I got at the appointment, is that I put on 2 lbs. This didn't seem to worry the endo unduly but is a source of great grief for me as I have gained six pounds since December. So much for "I'm a diabetic and I can eat whatever I want". And to add insult to injury, because we are both watching what we eat, my dearly beloved has lost a corresponding amount in the same period. Bah!

Not a pretty sight

I had one of those great aha moments this morning.
Weeks ago I developed a stabbing pain in my stomach every time I bent over. It felt as if there was a syringe needle lodged about a couple of centimeters into the flesh (full disclosure: flab). As it was next to a sink-hole of lipohypertrophy caused by years of injecting into the same site, and the rest of my stomach was black and blue, I thought maybe it was time to be a big girl and try alternative sites like my upper arms and thighs and give the stomach a chance to recover.
So that's what I did, and I basically thought no more about it. Except that I hate the bruises on my arms, especially as T-shirt weather is here, and the needle marks on my legs look like mosquito bites. I know, vanity thy name is Jane, but it does bug me (pun intended).
Well, it looks like I'm going to have to suck it up, because last night I injected my Lantus in my stomach and the BG # this morning was 458!!!!!!!! And that was when it occurred to me that the reason my BG has been so good recently, on the low side even, is that it's actually getting into my blood stream rather than being absorbed by the scar tissue or the layer of fat I have accumulated over the past couple of years.
I know that the stomach is supposed to be the best absorption site but perhaps that's not always true. And maybe it was just a crazy anomaly, but the number was fine before I went to bed last night.
Anyway I am not about to conduct a scientific study here because I never want to see a BG score like this morning's again. Instead I took half the amount of Lantus and injected it into my arm and got the BG down to a reasonable 230 by lunchtime. I'll take my normal dose tonight, inject it in my leg and then we'll see.
Life with diabetes, it's so exciting.

Feeling a little nerdy

I've been spending a couple of hours doing geeky stuff to my websites due to the incessant rain that has been falling in this part of the world. So my brain and my fingers have been getting a great work out but the rest of my body has barely moved. BG has been kinda low for a while so it's no big deal but if I don't get some exercise every day I feel really cranky and a little bad tempered, so I'm going to get on the evil running machine for half an hour.
Before I go, a word to those who put the DiabetesOC webring navigator bar on their blogs and find it only points to a 404 error message - some webmail hosts insert forward slashes before and after html commands to foil cyberspace baddies. This renders the command invalid and you need to remove them manually *sigh*.
Wouldn't it be good if everything worked just the way we wanted it to?

Denied

I am denied once again my favourite Easter activity of walking to the chocolatier to lust after the chocolate creations like the one above before persuading my beloved to fork over fistfulls of euros so I can take a bite out the pralines inside until I find the one I like (caramel).
Yes, it's a disgusting habit but I can justify it because I have diabetes. Yes, honestly I can, at least to myself. And I don't spit out those I dislike in public. The truth is, I am extremely fussy about my chocolate and I crave the stuff I like, anything else just isn't worth it.
So this year I bought myself a rhododendron and then I planted it in the front yard. Very grown up of me, I think.



Unfortunately, it's done nothing for the chocolate craving.

Another day...another downer

Shannon why did you do this to me? I peeked at your blog Mom Wants a Diabetes Cure and you directed me to my downer for the day: Wikipedia dates. I share a birthday with Pinochet and the Bush twins. Woe is me.

Hypo or buzzing?

I'm not even sure whether to post this, it's so embarrassing. But in the interests of full disclosure and total honesty with myself......
I instituted a new rule since this morning: always clear up the kitchen before you go to bed. This will be of enormous help when I wake up hypo, stagger into the kitchen looking for OJ and some longer-lasting carbohydrate. That way I won't do what I did this morning, which was to reach for the glass on the countertop and drain it in one. The glass that contained white Rioja from dinner last night. A full glass of rioja at 6 am. It's like being a student again.

Fun testing

It's a wet Saturday morning so what better than a little testing to pass away the time. No not BG testing, I'm talking silly, stupid web tests.
I was pointed to this test by inkmusings

What European City Do You Belong In?

but I wasn't happy with the city they picked for me, even after I had played with the data a zillion times. (Yes I am a control freak).
However I did discover this one, and it was spot on except that my power colour is supposed to be tan. Tan? What are they thinking? Oh, and I don't really prefer machines to humans, just some humans.

Your Birthdate: November 25

You excel at anything difficult or high tech. In other words, you're a total (brilliant) geek. It's difficult for you to find people worth spending time with. Which is probably why you'll take over the world with your evil robots! Your strength: Your unfailing logic. Your weakness: Loving machines more than people. Your power color: Tan Your power symbol: Pi Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

It's back

Just as I was beginning to think I had discovered the miracle cure for diabetes (eat pasta and take less insulin, repeat until you no longer need the insulin) my BG levels came bounding back up with a vengeance: 317. Although I know about honeymoon periods, I've never heard of one happening twenty one years after diagnosis. Maybe it was a second honeymoon? Whatever it was it seems to be over now. I'm going to write it off as one more inexplicable thing about diabetes, one more thing that tests my sense of humour.
And now I'm going to forget about it for the time being. Josh Rouse is playing Town Hall in NYC tonight and we have tickets for that and for Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris tomorrow. I hope there will be singing along to the Brel even if we only know the words to one song in English, "Seasons in the Sun", and that's not even in the show. It's going to be a fun-packed weekend, folks.

And lower

In an attempt to avoid another early morning hypo, at dinner last night I carb-loaded like I was going to run a marathon. I also reduced my Lantus two units.
And the result? 42 at 5:30 am. Nuts.

Just lows

I am totally fed up of waking "low". I had maybe two days of perfect range bgs over a week ago and every day since then they've been below 60. You'd think my body would understand that I am not at my best in the morning. I need someone to give me a caffeine infusion and leave me alone for half an hour to adjust to another day here. On non-low days that I don't get coffee in bed I can function pretty well, although I tend to be a little tetchy, especially if I have to grind the beans myself.
But waking up with low bg is horrible, and it's been between five and seven am, so I'm befuddled, a little headachey and a little shakey; I have to fight the instinct to pull the duvet over my head and go back to sleep. I wonder what would happen if I tried that? I guess my self-preservation instinct is strong enough not to let me find out.
But it's driving me nuts that every morning I'm having to find the meter, test and find something to eat all before I fall over. And before I get my coffee. And I have used up all my Dextro Tablets that I brought back from Europe, and the American glucose tablets are freakishly expensive. Moan, whinge, whine.